Volunteering on organic farm in Finland

For some time now I have been looking for volunteer opportunities in Finland and finally managed to find a good one. I met Kristiina, the owner of a small organic museum farm in a workshop and while listening to her presentation thought that she is doing exactly the kind of things that are interesting and volunteers could help with.

We exchanged contacts and two weeks later I took couple friends with me and we went to work on her farm for a few hours and talk more about how volunteers could help her out and what could they learn while there. We mainly worked on one of her small pastures to gather hay, but we had plenty of time to get to know her farm and animals.

  The farm has been owned by the same family for about 500 years and the oldest building is from 1600th century. This beautiful grey house is now a small museum that introduces old furniture and living traditions to visitors. The nwer house at the farm is from 1900th century and this is where Kristiina cooks her tasty organic lunch for volunteers and visitors.

All the animals on the farm a specific Finnish breeds and belong to a genebank to safeguard the existence of these special animals. She has sheep, cows, chickens, ducks, horses and dogs, all of them these special breeds. During the summer the sheep are taking care of some landscaping of traditional ecosystems near by.

Kristiina is quite amazing woman. She is planning to transform her farm into a gardening farm, so she is studying gardening at the same time while taking care of the farm, running a small catering business, entertaining guests and running a family. My friend is asking if she has more hours in her day than other people, so amazed we are with all her activities.

Kristiina describes how she takes her sheep to an island in the middle of the lake in the spring and how she needs to rent services of a sheep dog to be able to gather her flock back in the fall. We suggest that maybe she needs a group of volunteers to help her to gather the sheep from the island. I see a picture in my mind, volunteers walking hand in hand through the island to gather the sheep together, the sheep running here and there and trying to escape between the people...

Farm is located right on a lake, but still fairly close to a village. She accommodates volunteers and visitors in a few small cottages and she has a bigger attick room for groups. There is a sauna of course and ecological outhouse and old sledge in front of the house. It's all pretty rustic, but at the same time very charming.

When we are travelling back home in the evening, we start planning already our next visit. Maybe some more of our friends and colleagues would be interested in joining us. Sure they are. This is a beautiful place to spent a day away from the office, you have a chance to help someone very inspiring and learn loads of new things. And the food is very good too.