My partner (Roy, 42) and I (Sanne , 42) have 3 hectares (7,5 acres). Here we grow crops for ourselves, family and friends and for our 2 lovely pigs. Also, we provide a habitat for wildlife; for us it is very important to share with all things living :)
We have a small community at our farm. Isa (26) & Robert (34) and Quenne (28) & Roelof (30) have caravans in the garden.
And our collegue Daphne (31) often stays with us during the week for a night or 2. (She lives too far from work for daily commute.)
We all share the living room, kitchen and bathroom and have dinner together.
Besides our 2 pigs, we have 2 dogs, 3 cats, 4 rabbits and 15 chickens.
And in our garden and fields live many insects, birds (eg. owls and storks) and of course several hares, occasionally a fox and hopefully in the near future also roe deer :)
We usually start the day by taking care of all the animals.
The remainder of the day we are mainly busy in the fields; weeding, harvesting, pruning, watering the crops, etc.
We also have a greenhouse (3,5 x 9 m) where we grow seedlings and some vegetables and flowers. (But not this year!)
Some years I also have a small nursery, where I grow trees, shrubs and flowers - which I plant along our fields and along roads in the surrounding area, or sell to people passing by the farm.
Weekly extra work includes cleaning pens, mowing the grass footpaths (maintaining a public footpath), etc.
This summer we will mainly work on some building & renovation projects.
For wwoofers we have a caravan in the garden, a guest room in the house (for short stay) and in the summer several tents in the meadow.
We share the livingroom, bathroom and kitchen. (A warm shower is possible, but only short, because hot water is limited!)
Our meals are mainly vegan. Some of us are partly vegetarian and will eat eggs or even game (e.g. venison, from the deers in the forest areas where we work).
We are very flexible when it comes to food, but "normal" meat is never part of the menu! And the same goes for dairy products.
Maintaining the farm is our hobby. But our work is in forestry & nature conservation; planting trees (and also cutting them down), pruning, mowing grasslands, controlling invasive exotic vegetation, building fences and bridges, etc.
And we are also active in maintaining landscape elements like pollarded willows and braided hedges.
We are all independant contractors.
We live near the Veluwe, the largest forest area of the Netherlands, and the IJssel, a beautiful river. So lots of options for hiking and cycling!
And there are many other activities possible, depending on your interests, like waterskiing, visiting castles, museums, markets, cities, etc.
When you stay at our farm, we ask you to work an average of 4 hours a day.
A morning could look like this:
8:00 feeding the animals
8:30 weeding
9:30 coffee break
10:00 harvesting vegetables
11:00 some other project, like building an enclosure, painting, fixing machines, pruning fruittrees, haying, etc.
12:30 lunch
We are very flexible with the work hours and tasks. Just let us know what you enjoy doing and what you'ld like to learn more about. We often work together a few days a week (8 hours a day) and then you have some days for yourself.
Only non-smokers or occasional smokers.
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Learning opportunities
Vegetable farming
Fruit or nut farming
Grain farming
Pig farming
Raising of other farm animals
Forestry
Flower farming
Seed saving or production
Vegetable or fruit preservation
Mechanics / tools / technology
Methods or systems
Biological pest control
Regenerative agriculture
