Profile information
Host rating
100 %
Reply rate
100.0 %
Usually responds within 3 days
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Details
Description
Ola and welcome to our volunteer page!
We are a young couple Clara ( 30) and Rohan (35) and are the happy owners of a 5 hectare Organic Offgrid farm in the beautiful mountains of the Serra da Estrela, the biggest natural park in Portugal! We love living, working & creating together with nature in a self-sufficient positive way. We grow our own veggies, make goats cheese, brew beer, bake bread, grow medicinal herbs and make natural cosmetics like olive soap, toothpaste, deodorant, medicinal creams and oils...And lots more!
We live together on our Quinta ( Farm in Portugese ) with our small heard of cheeky goats, chickens, 2 dogs, Findus the cat, around 20 honey bee colonies and would love to also get a donkey and some ducks in the near future.
All the animals are part of and contribute to the dynamic system on our farm. Our farming methods are inspired by living in nature, time & experience and by Organic, Bio-Dynamic and Permaculture principles. We believe in working and creating together with nature, building up the soil in our gardens so we can grow healthy crops to feed ourselfs, and our animals.
We are located in a green vally that's quite remote. Surrounded by only nature, the mountains, old chestnut, oak and willow trees and clear mountain streams. We have a very nice community of friends living around us who share, each in there own way, a similar life style and we sometimes work and celebrate life togther.
in the past our Quinta was abandoned for a long time as the local people slowly moved away to the cities and villages. step by step we are bringing life back to the fram. re-opening the old traditional irrigation systems of water channels. Planting lots of fruit trees and bushes. Cultivating crops on the old terraces. We also build a polytunnel as a nursery and to extend our growing season, a small stable for the goats and we created a nice volunteers area. On the land is a old ruine that was build with natural granite stone which we are renovating with ecological building materials. There also is a small but cozy wooden house/ workshop on the land in which we live at the moment and a outside kitchen made with round wood and green roof.
Meanwhile we are also creating a small educative center on our farm. Here we organize courses and workshop weeks on natural and self-sufficient living.
Types of help and learning opportunities
Art Projects
Help with Eco Projects
Gardening
DIY and building projects
Animal Care
Farmstay help
General Maintenance
UN sustainablity goals this host is trying to achieve
Cultural exchange and learning opportunities
At our organic offgrid farm we offer you the oppertunity to exerience our selfsufficient lifestyle. You will learn many skills abouth selfsufficient living and farmlife!
Help
As a volunteer there is a lot to experience and help out with! Like helping us out in the vegetable gardens and greenhouse. Harvesting medicinal plants, vegetables, fruits, seeds for our own sowing material, nuts, mushrooms and other wildfoods and drying and processing them into many diffrent products like herbal teas, fermented vegetables, fruit juices, jams, flower wines etc. Planting trees, planting and planning the Food forest area. Helping out in natural building projects like the traditional granite farm house and other farm structures. Some general farm maintenance like moving the electric fences for the animals, regenerative landscape maintenance, creating compost heaps and lots more!
Languages
Languages spoken
English: Fluent
Dutch: Fluent
German: Intermediate
Portuguese: BeginnerThis host offers a language exchange
This host has indicated that they are interested in sharing their own language or learning a new language.
You can contact them directly for more information.
Accommodation
As a volunteer you have a shared caravan as a comunial space with woodburner, small indoors and outdoors kitchen to cook food, gas and running water and solar electricity. Ther's a dry compost toilet and solar shower (heating the water only during warm sunny days) and chill out space underneath the big sweet chestnut tree and camp area to puth your tent. In wet and cold weather its also possible to sleep inside the caravan. We also have a comunial tipi and tipi tent available as sleeping accomodation. Just below the camp area is a clear mountain stream with small pools to take a refreshing bath and have a cool siesta time.
We like to work with the system where you help us out for max. 3 hours a day. In return for accomodation and use of the facilities. ( shared caravan with woodburner, kitchen area with gas to cook food, running water, and solar electricity. Compost toilet and solar shower. Camp area with your own tent or our tipi/ tipi tent) You buy and cook your own food or together with the other volunteers. ( there is a farm shop with a small variety of fresh and preserved products like vegetables, eggs, bread, goats cheese, and crafted beer) In the nature around us you can find fruits like grapes, cherries, figs , blackberries, sweet chestnuts, mushrooms and many edible herbs. Sunday is a day off!
What else ...
Our two closest villages are Figueiro da Serra ( +- 2km.) and Linhares da Beira ( +- 1km.)
Linhares da Beira is a beautiful historical village with castle. It has a couple of cafes, restaurant, and small tourist shop. Figueiro da Serra also has some cafes and has a small grocery shop where you can do your shopping
There is a diverse community of nice people living in our close-by area with diffrent projects and activities you could visit like; yoga, tai massage, horse riding, praragliding, a variety of healing therapies, woman circles and a Buddhist center. We sometimes come togther to make music, have a reggae dance night or just to have a good time!
We live in a beautiful natural area where you can have nice walks and explore the mountains, abandoned farms and other projects.
A little more information
Internet access
Limited internet access
We have pets
We are smokers
Can host families
Space for parking camper vans
This host can provide space for campervans.
How many Workawayers can stay?
More than two
Hours expected
Maximum 3 hours a day, 5 days a week
Feedback (4)
I can highly recommend this Awsome guy to anyone who is looking for some proper helping hands! From the moment he arrived on our farm we experienced that he is a self made man, independent and with a lot of skills! Nick helped us for 2 months on building our… read more
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I can highly recommend this Awsome guy to anyone who is looking for some proper helping hands! From the moment he arrived on our farm we experienced that he is a self made man, independent and with a lot of skills! Nick helped us for 2 months on building our… read more
