Spend some quality time on our big small biodiverse food-forest at the foot of mount Etna, Italy

Detalhes

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  Descrição

  A harbor of authenticity, a place for ideas and connections. An oasis of independence in the unceasing quest for self-sufficiency.
  A botanical garden with many interesting and unexpected varieties, train station 5 min on foot, mount Etna ever on fire, seasonal food, and much more.
  
  --- Local produce, traditional food and seeds from your area are very welcome.
  --- Consider having kids around (sometimes babysitting) as part of the experience.
  --- To best organize farm activities let us know always your travel plans and terms of stay.
  
  -- Looking for someone with experience in web development and the like to help building our site.
  -- Are you familiar with beekeeping? Let us know!
  
  This exchange is intended as a private homestead and cannot carry out any type of business.
  
  Hi, my name is Guido and with my family we live in the area where Mount Etna is the closest to the sea.
  
  This area is renowned for its unique soil and microclimate; inevitable conditions if you have a three and a half thousand metres volcano to less than ten km from the coast.
  Our farm consists of a few plots, all of them a few km close-by one another.
  My parents (Turi and Caterina) and my grandma (Giuseppa-for everyone just “nonna”) live in one of these plots and the one we hang out at most: a chaotic country house in the middle of a 3-acre grove; an old lemon orchard that my father has transformed into a fruit garden. That is the place we commonly refer to and identify as “the farm”. Today, in that small piece of land, we hold something like 60 different edible varieties of plants and trees, half of which tropical and subtropical. The steady increase in biodiversity together with the non-entrepreneurial management method has in fact fostered the propensity to a number of virtuous aspects of agriculture leading us toward other closely related trends such as sustainable development and self-sufficiency. What had begun as a mere hobby, over time became a lifestyle. This also thanks to the many small farmer markets and purchase coops carried out in the area, where we delighted ourselves in raising our visitor’s awareness about the big issues of our time, drawing their attention with new and exotic products and in recent years also thanks to some international cultural exchange projects. We are and have been always firmly against chemicals and all kind of improper practices, even before becoming certified. We have two friendly dogs (Billy and Bianca) and some chickens. I see many of you want to come to learn or improve Italian, you couldn’t choose a better place! Lots of Italian and dialect gibberish in the house (don’t forget my grandma), not to mention daily traditional Sicilian gestures and body-language and our favorite sport: endless arguing :)
  
  I’ve also been a volunteer myself. I’ve spent several months in the UK and Ireland to loosen up my tongue a bit. My wife is from Hong Kong, we are okay with Latin-based languages and generally curious about all languages.

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  Tipos de ajuda e oportunidades de aprendizado

  Trabalho beneficente

  Projetos artísticos

  Prática de idiomas

  Ajuda em projetos ambientais

  Companhia para idosos

  Ensino

  Jardinagem

  Construção/faça você mesmo

  Cuidar de animais

  Ajuda em fazenda

  Cuidar de crianças/atividades criativas

  Criar/cozinhar refeições caseiras

  Ajuda a cuidar da casa

  Manutenção geral

  Ajuda com computadores/internet
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  Objetivos de sustentabilidade da ONU que este anfitrião quer atingir

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  O que é isso?
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  Oportunidades de intercâmbio cultural e aprendizado

  Depending on seasons there will be always a variety of practical things to learn (grafting, pruning, wrapping, plowing, plucking, etc.), all imbued with a bit of scientific, philosophical and cultural background.
  
  Calendar of main activities
  
  January – lemon (and other citrus) harvest, pruning and branch disposal.
  February – lemon (and other citrus) harvest, pruning and branch disposal, grafting (avocado, rosacee – apricots, plums, etc.)
  March – lemon (and other citrus) harvest, pruning and branch disposal, grafting (citrus – lemons, oranges, etc.), weeding.
  April – weeding, grafting (citrus – lemons, oranges, etc.), pruning (custard apple) and branch disposal, planting summer veggies (tomatoes, zucchini, etc.), transplanting (banana, mango).
  May – weeding, lemon and spring fruits harvest (mulberries, loquats)
  June – weeding, lemon harvest, irrigation, grapes stripping (take off excess leaves)
  July – irrigation, blackberries harvest
  August – irrigation, lemon, blackberries harvest.
  September – lemons pruning and branch disposal, planting winter veggies (broccoli, fennels, etc.), grapes harvest.
  October – autumn fruit harvest daily (feijoa, custard apple, guava, kaki, avocado, strawberry tree, etc.), olive harvest.
  November – weekly harvest (clementines, hovenia), olive harvest and branch disposal, transplanting.
  December – lemon harvest, hovenia harvest weekly, pruning and branch disposal.
  
  - As tradition dictates we harvest lemons three times a year, in winter, spring and summer; each is the end result of a different flowering (lemons generally bloom three times a year). Harvest dates are not always fixed. Winter harvest may happen from December to March, spring harvest at some point in May, summer harvest from end of June to August.
  - We have minor amounts of other citrus fruit which we pick weekly, not all at once like the lemons.
  - Pruning takes place in winter, from December to March and it involves most of the plants except lemons in September and custard apples in April.
  - Branch disposal involves cutting and selecting branches for shredding, firewood or other uses.
  - Weeding can be performed mechanically with a strimmer/weedwhacker or manually around trees. It normally takes a few weeks per year but due to seasonality and planning it can be spread for a couple of months throughout the year.
  - Irrigation consists of checking and unclog water sprinkles.

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  Projetos que envolvem crianças

  Este projeto pode envolver crianças. Para mais informações, veja aqui nossas diretrizes e dicas.

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  Ajuda

  As per guidelines we believe 25 hours a week is a good match for room and board in exchange. Albeit generally in the morning, it is not rare to ask you to help us at a different time of the day (especially if raining or harvesting) or in different places. Our primary target of course will be everything involving the garden maintenance (weeding and cleaning, working the land, harvesting, maintaining and repairing, etc.). Some of our ever-going projects are the enlargement of our vegetable garden along with the improvement of the irrigation system and in our to-do list the start of a small plant nursery/greenhouse and the renovation of a few old caravans for volunteers to use.
  (11/2021: since she is going to walk very soon, update 01/2022: she is now running up and down...heeeelp!!). Update 10/2025: they are two and they both stand upright, they are fast and ruthless. We now need some prey… I mean playmates for our kids Agnese and Theo. So consider them as part of our routine.
  
  Suggested clothing: long work trousers/jeans, shirts (long and short sleeves), old jacket/hoodie, boots (work/hiking shoes - the ground tend to be wet in the morning), hat, thick leather gloves, hear plugs.
  Solar cream needed on summer, mosquitoes repellent on spring/fall mainly.

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  Idiomas

  Idiomas
  Inglês: Fluente
  Espanhol: Fluente
  Italiano: Fluente

  Este anfitrião oferece intercâmbio de idiomas
  Este anfitrião indicou que tem interesse em compartilhar seu idioma ou em aprender um novo.
  Entre em contato com ele para obter mais informações.
  
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  Acomodação

  You will be staying with Guido in our apartment in the nearby hamlet of Carruba. The apartment is 4.5 km away from the main plot (the farm). We move together by car.
  Depending on the number of people that come and go, you might be sharing rooms. Bathroom will be always shared. The apartment is on the last floor, surrounded by balconies and with a big terrace from which you may catch sight of the sea (just 15 minutes away) or tan yourself to a crisp under the sun.
  Washing machine available but old, we operate it. Also, we try to save and reuse water. We encourage you to do the same, after your laundry use the water we collect to flush toilets.
  Wi-Fi available at the farm house but not available at the apartment for the time being.
  In case you want to try there is a local bus stops next door and the train station a matter of minutes away on foot.

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  Algo mais...

  Food:
  Based on Mediterranean diet with often some Asian fusion whereas fruit and vegetables coming primarily from our land and friends’ farms. Of all meals, lunch and dinner will be normally shared. We will do our best to make delicious meals and also would love to try some of your home recipes. Let us know of any animal/food allergies you have.
  We are not fun of waste, if you put some cereal in your bowl eat everything instead of washing them away in the sink.
  IMPORTANT: we believe if you are in Italy you deserve to try food made by us, therefore we usually take care of the cooking and enjoy it. But in exchange for this you need to help with the washing. We strongly encourage all volunteers to learn well how to wash dishes, done with sponge, soap and water management. Being able to wash dishes well is THE most appreciated quality hosts acknowledge to guests. Not everything need to be washed all the time like pans we plan to use the next day (we try to keep away soap from our diet when possible) or plates used for fruit or non-greasy food. So no need to put soap on a plate with a couple of breadcrumbs.
  
  BIG REALITY CHECK
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  Help in the farm is not always easy. A farm day with us can be and feel a long one especially in winter time when daylight is brief. Our day is often full of ons and offs and idle time, imagine while making meals and after or moving from a plot to another. There are days at the peak of yield from end of September to November we leave the apartment at 9am and get back at 6pm. Therefore, if you are looking for a more job-oriented experience with a start – work – finish scheme be aware we are not always able to provide that.
  Our lifestyle does not allow us to be constantly present in the field during the day – it is the very reason why we seek help. The type of help consists of simple tasks that can be entrusted on our behalf, giving us some respite and more time to carry on our daily routine. That is why helpers need to be reliable, self-motivated and independent. Of course, that is not always the case, there are things we necessarily need and enjoy to do together.
  Also, depending on seasons farm help requires a certain dead of flexibility: when we write 25 hours per week it does not necessarily mean 5 days a week and 2 days off. There will in fact be extraordinary circumstances (i.e. during olive/lemon harvest, in case of short stays, uncertain weather conditions or absolute deadlines) where we ask you to take more time off before reaching the required amount of hours per week or conversely extend the relative weekly hours limit to then recover the time off later- let’s say, if you stay 2 weeks and we really need help for the first 10 days, you can help us for 50 hours the first 10 days and then get the remaining 5 days free (25/7=3.5*15=52). That why it is not always possible to accept people for short stay.
  
  About expectations: despite our attempts of a faithful description and the feedbacks in the profile this experience might turn out to be not what you have envisioned. It is a perfectly normal thing and nothing to worry about, especially if you come from a very different environment, culture or simply age group.
  Now, this is an extremely important point, after we reach an agreement on a stay, often several weeks before it happens, we will turn down tens of requests for that same given window and above all we plan farm activities and everything else considering you being there as part of the team. That to say how important is an agreement and how serious (and I mean very bad) is to go back on a given word after all the planning behind especially without a good enough reason.
  With this in mind ask yourself what are your reasons to apply and how many days you would be willing to spend at our place realistically. Contact us only if you are 100% sure about this experience and ready to commit until the end (of your terms) even if that mean compromising and endure a few more days. This is not a commitment you can take lightly, as said we make plans based on your presence, there are many others who loose the opportunity to have an experience in our farm.
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  The main plot (the farm) is located in Giarre’s southern outskirts, less than a mile from the motorway’s (A18) exit and easily reachable by all buses covering the SS114. We are approximately 40 km from Catania International Airport, 35-50 minutes depending on connections between public transport – the train takes no more than 25 minutes to get to Catania Centrale railway station from Giarre. The apartment is 4 minutes on foot from the train station.
  Another word of advice: dealing with the mysterious realm of our public services might sometimes be an “extraordinary” experience. Therefore, plan your connections carefully!
  
  Being a densely built area, villages often come in succession, merging together (sometimes it’s hard to say where the one starts and the other ends), each with its own historic core - churches, bars, squares, etc.
  The "Riviera dei limoni", a portion of coastline stretching from Catania to Taormina (Acicastello, Acitrezza, Acireale, Giarre-Riposto, Fiumefreddo, Giardini Naxos, and minor coastal villages/seaside resorts such as Fondachello, Torre Archirafi (not too far away from Carruba), Pozzillo, Stazzo, Santa Tecla, etc., offer a variety of cultural, historical and touristic attractions. However, excluding the biggest and most popular places, the remaining part is not otherwise subjected to foreign residency, which in my opinion makes it even more interesting.
  
  My family might take a moment to decipher your words, my grandma transcends the need to, but they are getting better and better at it.
  
  Having been a helper myself and after 10 years hosting people I have an overall idea of what it’s like to be treated and I will do my best in trying to make your experience as enjoyable and varied as possible. Apologies in advance for our possible lack of organization :)
  
  See you soon!
  Guido

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