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Volunteering:

We only need help for around 3 hours/day and 6 days/week according to goals, therefore we only provide accommodation (camping tent, mattress and blankets) and shared facilities (kitchen, dry toilet and hot 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.

Minimum age 18 years and minimum time of stay of 4 weeks.

Donations for facilities maintenance and gas to cook your food and keep the shower hot are gratefully acepted.

This year we will need help maintaining the herb garden, vegetable garden and food forest, building simple structures with roundwood and recicled 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 live, sharing experiences and much more ....

In north Portugal we have strong culture of family agriculture that is still practiced by beautiful old people and some young new amazing neighbors. 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!

We are at 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's tow villages close to us: Linhares da Beira (+/- 5km), an historical place with a military castle, a local association, a craft-shop, a cosy bar, a gourmet restaurant and two hotels ; Figueiró 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 Figueiró da Serra every day at 9am that goes to the closest town (Gouveia +/- 20km) and comes back at 5pm.

                         Feedbacks 

Marianne (2022): This place is amazing for its beauty, for the family that is really in connexion with nature and what it can bring, and for the neighbors that are welcoming and in the spirit of share. I had a lot of time to enjoy and discover the area around, the abandonned shepherd houses and the moutains in the afternoons and weekend. There is some things that can't be explained by words, but the lakes and the river were, for me and the others workawayers that I was with, peaceful sanctuaries. I won't say to much to let everyone connect in its own way. I spent most of my time apart from the family, in the nice kitchen and shared space dedicated to the workawayers. The experience in the permaculture garden and the water irrigation by gravity were a special interest for me. Thank you Gonçalo, Rita, Dana, Arsu and Aziz for this time (and of course the dogs who are the best companion for any hikes with you). I will keep these memories in my heart for a long time. Wich you the best!

Martin (2021): I'm very satisfied from my time there. It's a perfect place to reconnect with nature. Lot of plants, colorful flowers, butterflies, and variety of animals. I loved my waking with the beautiful sounds of the birds. The valley and the Serra de Estrella mountains are wild and amazing. I learn a lot in Permaculture with help of informative Goncalo. He and Rita are very friendly and open person's. I wish you all good, and hopefully we will meet again soon.
Thanks.M

Maria & Pawel (2020): Gonçalo & Rita have a self sustainable approach on their wonderful property. They have a lot of wisdom, are very welcoming and you can ask them anything. Their daugther Dana challenges you on enjoying life and drop off your concerns to just enjoy the pure moment.
Work includes gardenwork in their huge veggigarden, prozzessing food and help them with the renovation of a stone house. Unfurtunatly their volunteershelter has burned down before we arrived, they provide camping tents but it can get very cold in the nigth. They have a small and cozy volunteer kitchen with everything you wish for. It has a stove and oven an outdoor fireplace and some solarligths inside. With our fellow workawayers Manuel and Ricardo we had very nice company. They make extraordenary kimchi and Lunch is also always very nice. Thank everyone for this nice  stay, we wish you all the best. Best regards maria & pawel

Paulina (2019): It really was a pleasure to stay with Goncalo, Rita & Dana! They are warmly and open minded people, always up to having good and meaningful conversation, giving advice and answering all your questions. They shared their time, work and daily life with me, so i recieved a lot of knowledge about permaculture, plants, bulidings, animals, the landscape,... at least i learned a lot about myself.
I stayed for nearly 4 weeks in their beautiful valley and had the chance to meet impressive people and livestyles.. also it was the perfect space to calm and reconnect with nature and myself. Rita & Goncalo are living a simple and peaceful life, following their values and trying to include everything that sourrounds them. In the first days we needed a bit to get closer to each other, due to i was the first volunteer this year and i needed some time to arrive.. but in the end i didnt wanted to leave – i really would recomment to take some time for your stay, it’s definitly worth it!
Again, thank you for everything and looking forward to seeing you again! HUGS

Bonnie & Lee (2018): I absolutely loved my time at this workaway, helping out on Gonçalo and Rita's organic farm, getting to know them, their adorable little girl Dana and of course Roma, their dog who I fell in love with, and all the other animals. Their good friend André was a great link between the volunteers and the hosts and was great company too. Gonçalo and Rita are very open, kind and humble people. Gonçalo is very knowledgeable about permaculture and organic farming so you can learn a lot from him if you ask questions. The work was enjoyable, and not too strenuous, only 3 hours a day during the peak summer months, we chopped wood, did weeding, planting, harvesting, made kimchi and sauerkraut, moved electric fences, we even helped out on a neighbours land which was a pleasure getting to meet her... an 80 year old widow continuing to live independently, farming and making wine! The work was always very varied which was great.
Lots of free time to enjoy the stunning area, lazing by the river in the hammock, hiking across mountains, swimming in the nearby lake. We went to a weekly yoga class which was great. I loved spending time with our hosts, their friends and the other volunteers. It was quieter and less social than the other workaways I had been on, but it was perfect for me at that time, as it was a good mix of time to myself and time with others. I learned a lot about permaculture, as well as about myself and life in general, and enjoyed feeling so in tune with nature. It was really difficult to leave! I was very tempted to stay on longer but I had prior arrangements. Thank you so much Rita and Gonçalo. I'll never forget your little pocket of paradise and hope to return in the not too distant future. Much love :)

Laurine (2017): I planned to stay 2 weeks with Rita and Gonçalo for my first volunteering experience and I stayed almost 3 weeks, and I didn't really want to leave! Their main goal is to grow people and I truly think they succeed (at least with me). I've learnt a lot about many subjects (permaculture, natural health, construction, cooking and above all about life). During my stay I helped waterproofing the shelter's roof, cutting wood for the fire, removing the fences, planting the food forest, planting trees in a neighbour's land, preparing Kimchis, seeding. They opened their door to me so kindly and never forced me to work hardly (when the weather was bad), and invited me to share great moments with their friends (I went to a mantra singing afternoon and to a yoga lesson). I really recommand you to meet and help them, and at least for 2 weeks if possible, if you really want to share with them! Thank you for every thing and I wish I will come back to visit you ;-)

Agnieska & Kamil (2016):We spent 3 weeks in Rita and Gonçalo's place. Their land is beautiful - quiet valley, with river, outside of civilization and not isolated in the same time. They are part of a great neighbourhood of alternativly thinking, mainly foreign people. Few times we took part in gatherings and parties.

We slept in a caravan, there was always enough of good food. The work we've been mainly doing was quite hard - cleaning land from brambles, ferns and brooms. But in meanwhile we also made some other stuff like shelters for animals, wood curving station, straw basketry, collecting herbs and rye, watering the garden etc. Rita and Gonçalo are great, sharing, openminded people with huge knowledge about permaculture, so even thought we haven't done much gardening we could learn a lot just by talking with them.

Thank you and good luck guys!

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