Information for participants

Do you want to help create a beautiful ecosystem in the meditative silence of the Portuguese countryside? You can join us in October 2026 for our volunteer month when we can welcome 4 volunteers.

During your stay on Florago you can experiment and learn about permaculture design, organic farming, food forest, growing medicinal herbs, soil improvement, water systems and landscaping. As a volunteer you can stay with us free of charge. Long term residents pay a rental fee based on their type of accommodation.

In 2024, we bought two connected plots of land near Penamacor in Portugal. One part is open countryside with a small lake in the middle and some 70 mature olive trees (Lago). The other part is 2/3 feral forest with cork oak, olive and lots of gorse and 1/3 arable land (Floresta). There is no building or ruin on the land, no electricity connection (besides our solar panels) and no running water. In short, it is pure nature and we want to keep it that way as much as possible.

Florago is an oasis of peace in one of the last quiet areas in Europe. We want both ourselves and the Florago participants to enjoy this meditative silence, nature and the views of the surroundings and the Estrelas Mountains. From Florago you can do great hiking and MTB cycling in an undiscovered area. After the hike, you can take a dip in the small lake on the land or in the stream a little further away.

Travel a little further and visit beautiful authentic mountain villages like Montsanto and Penamacor. And within an hour’s drive you are in the high mountains of the Estrelas, Portugal’s highest mountains with numerous hiking trails.

We are developing the land at Florago based on the principles of permaculture design and organic farming. So working with nature instead of against nature and no use of synthetic fertilisers or pesticides. We are creating a diverse food forest with fruits, nuts, berries and herbs. Every year, we plant about 200 more trees and shrubs. So once the food forest becomes productive, we can all enjoy these yields. By eating them directly or if the production is high enough, by preserving them together for later use. Last autumn, we harvested and preserved our first olives and they are amazing.

Accommodation at Florago is basic at this moment. We sleep in tents and camper vans. There is a composting toilet available, solar for electricity, we cook on an outdoor gas kitchen, get water from the spring near the village and shower with a camping shower bag. In the near future we plan to build platforms for the tents, a toilet en shower building, tool shed, communal kitchen and some wooden cabins.

We are looking for participants who want to join us in enjoying this great place in nature and also put their energy and creativity into developing and preserving it. We are present in Portugal part of the year. During these periods, we can meet prospective participants on the land and show them around. After that, you can stay on the land independently or with other participants throughout the year. If you are retired or on a sabbatical, you can also live on the land the whole year. The aim is for you to feel at home on the land and enjoy it to the full.

If you are interested, please contact us on info@florago.org and we can set up on online meeting to get to know each other.

Visit our blog to get the latest news about the Florago project.