Volunteers

🌿 Volunteers Welcome on Our Family Farm in Abruzzo, Italy 🌿

Would you love to spend time in nature, work with animals, and be part of real farm life in Italy? We are looking for volunteers to help us on our family-run farm in beautiful Abruzzo.

We are a Dutch family with three children, living and working in Italy. Families with or without children, couples, and individual volunteers are all very welcome. Our farm is surrounded by mountains, olive groves and open land, and we are slowly building a place focused on care for animals, land, and people.

🌱 Who we are

We run a small but diverse family farm with a wide variety of animals:

• 2 cows (including daily milking) and 2 calfs

• Horses, including foals and yearlings

• Goats

• Chickens (for fresh eggs)

• Ducks

• Dogs

• Cats

In addition, we care for:
• Olive trees
• A small vineyard
• Vegetable gardens and outdoor spaces that are still under development
• Approximately 15 hectares of agricultural land, which we are gradually restoring and maintaining

Besides the farm, we both also have remote jobs, which means we are not on the farm all day, every day. We work alongside volunteers when possible, but it’s important to know that this is not a fully guided volunteer programme.

🛠️ What kind of help we’re looking for

There is always a wide variety of tasks, depending on the season and your interests:

Land, trees & vineyard

• Pruning olive trees

• Pruning and restoring the vineyard

• Cutting down trees, sawing and splitting firewood

Animals

• Milking the cows

• Feeding animals and distributing hay

• Cleaning and bedding stables

• Caring for horses

Building & infrastructure

• Building and repairing fences

• Helping to build or extend stables and shelters

Gardens, water & land

• Preparing the vegetable garden

• Sowing seeds and planting

• Setting up water systems: collecting rainwater, distributing water, and installing drip irrigation hoses

Food & daily life

• Helping with cooking (especially welcome if you enjoy it!)

• Helping with processing milk, for example making yoghurt

• Preserving vegetables and fruit (pickling, making jam, etc.)

• Using a dehydrator for drying fruit, vegetables or herbs

• Organising barns, tools, and storage areas

🌞 Who we’re looking for

• People who enjoy outdoor, physical work

• Volunteers who like animals and farm life

• Individuals, couples, families with or without children

• People who can work independently, take initiative, and see what needs to be done

We usually ask for around 5 hours of help per day, 5 days a week. The schedule is flexible and depends on the weather, season and tasks.

🚗 A valid driving licence is required. We have an extra car, but it is not always available, and fuel costs are at your own expense. There is limited public transport in our area.

No specific experience is required — motivation, responsibility, and a positive attitude are key.

🏡 What we offer

• A private 3-bedroom apartment with its own bathroom/shower, a large living room, and a fully equipped kitchen

• Ingredients for evening meals are provided. Volunteers are free to choose what they cook and can prepare their own dinner in the apartment every evening if they prefer.

• We usually eat together around three times per week, and volunteers are welcome to join us if they like.

• Fresh eggs and fresh milk whenever you like

• Harvest from the land and vegetable garden (in season)

• A genuine, hands-on experience of farm life in rural Italy

If you’re looking for meaningful work, fresh air, animals, and a slower rhythm of life — while feeling comfortable working independently in a real farm setting — we would love to hear from you.

📩 Send us a message and tell us a bit about yourself, who you’d come with, and when you’re available.

We’re looking forward to welcoming you to our farm in Abruzzo 🌾🐄🐎