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SPRING 2025 UPDATE:
Hi folks: We are looking for two folks for Fall 2025 for a unique opportunity to spend two months at our home, 6 weeks of which we will be away travelling. It will be a busy time so would be looking for a mature skilled pair or couple to do what needs to be done at that time of the year: take in the harvest, process, and store it. We have a nice mix of garden, greenhouse, yard, simple construction work.
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Give us a shout if you’d like to hear more after reading the rest of this profile. Thanks!
My partner Brian and I have owned our century farmhouse for 12 years, and moved here in 2018. I am more active in the gardens, while Brian spends most mornings writing (he is a published poet —ask us for the website. I have a strong interest in applying permaculture principles to our 2-acre parcel. The land has a greenhouse with citrus, ginger and seasonal crops like greens or melons, and the hoop house hosts paste tomatoes or greens in winter. We also have a number of apple, pear, nut trees and bushes plus lots of berries of many kinds.
I am very involved as chair of a local climate action organization - ask me for the web link ) and we are both involved in our awesome neighbourhood farm project. We have an amazing community. Brian and I have been together for 28 years, and enjoy smart, creative people open to the beauty and difficulties of our world in these crazy times. We are both looking for ways to bring humanity together in a way that respects our earthly home and its creatures.
Salt Spring has a lot to offer and our wwoofers and workawayers always love their stays.
Types d'aide et opportunités d'apprendre
Aide avec des éco-projets
Jardinage
Bricolage et construction
Aide dans une ferme
Entretien général
Home sitting
Objectifs de développement durable de l’ONU que cet hôte essaie d'atteindre
Echange culturel et opportunités d'apprendre
This is an amazing island from the point of view of organic food production and permaculture so lots can be learned from the people here in these respects. As well, there are many travellers volunteering or working on farms in the nonwinter months, along with a highly literate population of people who've chosen this place as home, making Salt Spring a cosmopolitan rural experience! Brian and I are well-read, educated, creative, and love engaging conversation and the exchange of ideas from ecology, spirituality, politics, and more. I have learned a fair bit about gardening over the decades, so might be able to impart some knowledge. There is always lots to do and learn while here and I am happy to share what I have learned. :-)
Aide
For fall 2025 we are looking for two mature skilled folks for TWO MONTHS to help us with usual fall garden work AND care of our home while we are away for SIX WEEKS. It would be a busy but fulfilling time, beginning with a two week overlap with us which would enable us to properly brief and train you on our systems and processes for our busy little 2 acre homestead. The work will involve harvesting>cleaning>processing>storage. This might mean anything from apples stored in sacks, or squash on shelves to drying or pressure canning or fermenting fruit or veggies. We usually make 40 litres of tomato sauce a year for example. There will also be work prepping beds for winter, transitioning the greenhouse and hoop house to winter crops/winter mode. Cleaning up plant debris, raking, levelling, and straw mulching. The work requires an ability to move soil and heavy loads at times, and a comfort with various types of work, weather and circumstances. Some familiarity with gardening, food processing, power tools and light construction would be a definite asset, but with the ability for me to teach folks things in the two weeks before we leave.
There are about a dozen apple trees, and three pears, along with hazelnuts, raspberries, blueberries, strawberries, cherries, plums, grapes, walnuts, peaches and more. Our veggie garden consists of about 2000 square feet of growing space. Most of the orchard and existing garden beds are irrigated and mulched heavily with a woven plastic ground cover, wood chips or straw. Usually we are flexible as to length of stay and if the match is working well, we sometimes extend. But for FALL 2025 we need one set of people for two months. If you have a WWOOFer membership, check out our profile there. We have excellent reviews and people really love staying here and are new to Workaway with one excellent stay under our belts.
We are looking for folks who are proactive workers and good communicators. Since workawayers live in our house, we prefer folks with whom we can have conversations around the dinner table. Based on my experience working with people so far on our land, I have reasonable expectations of people, and am good at accommodating an individual's needs and work preferences. Meals are mostly vegetarian but I do eat some meats. Workawayers participate in some meal work like table setting and clean up. We are looking for sentient beings who love this world and care about what’s going on with it. My way to deal with that especially this year is to really localize my work instead of soaking myself in the brine of the daily newsfeed where I have little power. 😊 For Fall 2025 you will be on your own with digital access to us while we are away, with access to our electric vehicle for local transportation on island only.
Langues
Langues parlées
Anglais: Courant
Français: Courant
Allemand: Débutant
Espagnol: Débutant
Japonais: DébutantCet hôte propose un échange linguistique
Nous parlons francais, ein bisschen Deutsch, y un pocito espagnol. :-)
Hébergement
We live in a beautiful 100 year old red and white very comfortable farmhouse. Your room is in the gabled section of our second storey on the same floor as Brian's study, and our twin guest room. The room itself is about 11'x16' with a comfortable queen sized bed, dresser, reading chair with footstool, a carpet and a small set of steps up to the room, separating it from the rest of the floor. Two windows by the bed overlook the sheep fields in the valley with views to the forests of fabulous Ruckle Provincial Park. There is also a skylight. There is a two-piece bath upstairs and a shower in the three-piece bath on the main floor. Nights are nice and dark and wonderfully quiet, except for frogs in spring, and mornings and evenings, you can hear the sheep in the valley. Common spaces include our living and dining room, and our kitchen. All of it is very well-equipped with a mix of antique furniture, funky objects, and family treasures. We will provide veg meals in exchange for 25 hours of work per week. We are fun but on the quieter side, enjoying reading or other quiet time in the evening, going to Dance Temple on Mondays or Thursdays (see section on cultural exchange), or enjoying conversation over dinner or on our front deck overlooking the valley. We are non-smokers for sure, and would prefer non-smokers staying in our home. We drink a bit socially, and are not big partiers for sure, but are good humoured and fun to be with.
Autres infos...
Salt Spring Island is a Canadian crown jewel with its beautiful scenery, warm climate relative to the rest of Canada, and great culture. Its Saturday market in the town of Ganges is legendary, there are a ton of things to do and see artistically, and just down the road from our house on Mondays and Thursdays is Dance Temple -- two hours of free-form dance with a beautifully mixed crowd of women and men of all ages and orientations. There is an excellent swimming lake an 8 minute bike ride away, which is clothing optional, and of course that is just one of several excellent swimming lakes on the island! There is also the ocean for hikes and, yes, for swimming too. There are some sun warmed bays that make for excellent afternoon swims when the tides are right! There are some great trails up the many mountains on Salt Spring, and excellent kayaking around the this and nearby islands. Salt Spring has an eclectic mix of artists, travellers, back-to-the-landers, alternative medicine practitioners, and more. It is relatively easy to hitch hike, and there is a pretty good local bus system on the main roads (we are a 10-minute drive away from a main road). In summer, twice a day, there is even a bus that goes past our house on the way to Ruckle Park and connecting with the island's small town, Ganges. We also go into town a couple times a week in our electric vehicle and would be happy to take passengers. We also routinely either take workawayers on hikes or sometimes even a kayak, or will drive folks to trailheads for a later pickup.
We always have zooms with folks who look like they will be a good fit. We find it's a great way for us to get to know each other a bit and the work that will be involved.
Happy Workaway hunting!
Informations complémentaires
Accès Internet
Accès Internet limité
Nous avons des animaux
Nous sommes fumeurs
Familles bienvenues
Possibilité d’accueillir les digital nomads
Strong internet and wifi connections. Desk space possible.
Combien de volontaires pouvez-vous accueillir ?
Deux
