🌿 Organic Farm Retreat in the Heart of Tzoumerka Mountains
Epirus
🏡 Accommodation & Meals
Hospitality is at the heart of our values. Volunteers who join us stay in a simple and welcoming space within the village, close to where our daily activities take place.
Accommodation includes:
shared rooms (depending on availability and season)
Shared kitchen and bathroom
Hot water and electricity
Access to outdoor spaces with mountain views, shade, and calm
During the warmer months, there is also the option of staying in a tent or outdoor sleeping area, for those who wish to be even closer to nature.
🍽 Meals
We provide three daily meals (breakfast, lunch, and dinner), all made with fresh, seasonal ingredients — most of them from our garden or local producers.
Our diet is mostly vegetarian, though we are flexible and happy to accommodate dietary needs or preferences.
Volunteers are welcome (but not required) to participate in the preparation of meals, which is often a joyful, shared experience.
We see food not only as nourishment, but as a moment of connection, laughter, and creativity around the table.
🌿 What We Do — Life on the Project
At In the Heart of the Bee, each day is an opportunity to live, learn, and grow together. Volunteers become part of our community and take part in diverse, hands-on activities, such as:
🍅 Organic gardening – planting, weeding, harvesting vegetables and herbs and also harvesting in blueberries
🍯 Beekeeping – caring for our bees, harvesting honey and wax, and learning about the natural rhythm of the hive.
🧴 Product-making – preparing homemade goods like jams, dried herbs, salves, and natural soap.
🔨 Eco-building and construction – working on small-scale construction or renovation projects using ecological and reclaimed materials.
🤝 What You Will Experience
Volunteers become part of our everyday life — we cook, work, and share stories together. Accommodation is simple, meals are wholesome, and the rhythm of life is shaped by nature and community.
If you’re interested in a slower, more intentional way of living, and you want to offer your hands while opening your heart, you’ll likely feel at home here.
🎶 Hobbies & Nearby Activities
In our free time, we enjoy:
🎵 Playing music and singing, sometimes gathering in the evenings for a spontaneous jam or folk songs
🍲 Cooking and experimenting with traditional and creative recipes, using what we grow or produce
The surrounding area offers amazing possibilities for outdoor activities:
🥾 Hiking on old stone paths through forests, rivers, and traditional mountain villages.
🏞 Exploring the landscape, with stunning views, hidden waterfalls, and deep gorges.
🏊 Swimming in rivers with crystal-clear water during the summer months.
If you're looking for a deeper connection with the land, simple living, and genuine human exchange, our place in the mountains of Tzoumerka is open to you.
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Learning opportunities
Vegetable farming
Fruit or nut farming
Sheep or goat farming
Raising of other farm animals
Viticulture
Beekeeping
Aromatic or medicinal plants, teas
Seed saving or production
Vegetable or fruit preservation
Green Building
Methods or systems
Biological pest control
Regenerative agriculture
Rotational grazing
Host type
Self-sufficiency property
10
Hectares
|
24.7
Acres
Στην καρδια της Μελισσας
Member since 2025
Languages spoken:
English, Greek
Sun
Mon
Tue
Wed
Thu
Fri
Sat
Response rate: 67%
Response time: typically within 7 days
Epirus
Bus stasion Arta
Reviews
Lorenzo
Italy
•
December 2025
Authentic and spartan (not for everyone!)
I spent two months here in the middle of autumn, seeking a total change from city life. I appreciated how the greenery takes over everything, from the mountains to the tiny village houses. To me living simply and on a low budget was fulfilling and liberating, but it is crucial to understand that this is not a typical relaxing retreat. It requires lot of resilience and a willingness to live spartanly.
- Accommodation: Frugal and improvised. I experienced some malfunctions, such as electrical issues, rainwater leaks, and no WiFi. I enjoyed testing my limits in this rustic setting, but for some people the lack of comfort can be difficult to tolerate.
- The work: Driven by improvisation (sometimes in conditions that are "adventurous" and not entirely safe). As a handyman, I did everything from harvesting grapes and moving furniture to digging soil for days. Overall, you will spend a lot of your time in the tavern (serving or tidying up the room and the kitchen).
- Schedule: There is no fixed routine. I worked 10-hour shifts on weekends (1 p.m. to 11 p.m. and more) but also had full days with nothing to do during bad weather. You must be proactive in carving out your own free time.
Conclusion: I recommend this to those who set no limits for themselves and embrace "yes" to genuine, rough, sometimes uncomfortable situations. If you are just looking to "switch off" and pick flowers in a calm, idyllic environment, you are in the wrong place.
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Sydney
Canada
•
July 2025
We highly recommend spending time with Roula, Giannis, Aleka, Triphonas, and Marinos in the beautiful village of Kalloni!! Although this farm's WWOOF account is new, Roula has lots of experience with volunteers - we felt right at home and had everything we could possibly need. We enjoyed privacy in the house they have specifically for volunteers. In fact, we liked it here so much that we doubled our planned stay. It was a great first WWOOF experience, between picking blueberries and oregano, taking care of the garden, trees, and rabbits, and eating tons of Aleka's great Greek food! We also got to harvest plums for jam and play the Tzouras instrument (which Giannis made!). Each day's work was different, but included some daily tasks like watering the garden and feeding rabbits. On Saturdays we helped out at the tavern as well, which was a lot of fun. The hosts were very accommodating and, on days we were not picking blueberries, we woke around 8, had breakfast, and then worked for a few hours, taking a break for the hottest part of the day and working again for a period in the afternoon if there was work to finish. The work was so interesting that it barely felt like work, and we learned so much. Our stay was an unforgettable part of our trip, and we're very grateful!!
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Robert
Netherlands
•
June 2025
My partner and I had an unforgettable stay with Roula & co.! We where there for about 3 weeks, we stayed in our own van across from their base, we could use their bathroom.
The work was interesting: we did gardening, harvesting and renovation. A lot was rather physical, but we liked that. We learned a lot in the process, also about life in the Greek mountains.
The hours are not kept very accurately and because of the varied nature of the cooperative the work couldn't be scheduled well. But we could communicate this with the hosts and it wasn't a real problem for us. Taking days off to go for excursions was also arranged very easily.
Mostly we were blown away by how welcoming the guys have been, from day 1 we felt treated like family!
Oh, and the food had been amazing, well accommodated for vegetarians
(Final note, the guys have hosted dozens of volunteers already, this listing is just new.)
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