Learn and stay on an organic farm with professionals willing to share their knowledge, through a course, a small workshop or a simple learning experience in a hands-on situation. These opportunities will give you a greater understanding regarding either/or Slow food, Wild food, Permaculture, Shepherding, Green building, Handicrafts & music.
Learning experiences listed in the directory below are located in Bulgaria, Finland and France. More to come soon!
Bulgaria
Gokotel - Ethnic musique
Galina Durmushliyska, professional singer since 30 years, lives in the village of Kotel located in the Stara Planina mountains. She runs music workshops consisting in studying and singing traditional songs and chore music from various part of the country: from shepherd songs to the nostalgic glissandi from the Rhodopi or the dissonants from the Šopluk. Read more...
Germany
Monique Wijn and René van Veelen started their adventure in august 2008 in a small village called Weenermoor, 10 km from the Dutch border. Monique is biologist & biodynamic gardener. They organised workshops for groups and individuals in order to help everyone recognising edible wild plants in the nature, to learn how to grow them and how to pick/gather and cook them. Read more
Finland
Katajamäki - Wild food
About 10 persons are living at Katajamäki, a small eco-community, centrally located in southern Finland. Especially interesting are the current experiments of Ossi planting edible plants and herbs in the surrounding forest, gathering and preserving them with Lacto Fermentation and Low Temperature Cooking. Read more...
France, Corsica
Domaine u Stiliccionu – Slow Food
Sébastien Poly, owner of the “Domaine u Stiliccionu” in South Corsica, is producing biological wine since 2005 -white, red and rosé. Visitors are welcome helping tying up the vines and budding out for springtime, collecting grapes in September and participating in the wine production. One can also learn to make grappa! Read more...
France, South-East (Lozère)
Les Jardins de Veyrassi - Gardening
This farmhouse, dating back to 1750, is located in the heart of the Cévennes National Park. “Veyrassi” is a vegetable farm with fruit orchards and a herb garden. Owners encourage visitors to share their daily work, and are available to introduce visitors to the methods of organic agriculture. Read more...
France, South-East (Lozère)
Le Mas La Devèze - Slow food and shepherding
This 30-hectare organic farm is located in the heart of the Cévennes National Park. Visitors are welcome to help on the farm: harvesting shiitake mushrooms from the oak logs on which they grow, a bit of shepherding, picking the various red fruits that they grow – depending on the season. French, Dutch and English spoken. Read more...
France, South-East (Gard)
Le Mas Rivière - Slow food and shepherding
Tourists visiting this ecological farm will be rewarded with a fantastic panoramic view over the Cèze valley and Mount Lozère. The farm hosts 60 goats, 30 sheep, 100 chickens, 10 Gascon pigs, some cats, 16ha of chestnut trees, an orchard and garden. One will particularly invited to participate to the goat milking and cheese making process. Read more...
France, South-East (Rhône-Alpes)
Terre Vivante - Gardening and Green building
Terre Vivante is a 50ha ecological research and education centre located in Mens in Rhône-Alpes. This centre hosts regularly courses on regenerative gardening and farming, renewable energy, and ecological building techniques.
Gîte Les Ombelles - Slow Food
This renovated farm with an organic garden welcomes visitors of Terre Vivante. Read more...
France, South-West (Poitou-Charentes)
La Maison en Paille - Green building
The Association “La Maison en Paille” created by André and Coralie de Bouter in the Charente region offers several workshops from Spring to Autumn each year. One can learn about the different strawbale construction techniques as well as earth plastering techniques. Workshops are sometimes organised abroad. Read more...
France, South-West (Poitou-Charentes)
Institut EcoBio du Bocage - Permaculture and seed exchange
The Libeau mill located in the vicinity of the Etrie Castle of Chanteloup, hosts a health centre and permaculture seed saver farm owned by the EcoBio Institute. One can discover the functioning and philosophy of this health farm inspired by Masanobu Fukuoka's Natural Farming method. Read more...
France, South-West (Aquitaine)
Ferme conservatoire de Leyssart - Saving traditional breeds
Created in 1987, the “Ferme conservatoire de Leyssart” is dedicated to the rearing and study of rare breeds often threatened with extinction. The owners are happy to share with visitors willing to learn behaviors, needs and original characteristics of every type of animals they host. Read more...
France, South-West (Dordogne)
Ferme du Pouzat - Eco-gardening
Jacky Dupety is a biological farmer on the Causses of Quercy that discovered the Ramial Chipped Wood method (RCW) in 2004. Since then he is himself using this method to fertilise his land and organises regularly training sessions to share tips on the implementation of this innovative method. Read more...
France, South-West (Midi-Pyrénées)
Les Gîtes du Paquetayre - Herbal medicine
Le Paquetayre is a 20ha organic mountain farm located at 870m at the end of a small road and surrounded by woods and meadows. The Thouzery family organises medicinal plants workshops every summer: from the selection of the plants (cultivated and gathered in the wild) to their transformation. Read more...
France, North-East (Lorraine)
ECOlonie - Gardening, Stock breeding, Eco-building
ECOlonie is an Eco-village situated in the Vosges Department in the most southern part of Lorraine. This community dates back as far as 1989 and consists now of 3 sites spread out over 40 hectares/100 acres in total.
Some 20 permanent residents live and work there and 150 volunteers in average arrive each year from all over the world to help. Read more...
Scandinavia
Nature art education - Wild painting
Jan van Boeckel is an art teacher. He has lived for several years in Hällefors, in the forests of central Sweden, where he was an art teacher to both children and adults, and consultant on international cultural projects. He organises now regularly 'wild painting' workshops in Scandinavia. Read more...