Welcome to the WWOOF UK classified ads section. The place to find out about job vacancies, courses, festivals and other opportunities to connect with nature. Is there an event or announcement you’d like to share here? If so, please email us: editor@wwoof.org.uk
Wales Permaculture Festival 2024
Friday 27th – Sunday 29th September
Three Pools Permaculture Farm, Abergavenny
The annual get together of all things permaculture, with a fantastic lineup of inspirational speakers and practical skills based workshops, showcasing the best of permaculture across Wales and beyond. Camp under clear starry skies, there’s great local food, great music and great company. Based at a regenerative farm that shows what can be possible when scaling up permaculture to farm scale.
This will be a family friendly event with forest school activities and some sessions designed with young people in mind.
Tickets for the weekend are available on a sliding scale basis – buy your tickets here.
Production Manager – Flourish Produce
We’re looking for a kind, honest, motivated and positive individual to join us as a Production Manager. This is a new management role for our dynamic, fast growing farm business but will also be very hands on. Going into the 2025 season, this individual will help execute all aspects of crop production for 50+ acres of field crops and 1.8 acres of protected cropping.
We are looking for a strong leader with excellent communication skills who can manage our workforce effectively. Someone who can lead by example whilst maintaining the positive work environment we have created. This individual will help us improve efficiency, develop our production systems, and work with the other members of our management team to increase our quality and capacity. This job will involve all production activities (pre harvest), including planning, land preparation, planting, weeding, irrigation, pest and disease management along with all other farm related work. It will involve tractor operation, implement use and equipment troubleshooting. We would like someone who has experience farming at scale.
Full job description and how to apply – click here.
Deadline for application: 14th October 2024
Resurgence Festival of Wellbeing
Saturday 5th October 10am – 5pm
Join us for a day of thought-provoking talks from some of the world’s most inspiring thinkers and activists.
Listen to Robin Wall Kimmerer’s insights on Indigenous wisdom and the environment, Gillian Burke’s reflections on the resilience of life, and Satish Kumar’s reflections on his lifelong activism, alongside many otherremarkable speakers.
Tickets for this online event are £25 and £10 concessions – book your place here.
Grow Your Own CSA – Online Training Course
1st October – December 2024
Three month online course by Tom O’Kane of Cae Tan CSA
Community Supported Agriculture is a profitable, sociable, and sustainable way to link land and community. We would like to see CSA projects thrive across the UK. The course runs from October to December, so growers who have finished the main season can complete this training in time to set up a CSA the following season! You may also want to take the course to help decide if CSA suits you.
Each online session topic will last 90 minutes. There will be 12 sessions in total, running on Tuesdays between 6:00 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. The sessions allow us to explore a subject more in-depth or invite guest speakers with particular expertise. They are also an opportunity for students to share ideas & raise questions.
Full price: £360. The discounted price to CSA Members is £335. Bursaries will be available.
More information and to book your place – click here.
Community Garden Grants
Applications are now open for the National Garden Scheme 2025 Community Garden Grants.
In addition to our annual donations to nursing and health charities, the National Garden Scheme gives grants to help community gardening projects.
Until 28th October 2024 eligible community garden projects from England, Wales and Northern Ireland are welcome to apply for grants of between £1,000 and £5,000.
Find out more about how to apply here.
Land available on community farm – Stroud
Biodynamic, community-owned, volunteer-led farm in Stroud invite expressions of interest in long or short term leases. Any size or age of business considered. Our farm team already has several land based businesses working side by side, we now have approx 20 acres grazing 10 acres horticultural, available together or in separate parcels. We work to make land affordable while creating access to nature and food growing for the local community.
More info here.
Administrative Assistant – Permaculture Association [part-time]
We are seeking an admin assistant to streamline our operations, support our members, and keep our Leeds office humming. If you are excited about organising, love a good spreadsheet, and thrive in a collaborative environment, this could be your dream role. Bonus points for being passionate about permaculture and committed to diversity and inclusion!
Closing date for applications: Monday 30th September 2024, 12:59am
Full job description – click here.
CSA partnership / lease opportunity in Highland Scotland
Knockfarrel Produce is a croft-based market garden, 20 miles north of Inverness, led by grower Jo Hunt.
They are looking for 1 or 2 full-time growers interested in entering into a 5 to 10-year business partnership or lease with them, to live and work at Knockfarrel.
For the past 14 years they have been growing 81 different types of fruit and veg at 58 degrees north.
They have all the physical resources needed: organic-certified land in good condition, polytunnel and Keder growing space, lots of tools and equipment and premises including packhouse and on-site accommodation.
They also have 200 super-supportive local families who have helped our CSA-box scheme to thrive, plus local wholesale and market customers too.
They are now inviting expressions of interest from growers to join a partnership or lease with them, to take over veg production on the croft from the start of the 2025 season.
You will need at least a couple of years’ experience of organic veg production, plus some small business management skills. You will also need some working capital to bring into the business.
If you would like to register interest and receive more details, please email Jo Hunt on: info@knockfarrel.com
Seed Saving Workshop – Waltham Place, Berkshire
Friday 27th September 2024
10am – 4pm Cost: £55 per person
Seeds are one of the key issues for food sovereignty and climate change mitigation. In a time when diversity and quality are declining, it is imperative to reconnect once again with the practice of harvesting seeds that are tolerant and adapted to the changing climate.
Join estate manager, André Tranquilini, biodynamic farmer and gardener, founding member of the Living Seeds, organic and biodynamic seed company, for this step-by-step workshop to help you to obtain the best quality seed from your gardens. Learn how to select, harvest, dry, clean and store your seeds for maximum effect.
Refreshments are included in the day. Please bring a packed lunch and dress for the weather.
Book tickets here.
Potential sharing / renting / buying opportunities on a smallholding in the West Midlands / Welsh Borders
We have a beautiful, tranquil, 8 acre smallholding in the Hereford / Shropshire / Wales border region which feels like it could do with more energy, so we want to change the way the holding operates. We’re open to discussing many options and collaborations including longer term volunteers, rental (full or partial), house lodgers, house-swap or -sitters (we’re also needing a break!), off-gridders, van dwellers, low-impact builders, pre-existing groups looking for land, prospective market gardeners (we are at 230m but most crops grow well), partial ownership buy-in, or even full buy-out to the right people. There is a dilapidated barn on site which might work for conversion, a 4 bed cottage, a workshop, polytunnels and greenhouses, established fruit trees and bushes, plus a large growing area. General ethos and feel is organic, permaculture, vegetarian (not vegan), WWOOF hosts. Very rural, 15 minutes away from town / train station. Currently we have a ‘no dogs’ policy and we’re really sorry because we know that discounts a lot of people, so please at this stage, just know dogs are potentially an issue. We’re genuinely open to ideas and collaborations, so contact mintandmugwort@gmail.com if any of this could sound interesting to you or someone you know.
Step by Step Biodynamic Fish Farming
October 5th, November 23rd & January 25th
Ruskin Mill College, The Fisheries, Horsley, GL6 0PL
A unique biodynamic course delivered at the only biodynamic fish farm in the UK, in partnership with the Biodynamic Association. The Step-by-Step fish farm course is an introduction to biodynamic fish farming. The course would suit those wishing to learn about the different aspects of the fish farm, on living water, biodynamic methods and the brown trout we farm. The new 3 session course will be held once a month on a Saturday. The course content is drawn from our rich Ruskin Mill Trust biodynamic training that has been on offer for several years to staff, guests, volunteers and biodynamic trainees.
£60 for all three sessions or £20 per session.
Find out more about this course – click here.
Strip-tillage in horticulture: Field lab workshop and farm walk
Friday 11th October 10am – 3pm
Join Innovative Farmers for a visit to Abbey Home Farm near Cirencester, where head grower Andy Dibben has some small-scale trials of a strip tillage system with a living mulch to build fertility and improve soil health. Veg growing, particularly in field-scale organic systems, traditionally uses fertility building leys, long rotations, annual ploughing between crops and intensive cultivation of the soil. Is a strip-tillage system using cover crops or living mulches a viable alternative?
The event is free to attend and a delicious organic lunch will be provided by Abbey Home Farm Café.
Book your place here.
Pathways to Land Forum
Exploring financial pathways to securing land appropriate to the needs of BPOC producers (Black and people of colour)
On 26th September (in-person) and 7th October (online) there will be two forums for BPOC landworkers plus funders, lenders and other landowners.
To find out more about this project and to register your interest in attending the event – click here.
Farm For The Future programme
With funding from the Royal Countryside Fund, Pasture for Life are delivering the Farm for the Future programme through a series of business and environmental workshops aimed at supporting farmers and land managers/owners to improve their resilience and prepare for agricultural policy changes.
PfL are offering:
Free membership to PfL for 1 year
Free 1:1 tailored support session for your farm
Free workshop on environmental support schemes
Free series of farm workshops focusing on a range of regenerative agriculture topics, such as agroecology, mob grazing, soil health, overwintering
Opportunities to visit other farms in your region
Bespoke support for farmers finding it difficult to attend events.
Find out more here.
Opportunity for individual or couple WFH (or flexible working) to move to the country
Part time gardening and maintenance in exchange for beautiful very-low-cost rural accommodation near Hay-on-Wye.
The cottage: stands within 1 acre of organic garden with use of a solar swimming pool. 1 (small) double bedroom, dining kitchen, hallway, shower room, use of small study and large conservatory. Plus your own vegetable garden (and freezer for your produce!)
The work: 1 day per week – Developing and maintaining the organic growing systems and eco-buildings on the site as a demonstration for participants on the weekend courses. Training available on site.
Responsibilities: Ensuring organic garden, solar swimming pool and eco-buildings are well maintained and comply with H&S requirements for hosting visitors. Success will be reflected in increased visitor numbers and satisfaction.
Qualifications: Good communication skills, experience of practical maintenance and ability to do basic practical gardening and repair work. Ideal for a creative individual or couple looking for a secure base with part time job from which to launch their own career or WFH.
Rent is reduced to £289 pcm, plus energy and other overheads approx £80 pcm (total approx £370 pcm)
More info & contact: www.gaiapartnership.net
Volunteer Office Administrator – Garden Organic
Seeking an Office Administration Volunteer to support the wider Garden Organic team based in the office and around the UK, in a variety of tasks from preparing materials needed for events, updating spreadsheets to basic reception duties.
Location: Ryton Gardens, Wolston Lane, Ryton on Dunsmore, Coventry CV8 3LG
Further information and full job description – click here.
Deadline for applications: 6th October 2024
Access to Land Opportunity – Blaenwaun, West Wales
We are an established (40+ years) Organic, Pasture for Life certified, regenerative dairy and beef farm near Blaenwaun, West Wales. We’re looking for a person (or couple) to help on the farm in return for access to land for their own enterprise. We’re really interested in moving the farm forward and would be delighted to find a like-minded person who wanted to start a market garden, or keep poultry, pigs etc (no sheep). Ideally we would need someone who is familiar with tractor work and previous experience stock handling would be desirable but we’re able to be flexible for the right person or people. We don’t have readily available accommodation on site but we have hardstanding with electricity available for a caravan etc if this is an issue. Please send any enquiries to: Sallyandgarry@btconnect.com
Biodynamic Land Trust Family of Farms Day & AGM
Saturday 12th October 2024, 9:15 – 5pm
Huxhams Cross Farm, Devon
Join our Family of Farms Event exploring the theme of Succession, alongside our AGM exploring the Trust’s progress, followed by a farm walk.
The Family of Farms event will start after the AGM. It will be an exciting collaborative, sharing and learning process around the theme of ‘Succession’. The day will be structured around a series of presentations from our family of farms including their perspectives on the opportunities and challenges that lie ahead for succession. There will also be specialists in the room to support and guide the conversation around how succession can work successfully in different farming contexts and regions, including how the Land Trust supports farms with transitions.
More information about this free event – click here.
Agroforestry & Irrigation for market gardeners and small farms
Monday 21st October 2024, 10:30am – 3:30pm
Blackhaugh Community Farm, Perth, Scotland
This short course from Landworkers Alliance is a double-bill introduction to setting up an irrigation system suitable for a market garden and getting started with agroforestry on your farm.
In the first part we will look at the options available for irrigating veg and flower beds, and polytunnels. Participants will get hands on with irrigation materials and consider the theory and elements to make a well-functioning system on a budget. We will look at Taybank Growers Coop’s market garden as an example site.
In the second part we will consider the theory and practice of agroforestry systems. We will study the agroforestry developed on Blackhaugh Community Farm and consider options suitable for your setting.
Tea & coffee provided. Please bring your own packed lunch.
Tickets from £15 – £40 More information about this course and to buy tickets – click here.
IFOAM Organic World Congress 2024
30th November to 4th December – in-person event – Taiwan
The 21st Organic World Congress is the premier global event for organic agriculture and sustainability. This congress is your gateway to discovering cutting-edge research, innovative practices, and the latest trends in organic farming. Whether you’re a seasoned professional or a passionate newcomer, OWC 2024 offers unparalleled opportunities to connect, learn, and grow in the vibrant field of organic agriculture. Don’t miss out on this transformative experience.
The OWC 2024 features the theme ‘Cultivating Organic Solutions for True Sustainability’ and is structured around four core tracks: ‘Organic Culture and Lifestyle’, ‘Knowledge and Practice Sharing’, ‘Growing Organic Market, Rooted in Organic Principles’ and ‘Policies for Scaling up Organics and Agroecology’.
More information about this event and to register for a ticket – click here.
ORFC in the Field – Scotland
ORFC is coming to Scotland! ORFC in the Field at Comrie Croft, Perthshire
9th – 10th October 2024 plus an optional day of farm visits (including a WWOOF host, Tombreck Farm!)
Join leading practitioners for three days of practical workshops, talks, storytelling, music and farm tours in the beautiful 230-acre grounds of Comrie Croft in the Southern Highlands of Scotland.
This unique, hands-on event will explore how young people are finding a way back to the land and farming, re-introducing traditional skills, applying new agroecological knowledge and practices, and inspiring more young people to do the same.
Over three days, we will host an exciting series of practical workshops and talks including:
- Cultivating and integrating various mushroom species into your garden or farm with Rhyze Mushrooms Co-op
- Learning how to make a Lazy Bed to produce great soil with seaweed
- Heritage Seeds: understand their importance and how to save your own seeds with Seeds of Scotland
- Tour Comrie Croft Farm with Andrew Donaldson and learn about Andrew’s journey to accessing land in Scotland
More information and to book tickets click here.
Ecological crisis, collapse & revolution: diverse global perspectives
Building on the success of Climate Adaptation, Great Adaptations and Value Beyond Money, Arkbound is producing a title that will go deeper into the ecological crisis of modern human civilization, including a focus on climate and our obsolete capitalist economic system. In this multi-author volume sourced from diverse individuals and communities from around the world, Arkbound dares to ask difficult questions about the role of civil and not-so-civil disobedience in bringing about a better society, including as a response to the societal collapse that many scholars believe is already underway. Indigenous and other community-based responses will also be explored. The book will be released, provocatively, in time for the climate COP30 in Brazil in 2025.
Confirmed contributors include: Gail Bradbrook, co-founder of the Extinction Rebellion movement; Just Collapse, the Australian activist platform; Violet Matiru, anti-colonial environmental consultant from Kenya; Solarpunk Surf Club; and Brian Tokar, author of Toward Climate Justice, published by New Compass Press and co-editor of Climate Justice and Community Renewal, published by Routledge. With this book combining themes of ecological crisis, collapse and revolution, Arkbound is engaging a diverse multi-author approach; there has never been a book quite like this.
Find out more about crowdfunding this publication here.
Food Production Grower – Exeter University
Full-time permanent position
Starting salary £25,007 to £27,069 on Grade C, depending on qualifications and experience.
Are you passionate about sustainable agriculture and production? Join the University of Exeter’s Grounds Team as a Food Production Grower.
This is an exciting opportunity to join the Grounds Team as they continue a project, to plan, grow and produce vegetables to be used by the University’s kitchens and outlets.
The successful applicant will be the main person delivering this project; taking partly cultivated areas and turning them in productive soils. The project also involves hydroponic growing using NFT growing under glass and a small polytunnel. The ideal candidate will be competent and comfortable using all types of production equipment both powered and non-powered, and all elements of an IPM program.
Full job description and how to apply – click here.
Deadline for application: 16th October 2024
Future Farming Resilience: an update on farming support payments (Webinar)
16th October 2024, 6pm – 7:15pm- Online
This webinar, run by the Soil Association under the Defra Future Farming Resilience Fund, is designed to provide targeted and specialist resilience support to farmers and land managers. (Farms that straddle borders with Wales and Scotland are eligible to take part, as long as they have some land in England)
In the session, you’ll learn more about
- The new announcements made by Defra on the 4 January 2024, including the effect on current scheme holders and payments.
- Where organic or low input farming fits in with the changes in support payments.
- What the components are of the ELMS scheme that are going to reward organic and low input farmers the most, as well as how to make the best use of Countryside Stewardship
- What to consider when applying for new schemes
- Follow up one-to-one sessions which will be available. We’ll share more information on these at the event.
To register for this free event click here.
Can you get WWOOF UK into an event?
We’ve got some funky zines which open out and turn into a poster! They’re designed to help spread the word about WWOOF UK. If you’re going to an event maybe you’d like to take some zines along? They might be seen by people who’ve never heard of WWOOF and, thanks to you, they’ll discover options in life they never knew existed!!!
Just email us with the name and size of the event and an address where we can post the zines: info@wwoof.org.uk
Is there a noticeboard, allotment group board, local food café or other public space where you might be able to display one of our zine/posters? We can send you a digital copy of the poster and/or zine via email for you to print out and put on display. Just email us: info@wwoof.org.uk and we’ll email the files to you.
Many thanks.
