Permaculture & 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 regenerative 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.We also offer an accommodation for a couple or single traveler in a separate room with private bathroom and a kitchen.

On working days we lunch all together and there are supplies to make 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 guest house will be one of your responsibilities. In your free time you can relax or do some hiking, explore some trails and waterfalls or visit the city of Nova Friburgo. On the farm we regularly 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 Rain Forest (a bioma much under pressure, only 7% of the original forest still exists), 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 7:30 am and ends at 5:30 pm. The activities may vary, but it might go something like this:

7:30-12:00: Work on the farm, agroforestry or organic farming, bioconstruction or maintenance works

10:00-10:15: Coffee break

12:00-14:00: Lunch and time to rest

14:00-17:30: Work on the farm, agroforestry or organic farming, bioconstruction or maintenance works

15:30-15:45: Coffee break

17:30: Free time

Activities:

Since we’ve arrived here in the beginning of 2020, we have implemented an agroforest, made a raised vegetable garden, built a greenhouse and planted lots of trees, transformed a conventional pool into a natural swimming pond, refurbished our sewage system into a sustainable one, and many more.  We further rebuilt two old farmhouses to suit our family, guests and volunteers to have a comfortable stay at our farm.

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, one being implementing organic coffee culture

- Build and plant a big fruit and vegetable garden

- Redo the sewage system into a natural and sustainable one

- Make grazing areas for and take care of the animals on the farm

- Construct and maintain different kind of composting systems

- Bio-Construct a house on the mountain based on permaculture principles

- 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.

It is also easy to take the bus and spend a long weekend in the city of Rio de Janeiro (3 hours by bus).