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🌱Plant Care & Sustainable Organic Farming in Puerto Rico

3.5
(5 reviews)5

The experience

No experience necessary | must be willing to learn!

We are an organic crop farm growing fruits, vegetables, and root crops. You will help us with planting, watering, weeding, composting, and harvesting throughout the week. Plant tasks run on routine.

If you have experience, we also need help building new grow areas and maintaining the ground cover in existing areas. These tasks are more labor intensive. 🌿

What you offer

25 hours of help per week

Kitchen Hand: Help prepare, finish and serve meals.

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.

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

Certificate: Get a certificate of completion after you finish your experience.

Basic Internet Access: Basic speed internet for you to work remotely

Requirements

Intermediate English or Intermediate Spanish

Over 18 years old

Welcomes solo volunteers, couples, and partners of volunteers

What's not included

Flights, Travel Insurance, Internal Transportation and Visa

Program Details

We are a nonprofit farm working to combat food insecurity in Vieques, Puerto Rico by providing fresh, nutritious foods and supporting other beginning farmers in the region.

In return for 25 hours a week, we provide staple foodstuffs such as beans and rice. We try to incorporate fresh food from the farm into our meals as much as possible and always start out our day with farm fresh eggs! While some meals will be family style, you are expected to be able to cook for yourself as well. If you need specialty items not provided by our team, or have dietary restrictions, you are welcome to purchase them from the local grocery, if available.

Please understand that we farm because of food shortages and issues on the island. Therefore, you might not be able to find the same quality of foodstuffs at the same price as you would in other locations. We are a tropical island, but fruit still has seasons, and fresh mangoes are not available year-round.

We expect volunteers to arrive ready to learn. Prior experience is not required, but we do ask that you be willing to work with us and our methods. Let us know ahead of time if you have a special interest in a specific topic or skill!

We can pick you up from the ferry or airport in Vieques when you arrive, but please understand that we cannot always provide transportation. Many volunteers find it easy to walk or hitchhike around the island, and we are always happy to bring you along if we are going on errands, but vehicles are not the most reliable here. If you put in a few extra hours to help us maintain the vehicles, we will make sure you get where you want to go.

Activities & Shift

We offer community living in a dorm style room with 6 camp-style bunks and a full bathroom.

We are looking for volunteers who can commit to a month or longer. It is a working farm, so very labor-intensive, but rewarding. Each day, you would be expected to assist with watering plants, weeding, planting, harvesting, and daily or weekly housekeeping tasks. We often cook together, and clean-up is part of that process, of course. We expect that you are self-motivated, hard-working, and compassionate to others. We expect that you are willing to participate in communal living and become part of our group dynamic.

The crop farmhand position will include weeding existing beds, preparing compost tea, watering the nursery and row crops. Depending on your length of stay and interest, we also need help building new grow sections for passionfruit, which is more construction oriented. The morning shift will start between 6-7am during the cool morning, and tasks usually include watering the seedlings, filling the water tanks for the row crops, harvesting as necessary, and basic garden maintenance such as pruning or weeding. The afternoon shift will start between 1-2pm and will include seeding or transplanting in the nursery or the field, preparing compost for the plants and irrigating the row crops.

Note-this is our crop volunteer description. If you are interested in helping with the livestock or value-add production, check out our other listings!

Rules

Please be clear with expectations and boundaries. It is expected for a task when assigned to be completed. We want to make this experience positive for both you and our team, and we can accommodate most requests but need to know if something makes you uncomfortable.
Violent and hostile behaviors are not tolerated.