We look for one or two WWOOFers who:
* Share an attic room with one or two double futons - a female or a couple -
* Each work a total of 30 hours a week in the gardens and in the apothecary
* Are keen to learn botanical body care and will participate in our introductory and certificate workshops focussed on aromatherapy
* Are interested in learning the ins and outs of a botanical business, mail order and retail shop.
* Will stay at least a month, with longer stays preferred so that you can learn more!
If you are simply travelling through Toronto, wanting to stay less than a few weeks, want to stay on a farm or with a large family with strict routines, or only vaguely interested in botanical medicine this is not a fit for us. You'll get bored; I'll get frustrated.
OUR OFFER: You work in the gardens and in the Apothecary on a schedule an average of 30 hours a week, with Sundays and Mondays off. You can take every workshop we offer at no cost while you are here. We have a number of festivals at which we'll teach others how to make bath salts, body scrubs and face masks from 100% natural ingredients. We harvest some herbs and vegetables but mostly make botanical body care at the apothecary. PLEASE LET ME KNOW IN YOUR REPLY HOW YOU FIT INTO WHAT WE DO HERE, AND WHAT YOU ARE KEEN TO LEARN.
ACTIVITIES:
~ Maintaining and Harvesting from urban permaculture food forest, herbs & elderberries and intensive container vegetable garden on our kitchen deck.
~ Packaging, cleaning, filling orders and other assistance in the apothecary and at workshops
~ Postering and other promotional activities for workshops and events
~ Production and assistance making organic body care products
HOURS WILL TOTAL 30 HOURS per week, generally 1:30 to 7:30 Tues-Sat, but your hours could be starting in the garden in the morning and finishing in the early afternoon at the apothecary. I ask one hour of household chores per week, just like anyone living here, and that you clean up after yourself and help with meals.
PLEASE LET ME KNOW IN YOUR REPLY HOW YOU FIT INTO WHAT WE DO HERE, AND WHAT YOU ARE KEEN TO LEARN. WE DO NOT ACCEPT GENERAL INQUIRIES SUCH AS "I'D LIKE TO WORK ON YOUR FARM" BECAUSE IT SOUNDS LIKE YOU DID NOT READ OUR LISTING. We want hosting you to work for both of us!
ACCOMMODATION:
* We have an attic room at our house for one female or a couple sharing a room & a futon, or mother and child WWOOFER genuinely interested in harvesting local foods and in aromatherapy.
* The house and apothecary are a few blocks from each other between the Ossington and Dufferin subway stations in downtown Toronto.
* I ask one hour of household chores per week, just like anyone living here, and that you clean up after yourself and help with meals.
* The apartment we live in is small, and there isn't much common space - a small kitchen, bathroom with shower and a sunroom where we eat.
* There is WIFI and cable internet, as well as Netflix (for now).
* We have free washer and dryer, and dishwasher, that we run between 7 pm and 7 am only.
* The house and apothecary use 100% wind, solar and garbage powered electricity and gas through the grid.
OUR GARDEN:
We have an organic food forest style urban garden built from worm compost with fruit trees and berries. The stone path is laid out like a twisting path Tarot reading and underneath the stones are runes.
On our kitchen deck, we have a container vegetable garden with perennials and annuals and enjoy "wild" foods such as wood sorrel, lamb's quarters and dandelion.
ANARRES APOTHECARY
A few blocks away is Anarres Apothecary, my aromatherapy shop, treatment centre and school. I teach people from all over the world how to make safe affordable traditional medicines and body care products from natural, fairly traded and local organic ingredients. The apothecary is open Tuesdays through Saturdays noon to 7 pm. The work there is a mixture of drudgery (cleaning floors, dishwashing, storing things...), preparing orders of herbs, essential oils, carrier oils, clays and other natural ingredients, learning about natural ingredients through packaging and product making and weekly events & workshops we hope you participate in.
You may be asked to work in the garden in the mornings May-October and help out in the apothecary in the afternoon or evening for a total of 6 hours for the day. The first week you are here you will probably do harvesting, cleaning and packaging. You will be encouraged to take all of the workshops and classes on Tuesday and Friday evenings, and every second Sunday, for which you will earn certificates if you like. If you would like to be insured as an aromatherapist in Canada, you can earn this 60-hour training certificate with me while WWOOFing long term.
MEALS:
We are working members of Karma Food Coop, active food barterers, and grow produce and fruit. Left to our own devices, we are generally "freegans" not buying dairy products or meats regularly, but we often have these items by trade.
On weekdays, I get up and prepare breakfast and lunch for my child at 7 am. If you aren't up for breakfast, you will need to make it for yourself, but all the food in the fridges and freezer is at your disposal and it's easy to make smoothies here. You could make your own breakfast and lunch. Smoothies are easy to make at the house and popular choices. I often make a crock pot for lunch mid-afternoon at the apothecary, and dinner tends to be late at 8:30pmish.
I shop at our food coop most Sundays and would be pleased if you joined me to help and to choose the items you want to eat.
We trade for foods and "dumpster dive" foods that are often not organic - preventing perfectly clean and good foods from going into the urban waste stream. This trading and recovering food is as much part of our sustainability ethic as growing our own produce and shopping at our food coop. I remove residual pesticides and moulds by soaking in baking soda, dipping in vinegar then rinsing with clean water. Of course, you don't have to eat anything you are not comfortable with!
CLEANING & LAUNDRY: We expect you to clean up after yourself, do your own laundry (free, on-site), and help clean up after shared meals. Please do one hour per week of housework, sweeping, spot mopping and vacuuming as needed. I clean areas of the kitchen and sunroom on a rotating basis, and my child takes care of the bathroom.
TIME OFF: You will have Sundays and Mondays off, but are welcome to join us when travelling to festivals, gatherings and local communities on the weekends. This is an urban opportunity, with connections to activism, sustainability and educational community efforts. If the city is too much sometimes, we can show you how to take a ferry to idyllic Toronto Islands where you can find yourself a secret beach.
THIS IS NOT A FIT FOR YOU IF:
* You want to stay less than a month unless we have a gap and have listed an urgently needed post.
* You don't attend our workshops. Then you won't learn how to make body care in a focussed way and you'll wonder why you are doing so much cleaning instead of making products!
* You only want to be in Toronto for a sports event, or for tourism. You have to really want to make body care products from botanicals to enjoy your stay with us.
* You are a strict vegan and won't tolerate others eating meat or dairy, or having it in the same fridge as vegetables.
* You eat strictly organically grown foods and won't tolerate the fact that we trade for foods and "dumpster dive" foods that are often not organic - preventing perfectly clean and good foods from going into the urban waste stream. This trading and recovering food is as much part of our sustainability ethic as growing our own produce and shopping at our food coop. I remove residual pesticides and moulds by soaking in baking soda, dipping in vinegar then rinsing with clean water. Of course, you don't have to eat anything you are not comfortable with!
* You have trouble locking the house door behind you. We have an electronic entry code system at our home. You'll receive your own entry code. We have a monitored system because our housemate on the ground floor is vulnerable. We would have to ask you to leave if you could not be relied on to lock the door when you go in and out.
WE ARE EXTRA EXCITED TO HOST YOU IF* You speak French* You have children with you.* You identify as LGBTQQ.* You enjoy marketing, promotions and sales!* You enjoy helping out at festivals, fairs and farmer's markets.* You have a driver's license (not necessary). We don't, but I can rent a car...
In short, this is a great fit for you if you want: * an urban experience filled with coops, activism and community fairs* to participate in an active household, doing fun things but also boring things like sweeping!* intensive gardening versus commercial farming* to learn about essential oils, extracts and other natural botanicals* to learn about cosmetic making and green business practices* to learn aromatherapy and traditional medicine, plus natural contraception and alternatives to petroleum* to improve your English through experience with us and at the apothecary.
Please check out AnarresHealth on the interwebs to learn more...
WHY WE HOST WWOOFERS:
Like most permaculture enterprises, Anarres Apothecary is run by student volunteers and even I "the owner" give myself a small honorarium for hosting WWOOFers. Anarres Apothecary has been a resource to the DIY, and zero waste communities in southern Ontario for 13 years. My passion is teaching others how to use natural, fairly traded and local botanical ingredients for healing mind, body and spirit. You can read more about me and my training in the ABOUT section of my website. AnarresHealth DOT ca
I, Tracey, have lived in communal homes nearly all my life. At home as a child, we always had boarders who were students from all over the world. Except for a lonely year in my own apartment, I have always lived in group houses, and when I got a house of my own, I, of course, got housemates. Presently, my lifelong friend Pete lives on the ground floor in a separate apartment with his cats. He is very friendly, loves to cook pub food, and struggles with a non-contagious physical illness. My teenaged daughter and I and a WWOOFer or two share the upstairs apartment. We are really busy and spend most of our waking hours at the Apothecary.
Our best experiences have been with WWOOFers who are studying herbal, Chinese, traditional, botanical medicines and holistic nutrition. Other possible fits for those who enjoy marketing, customer service, DIY projects, homesteader hopefuls. Want to become an aromatherapist, or start your own natural cosmetics enterprise? This IS a fit! You just need to dedicate a month or more to learn.
Here is an excerpt from a note left by a WWOOFer:
"Thank you so much for everything. The comfy home, the learnings, your transparency, your trust... all the things you found for me!
See you later :)"
Here is an email I received from a Taiwanese student of Traditional Chinese Medicine I hosted:
"Dear Tracey,
I'm back home now, thanks for the wonderful experience you brought to me in Toronto this time. You're such a good teacher with excellent personality and great humour, and with your nice store, all make my journey unforgettable and amazing.
Every time having a conversation with you really change my mind gradually on some global issue that people concerned about, even though I still can't catch all the words you said, but I finally start to have an eye on the things I can do to our Mother Earth, and ready to put them into action. The passion and perseverance you have for life really moved me, and I will definitely try my best to live a fabulous life, just as you. And I know I can do that!
The night at Harbor Front, the New Moon Circle, the advance lotion making lesson, the Dance Our Way Home program, the time we spent in the garden, the products we made at store and the pig pie you cooked for me and Xena, I will keep all these memories with me, and hope your store can run more steady so you can have more time to relax...
TAKE CARE
BEST WISHES..."
A Thank You card from a Canadian homesteading intern:
"Dear Tracey,
I just wanted to write to thank you for allowing me to spend time at Anarres. I learned a great deal, and you were a wonderful teacher. I will be sure to put all this new knowledge to good use up North. Thanks again for your time, your effort and your amazing wisdom..."
~*~
You can learn more by visiting our website www.AnarresHealth.ca
PLEASE LET ME KNOW IN YOUR REPLY HOW YOU FIT INTO WHAT WE DO HERE, AND WHAT YOU ARE KEEN TO LEARN. WE DO NOT ACCEPT GENERAL INQUIRIES SUCH AS "I'D LIKE TO WORK ON YOUR FARM" BECAUSE IT SOUNDS LIKE YOU DID NOT READ OUR LISTING.