Eco Farming Experience

We are a young family that, in the beginning of 2020, left the city life behind to start a green self-experiment in a countryside in Brazil. As we follow the Permaculture principles, our goal is to learn together, share our experience, produce food and enrich the biodiversity of the land.

This volunteer program is a real hands-on experience in agroforestry and organic farming. Also, it is a way to stay away from the hectic world, live in an international community and reconnect with nature.

As a volunteer within our volunteer program, you will stay in the newly renovated and very comfortable guest house. It has 3 bedrooms - two of them shared ones, each with two single beds and one single room, one bathroom, a well-equipped kitchen with a beautiful dining area, a cozy living room and an outside terrace. The guest house is about 20m away from our main family house.

On working days, we will offer vegetarian lunch, but you will need to take care of your own breakfast, dinner and meals on weekends. Also, cleaning your own room as well as to participate in tidying up of the common areas of the guesthouse will be one of your responsibilities. In your free time you can relax or do some hiking, explore some of the trails and beautiful waterfalls in the area or visit the city of Nova Friburgo. On the farm we now and then organize game nights, cinema sessions or campfire.

Location:

The MAARA eco farm covers 30 hectares and is situated in the beautiful mountains of the Atlantic Forest, close to the Três Picos National Park, in the mountainous region of Rio de Janeiro. The place is very quiet and peaceful. The center of Nova Friburgo is about a 25-minute drive from the site. Public transport to Nova Friburgo is just a 15-minute walk away from the farm and it takes about 30 minutes to get there.

Volunteers will work 3 days a week and a typical workday starts at 8:00 am and ends at 5:00 pm. The activities may vary, but it might go something like this:

8:00-12:30: Work at the farm, agroforestry or organic farming.

10:00-10:15: Coffee break

12:30-13:30: Lunch

13:30-5:00: Work at the farm, agroforestry or organic farming.

3:00-3:15: Coffee break

5:00: Free time

Activities:

Since we’ve arrived here in the beginning of 2020, we have implemented an agroforest, made a simple vegetable garden, built a green house and planted lots of trees. The main task was to rebuild two old farmhouses to suit our family, guests and volunteers.

Also, we opened an access road to further areas where we will make more agroforests, build a bio-constructed house and reforest parts of the land.

Volunteers will help at the upcoming projects, such as:

- Implement more agroforests with different objectives

- Build and plant a big fruit and vegetable garden

- Redo the sewage system into a natural and sustainable one

- Make grazing areas for animals on the farm

- Construct a proper composting system

- And many more!

The other two free days of the week and the weekend are yours to explore some closest cities like Nova Friburgo or Lumiar, or stay around the farm. Some activities you can do around here are:

Waterfalls and natural pools: on the property, within a short walking distance from the house, there is a clean stream with many natural pools to cool off in hot days and a spectacular waterfall of about 40 m height.

Hikes & bikes: this region is famous for many beautiful hiking trails with rewarding views over the mountain tops. Some of them like “Chapéu da bruxa” (Witch’s Hat), “Pirâmide” and “Babilônia” are within a short distance from MAARA. Also, some trails suit well for mountain biking if that’s your passion.

Lake: feed the tilapias and have fun with fishing and releasing them back into water.