Join a small eco-farm in north central Portugal
Rita is a health-food enthusiast and loves to work with different kinds of art-craft. She likes to explore Medicinal plants, Fermented food, ways of preserving food and appreciates doing basketry, wool-work and book-binding. Also likes to produce cleaning and hygiene products like natural detergents, soaps and salves. Walking in nature, singing with friends and doing yoga are some of the other things she enjoys.
Gonรงalo is a nature lover with a passion for Permaculture and Natural Farming. Studied Organic Agronomy and has been practising it since 2008, with the help of volunteers, interns and apprentices. He enjoys sharing and making music with friends.
Unfortunately in 2017, a massive fire went over this beautiful valley but in the same year, we were blessed with our first home-birth daughter Dana. Luckily, in 2020 Rui, Rita’s brother decided to join us to broaden his farming knowledge and improve his carpentry skills. In 2021 we were double blessed with the home birth of our twin sons, Aziz and Arsu. With us lives also 2 female dogs and 1 female cat besides many wild animals.
What type of host are you? ๐ก
- Private/Individual/family
What are you looking for help with?
- Animal keeping ๐๐ด
- Babysitting ๐ฉโ๐ผ
- Building ๐
- Cleaning ๐งน
- Farming/Gardening ๐ฟ๐
What’s the mission of your community? ๐ฏ
Until now, with the help of lots of amazing people, we build two yurts, a greenhouse dome (toilet and nursery), recovered a ruin for a kitchen and build a root cellar with earthbags and a workshop with a green roof. For the volunteers, we build a small kitchen, toilet and shower. Also done a stable for the farm animals with Roundwood. Made a vegetable garden with Huegel beds a small food forest and planted many trees and bushes. We have the help of horses, goats, sheep and chickens to regenerate the pasture where we plant trees and shrubs in order to convert it to a poly-crop system. Some small earthworks like dams and swales have also been made in other to extend the already existing ancient irritating system.
We want to share our daily life with people that, like us, search for a balanced lifestyle open to change and cooperation.
So we hope you are willing to practice these principles:
- โWork with Nature not against it;
- Value edges, marginal and small;
- See solutions inherent in problems;
- Produce no waste;
- Value people, their skills and work;
- Respect for all life;
- Use public transport and renewable energies;
- Calculate food miles;
- Reduce your eco-footprint.
How many volunteers could you host? ๐
- More than two
When would you need volunteers?
April to December ๐
How many hours of help per day? โฑ
(other see description below)
Note about the volunteer work and other expectations ๐
We only need help for around 3 hours/day and 5 days/week according to goals, therefore we only provide accommodation (camping tent, mattress and blankets) and shared facilities (kitchen, dry toilet and solar shower) so, you buy your own food (we sell fresh, fermented and dried vegetables and herbs and eggs). There’s also a natural pool in the stream and according to the season, mushrooms, edible and aromatic plants, berries, acorns and chestnuts.
โMinimum age 18 years and minimum time of stay of 2 weeks.
โDonations for facilities maintenance and gas to cook your food and keep the shower hot are gratefully accepted.
โThis year we will need help maintaining the vegetable garden, implementing and maintaining food forests, building simple structures with Roundwood and recycled materials, harvesting herbs, vegetables, fruits and processing them, farming maintenance (cutting and caring fire-wood, moving electric fences and farm animal summer shades, cleaning the stable), enjoying life, sharing experiences and much more…
Are accommodation and food included? ๐ ๐
We can offer only accommodation (no food)
What type of accommodation can you provide? ๐
- Tent ๐ช
Fees transparency ๐๐
No fees. Donations for infrastructure maintenance and gas provided for cooking and keeping the shower hot are gratefully accepted. Please bring with you your own biodegradable hygiene products and/or you can buy our soaps.
VISA – could you provide Visa support/info/invitation letters? ๐
No! we cannot help with Visa/invitation letters – similar requests will be ignored. โ
Volunteers’ benefits ๐๐
In north Portugal, we have a strong culture of family agriculture that is still practised by beautiful old people and some young new amazing neighbours. You will meet some of those and can get to visit them to chill out or help on farming maintenance in exchange for services, products or money and learn some knowledge or skills with joy!
What to do in your free time ๐ด๐ฃ๐ฆ
We are in north-central Portugal, in a mountain with two glacial valleys, a lot of water on lakes, rivers and streams, that you can follow to find abandoned farming and shepherd houses surrounded by wilderness. There are two villages close to us: Linhares da Beira (+/- 5km), a historical place with a military castle, a local association, a craft shop, a cosy bar, a gourmet restaurant and two hotels; Figueirรณ da Serra (+/- 2km), with more vivacity has tow local associations, a grocery-shop, tow bars and a hotel with restaurant. We have a car that we use often to bring needs from outside but there’s also a bus passing in Figueirรณ da Serra every day at 9 am that goes to the closest town (Gouveia +/- 20km) and comes back at 5 pm.
Language ๐ฃ
English or Portuguese
How to get to your site โ ๐บ
Bus.
Is there internet access? ๐
Yes, but not very strong.
CONTACT DETAILS ๐๐ง
Quinta Regadinha website: https://quintaregadinha.wixsite.com/naturalfarm
Hostname ๐ Qta Regadinha
Host Email โ – goncalo.ncmt@gmail.com
See more volunteering opportunities in Portugal ๐ต๐น
