Volunteering/Internships at Permaculture Eden.
Volunteer ”a person who freely offers to take part in an enterprise or undertake a task:” Oxford english dictionary, this definition is offerd to make clear what you are enroling for, this should mean you will not require constant supervision or motivation form outside yourself, because you are offering your service here freely. My need to make this clear comes from the constant streem of skivers, layabouts and holiday makers looking for a cheep way to travel around europ, this is not what we are offering here.
Working at Permaculture Eden offers you the opportunity to live and learn a simpler way of life and the skills and knowledge embodied in its caretakers Fiona and Steve. We invite people to come for a minimum of one week, two is preferred with or without prior skills, but with an eagerness to work and learn.
Your first week will be little more than an induction in to the working of the farm systems and our life, the second and subsequent weeks will be the ones in which you have an opportunity to repay our time hospitality and resources. I wish to dispel a myth some people express that volunteers/interns are giving something to us, we have seldom received more than we have given and have often received less.
Work projects are seasonal and may include: feeding animals, milking cows, harvesting, making compost, collecting and stacking hay, gardening, weeding, fencing, hedge laying, food preservation, cheese making, butchery and sausage making, collecting & stacking firewood, cooking and cleaning up after meals etc.
If you are interested in volunteering and wish to stay at Permaculture Eden please apply well before you wish to arrive, as accommodation is limited. We limit the number of volunteers to four in the summer and two in the winter, this diminishes the negative effect of too many people compacting and eroding the soil on site.
During warmer months volunteers/Interns camp or stay in our bunk house. during colder month’s they stay in the house with us.
Volunteers/Interns are required to work with us as part of a team. Our team work an unlimited number of hours and days per week depending on the demands of our site and all of its elements (animals, plants and systems) if you just want a cheap holiday don’t apply. In any case, be dressed to get tired and dirty. Volunteers will need to have with them a solid pair of work boots or wellingtons, and a pair of good work gloves and plenty of clothing appropriate to the season in which they are here, arriving ill equipped for the weather does not disqualify volunteers from working outside.
“Just a quick note to anyone that happens to stumble across this page: I met Fiona and Steve via WWOOF spent a few weeks with them, and had an amazing time. Waking up with the sun (most of the time), feeding pigs, rabbits, chickens, trying to
milk the cow but conceding the job to Steve, seeing how cheese is made, enjoying both Steve and Fiona’s fantastic cuisine, chasing pigs, seeing rural France, and watching action movies on the computer at night… what a life. Le bois is a truly amazing place, run by even more amazing people who deserve all the help that they can get. If you want any more information from a previous volunteer’s point of view, send me an email (mgberlin@gmail.com) and I’ll let you know all about it.”
Steve & Fiona Hanson
Le Bois De Grammont, 36140 Lourdoueix Saint Michel, Indre, France
Tel 0254 064523 Interntional 0033 254 064523
Email steve@permacultureeden.com
Email fiona@permacultureeden.com
