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  • Posted February 25th, 2018
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    Fancy volunteering for the summer at an off-grid, Ecological Land Coop smallholding?

    Fancy volunteering for the summer at an off-grid, Ecological Land Coop smallholding?

    Hi – we are James and Sukamala, tenants at Wild Geese Acres, Greenham Reach, which is an off-grid, low-impact farming project established in north Devon by the Ecological Land Coop  (ELC) – see website. http://ecologicalland.coop.

    If you put ‘Wild Geese Acres’ into a Google maps search you will get our exact location; or use this postcode – TA21 0JY. And here is a link to our website:

    https://wildgeeseacres.wordpress.com/

    Our salad leaf business is starting to resume for the new season as crops have been overwintering in the polytunnel.

    We now have 4 pigs (Oxford sandy and blacks) 10 breeding ewes (Shetlands) and 16 lambs from last year. The pigs and the lambs will be going for meat in Feb/March.

    We are looking for someone (friends and couples too) to help out on our smallholding for the 2018 season with our established salad and vegetable business and to help with livestock and practical building and maintenance jobs. Most work/exchange requests will be considered but generally we are looking for weeks or months at a time between March and October 2018. In exchange for 4 days work a week (individuals) or 3 days work (two people) we are offering accommodation in a large static caravan. Utilities are included – there is solar PV electricity and a brand new wind 1KW wind turbine and gas for cooking and a wood burner for heating. Water is collected from rainwater tanks and a borehole which is treated with carbon filters and a UV filter. There is a shared compost toilet on site and we have plumbed-in water and showers in the caravans.

    You would be responsible for your own needs around food but are welcome to take produce from the garden as needed which is plentiful in the growing season. There will be some local day volunteer work days when lunch is provided for everybody. The schedule of work could be flexible and negotiable depending on your/our needs/commitments but is likely to follow a regular working week pattern in order to tap into local markets and retail outlets.

    The kind of work that needs doing is:

    • Tending the market garden: sowing, weeding, picking, packing and selling salad and vegetables.
    • Helping to run a market stall
    • Working on farm infrastructure (irrigation, DIY, ancillary buildings etc.)
    • Tending livestock
    • Tree planting

    You will get the chance to learn about:

      • Innovative food growing techniques (e.g. no-dig agriculture)
      • sustainable land management (e.g. mob grazing)
      • Low-impact building
      • Off-grid energy production
      • Organic food marketing and sales

    We encourage learning and development in areas that you might be interested in – all ideas can be discussed and considered while you are here.

    So, if you are interested in living and working off-grid, low-impact on the land, rent- and bill-free for a while, in a beautiful part of Devon with good transport links to London and the South-West then get in touch for a chat at:

    [email protected]
    01823 673278
    07875729205

    Many thanks

    James and Sukamala

    Wild Geese Acres.


    The views expressed in our blog are those of the author and not necessarily lowimpact.org's


    1 Comment

    • 1Doctor Hilary Jones February 25th, 2018

      I’m really impressed!


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