Prue Olsen

Business Type

Hobby Farm

Farming methods

Permaculture

Short Property Description

We are a family of four (Eddie, Prue, Edith (6) and Maggie (3) living on a 2 acre property in beautiful Lenswood in the Adelaide Hills. Lenswood is well known for its apple, pear and cherry orchards as well as a growing number of wineries.

Our property comprises a small orchard, vegetable garden, raspberry patch, chicken run, dam and cottage gardens. We practice organic farming methods, we do not use synthetic chemicals or fertilisers, we feed our soil using our own compost and weed teas, we rotate beds, we grow flowers amongst our vegetables to attract bees and beneficial insects, we have 2 bee colonies and a small flock of chickens.

Eddie is studying Permaculture Design and we intend to redesign of our property on completion of this course.

WWOOFers will have the opportunity to assist with projects on the farm as well as general property duties and maintenance.

Upcoming projects and tasks include;

Transforming the orchard to a food forest
Building a garden shed
Planting, weeding, pruning, composting
Expanding our herb/tea garden
Harvesting and preserving food from the garden
Caring for our pets (currently chickens and bees)

Accomodation is in a converted wine cellar on the lower level of our house. The room is dark but stays very nice and cool. The room has a double bed so best suited to a couple or good friends who don’t mind sharing. We have a second bathroom on the main level of the house for WWOOFers use. Our property runs solely on rain water so guests are asked to have short showers (personally we aim for 3 minutes each).

All meals will be shared and help with food preparation and cleaning up after meals would be appreciated. We mainly eat vegetarian meals and can cater for all dietary needs.

There is no public transport in Lenswood. There is a bus service to Uraidla (10 minutes drive from Lenswood) and we are happy to pick up WWOOFers and also drop off at the end of their stay. Woofers own vehicle would be helpful for exploring the local area (highlights include forest walks, wineries, water holes and local townships).

Ideally WWOOFers would arrive Sunday afternoon, work roughly 5-6 hours Monday to Friday and have the weekend to explore the beautiful Adelaide Hills before departing on Sunday. However we are flexible and can work with WWOOFers to find a mutually suitable arrangement.

We are social people who enjoy meeting people and sharing experiences. Our children are very energetic and love having visitors (be prepared to be very popular). We enjoy a glass of wine with some nice food and good company. We look forward to meeting people from across Australia and around the world.

Organic/Biological methods we use

We make our own compost and weed teas. We mulch, We grown insect attracting flowers amongst our veggies. We grow green manures. We house two colonies of bees and try to have year round flowers in the garden. We practice crop rotation and companion planting.