Join our family living on an organic farm in Byrne Valley, South Africa

Availability

  2024 

 Min stay requested: at least a week

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Details

  • Description

    Description

    We are a family living on a twenty hectare Organic Farm.
    Our aim is to be as self-sufficient as possible and farm in a morally responsible manner, placing value on our environment above profit. Our kids were home-birthed, home-schooled, and home-fed in our home-built house and although they are now grown up, still have a keen interest in the farm.
    We have no aspirations to compete with commercial agriculture, but would rather sit back and enjoy some delicious homegrown and homemade food cooked with fuel from our farm.
    Although we do eat meat produced on our farm, we support vegetarians and can easily cater for them.
    We have a small herd of cattle that helps feed us and brings in some income.
    Our herd of goats is for land-clearing and milk and cheese, while their manure feeds the bio-digester for gas in the kitchen.
    Our horse, mule and donkey are for grazing rotation and parasite control while the Great Danes, besides being pets, are for breeding.
    We also have a few hives of bees for honey and a generally overgrown, out of control vegetable garden that always needs weeding. Our garden is managed using our adaption of permaculture methods which we have adapted over the last 25 years.
    We are lucky enough to live in an area with abundant fruit, so a big job in summer is to process and preserve fruit for the rest of the year.
    Having experimented with self-sufficiency on the farm since 1995, we have managed to grow and produce many of life's essentials (and luxuries), but still battle to produce all of them all the time.
    On Friday evenings, we have a Pizza Evening for our neighbours, where we serve food that is at least, locally sourced, if it isn't from our own farm. This gives us a fun way of using up surplus products that we and our friends have grown or made.
    Our eco project is in response to the very visible increase in air-pollution in our once pristine valley, and the shocking evidence of climate change.We have started our own atmospheric carbon harvesting programme in the form of a sustainable reforestation project. We have planted the first 300 or so indigenous trees and hope to establish a new patch of mistbelt forest.
    Our latest project is building a community shop and little Pizza outlet.
    We greatly appreciate the way that volunteers help us to finish our projects and give us inspiration to start new ones as well as refreshing our enthusiasm for our goals.
    The activities on the farm are highly seasonal, but we always have a backlog of unfinished work that needs a happy and enthusiastic volunteer to complete.

  • Types of help and learning opportunities

    Types of help and learning opportunities

    Help with Eco Projects
    Gardening
    DIY and building projects
    Animal Care
    Farmstay help
    Creating/ Cooking family meals
    Help around the house
    General Maintenance
  • UN sustainability goals this host is trying to achieve

    UN sustainability goals this host is trying to achieve

    UN goals
    No poverty
    Zero hunger
    Good health and well-being
    Quality education
    Gender equality
    Clean water and sanitation
    Affordable and clean energy
    Decent work and economic growth
    Industries, innovation and infrastructure
    Reduce inequality
    Sustainable cities and communities
    Responsible consumption and production
    Climate action
    Life below water
    Life on land
    Peace, justice and strong institutions
    Partnerships for the goals
  • Cultural exchange and learning opportunities

    Cultural exchange and learning opportunities

    Travellers will have an opportunity to try their hands at various aspects of a self sufficient orientated lifestyle in an African environment.
    We can facilitate an overnight stay in Indaleni Township with a Zulu family.
    By prior arrangement, we can also arrange a day trip to the nearby Tala Private Game Reserve.

  • Help

    Help

    Our workday is very flexible, starting at eight, tea time around 10:30 and ending at lunch time. Volunteers can also be asked to help with evening chores or supper preparations.
    As a result of the diversity of our farm there is a large range of things to do at all times. As a working farm, the time of year will determine your activities. Examples include:
    Milking/herding/slaughtering animals
    Making hay
    Forest regeneration
    Working in the garden
    Fire wood collecting/ wood chopping
    Weeding/clearing of fields
    Puppy feeding
    Cheese and butter making
    Its very difficult to accomodate volunteers who want to experience some specific activity or aspect of our farm as our focus is quite fluid and we could well not be needing help in the specific area wished for.

  • Languages spoken

    English: Fluent
    Dutch: Fluent

  • Accommodation

    Accommodation

    Volunteers will sleep in a building separate from our house with beds and bedding provided. The accomodation is very rustic but adequate.
    Nearby is the volunteer's kitchen, showers and toilets. Water is heated in a donkey boiler, so if you want a hot shower, make sure you can light a fire!
    We provide oats and maizemeal, milk, tea, coffee and sugar for volunteers in their kitchen for breakfast. At tea time and for lunch, there is homemade bread and a variety of toppings available in our house and we share a communal dinner.

  • What else ...

    What else ...

    In your free time there are beautiful walks and hikes in Mist Belt forest, plantations and grassland.
    There are mini-bus taxis to the nearest town, Richmond, on a regular basis from just outside our gate.
    Next door to our farm is the Oaks Hotel which has all the facilities of a country hotel.

  • A little more information

    A little more information

    • Internet access

    • Limited internet access

      Limited internet access

    • We have pets

    • We are smokers

    • Can host families

  • Space for parking camper vans

    Space for parking camper vans

    This host can provide space for campervans.

  • Can possibly accept pets

    Can possibly accept pets

    This host has said they are willing to accept those travelling with a pet.

  • How many Workawayers can stay?

    How many Workawayers can stay?

    More than two

Host ref number: 435862385325

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