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Ecofarm in Asturias with the biggest Rose Garden for edible use

The experience

Ours is a multidisciplinary Project as a typical farm in Asturias where we practice agroecology, gardening, nature courses, the responsible use of natural resources, spirituality, ethnobotanics and traditions by creating a kind of retirement in the middle of the mountains. We are a young couple (Germán from Andalucia and Mario from Austria) fallen in love with the nature of Asturias.

We started 10 years ago and now we have a huge rose garden.

What you offer

30 hours of help per week

Cleaning: Help clean the kitchen, bedrooms, bathrooms and common areas.

Building & Repairing: Help with a wide range of repairs or building.

Farming: Plant crops, sow seeds and help in outside tasks.

Gardening: Help grow plants and cultivate gardens

What you get

2 days off per week

Shared Dorm: You will have a bed in a shared room, which means you will share the same room with other travelers.

Breakfast: You are entitled to a free breakfast, every day of your stay.

Lunch: You are entitled to a free lunch, every day of your stay.

Dinner: You are entitled to a free dinner, every day of your stay.

Free Laundry: You can use our laundry room freely.

Free Hiking Tours: We’ll take you on excursions and hikes around town. For free!

Pick Up: We will pick you up when you arrive, and take you to our property.

Holistic Therapies: You can take part in any of our therapeutic activities for free.

Use our equipped kitchen: Feel free to use our kitchen and make your own delicious food.

Fast Internet Access: High-speed internet for you to work remotely

Requirements

Fluent English or Intermediate Spanish

Welcomes solo volunteers, couples, and partners of volunteers

Be from outside Spain

What's not included

Flights, Travel Insurance, Internal Transportation and Visa

Program Details

The course of a normal week on the farm is usually organized in a way that each day a few different activities can be done if possible. Always organized daily in order of urgent things and most important things first. When something is not urgent we try to avoid monotonous works and to alternate easy and powerful activities. There are also certain activities which need to be done each day of the week and others which are complementary according to the season and the resources available for harvesting or the elaboration of products. Please keep in mind that it also might depends on the climatic conditions, so for rainy days alternative activities might be organized, which can be done under sheltered places or we can reprogram the hours to do activities outside when it is not raining or change to the afternoon.

Activities & Shift

The normal schedule of the activities on the farm is Mon-Fri from 8 am to 2 pm in “summer time period”, with a 15 minutes break on midday. In Winter time we start one hour later. Depending on the weather conditions we can change a morning to an afternoon, or maybe a day during the week with a Saturday if needed. In some occasions depending on the hosts’ needs, the farm day might be split between morning and afternoon. Some activities may need more time to finish and should be finish that day so we could do also some more hours after lunch time.

MAIN ACTIVITIES:

- Remove weeds or cut grass in the garden or orchards, and use some of these weeds for preparing food for the animals or for mulchings.
- Preparing new spots for planting or taking care with maintenance of the crops already planted.
- Cleaning up paths and use the organic material that we get to do mulchings or compost. And use this compost or manure from the animals to do mulchings on crops.
- Planting and pruning shrubs, trees or roses in some specific periods of the year.
- Reproduction of new plants by seedlings, cuttings, graftings, air layering, dividing roots or transplant.
- Harvesting fruits, vegetables or rose petals also at some seasonal periods.
- Clearing old wood from our forests and prepare firewood for the winter or plant mushrooms on them.
- Bioconstruction, renovation of stone walls or close fields with new fences.
- Maintaining, renovating and clearing paths, fences, etc. Sweeping the paths between the roses.
- Foraging nuts or mushrooms from the forests in autumn and process them.
- General cleaning of the animals sheds or cages, dishes and water dispensers (every 10 days).

Rules

We are looking for volunteers with main interests in: farming, nature, animals, plants, gardening, organic farming and living, working in outdoors, the tranquility of a small village in the countryside to disconnect from cities, consumerism and machines, cultural and cooking exchange,… Persons willing to learn, strive and share the different things we can offer.

We would like to receive volunteers that are enthusiastic and want to learn by participating in the farm life and self-sufficiency. People responsible, tidy and able to follow the rules, with good humour/sociable, well fit for walking and work, people who can learn and contribute quickly, that after a few days learning we don’t have to check everything done, so they can be in some way independent and show initiative. We especially welcome people with agriculture machine or construction skills or with some experience in farms already or who can do hard working. And we prefer volunteers who doesn’t smoke and that doesn´t drink alcohol or only in special occasions. And NO consume of drugs, abuse of internet, etc., and without mental disorders. Also no lazy people who just wake up 5 minutes before starting.