Experience off-grid sustainable living on a permaculture farm with food forest and veg garden in Hastings, New Zealand

Infos

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  Description

  We are a well known 16 acre permaculture farm and plant nursery in Hawke’s Bay, supplying over 400 species of ‘permaculture’ plants, including the widest range of medicinal herbs in the country. We also run workshops and tours - Jo has been teaching permaculture, food forest design and sustainability courses for over 15 years. Our 3 acre food forest contains a mix of NZ native, temperate, Mediterranean and subtropical plants, swales for water harvesting/passive irrigation, wattle and daub hut, willow tipi, kitchen/bar, firepit, treehouse and pond.
  
  We are in Poukawa, a rural area 20 minutes’ drive from Hastings, Havelock North or Waipawa. We are a family of 4 in a small house – Jo and Aaron (in our 50s), our 2 teenage daughters (17 & 15), and 4 dogs. We also have 3 horses, and lots of ducks and chickens.
  
  We have another couple (Kiwi/Argentinian) living on the farm. We also have nursery staff whose expertise includes herbalism, organic, biodynamic and permaculture gardening, tiny house living and more. Our daughters' interests include yoga, running, crochet and horses, and they welcome interactions with young people with these interests too. Our 15 year old is learning French and would love a language buddy - preferably a young lady whose interests may include yoga and crafts. Everyone here enjoys interacting with our volunteers and the two-way cultural exchanges which result, whether that's a geographical culture or a 'way of life' culture. Aaron has a back injury so we welcome a bit of extra help around the place at times. Please note that we do not ask volunteers to work in our nursery which is our main business, unless you specifically want to learn propagation skills, in which case we are happy to each you. More generally we can share our 20 years of experience in organic veg & fruit fruit growing, permaculture and off grid living with you.
  
  We take short term (minimum 2 weeks) and long term volunteers and have separate self contained accommodation for both (basic cabin+caravan accommodation with cooking facilities and your own shower and compost toilet), plus a ‘common room’.
  
  Due to Aaron's chronic pain he is not always able to be very sociable in the evenings, so we provide your food including vegetables, fruit and eggs from the farm, and you need to prepare your own meals mostly. But we love to have one or two evening meals a week together, using our own produce where possible. If you are keen to cook one of these meals so much the better, and we love learning about different cooking styles! We also have a huge library of books on permaculture, food forests, herbs, food preserving etc. for you to explore and there is a small dam at the back of the farm which you can kayak on.
  
  There is good mobile phone reception but no wifi.

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  Types d'aide et opportunités d'apprendre

  Pratique d’une langue

  Aide avec des éco-projets

  Enseignement

  Jardinage

  Bricolage et construction

  S’occuper des animaux

  Aide dans une ferme

  Entretien général
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  Centres d’intérêt

  

  Politique/justice sociale

  

  Dev. durable

  

  Ferme

  

  Soin des plantes

  

  Langues

  

  Jardinage

  

  Animaux

  

  Nature

  

  Camping
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  Echange culturel et opportunités d'apprendre

  We are a Kiwi/ British couple plus another Kiwi/argentinian couple on the farm, and we are well travelled. There is so much to learn here about sustainable living in general, and specifically permaculture, plants (fruit, nuts, herbs, support species, NZ natives), food forest design, silvopasture, passive irrigation, animal management and integration, tiny home building, off grid housing - solar power, grey water, compost toilets etc.

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  Aide

  Tasks may include but are not limited to:
  • Gardening - planting, weeding, pruning, compost making
  • Planting trees and ground cover species in the food forest, shelter belts and around ponds
  • Moving portable chicken runs to ‘tractor’ through the food forest
  
  Our 15 year old daughter has just started learning French and would love some help and someone to talk with!

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  Langues

  Langues parlées
  Anglais: Courant

  Cet hôte propose un échange linguistique
  My 15 year old daughter is learning French and would love a language buddy - preferably a young lady whose interests may include yoga and crafts.
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  Hébergement

  1. (Generally for shorter stays) - Caravan (or space for your campervan) plus use of our common room with mains power, cooking and living facilities, own compost toilet and hot shower.
  2. (Generally for longer stays) - Farm shed lined with log panelling, feels like a log cabin inside! Own kitchen, integral caravan with double bed, and covered walkway to 'shed' style hot shower and compost toilet.
  Aaron suffers chronic pain from a back injury so is not very sociable in the evenings, so we provide your food including vegetables, fruit and eggs from the farm, and you need to prepare your own meals mostly. But we like to have one or two evening meals a week together and we all have coffee together every weekday.

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  Autres infos...

  You will need your own transport to be able to go off farm, there is no public transport accessible nearby. Hawke's Bay is famous for its vinyards and food culture, and beaches. The Ruahine and Kawaka ranges are accessible by car offering some great day and overnight tramping.

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  Informations complémentaires

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    Accès Internet

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    Accès Internet limité

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    Nous avons des animaux

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    Nous sommes fumeurs

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    Familles bienvenues

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  Espace pour garer des vans

  Under cover space for a large campervan, plus use of our common room with mains power, cooking and living facilities, own compost toilet and shower.

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  Combien de volontaires pouvez-vous accueillir ?

  Plus de 2

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  Mes animaux

  

  Blue

  

  Jett

  

  Robbie

  Robbie will be celebrating his 34th birthday this year!

  

  Bea

  

  Juno

  

  Charlie

  

  Herbie

Sécurité du site

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