playbook
Volunteer Sunday on a Biodiverse Farm
A full day working on a nature-inclusive farm. Not a tourist outing, just helping out where needed and having lunch together.
8u
duration
€ 0–15
budget
Ignite
pace
Many small farms that work in a nature-inclusive way need volunteers. Trimming hedges, pruning fruit trees, weeding a vegetable patch, cleaning out a chicken coop. Work that usually piles up or has to be done by a team that is too small. Showing up on a Sunday as a volunteer is not a tourist outing. It is simply working for someone else.
The farm you are going to has a fixed structure: coffee at 9, briefing, a morning task, lunch together, an afternoon task, coffee at 4, home. What you bring to the farm is a full day of labour, what you get in return is a lunch and a different understanding of how things work. Some people come back, once a month from then on. That is not agro-tourism, that is just being a volunteer.
Checklist
0 of 5
Aanmelding bij boerderij
Land van Ons of CSA-boerderij
Werkkleren klaar
Mag vies worden, helemaal
Werkhandschoenen
Grote bidon water
Pleisters in de tas
Voor de schrammen
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Handy & partners
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Atmosphere
by PlayTryBe team
Two weeks ahead: sign up with a cooperative farm (Land van Ons, CSA farm, Slow Food network). Not through a tourist platform.
0On the day: arrive on time, not earlier and not later. A farm has its own pace, and you fit into it.
Boerderij De Patrijs of vergelijkbaarFirst coffee together with the regular crew and other volunteers. Listen more than you talk. You are new, they live here.
Briefing: the farmer or site manager explains what needs to be done. Ask if you are unsure, that is more professional than getting something wrong.
Morning task: three hours of physical work. Do not try to be the hero, follow the pace of the group. Working on a farm is a marathon, not a sprint.
Lunch at 12 or 12:30. A shared lunch on a farm feels different from a lunch in an office. Nobody checks their phone. People talk about the work they just did.
0Afternoon task: often something with more responsibility than the morning. The farmer sees whether you work, whether you are attentive, whether you manage.
Four o'clock: coffee, end of work. Taking a few vegetables home is often a given.
Working a full day for someone else without pay is a strange category for someone from the city. Doing it once is enough to notice that the pace and the togetherness do not exist in a paid context.
For anyone copying this
Do as we did
Suggestions
- No clothes you do not want to ruin. A volunteer day is not a clean day.
- Lunch is often provided, bringing your own is only necessary for strict dietary needs.
- Do not announce that it is your first time, they will figure it out. Just do what they ask.
- A large water bottle, even in October. Working the land makes you thirsty.
Variations
- - Eén keer per maand: in plaats van een eenmalig uitje, een vaste zondag per maand bij dezelfde boerderij. Andere relatie.
- - Met een vriend of partner: leuker, maar wel allebei echt werken.
- - In de oogsttijd (augustus-oktober): meer fysiek werk maar ook veel resultaat.
- - Alleen: een verbluffend andere zondag dan ergens consumeren.