Etsbalished permaculture farm needs help
Castelo Branco
I live on an off-grid permaculture homestead and certified organic farm called Keela Permaculture Farm. I am active in food forests, permaculture systems, natural building, and food production. My farm has been featured in Permaculture magazine many times I am a certified permaculture teacher with the Permaculture Association UK.
What do we do on the farm:
- Primarily, we live together on the farm, maintaining the gardens and forests, looking after the animals, cooking and usually building something new.
- We host permaculture courses for people that plan to start a homestead. Practical courses for people that want to really do it.
- In the summer I sell veggie boxes and trees to the local community, sometimes do market stalls and sell compost worms online.
- I also have animals such as chickens, sheep and a pig.
What will you get:
- We will provide you with three meals per day, a bed, and a lot of learning while you are doing it.
- Join yoga or workout classes three times per week
- Experience living on an established off-grid permaculture homestead
About you
- You will be hard-working, able to do physical work, a good team player, and have no mental health issues.
- Volunteers work 6 hours per day. This also includes the time you spend on communal tasks such as breakfast, cooking or cleaning.
When applying:
Please apply to let us know what aspects of our farm you are most interested in and which of the above you would like to do. i.e. cooking, cleaning, gardening, forestry
Start Dates.
- Usually, we have 3 or 4 volunteers arrive together on the same day, so we can give you a nice welcome and tour together and reduce the number of people coming and going. So please select one of the below start dates:
2026 Start Dates
9 February 2026
24 March 2026
25 May 2026
12 July 2026
23 August 2026
12 October 2026
Organic methods: Permaculture, Food Forests, composting worms, manure, bio-fertilizers and compost teas for fertilizer.
Facilities:
- Straw bale community house
- Yoga Deck
- Wood-powered hot shower in straw bale greenhouse
- Solar hot outdoor shower in nature
- A nice kitchen
- Lots of organic food from our garden
- Long drop vermiculture compost toilet as featured in permaculture magazine
- Eighteen hectares of beautiful land.
- Food Forest projects
- Restoration agriculture project
- Reforestation project
- Private, quiet location
- Lakes
- Good wifi and phone connection
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Learning opportunities
Fruit or nut farming
Sheep or goat farming
Forestry
Wild foraging
Aromatic or medicinal plants, teas
Vegetable or fruit preservation
Natural cosmetics fabrication
Green Building
Renewable energy production
Methods or systems
Biological pest control
Biodynamic agriculture
Holistic management
No-till farming
Permaculture
Regenerative agriculture
Host type
Self-sufficiency property
Certified organic
18
Hectares
|
44.5
Acres
Accommodation
Laurence
Member since 2016
Languages spoken:
English
Sun
Mon
Tue
Wed
Thu
Fri
Sat
Response rate: 97%
Response time: typically within 10 days
Castelo Branco
You can drive here or we will have a group taxi picking everyone up from Fundao train station
Reviews
Lucie
Germany
•
October 2024
My stay at Keela Permaculture Farm was amazing and I enjoyed my time there a lot! As I arrived with two other volunteers we got to know everything together, had a lot of explanations in the beginning and introductions in housing and working aspects on the farm. Laurence tried to divide working tasks every day equally between all volunteers and as they differed from each other often, I got to experience harvesting or planting methods. Working was fun and as there was still a lot of time for free time activities we spent our time in relaxing alone or in community or playing cards together. The community house was a really nice place to cook or chill in the evening. During the weekend Laurence took us to a village nearby to visit a local festival and a flea market, which was a lot of fun!
The off-grid, self sufficient farm was a wonderful and quiet place to relax alone or in community, learn about permaculture and do everyday yoga classes together. I am very thankful and glad for my stay and the lovely people which I met there.
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Emma
Netherlands
•
July 2024
Thank you Laurence for inviting me to come to your farm! I only had 2 weeks but luckily that was okay and I’m happy that I decided to go. I wanted to experience life on a permaculture homestead and see how permaculture works in practice. When I arrived it was only Laurence, Jack (volunteer) and me, but soon the other 3 volunteers, the cook and the 10 people of the permaculture course arrived and so we were with 17 people. Slowly we got to know each other and after a week it felt like a warm family. Keela farm has a great naturally built community house and yoga room that form the center of the activities on the farm. Everyday we did yoga, had 3 healthy, delicious & colourful meals, and the place has enough spots to hang out, whether together or alone. There’s a lot of interesting books about healthy living that you can read and there’s a cupboard with organic necessities you can buy. As a volunteer I wasn’t really involved in the course itself, but it was a cool opportunity to get to know the people, their motives to follow this course and to hear what they’d learned.
My tasks were quite diverse, which I liked, but next time I will make sure I know better what I want to do (and don’t want to do) in advance. All in all I’m happy with the experience and all the good conversations I had especially with the other volunteers. I learned a lot about myself, which was most valuable!
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Deborah Marie
Germany
•
April 2024
I had a very nice time on the farm. Everyone is super friendly and welcoming, so you feel at home straight away. The work is very varied. There were different tasks every day, but still a regular daily routine. In the morning, we always started the day with yoga or a workout if we wanted to. I was able to gain a lot of experience in the one month on the farm, such as about life on an off-grid farm, the daily farm work, building fences, permaculture, gardening and the animals on the farm (sheep, chickens, dog, cats).
I would come back any time :)
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Aksel
United States
•
March 2024
Laurence is a great guy and has become an endearing friend during my fantastic stay at Keela. What he does around the farm along with his deep knowledge on everything permaculture and organic, amazes me. I have become connected to his practices and what he stands by, and truly believe he has created something beautifully unique and meaningful to himself and whoever joins. As a first wwoof experience I couldn’t have asked for anything more and am sad to be saying by to the lovely people, Laurence, and Keela Yoga Farm.
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Kolja
Germany
•
February 2024
I can only recommend to volunteer at keela!
We got to work a diversity of jobs which we could influence, so it never got boring. One day I remodeled a sunken bed, another I learned to use the chainsaw for firewood and one week was dedicated to butcher a pig(don't worry vegetarians, it's once a year and only if you want to participate). He regularly asked how we`re feeling with work, housing etc and was always open for sugestions. Also working with Laurence is usually fun, his expectations of performance are well set and he can deal with mistakes which makes the work-atmosphere comfortable. Often times he would organize different kinds of free-time activities, like watching a movie, going to local markets and the weekly cafe visit; one time he even hosted a little dinner party for us.
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Reply from Laurence
Hi Kolja,
Thank you for leaving a review. It was great fun having you here. I hope you can visit again one day!
All the best
Laurence
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Oliver
Denmark
•
June 2023
I had an absolutely amazing time at Keela Yoga Permaculture Farm.
And, funny enough, had the great privilige to get to know Lawrence and Kimberley first hand while volunteering at their amazing and most necessary project. Lawrence and Kimberley has created a wonderful and inspiring place for both practical insight into the world of permaculture but also a place to broaden your perspective through yoga and the holistic permacultureel practice. Earth Care, People Care, Fair share all the way!
I will most definitely recommend this place to anyone eager to cook some proper good and nutritious and hand picked food, getting their hands dirty and becoming an ambassador for the necessary and vital change we need to make!
Thank you Lawrence and Kimbo.
Miss you Big Dog.
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