Thank you for stopping and looking at this profile. If you plant to request, please take the time to read all the way to the end. We receive multiple requests every week.
Obviously A.I. generated or lazy cut-and-paste requests recycling our own profile get low priority. We love real human beings expressing real things in their own words.
WHO WE HOST:
We're seeking a WWOOFer (two people: friends, couple, partners, siblings may also be considered) to assist us with diverse tasks. A positive attitude and an ability to engage in physical work for sustained periods are essential qualifications!
We love to host upbeat, energetic and mature learners of all ages who can work with us in keeping our 5 acres well-cared for. Farm/garden, tropical agriculture and life experiences are preferred, but not essential. We're looking for people who have a keen interest in and focus on plants, food, soils, land-based skills, passionate about human communities and evolving culture, not first-time travelers looking for a cheap Hawaii vacation.
OUR PREFERRED SITUATION: having a kind, intelligent, adaptable, hard-working, self-motivated person join us for a month or more. Our place is friendly, lively and flexible. We're not hands-off; we offer mentorship in a variety of skills, and a grounded, healthy place in which to learn.
Weʻre in our early 60s; we are active, curious and consider ourselves work hard / rest hard people.
We are good communicators : we won't leave you hanging with unclear expectations. Weʻre also not perfectionistic micromanagers. Teaching skills is an important aspect of our lives, and we enjoy interacting and learning new things alongside our guests.
Reality check: farm work in Hawaii is often physically strenuous, hot, sweaty and dirty.
There is no need to have machine experience, but a willingness to use a machete and hand sickle, and to dig holes / use a pick and posthole digger occasionally, is important. We are reasonable people who like to stay cool, take breaks, rinse off, and not burn ourselves out. You can trust us to support you in self-care, rest, drinking lots of water, using positive body-mechanics and tool-use practices (30- year movement dance and yoga teacher here).
We have an endless array of projects to manage, and appreciate self-motivated helpers who can work independently if necessary. This does not mean that we sit back asking you to do our jobs. Most often, we work right alongside our WWOOFers. However, if they can learn a task well, that frees us up for mowing, house repairs, mechanical maintenance, errands, etc . as needed.
We ask for 22.5 hours per week of work. The arrangement of hours is flexible and open to cooperative discussion.
TASKS WE NEED HELP WITH:
- weeding. weeding. weeding. weeding. Weeding.
- sickling, weeding, and managing vegetation
- collection, management, processing and propagation of seeds, cuttings, and plant material
- watering and maintaining the health of new tree plantings (fruit orchards, native forest belts and nitrogen-fixing trees)
-both light and heavy pruning, clearing, chipping, and brush cutting
- fruit and vegetable harvesting, processing and drying
- making compost and biologically active soil preparations
- hand pollinating
- mulching, feeding and applying organic amendments to trees
- gardening (weed, water and care of vegetable/flower/herb garden)
- planting planting planting
- a few miscellaneous infrastructure, hard landscaping + revitalization projects.
OUR HOME:
We share our home with our WWOOFers. There's the opportunity for privacy for everyone, but we are an interactive household and we share the common areas, which we strive to keep pleasant, clear and relaxing. We like to be tidy (farm tidy) and expect our guests to be aware of their impact on common spaces, pitching in with cleaning up, sweeping, weekly laundry of linens etc.
During our video interviews with requesting WWOOFers we have the opportunity to go into depth about our living styles, diets, preferences, habits and so on to make sure we will be a good fit.
We have two accommodation spaces (one indoor, one luxury outdoor) and we sometimes host one, sometimes two guests at once. There is an outdoor shower in addition to the indoor bathroom and half-bath and the shared kitchen and living spaces.
BACKGROUND :
This land slowly feeds us more and more fully each month; it feeds our friends and neighbors; it is beginning to feed community food programs, and it will eventually offer more opportunity for income-producing and commercial-scale food & herb farming.
We started from a unfenced, overgrown, neglected and rubbish-strewn pastures. Over nearly five years we have been creating a of patchwork of interlinked cultivated spaces, native tree plantings, and flower and food gardens near the house.
We first planted many of the species we most want represented in our diet, such as citrus, bananas, avocados, canoe crops (kalo, 'ulu, uala) cassava, pumpkins, culinary herbs, vegetables and favorite fruits. Since the beginning we have propagated and planted out hundreds and hundreds of trees and plants: fast growers, nitrogen fixers, erosion-controllers, pollinator attractors and ground covers to conform to the steep contours and fence lines as well as ornamentals and shade plants. Now we're adding more exotic fruit mini-orchards, putting out larger trees we've grown in our nursery, and focusing on planting additional belts of highly productive and dense pioneer/green manure and food plants. We keep a busy vegetable and herb garden that provides produce for our meals.
We will continue planting our lower acreage as a native pocket forest. We've completed two phases of planting'ohi'a, koa, koa'ia, kukui, native hibiscus, milo, loulou, kava, kalo, a'ali'i and other Hawaiian / Polynesian species.
IMPORTANT: PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE REQUESTING:
WWOOFing applicant should make sure they are OK with making these agreements with us:
- To practice clear and truthful communication with us to the best of your ability; to communicate with clarity throughout our time together about any thing important.
- To bring their own work gloves, work boots or closed-toe shoes and sturdy work pants. This is a requirement. We want everyone to be safe and protected when working. Even though this is Hawaii, we don’t only wear shorts and sandals in the field, though of course that’s totally fine if appropriate. Pulling out old fencing = protective work clothing required. Sowing seed trays = dress as you like!
- To abstain from cannabis, tobacco, and all recreational drugs and alcohol during their stay with us. We really mean this and we appreciate your respecting this request.
- To understand that we don’t live by the beach, and that we don’t have good public transportation here. On your days off, travel to the beach or any other recreational areas is your responsibility. The bus service here is free but very infrequent. Staying here is not a good fit if you want to go to the beach often.
- To work with us to have a mutual plan for your departure date, and to have enough savings to travel onward from here.
We're hard-working fun-loving people strongly motivated to bring more health, beauty & diversity to this land. We express our life energy through welcoming beauty, making delicious food, tending gardens, volunteering, hiking, running, dancing, stretching, singing, making connections and sharing skills. We like to eat well, read, discuss and learn; we aspire to balance effort with rest. Between the two of us we have extensive gardening, farming and homebuilding experience.
If these conditions match please consider contacting us for a video interview.
Original profile posted on WWOOF in 2022:
The work that is happening on our place is the work of Beginning.
It's the work of approaching the blank slate and imagining the future. It's the work of initiating, planning, envisioning; and also of repairing, restoring and replenishing. It's not yet the work of "listening to the sound of fruit dropping." For almost one year we've been cleaning up the land, removing derelict structures and preparing soil. We look for helpers who are willing to learn this phase of farmsteading, to gain the experience of entering onto raw or damaged land in order to participate in soil-building & planting for diversity. Anyone who has the vision & enthusiasm for the hard work of Beginning is welcome!
Our 5-acre land on the Hamakua Coast of Hawai'i Island has been home to many intensive agricultural operations over the past decades, including a rose farm (before cut flower production moved to South America), an anthurium/orchid farm, vegetables, eucalyptus seedling nursery, and cow grazing. Many of these uses have been extractive and hard on the land. The nursery propagation in particular left a lot of rubbish to clean up. Most recently neglect allowed existing fruit trees to die, fences to fall, and water lines to break. We've been working steadily to repair everything and are planting cover crop, food and ornamental plants almost every day.
WWOOFers would be expected to help us the creative and regenerative work of preparing the ground for new plantings, planting food & nitrogen-fixing trees, tending existing trees and working in the garden & propagation area. There are so many projects to do, so apart from the essential work of cleaning & preparing the land for planting (which is our top priority), we hope WWOOFers will have choices about where to help according to their interests and skills.
Read more
Learning opportunities
Vegetable farming
Fruit or nut farming
Forestry
Flower farming
Aromatic or medicinal plants, teas
Seed saving or production
Bakery
Traditional crafts
Food justice / sovereignty
Mechanics / tools / technology
Methods or systems
Biological pest control
Biodynamic agriculture
No-till farming
Permaculture
Regenerative agriculture
Mentoring opportunities
Woman-operated
Host type
Self-sufficiency property
Former WWOOFer
2
Hectares
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5
Acres
