I had a bad experience in this farm. I want to clarify a bit, as bad can seem a little harsh as other feedback depaints this place as heaven on earth. First of all, I want to say that this was my first workaway and thus I don't have a lot of comparison and, I'll limit myself on critics that were emitted by other experienced workawayers I met there
… read more and some, I'll say, basic human behaviour.
For the positive side, and, yes it exists. This is a farm, with work to do, with very good food, organic food, and the owners (see below for the downside) are very knowledgable about farming. This place is also, very calming and a good place to chill, if you accept waking up at 5:30.
Now, let's die into the downside. As I stated, I will start with the basic expected, for me, a newbie in volunteering, human behaviours.
- Respect : from owners. You litteraly never see them, and when you do, they hardly say hello / care about you. I found this terrible, as, we volunteer are doing a fair amount of work to run the farm (6 am / 12 am with very little breaks that are very badly seen). Keep in my that during my time there (2 weeks) the owner were on the farm for about 5 days, which means that we, the volunteer are literally making the farm run by harvesting the vegetables. However, no recognition, no thanks, no respect are to expect from them. We are literally working for them for free, and I was wondering, with some of the volunteers that were there if that wasn't just human modern exploitation. On top of that, the owners are quite keen to hate on people there. Little after I arrived, one owner came to me and was visibly searching for proof to expelled one other volunteer I had a little argument with. Also, during one of the few meal I was "lucky" to share with the owners, they literally turned their back on me on the bench we were sharing for whole meal, which is in my education pityful and absolutely not polite and respectful. Aside from that, they are very keen to give orders when they talk to you, and not very keen / don't like repeating themselves. Finally, they don't, and nobody make you visit the farm / present the project / give you the rules unless a volunteer is kind enough to do it, which didn't happen for me and I ended up drinking the non drinkable water from the tap for 2 days because I didn't knew... and it was also constant remaks when I was doing some stuff wrong, even though I didn't knew it was wrong, How could I have known ?
- Compensation : On this aspect, I thereby provide the testimony of more experienced volunteers. It is said that meals are comprised in exchange of the work as well as accomodation. For the accomodation, don't expect more than a tent, dry toilets, and precarious outside shower. For the kitchen, it's one of the dirtiest places I've ever seen in my life, flies every where, hald washed dishes... For the food, and this is the worst part, it's lacking. One volunteer is usually in charge of the meal for the whole farm, and is supposed to cook for the others (most of the time it leads to lot of overtime work). At his disposal are the vegetables from the farm and ... most of the time that's nearly it. The owners command complement food once a week, and when there is delay in the command (often, it appears (due to rural area etc...)) they don't make any other expenses. The command are already pretty light (approximately 60 eggs, rice, lentils chickpea, pasta, oil, and bread). As you can imagine 60 eggs for ~10 people for a week in a vegan farm isn't much. And, experienced volunteers all said that in every other farm-like workaway they did, food was at your disposal, eggs unlimited...You don't feel a pain in your belly, and go to the kitchen and see 3 eggplants and 2 zuchinnis... And for the breakfast, aside from the vegetables and when after the 3rd day there is no more eggs, you can eat bread alone if you are lucky and sometimes it's only coffee because there is basically nothing else for the people that don't want pepper at 6 am. And when you ask the owner for more, don't expect nothing expect cold stare / straight "no" / be infantilized and limit mocked.
In the end you end up paying a lot to feed yourself, and also beers, the consumption of which is by the way very badly seen by the owners. I clearly didn't put every thing in this review as its purpose is not to be exhaustive, but to give information so that you can know what to expect. FInally, your experience in the farm only depend on the group of volunteer, I don't want to launch strays but as for July 25, some of the long term staying volunteers are really despicable and odious. I wanted to stay 1 month but I ended up leaving after 2 weeks. I do not recommand this place, and hope that I'm wrong in believing that they found a breach in the volunteering concept and it end up being only a way for them to have very cheap workforce.
Charity Work
Art Projects
Eco Projects
Gardening
DIY and building projects
Life at a Farmstay
Creating/ Cooking family meals
Helping around the house
Babysitting and creative play
Hospitality/Tourism
General Maintenance
House sitting
Helping with Computers/ Internet
Languages
Teaching
