Cactus Sanctuary & Regenerative Farm (Syntropic Agriculture)
Setúbal
Hi friends, welcome!
ABOUT
We’re a family of three, May-Britt (29), Tiago (47) and Zane (5), living off the grid close to Grândola.
With us live two horses, three dogs and three cats.
The last six years we built our homestead on raw land and are now embarking on a syntropic agriculture project.
We live and work full time on the land at the moment. So we’d work closely with you.
Each morning we have coffee together, discuss what moves us and then start with the work theme of the day.
We always got a multitude of projects going on so the topics vary.
There’s a loose weekly guidance: Mondays are for online work and community building interests, Tuesdays are for the land or construction, Wednesdays are for horses or women’s work, Thursdays are for ecological studies, Fridays are for soap making or sewing, Saturdays are for gardening and Sundays for cleaning.
*Note: Weekly structure might be different while you’re here. To give you an idea how diverse life here can be.
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RHYTHMS:
This year is going to have a focus on syntropic agriculture so we’ll be seasonally working on designing, implementing and maintaining that system. It’s about observing the native nature existing already around us and recognising its patterns and copying the systematics and replicating the relationships in an way that accelerates the natural process of te original ecosystem forest - through labour, choice of plants, biodiversity & density and taking in account the time and space; succession and stratificaiton. It’s a system that’ll provide fruit, vegetables and medicine for humans, biomass for the soil, water retention for the land, shade for all, and wood in the future. And a recovery place for wildlife.
Our winters are focused on the tending to the wild on the 14 hectares in total of land.
Our springs we’re occupied starting the annual crops and caring for the seedlings.
In summers we usually tend to cacti, since we’re a sanctuary for them.
And in autumn we focus on the planting and sowing of trees for the syntropic systems.
Daily rhythms may vary but basically imagine to get up and ready to have coffee or tea together first as a check in meeting and then start work at 8 in the morning. Usually we work throughout the morning with smaller breaks in between. Breakfast is adapted to the needs of the day but we like to get going first and eat well in between at around 10. At around 1 we’ll have lunch together. After that the day is yours.
At nights you have your own space to prepare your meals.
The weekends are yours too. We might invite you to have a meal together or you have the opportunity to go off on your own and explore the surrounding civilisation with the villages, towns and restaurants.
*Note: Summers may be different in that we work less in the morning and an hour to water the gardens in late afternoon.
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ADDITIONAL INFO ABOUT US:
We are reforesters and rewilders at heart. We’re not a farm growing crops but a new ecosystem. You’ll be a part of it if you decide to join us for a while.
Our house is made out of hemp blocks and we’re still working on the finishing. There’s a smaller house for guests we’re planning on finishing very soon as well.
You’d get a chance to learn how to build naturally.
We love philosophical talks, the spirit of changing the world, the impeccability of our word, challenging ourselves to act in integrity to our intentions, and to practice forgiveness.
The last few years felt rather isolating and we’re sensing a shift ahead for a more social day to day. Even collectively we feel we go towards more cooperation. We’re happy for this. We feel the world definitely needs some cooperative actions, in integrity with our origins the land and each other.
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WHAT ELSE:
Here on the land our free time and work merge into one. People who come here change. Be ready for a deep dive. The land got power and presence. It’s almost a retreat space.
- In case you need a break though, there’s a beautiful river nearby, next to Azinheira dos Barros, where you got a small shop and a café/restaurant.
- Canal Caveira is also a small village, where you’ll find a shop and various restaurants, and a fountain where we still get drinking water.
- Grândola is our closest town where we usually do bigger shopping trips to. There’s also a post office and the normal utilities like dentists and co.
- Close to Melides there’s the ocean, about a 40 mins drive away.
The valleys around us are great for hiking. It’s a mix between cow’s pastures, pine forest and oak trees and a little further eucalyptus monocultures.
There’s various water lines that run in winter, in summer they’re dry, except for one well/spring nearby (10 mins walk).
Near our closest neighbours (a 3 km walk away) there’s a well and a Neolithic Site to visit.
AGREEMENTS:
We have no Wi-Fi available, either you get reception on your phone, sometimes on the next hill, or in the nearby cafés, where there’s Wi-Fi available too.
The agreement we offer is that you stay with us full time: living in the yurt next to our house. Either alone or with other volunteers. Or in your camper or tent.
If you bring your own camper that’s fine too.
We offer you vegetarian meals each day. Breakfast and lunch we share and dinner you are on your own. Sometimes you might cook for all, sometimes one of us cooks.
Work is normally in the morning, minimum 5 hours a day, Monday till Friday.
Weekends you get off.
Your work will mainly constitute of tasks in the gardens. Preparing the soil, preparing seedlings, planting, watering, harvesting, trimming, propagating trees and bushes, tending to the wild…
We expect that we will all have a great experience. Open to each other, listening to what we might not know yet. We are curious to co live life with others and we’re expecting so are you.
If there’s any uncertainty or concern we expect you communicate clearly with us, not hesitating to ask and express your needs. We figure we’re actually all learning how to best communicate with each other.
It’s better to talk and confront than to hold back and build resentment. We believe in the capability of us all to resolve conflict peacefully.
We found our way to agriculture through plant spirit medicine and that brings an additional layer to our working with the land. If this is something you’re curious about than we’re the right place for you. If this frightens you or you have judgements towards it then we might first talk it through to get to know each other or might not be a right fit at all.
We’re sorry we can’t accept animals at the moment but we made bad experiences and it’s for our and your protection (of uneasy situations or unnecessary conflict). We love animals though. We just have our created our pack and adding other members would take time and commitment. Thanks for understanding.
We are not vegetarian ourselves but it’s the bulk of our meals. If diet would be an issue we might find adapted solutions, let’s talk about it.
And it goes without saying that we don’t accept hard drugs or dependencies.
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We’re mainly asking help for May: planting the gardens
and June: planting the cacti.
March, April, July and August might be unforeseen, all round tending.
Until May we might still be implementing syntropic agriculture lines and even for the summer gardens we might mix the two this year. But afterwards it’ll get too hot for planting trees. And we’ll only start with planting trees in autumn again; October, November.
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Learning opportunities
Vegetable farming
Fruit or nut farming
Forestry
Wild foraging
Flower farming
Aromatic or medicinal plants, teas
Seed saving or production
Vegetable or fruit preservation
Bakery
Natural cosmetics fabrication
Methods or systems
No-till farming
Permaculture
Regenerative agriculture
Host type
Nonprofit / Community
14
Hectares
|
34.6
Acres
May-Britt
Member since 2026
Languages spoken:
English, German, Portuguese
Sun
Mon
Tue
Wed
Thu
Fri
Sat
Response rate: 100%
Setúbal
Grândola
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