Grow mushrooms with us! Short term project in France
INITIATIVE ET DEVELOPPEMENT CITOYEN
Initiative et développement citoyen/ café vert
Carcassonne / Lastours, France
Description
We are looking for our new team of mushroom lovers, who will work in this circular economy project called Café Vert! This project started years ago, with formation and lots of experimentation, and since 2020, our ESC volunteers are part of this experience. Our cooperative IDC's projects aim to raise awareness about the actual context we are living and to propose and create solutions to be part of a positive change in a social, cultural and environmental aspect. In this project especifically, we will reuse waste to create new life. We collect coffee waste from cafés and restaurants and we mix it with mycellieum to grow oyster mushrooms. And after harvesting, we use that new “waste” in our earth-worm farm, which is great to create new and rich soil for plants. Infopack here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/crydulvv4aylut7/IDC_InfopackMushroomGrowers.pdf?dl=0 We also have a long term volunteering opportunity for this ;)
Accommodation, food and transport arrangements
Volunteers will stay in shared rooms with other person of the same sex, in an appartment in the city center of Carcassonne (just some meters from the main square!). At IDC we live as a community, so we shared the common tasks of cleaning, cooking and arranging the place. All food is covered! We don’t buy industrial food and we try to eat as local and seasonal as possible. We make the shopping twice per month, both in the supermarket and the vegetables and fruits from a cooperative of the city. And of course, we eat very, very local, eco and fresh mushrooms!
Training during the activity
Volunteers will learn how to grow mushrooms from coffee waste (from the collection step to the selling of the products), how to structure and communicate workshops and events in our eco-boutique, and they will learn different sustainable practices to be more ethical and respectful with the environment. Volunteers will have the chance to learn from our experienced staff, how to develop eco-actions and eco-projects. They will be able to lead them after or to propose new ideas/projects around sustainability, local and organic agriculture, intercultural exchange...
Participant profile
We are looking for youngsters who want to invest themselves in a new life experience, with lots of challenges and learnings! Motivation to learn how to grow mushrooms is a must! The activities are a bit of a routine, since the mushroom processes are the same, but it demands lots of observation in the details to make sure that the production will go as planned. There is also space for creativity and new ideas, in terms of improvement of the activities, creating cool content to share the project, creating events, etc. French is a bonus!
Activity dates
From 07/08/2023 to 05/10/2023
Activity location
Carcassonne / Lastours, France
Individual volunteering
Looking for participants from
Austria, Belgium, Germany, Denmark, Estonia, Greece, Spain, Croatia, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Lithuania, Netherlands, Portugal, Romania
Activity topics
Environment and natural protection
Deadline for applications
Application deadline: 23/07/2023 23:59