link: Valdanzosa WWOOF Itala

I am Anna and my farm was born from a life choice. I stopped living as an integrated Milanese, closed in a room creating advertising videos. In the meantime I studied permaculture and regenerative agriculture, looked for a piece of land that seemed suitable and cheap and I started my transition in 2014. I was 54 years old, three wonderful children now adults and a great desire to live a truer life based on a deep relationship with mother earth and sharing with other human beings.

As a girl I had participated in the creation of an ecovillage in Argentina run by a research theatre group, so I knew that I could also live frugally, in an isolated place. I started growing vegetables and improving the biodiversity of the place. The vegetable garden is now about 2000 square meters and every year that passes is more and more full of life. It produces vegetables much appreciated by the supporters who buy them, mainly in Milan, Genova Alessandria.

Although it is only recently that I belong to the wwoofing circuit, I have had many guests and I am very happy with the experiences I have had.

For a year now, a Chilean girl trained in natural agriculture has also been sharing this experience with me and now here she is experimenting what she has studied and learning new techniques related to permaculture (I am very interested in extended stays and more intense collaborations).

In our experimentations we have added the production of biochar, a sector dedicated to the bioactive vegetable garden, the use of endophytic bacteria, endo-micorrhitis and we have planted about fifteen or so paulownie tomentose (the main tree that holds a record for CO2 absorption and the ability to resist drought) We are getting closer and closer to the design of an agroforestry system, which we think is the most resilient in an increasingly difficult climatic situation.

One of my daughters, on the other hand, has decided to bring the cultural and artistic aspect here permanently, starting to renovate the barn which will soon become a room for workshops, residences, exhibitions or shows. Her idea is to create a bridge between the cities (Milan, Turin, Genoa, Alessandria) and the countryside, to encourage an uninterrupted flow of cultural and spiritual contamination between these two environments.

The diet tends to be vegetarian and is based on vegetables from the garden! We cook in turn and willingly. The house is quite rustic but cozy, with bathroom and hot water and Norwegian stoves for the winter. We have 2 rooms to accommodate wwoofers and in summer a small camping area where we set up a large tent. Although we are ten minutes by bike from the village centre and the train station, there is a lot of peace, woods and stars here. On weekends, friends from the surrounding area or from the city often come to visit us.

I am looking for people who want to share this experience, made of work, human relationship, resilience, culture and art. If you choose to come, I'd like you to stay for a few weeks, so that you can have a more meaningful and relational experience.

I like to welcome people from different cultures and languages, I can speak a little English and Spanish.

Of course LGBTQ friendly. We love cinema and often show movies. We have a small library of natural agriculture (but not only).

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«WWOOF è un movimento mondiale che mette in relazione volontari e progetti rurali naturali promuovendo esperienze educative e culturali basate su uno scambio di fiducia senza scopo di lucro, per contribuire a costruire una comunità globale sostenibile.»