Family farm

Metropolitan

6 reviews • Updated 7 months ago

Ruka Ñuke (“House of Mother”) – Curacaví, Chile 💧 Water & Nature We are Paula (mam) and our two children, stewarding a small secano costero parcel between Santiago and Valparaíso. Here we restore native forest—Chilean acacias, quillay, peumos—and plant orchards naturally. Irrigation comes from a windmill and traditional acequias, and our summer swimming hole is a chemical-free natural pool filtered by reeds. 🌱 Earth & Construction Organic gardens, seedling greenhouse, native seed bank, circular cropping under acacias and on-site composting sustain our soil. We’re building our volunteer cabin in superadobe and mud, with rustic wooden windows overlooking the parcel’s trees. Accommodation is a shared room with mattresses in our humble cabin—please bring warm layers (jackets, wool hats) and a flashlight. 🔥 Fire & Community We share phone-free meals, cooking together with fresh produce from the garden and enjoying those magical, unhurried conversations. Your daily rhythm may include winter sowing, seedbed prep, henhouse cleaning, compost management, irrigation upkeep, tree pruning, firebreak clearing, pool maintenance, ditch work, horse-walking—and on Thursdays, salsa classes! We eat meat but welcome vegetarians. 💨 Air & Values This is a feminist, respectful, non-hierarchical space where all voices matter and we make sure women, children and diverse identities feel safe and valued. We prize cultural exchange, cooperation and the joy of simple yet profound communal living. Spanish is our main language; town services (hospital, bank, supermarket) are 7 km away, and limited internet access is shared via our phone. ✅ Sustainability & Vision Certified organic by OPOC (Organics of Curacaví), we dream of an eco-hostel and restaurant to sustain Ruka Ñuke. 🌱 Join Us Come be part of our “House of Mother,” where every act—from watering a plant to using our composting toilet—is a gesture of care and connection that nourishes both land and heart.

Learning opportunities

Vegetable farming

Fruit or nut farming

Poultry farming

Horse or donkey farming

Raising of other farm animals

Aquaculture

Aromatic or medicinal plants, teas

Seed saving or production

Vegetable or fruit preservation

Food justice / sovereignty

Methods or systems

Fukuoka farming

Holistic management

No-till farming

Permaculture

Regenerative agriculture

Rotational grazing

Host type

Production farm

Certified organic

1.2 Hectares | 3 Acres

Accommodation

4+ WWOOFers

Bedroom

Camper / RV

Campsite

Cabin / Mobile-home

Children accepted

Pets accepted

Meals

Omnivore

Vegetarian

Vegan

Length of stay

1-2 weeks

3-4 weeks

Over a month

Paula

Member since 2019

Languages spoken: English, Portuguese, Spanish

Sun

Mon

Tue

Wed

Thu

Fri

Sat

Response rate: 100% Response time: typically within 2 days

MapLibre | Protomaps | © OpenStreetMap

Metropolitan

Aeropuerto Internacional Arturo Merino Benítez

Reviews

Carter

Canada • January 2026

My 3 weeks I spent at Paula’s place was incredible! Her and her two sons are the nicest people you’ll meet, and the property is beautiful. An average day involves lots of cooking nice fresh food, feeding animals, watering plants, and doing whatever random job is in store that day. When there’s lots of volunteers working on the eco construction project is a blast, and when there’s less, going around and doing whatever Paula asks is also fun. Very reasonable working hours and a very fun time

Marco

Italy • December 2025

Durante tres semanas en la parcela de Paula descubrí la regeneración del suelo y la naturaleza. Además, ella impartió un curso de Agroecología, una materia nueva para mí, y pude asistir tanto a las clases como a las visitas a otras parcelas, lo que amplió enormemente mi visión del trabajo sostenible. La vivienda es sencilla pero completa y incluye una piscina natural que resultó muy placentera! Compartí momentos agradables con Paula, su familia y los demás voluntarios, y aprendí mucho sobre la cultura mapuche, lo cual me fascinó. Me sentí bien recibido y disfruté de un tiempo muy provechoso y enriquecedor. Gracias, Paula, por tu generosidad y por compartir tus conocimientos. Un fuerte abrazo, Marco

Manon

France • December 2025

Mi pareja y yo pasamos allí algo más de tres semanas, lo que resultó muy beneficioso tanto a nivel humano como personal. Aprendimos a construir una casa con tierra y cola natural, a podar el seto, a limpiar la piscina, a alimentar a los animales que habitan en la granja, a regar... Paula es una mujer enérgica, alegre, muy interesante y accesible. Por las tardes, cuando volvía del trabajo, y los fines de semana, pudimos hablar de diferentes temas. Le gusta mucho transmitir sus conocimientos. De hecho, organiza regularmente talleres sobre compostaje, abejas y construcción. Siempre guardaremos un muy buen recuerdo de nuestra estancia en su casa. Gracias, Paula ♥️ Manon y Alexandre.

Kerith

United States • February 2025

Our stay at Paula's farm was both interesting and inspirational. We deeply enjoyed spending time with the other volunteers (2-4 additional people) and conversations around the dinner table when Paula came home each evening. Most days consisted of chores (watering plants, feeding hens, guinea pigs, dogs, and horses) and special projects (tending gardens, construction, seed starting, canning, etc). There was usually 2-3 hours of rest time between lunch and dinner to swim in her amazing pool. Her parcela was extremely unique. Her history with and goal for the land is inspiring as she incorporates many philosophies and technical knowledge of the land. She loves sharing these ideas with volunteers, and we benefited from her teaching and working alongside her on the weekends. We were lucky to be there for the honey harvest, for which community members/friends were invited to participate and learn. Communal meals were an enjoyable part of each day but did entail both preparations before and cleaning after. Ingredients for all 3 meals are graciously provided by Paula. The time spent preparing and cleaning was often significant and in addition to the total of 5-6 farm work hours. Prospective wwoofers should be prepared for varying schedules and paying for occasional meals off-farm (field trips guided by Paula). Thank you, Paula, for sharing your knowledge, home, food, time, and stories with us. We thoroughly enjoyed our time spent learning here.

Juliette

Belgium • June 2024

I had an absolute wonderful time with Paula, Wlady, Hans, (her sons) and Tallas. They are situated in a wonderful area on the other side of the mountain where lies Curacavi. I spent a wonderful time here and learned a lot. The work is very fair, right now they are building a new house so you are mainly in construction, but I found it really cool to learn about construction and building. You still work in the farm a lot but that is their main priority right now. The food is very good too, Paula makes it a mission that every volunteer who passes by has to make bread at least once and if they don’t know how, that’s the day they will learn how. Paula values’ family a lot and the volunteer is expected to respect that. I for one, am a person who specifically LOOKS for this in farms so I was right where I needed to be. They also have two wonderful dogs Princess and Spike, that I loved with my whole heart and became my best friends. I have nothing but good things to say about Paula and her farm.

Sheila

Spain • June 2022

El molino de Curacavi es un lugar precioso, lleno de magia y buena onda! Paula y familia me trataron con mucho amor, además se aprende muchísimo a su lado, es una gran sabia! También me invitaron a salir y me llevaron de excursión al cajón del Maipo. Fue muy especial compartir con ellxs! El trabajo en la parcela es muy ameno, manteniendo el cuidado de los animales que son muy lindos, huerta, poda, cuidado del bosque que guardan con todo el cariño. Recomiendo mucho pasar por allí un tiempo. Abrazo familia!