Since September 2021 we have been hosting WWOOFer volunteers. WWOOF Portugal is part of a worldwide effort to link volunteers with organic farmers, promote an educational exchange, and build a global community conscious of ecological farming practices.
Volunteers, or ‘WWOOFers’, spend about 5 hours a day helping us out with a variety of projects on the land, they learn about organic agriculture and get to share in our daily life at Chumbaria. There are currently over 100 organic farms in Portugal who host WWOOFers and there are many more worldwide.
So far we have hosted 28 WWOOFers and had some help from family and friends along the way. We have been lucky enough to meet some lovely people from all around the world, including Mexico, Germany, Brazil, The United States, France, Norway, Sweden, Italy, Serbia, UK, Portugal and The Netherlands. Some volunteers have stayed for a week, some have stayed for months.
Our WWOOFers have helped us in so many different ways. Making raised beds, planting vegetables and trees, installing and maintaining a polytunnel, watering, weeding, pruning, harvesting produce, fence building, composting, strimming, woodwork, gate making, furniture making, cooking, experimenting with our clay, animal care, helping with our hempcrete insulation project, making a pergola, tree felling, making steps, clearing pathways,installing irrigation systems around the land and at one point herding our neighbour’s goats off our land on a regular basis. The list is endless! All of our WWOOFers have been enthusiastic, keen to learn and each one has brought something different and unique to Chumbaria.
Although at times it’s been busy and a bit chaotic, with the help of our WWOOFers we have achieved a huge amount of regeneration work on our land. We have enjoyed meeting each and every one of them and we will always be grateful for their hard work. We’ve shared some difficult and challenging experiences along the way, but we’ve had a lot of fun times and laughter too. We will continue to host volunteers and are currently booked up with WWOOFers until the end of 2022.
If you would like to learn more about WWOOFing in Portugal and read our reviews from WWOOFers, the link is below.
