Sustainable living, help on our permaculture farm with fun eco and gardening projects near Hastings, New Zealand

Infos

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  Description

  Well known 16 acre permaculture farm and plant nursery in Hawke’s Bay, supplying over 350 species of ‘permaculture’ plants, including the widest range of medicinal herbs in the country. 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, and 4 dogs. We also have 4 cows, 2 horses, ducks and chickens.
  We have another couple who live with us on the farm who are building a tiny home, and nursery staff whose expertise also includes herbalism, natural building, carpentry, building, Steiner education, organic, biodynamic and permaculture gardening, and more. Coffee time each day is when we all have time to catch up on what everyone is doing, as we always have lots of different projects happening.
  
  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. Your help will be based mainly in the food forest, but also on the farm silvopasture system and vegetable gardens when required or if your interests tend that way.
  
  We ask for approximately 4.5 hours help per day, but we’re happy if you want to re-arrange hours slightly to accommodate a part time job if you have one, or to combine hours over fewer days so that you can go off and explore for a few days. We’re really pretty flexible folk!
  
  Fun projects may include some natural building, making a living roof, tree bog, or banana circle – we have lots of things we’d like to do, but also happy for you to trial things and explore your own interests.
  
  We are enjoy hosting people who have a thirst for knowledge, are cheerful and easy going around other people (and dogs!), practical, good problem-solvers, happy with their own company, respectful of others’ privacy, and tolerant of a wide range of opinions on all things - from vegetarianism to vaccination. You need to be relatively fit as the food forest has steep slopes and materials need to be carted up and down. No smoking.
  
  In return we can provide basic caravan accommodation with cooking facilities and your own 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 evening meal a week together and we all have coffee together every weekday. The other couple on the farm, who are Argentinian/Kiwi are also keen for cultural exchange with workawayers, and both speak Spanish. We also have a huge library of books on permaculture, food forests, herbs, food preserving etc. There is a small dam at the back of the farm which you can kayak on. Possibility of riding lessons for beginners from our daughter.

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  Types d'aide et opportunités d'apprendre

  Aide avec des éco-projets

  Jardinage

  Bricolage et construction

  Aide dans une ferme

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

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  Qu'est-ce que c'est ?
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  Echange culturel et opportunités d'apprendre

  Between the 2 families on site we have 4 Kiwis, one Brit and one Argentinian, and we are all 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:
  • Sheet mulching of areas of grass to replicate forest floor
  • Planting trees and ground cover species in the food forest, shelterbelts and around ponds
  • Pruning
  • Hand weeding
  • Mechanical weedeating (only if you are happy to do it)
  • Chop’n’drop of biomass
  • Building and moving portable chicken runs to ‘tractor’ through the food forest
  • Helping with building and maintenance of infrastructure e.g. fencing, light earth structures
  • Other general tasks on the farm or in the vege garden
  
  PLEASE NOTE WE DO NOT ASK YOU TO WORK IN THE NURSERY WHICH IS OUR BUSINESS, YOUR HELP IS ON THE FARM MORE GENERALLY.

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  Langues parlées

  Anglais: Courant
  Espagnol: Courant

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  Hébergement

  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 evening meal 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

  Space for a large campervan, plus use of a compost toilet and shower if required. Can hook up to mains power if required.

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  Combien de volontaires pouvez-vous accueillir ?

  Deux

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  Nombre d'heures attendues

  Maximum 4-5 hours a day, 5 days a week

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