We are a romanian-german couple living and working on two remote small farmsteads within Transylvania.
Raluca, who is a restaurator for cultural heritage and a traditional medicine practitioner, and Gabriel who is a geographer and grower of medicinal and aromatic plants.
One of the farmsteads is a courtyard with an old mill, placed in a mountainous area in the SouthEast of Transylvania, about 1.5h north of Brasov. Here we produce in small scale natural cosmetics and maintain a tiny Botanical Garden for Medicinal Plants, an orchard and a hay meadow. Furthermore we host/make seminars and workshops with a focus on medicinal plants, on botanical and ecological issues, and on the cultural landscapes around. For the time being, we will have less (just occasionally) the need for help here.
In contrast, volunteers are frequently welcomed (mainly from May to September) on the other farmstead in Mures county, a small traditional courtyard in the hilly centre of the Transylvanian Basin (0.5h North of Targu Mures, 2h East of Cluj).
Here we do grow most of our medicinal and aromatic plants on a terraced slope, as well as an orchard and another hay meadow: strictly organic, partly inspired by principles derived from Permaculture and Regenerative Agriculture; with a focus on soil amelioration and the integration of our 'exotic' land use into the cultural landscape with it's still existing (but declining) abundance of biodiversity. -> gardening-, pedological-, botanical-, as well as faunistical experiences and research interests are very welcomed! Narrow-minded, radical identitarian and/or missionary spiritual life-concepts less.
Weeding, harvesting and processing the plants (for drying, destilling), as well as making and mulching hay, and again weeding are the main tasks to do. Occasionally also continuing the works on our small future kitchen and bathroom with adobe and straw.
The workload is varying -depending on weather conditions and the season- but is generally quite high and the days can be long and tiring. We do expect a high motivation for integrating into the current work-processes during the stay. Nevertheless, there is also time for relaxation and discovery; home and within the beautiful surroundings.
The infrastructural conditions are generally very simple: a big yurt-like tent with electricity, a compost-toilet, an outside shower-space with solar heated water out of buckets, and a generous but simple kitchen in the barn. We do cook, eat, and make the household in common like in a shared flat. Depending on the season, we nourish as local as possible, preferably from our own garden and/or from the neighbors productions.
Normally, we do not fix longer time periods than 2 weeks of stay in advance . If everything fits well, for the volunteers, as well as for us, there is the possibility to stay longer, of course.
Regarding allergies: we keep dogs, cats, bees. Wasps are sometimes annoying guests.
So if you're keen to get involved into the production of medicinal plants, and to discover the aesthetically, cultural-historically and biologically rich landscape the farmstead is embedded in, feel free to contact us.
Raluca and Gabriel
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Learning opportunities
Wild foraging
Aromatic or medicinal plants, teas
Seed saving or production
Vegetable or fruit preservation
Natural cosmetics fabrication
Traditional crafts
Green Building
Methods or systems
Biological pest control
No-till farming
Permaculture
Regenerative agriculture
Host type
Production farm
3.5
Hectares
|
8.6
Acres
