When?
From 15 May until 30 June 2019
We are looking for
One person, or two if they are happy to share a room, to help us at planting time, with planning and extending the grow area, and other farm work, all based on permaculture/restoration farming principles.
Who are we?
We are a trio of two Dutch (permanent inhabitants) and one German (present few months of the year).
Writing to you is one of the Dutchies (Arthur), who is most actively planning, designing and working the farm. I’ve studied biology (Msc., specialised in Ecology and Environmental Biology), and since graduating in 2002, I independently studied permaculture, restoration farming, general sustainability, bushcraft, woodwork, and so on.
Second Dutchie is my mother Carla, who is very actively involved as well in the whole process.
The German is our good friend Annika, who works along with us when she is here.
What will you do?
This is the start of the short growing season at the 60th parallel. As soon as the snow is gone and the ground thaws, it is the intensive time of very quickly preparing existing vegetable beds, building new ones, including hugelbeds, and of planting out seedlings and seeds.
Other than that, we can use help with, for example:
- Managing our flock of ducks and chickens, and, if we can afford them this spring, we will be getting wee piglets established on the meadow;
- Planting, taking care of, and harvesting our microgreens;
- Assisting the occasional customer in our tiny farm shop;
- Making compost in about three to four weeks;
- Cooking (we are NOT vegetarians/vegans);
- Do you happen to be an experienced digger operator? We need swales and ponds to be dug;
- And many other things.
Those with experience in certain fields will quite possibly be able to work on some mutually relevant projects of their own design on our farm.
The place
Två Ekar Gård (Two Oaks Farm) is located on the shore of the lake Rådasjön. It is a fairly remote area. The nearest town with supermarkets, a cafe, etc., is Hagfors, at 20km away. The nearest bus stop is 5km from the farm. Having a car here would be handy, but otherwise, we can drive you to these places occasionally.
We have 4 hectares of meadow, and two hectares of woodland. On the meadow, we have already established a few swales and one pond, and there are more to come. A vegetable growing area and a medium polytunnel also live on the meadow. There is a smaller vegetable growing area in the garden of the main house. Chickens and ducks are supposed to go onto the meadow in the warmer parts of the year in a manner resembling holistic grazing management. If all goes as planned, we will also get a few wee piglets established in the meadow. We have made a modest start developing our farm, but there is an awful lot still to be done in years to come.
What’s in it for you?
We wish that we could pay you for your work, but unfortunately, we can’t yet. So instead, for a minimum of five hours of work every working day (working more hours would be much appreciated, but only if you want to), you will get one of our two B&B rooms in our main house, and food.
No matter what your experience level is (and it’s not impossible that you will have more experience than we do), your time here should also help you learn more about our kind of farming. We certainly don’t claim that we are already fully sustainable and benevolent and so on, but it is our goal to grow food in such a way that the local and global living community only gets better as a result.
The B&B room has a decent amount of comfort and free wifi. We expect you to maintain it as a tidy bedroom (the pigsty we can hopefully make on the meadow!). The room is next to the other B&B room, and you’re in the main house with us, so there will be the need to plan things so that you, we, and our guests won’t be in each other’s way. We will sometimes have meals together, and sometimes separately. You can use the kitchen when it’s not in use by us.
Are you interested?
CONTACT DETAILS 🔍📧
write to:
artsevestre DOT hotmail.com
FB PAGE https://www.facebook.com/TvaEkarGard/
In your e-mail, please tell me a bit about yourself, about previous experiences, and about why you are interested in this opportunity specifically. That last part is probably the most important bit. We need to know that you really want to do this with us, and why. Eventually, we can arrange a conversation via phone or similar, and work things out further.
Hoping to hear from you,
Carla, Annika, & Arthur
This volunteer request was left on our volunteer FB group the 2 March 2019 and it might now be outdated. Please check the host FB page to see if this offer is still available.
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