Finca Sol y Valle (CRC-47)

Type: Environmental/Green Projects: Ecologically friendly agriculture - Country: Costa Rica

Brief description and main aims

We're a community of four young professionals co-creating a more sustainable lifestyle in harmony with nature. Finca Sol y Valle is a 1.5 hectare permaculture farm which was started 5 years ago. More than half of the farm is protected secondary forest with 50+ year old trees – a regenerative model contrasting in the heart of Costa Rica's deforested agricultural region. The property includes a bamboo forest for building needs, a food forest with 100 fruit trees, extensive organic gardens for personal consumption, and several natural buildings. The project serves as a the chemicalbased farms nearby. We host people who are willing to learn more about sustainability and permaculture practices. This includes organic agroforestry, vegetable gardening, bio-fertilizer preparation, harvesting, produce processing and fermenting, and new bioconstruction projects. We also rotate roles such as cooking and cleaning every week, and everyone is involved in common area tasks! We normally gather together for our weekly wellness activity which we decide collectively. The farm also administers a homestay program at houses with local families in the towns of La Flor / El Yas. There are a total of 7 houses and 10 spaces at this time. Once in a while, we organize glass recycling, tree planting, and community cleaning with the local Ecological Group in La Flor.

Main Activities

Disconnect from a rushed lifestyle and get into a more natural pace.

Wake-up with nature’s orchestra of sounds. Come to the kitchen and join a breakfast made-with-love. Daily, we all learn from the process of nature. From the seed to the plants. The process of planting, taking care of, harvesting and eating.

At the edible forest, we see a slower process of fruit trees growing. We planted them all within the last 3 years and many are now 2-3 meters tall. In the rest of the secondary forest, we are able to witness magnificent older trees like ficus, cedro nogal, targuá, and so much more!

Depending on the current project, we’ll harvest large guadua bamboo canes, and fully process them to build with later. The following projects are made from bamboo: the greenhouse, composting center, recycling center, composting toilet/shower, and the tepee. In the tepee we make camp fires, music jamming and ceremonies like cacao and men or women circles.

Afternoons are free time for volunteers to relax, read a book, write, take a walk, socialize with the community, or whatever they enjoy.

We go to bed early, 9-10pm, and have a well-deserved rest.

Weekends are also free time. There are many nearby local attractions for volunteers to visit like the Irazu Volcano, Guayabo Archeological National Monument, or even the Organic Markets. 

Wellbeing practices like meditation and exercise are important to us. 

Volunteer tasks

Main fields of work: 

Education, Agriculture / food security

Women 

Human rights / peace / democracy

Environmental protection

Volunteer requirements / Skills

We prefer people who understand they are coming in touch with nature with biodiversity everywhere. Be prepared to see beautiful birds in the sky, as well as spiders, scorpions, lots of bugs, and possibly a snake.

It’s important that the person has at least a basic knowledge in cooking and is open to cooking for others. 

Interests: co-living in community, bioconstruction, DIY, organic agriculture, ecology

Location

100m este and 400m sur de la escuela Escuela Juan Evangelista Sojo Cartín, Cartago Province, Santiago

Hosting Situation (Board and Lodging)

(1) Hosting situation provided by Local Family. The families nearby can provide a single bedroom. A shared toilet, and breakfast/dinners.

(2) Hosting situation provided by the Project. We have a cabin with a dormitory for 3 people max in a bunk bed and a single bed. There is another private bedroom in a new cabin for a single person or a couple. In each cabin there are toilets and showers with warm water. There is a beautiful new composting toilet with solar hot water heated shower outside of the cabins. We all share a community kitchen with excellent cleanliness and organization.

More Information

Number of desired places for volunteers in this project per year (only for Long Term Volunteers): 1 work trade, 3 paid educational program apprentices

Volunteering schedule:

Our Mon-Fri schedule is 6:00 a.m – 8:30 Farm tasks 8:30 a.m – 9:30 a.m Breakfast 9:30 a.m – 12:30 p.m Farm tasks 12:30 p.m Lunch

Afternoons: free time, home tasks such as cleaning, homemade bread, kombucha or water kefir, once a week a wellness activity.

Weekends: free time. No specific seasons apply. Construction projects may change the dynamic more than anything.

Vacations: We’re flexible with volunteer’s time out of the farm. As community, we normally have our vacations on December – January holidays, for about 2 weeks, but we also take days off during the year.