Quinta das Abelhas

Quinta das Abelhas (Honeybee Farm) is a 2 hectare organic smallholding situated in the ‘green heart’ of the Beiras region of central Portugal. Nestling in a terraced valley, we enjoy incredible views of the Serra do Açor and Serra da Estrela mountain ranges.

We moved here in May 2003 having only ever grown small amounts of veg in our back gardens, so this is a big adventure for us. It’s proving to be a lot of learning, a lot of hard work, and (most of the time) a lot of fun!

In addition to trying to be as self-sufficient as possible, we are members of the Pure Portugal co-operative advertising property and holidays in Central Portugal, and we offer camping on our smallholding, either in tents or our Mongolian yurt.

WWOOF OPPORTUNITIES:

We are WWOOF Independents hosts (no: POR054).

We have many different jobs we would welcome help with. Of course the work varies with the seasons and some times are busier than others. We ourselves are learning with each new experience, and enjoy sharing knowledge.

Though we can’t offer 5-star accommodation, we can offer a fantastic, peaceful location with wonderful views, good food (special diets catered for), and plenty of free time.

Children are welcome and, if they don’t want - or are to young - to join in with the work, can have meals for 3 euros each (under 5’s free). See wwoofing with children.

We can accommodate a live-in vehicle/campervan at the top of our land on a reasonably flat parking space.

Dogs are welcome but must be good with our two male dogs, poultry, cats, rabbits, and horses, and must not be allowed to wreak havoc in the gardens!

Work:

We ask that you work 6 hours per day, 6 days per week, in return for camping accommodation and 3 meals per day, 7 days per week. We prefer volunteers to stay for between two and six weeks, though we are flexible and longer stays are possible by arrangement after an initial ‘trial’ period.

You may choose to work your 6 hours whenever you like, unless we have a large project which needs ‘all hands’. In the summer you will probably not want to work in the afternoons (the hottest part of the day), preferring to work for a few hours in the early morning and a few hours in the late afternoon/early evening.

Work varies with the seasons but will usually include digging, weeding, planting and watering in the gardens; helping with the animals (if you have experience with horses some riding is usually possible); building work; general maintenance & keeping the smallholding tidy, and household chores.

We have a number of little projects in the pipeline which we undertake as time & finances allow and if you have a creative streak we welcome your ideas for ‘funkying up’ the place - one of our volunteers, Mary, did some lovely mosaic work around some of the windows and doors on the house. Depending on the time of year, there is also harvesting and preserving of produce, making wine and olive oil, hay-making, etc.

As we are often busy with computer work for our business please be prepared to sometimes be working alone, if we have no other volunteers here. If you would like to come with friends, we can accommodate up to 4 volunteers.

Accommodation and Food:

You may bring your own tent, borrow one of ours, use our yurt (when available) or we can help you make a bender.

Breakfast and lunch are ‘help yourself’ from the kitchen and gardens, and Andy cooks the evening meal for everyone. Special diets are no problem but please let us know in advance. We normally eat our evening meal at about 7-8pm in winter, and at about 9pm in summer.

Our website: www.portugalsmallholding.org

Contact us: sophie@pureportugal.co.uk