Gardening and other projects round our farm near Granada, Spain

Infos

• 

  Description

  Hello!
  
  We currently have slots with the following fixed arrival and leaving days:
  
  AVAILABILITY:-
  
  Between 10th December and 10th January we would take volunteers.
  Tasks would be: Pruning olive trees, putting branches through a wood chipper, winter garden work, firewood collection, erecting solar panels.
  
  SLOT A
  Tuesday 1st Apr 2025 until Saturday 26th Apr 2025
  
  SLOT B
  Tuesday 13th May 2025 until Saturday 31st May 2025
  
  More 2025 slots to be added.
  
  IMPORTANT: Please state your SLOT or arrival and leaving dates:
  
  You can request a longer period. In theory, longer stays of over a month are possible but only after a successful short stay.
  
  You can apply for dates not in a slot but you might be the only volunteer and you would have to be really interested in what we are doing.
  
  NOTE:
  Every word of our profile is a true and an accurate description of reality. We also require that your profile is truthful.
  
  The volunteers that we might be interested in would have these characteristics: interested in growing food, self-sufficiency and alternative technologies; don't mind about being isolated and in the middle of nowhere; and sociable and fun to be with.
  
  We will be planting, growing and harvesting vegetables and preparing to be as self-sufficient as possible.
  
  ABOUT US:
  We are an English couple who have lived in Spain for over 30 years. We spend our time between Granada, the coast and our off-grid cortijo in the mountains. We are mainly interested in help up at the mountain house.
  
  We have 36,000 m2 with about 160 olive trees, 800 grape vines, 100 almonds, almost all the fruit trees you can think of, a vegetable plot, about 5 springs, solar-powered electricity, solar water heating, and 10m x 5m swimming pool.
  
  We are 1300 metres above sea level. The nearest village is 6 km up a non-asphalt road. We don't have any children but have a dog named "Shep" and a cat called "Meg".
  
  We have hosted more than 390 workawayers over the last 14 years. We welcome hard-working people who like being in a beautiful, remote mountain setting. It is especially important that you are a pleasant sociable person with a good sense of humour who likes good conversation and can appreciate eating good healthy food. Although we are off-grid we have a good hot water system and life is fairly comfortable.
  
  Note: If you are a French, German, Spanish or Italian native speaker we might ask you to do translations into English.

• 

  Types d'aide et opportunités d'apprendre

  Aide avec des éco-projets

  Jardinage

  Bricolage et construction

  Aide dans une ferme

  Entretien général
• 

  Echange culturel et opportunités d'apprendre

  If you have any question about the Spanish language, we can give you a good answer because we are fluent in Spanish and also have spent many years as language teachers. If your level of Spanish is good enough, you could speak to us in Spanish however the main language at our farm is English. We have our own hiking group and we often organise hikes at the weekends when it is not too hot for hiking and there are usually around 15 Spanish people for you to practise your Spanish with. You will probably learn a lot about growing your own food and self sufficiency.

• 

  Aide

  The most important thing is that you like gardening and helping outside.
  
  Here are some examples of the help. Skim the dead insects off the swimming pool, sweep up the terraces, weed the flowerbed, weed the vegetable plot, plant out lettuces, go with me to collect mulch on the tractor, plant trees and bushes, repair the irrigation system, pick peaches and other fruit, staple paper bags around the apples to stop the birds eating them, paint a wall, varnish a door, clean out the barbecue, cut the grass on the lawn, pick walnuts, crack almonds and walnuts for the muesli. Pick broad beans. Plant seeds. Help with fencing. Let the chickens out. Shut the chickens up. Collect horse manure. Teach us something we don't know.

• 

  Langues parlées

  Anglais: Courant
  Espagnol: Courant
  Français: Débutant

• 

  Hébergement

  There are 2 self-contained independent apartments for the volunteers and we shuffle the people around to get the best combination.
  We also have a couple of tents which sometimes people prefer but tents are always optional, you can always sleep in a bed.
  
  For breakfast, we normally eat our delicious healthy muesli which has our own nuts and dried fruit in. For the midday meal, we try to eat stuff that we have grown ourselves with either fish or meat. In the evenings in the summer, we have gazpacho or other ways of eating the abundance of really nice tomatoes, pepper, aubergines, etc. that we grow. We often cook outside on the barbecue. We have a wood oven for pizzas, bread and roasting etc. We eat mostly vegetarian food but we are not strict vegetarians. If you have special dietary requirements, you must tell us when you contact us. We don't take vegans or people who don't eat eggs.

• 

  Autres infos...

  The cortijo is 6km from the nearest sleepy village which has a population of about 1000. We have a good internet connection. Free Wifi is available in the main lounge and in outside areas but not everywhere. There is 4G coverage almost everywhere and if you have your own data there are nice places to sit to speak with your family etc.
  
  As the electricity system is solar you have to be careful to switch off lights and not waste electricity. There are lots of interesting walks all around the mountains. It would be very unsuitable for a city person who hates the countryside.
  Andalucia is very hot in August but as we are at 1300 metres, it is much more pleasant than lower down.
  
  IMPORTANT: There is plenty of time to connect to social media and keep in contact with your friends via Internet when you are here. However, if you are so addicted to using your phone that it prevents you from interacting with new people, then please don't come here. Using your phone at the dining table is not OK.
  
  Very shy, introverted people who almost never say anything don't tend to enjoy it much here. If you are in that category, you should choose a less sociable workaway place. We have volunteers to do some work and make life more fun. There is nothing wrong with being a very quiet person but we are looking for sociable people.
  
  What you can do on your days off: As most of the workawayers don't have their own transport, we often take everyone out on excursions. In the past, we have taken people down to the beach and a few times we have let everyone stay in a house we have in Granada. There is a lake about 6 km way which is good for swimming and we often take everyone down there on Sundays in the summer. Most weekends, we go on hikes with a walking group.
  
  It is necessary that you like eating vegetables. We don't take people who don't like tomatoes, who can't eat perfectly good things just because of the texture or are fussy eaters in general.
  
  We don't take volunteers with pets or children.
  
  Almost everyone who comes here leaves more healthy, more relaxed, fitter and happier than when they arrived.

• 

  Informations complémentaires

  • 

    Accès Internet

  • 

    Accès Internet limité

  • 

    Nous avons des animaux

  • 

    Nous sommes fumeurs

  • 

    Familles bienvenues

• 

  Possibilité d’accueillir les digital nomads

  This option would only be a good idea for long term stays.

• 

  Combien de volontaires pouvez-vous accueillir ?

  Plus de 2

Sécurité du site

Feedback (124)