Join a sustainable farm project and enjoy the scenic countryside of Noto, Italy

Infos

• 

  Description

  Ciao! We are Maaike and Bram a Dutch couple who only recently decided to leave the well-organized Netherlands behind to start a new adventure in Sicily. While travelling in 2024, we came to Sicily, fell in love with the island and then we actually just never really left. We stumbled upon this beautiful abandoned terrain, full of trees and with a beautiful view. So after some thinking (but not too much), we decided to move here.
  
  We both really really like being outdoors, hiking, discovering, snorkelling and working the land. Oh, and by the way, we both LOVE playing board games and cooking and eating :).
  
  Bram is a certified European Tree Worker (ETW) and worked with large trees in the Netherlands for several years. Here in Italy he takes on jobs for privates (cutting and removing big trees and palms). I (Maaike) have a bachelor's degree in Sport Studies and worked at a physiotherapy clinic. I also love being creative and working on all kinds of creative projects around our farm and I sell my watercolor paintings in the city of Siracusa.
  
  Besides this, we own a small property, located in the beautiful countryside near Noto, in the mountains of Monti Iblei. We are surrounded by olive trees, carob trees, some almond trees and lots and lots of nature. For example the nature reserves "Cava grande" and "Pantalica" are really close. We have only just recently bought this place and are still in the process of building everything up. We are renovating our house, so we ourselves are living in a caravan next to the house. We have a vegetable garden, planted a lot of fruit trees and are surrounded by terrain that needs taking care off. We are looking for volunteers to help us with some jobs around our private home and garden.

• 

  Types d'aide et opportunités d'apprendre

  Pratique d’une langue

  Aide avec des éco-projets

  Jardinage d'entretien

  Projets DIY créatifs

  Aide dans une ferme

  Cuisine/repas pour la famille

  Petits travaux d'entretien
• 

  Centres d’intérêt

  

  Dev. durable

  

  Animaux de compagnie

  

  Événements/vie sociale

  

  Vie en van

  

  Ferme

  

  Soin des plantes

  

  Art et design

  

  Cuisine et alimentation

  

  Jardinage

  

  Dessin et peinture

  

  Animaux

  

  Nature

  

  Camping

  

  Montagne

  

  Plage

  

  Activités en plein air

  

  Randonnée

  

  Sports d'aventure
• 

  Objectifs de développement durable de l’ONU que cet hôte essaie d'atteindre

  ...

  ...

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  Qu'est-ce que c'est ?
• 

  Echange culturel et opportunités d'apprendre

  Bram is a licensed tree worker, so if you are interested, this could be a great way for you to learn more about trees. We have also planted a lot of different fruit trees and try to grow as many vegetables from our own land as possible. We would like to expand our vegetable garden, so this can be a good way to see and learn the process from A-Z. We use different permaculture methods, such as; no-digging, mulching, natural pest control and composting. We are also really interested in starting to do water management to deal with the drought of Sicily and keeping bees to make our own honey in the future.
  
  We have quite some experience and knowledge of helping the land that we would love to share with our volunteers, but we would also be really interested in learning from you! We are always happy to learn from other peoples experiences and skills, but ofcourse it is not necessary for you to have experience and we don't expect you to help all day. We want it to be a nice experience for both of us.
  
  Our place is new and we both grew up in big cities in the Netherlands, so we are discovering this country side life as we go - and that's part of the fun! Also helping with volunteers is new for us, but we are very excited to start welcoming people on our terrain and show the beauty that Sicily has to offer.

• 

  Projets impliquant des enfants

  Ce projet peut impliquer des enfants. Pour en savoir plus, consultez nos directives et conseils ici.

• 

  Aide

  We are looking for people who get excited about doing the land and learning new things. The tasks will be different every day, also depending on the season you are coming. We are really flexibel and would prefer you doing something you like, would like to learn or are good at. We can see together what needs to be done. Examples of tasks are: helping in the vegetable garden (expanding, collecting, weeding, maintaining), helping with restoring old stone walls, maintaining the terrain. We also really like cooking and we try to use as much from our own land as possible, also: it's a great place for foraging! We for example harvest our lemons for making limoncello, we pick the carobs for making carob powder or syrup and we pick some olives to make some olive oil.
  
  Someone who is good with their hands could also be really useful, as we are currently building and improving some things, such as a chicken coop and wood storage.
  
  We are just a simple self-sufficient home with a piece of property that needs maintainence. The tasks we ask from our volunteers are simply to help around our private home/garden, not with any business related activities.

• 

  Langues parlées

  Anglais: Courant
  Hollandais: Courant
  Italien: Intermédiaire

• 

  Hébergement

  ACCOMODATION
  Since we are still building everything up, we are currently ourselves living in a caravan. For our volunteers we provide a separate, private caravan with it's own private space around. The caravan where you will be staying has a double bed and a place to sit inside. There is also a small space outside, in front of the caravan, with a beautiful view on the land. The house we are renovating is old, but we did turn it into a kitchen/living room. So for rainy days there is definitely no need of staying in your caravan. This would be a shared space where you can sit and relax. We have an outdoor shower and compost toilet that is shared with us. And a big big plus: there is a very old pizza oven in the house, so we are always down for pizza and game night!
  
  We have access to water and electricity, but the internet has to be stolen from the neighbours ;).
  
  FOOD
  We will provide 3 meals per day. We will usually eat together, but when we are not there, we will always provide ingredients for you to cook for yourself. We are not vegetarians, but we don't eat meat often, so we have no problems cooking vegetarian if you don't eat meat. Vegan cooking is a little more difficult for us, but if you are willing to help with the cooking and plan meals together, we are happy to make it work.
  
  We like cooking, so we don't mind cooking for our volunteers, but we would prefer more of a roommates' vibe than a host-guest vibe. As we will be sharing our daily life, we appreciate everyone helping out with simple things like cooking, setting the table and doing the dishes. We are not here to clean your room or bed or do your laundry :).

• 

  Autres infos...

  There is plenty to explore nearby. If you like hiking, it's a great place. There is caves and canyons within a 30 min walk from our terrain, and within a 10min car ride you arrive ar several good hiking spots. There are also some climbing spots (which we are not into, but we can show you where the spots are). There is 1 bicycle that is for use, but we would also enjoy showing you the surroundings in our free time.
  
  Also, we are very close to some beautiful cities like Siracusa and Noto. The closest small town (Cassibile) is 5km away and here you can find everything. The closest beach is about 6km away.
  
  Thursday nights we often like to go to the "balfolk dancing of Siracusa" where we (try to) dance traditional dances with a small group in the main square of Siracusa.

• 

  Informations complémentaires

  • 

    Accès Internet

  • 

    Accès Internet limité

  • 

    Nous avons des animaux

  • 

    Nous sommes fumeurs

  • 

    Familles bienvenues

• 

  Espace pour garer des vans

  Yes, we have many great spaces for you to park the van or put up a tent. Within the terrain you could stay anywhere you like, close to the house, or under the trees. If you have a 4x4, there are amazing places to stay.

• 

  Possibilité d'accueillir les animaux

  Yes, but we have cats and there is dogs in the area too, so if the animals are ok with this, we are too. Please note that there is not closed off/fenced area. Dogs not allowed inside the caravan.

• 

  Combien de volontaires pouvez-vous accueillir ?

  Plus de 2

• 

  Mes animaux

  

  Unox

  

  Tosti

Sécurité du site