Family farm, market garden with vegetable production and sheeps
Vestland
______WE ARE FULLY BOOKED TIL THE END OF AUGUST____
(And I am terrible late with answering some times )
We are a family of five. With sheep's and a market garden. Placed in a small village with a lot of nearby hiking possibilities and longer day trips in the mountain.
Renate is the farmer - she grew up here and has the main responsibilty and work at the farm. Bård Kjetil is working as a carpenter full time outside the farm, and of cause some building at the farm: Trygve 11 years old, Oline 10 years old and Astrid 3 years old. The kids have school holiday from mid june til mid august, so then they will be alot around as well.
We have 70 sheeps, 3 daa vegetable garden with a variety of vegetables; carrots, cabbages, onions, peas, salads, potatoes, beets ++ And 100 daa grass production, the latest years we have rented an etrepenour to help us with the the grass cutting and making forage to the sheeps.
The last three years we have been using holistic managemant and regenerative agriculture, been doing classes through savory institute. So we feel pretty new on this type of farming. But already see how good it is, and it gives us a lot of hope for the farm and the world for the future.
From april/early may we prepere the market garden and start sowing/planting. Its very exciting every year what time the spring really comes, since we have the glacier near by it can be cold for a long time. We can also chop wood, start fixing fences after the winter snow.
From 17th of May til end of May we have the lambing season. Then you can learn a lot of sheeps, lambs, sheeps giving birth/lambing.
In the middle of June we let them go to the mountain, we drive them 10 minutes and let them walk up to 1000 m by them selves. We have two cottages without electricity and water. One of them is where we drive them to, and the other is on 800 meters high, about 2 hours hike up. We use the mountain cabin when we check on the sheeps at the mountain or when we want to take some days off. Both of the cottages is free to use for our woofers as well.
Not all of the sheeps can go to the mountain, sometimes they are sick, the lambs are sick... they dont have enough milk +++ Then we keep them home the whole summer, and move them around with the holistic plan.
June is also a planting and weed control month in the marked garden.
We use a two wheel tractor to make the beds, 75 cm and 20 meters long. For weed control we use different methodes, plant cover, different hoes and some we cover with tarp. We try to make our own compost, but there we are still learning. Not perfectly satified yet.
July we continuing the weed control, and start harvesting. August is harvesting, preparing next season in the marked garden.
We deliver vegetables to private costumers and some restaurants. Ciderhouse is one of our exciting restaurant custumer, with Turkey and Norwegian owners.
September is a beautiful month here in Norway, all theese nice colors in the nature, fresh air. We go to the mountain to get our sheeps back home, we harvest in the marked garden and prepere for the winter. We deliver the lambs for slaughtering.
As general projects we are gonna finish our building to clean and pack the vegetables, Painting in the barn and I hope we can start our chicken tractor so we can get chickens again. We also working with rebuild our hallway in the mainhouse, Bård Kjetil does that after hours, so it will take some time to live in the workplace.
Since our kids start at school at 8.30 I think thats a nice time to start the day. 8.30 or 9.
We work for 3 hours, have a lunch break, work couple of hours more. After dinner we often go to the fjord for a swim, a hike or relax.
WWOOFER`s work maximum 5 hours a day, Bård Kjetil and I continue very often to work in the afternoon and evening as well.
We enjoy cooking, hiking, experiencing, swimming in the cold fjord.
Almost every day when it`s varm we go to the fjord aprox 10 minutes drive from the farm, to take a swim with the kids. We also enjoy our village Balestrand 30 km away, with some shops, coffee bars and restaurants.
It is also a lot of culture walks, historic buildings in Balestrand.
HIKING! With the worlds biggest fjords with tall mountain around us we have alot of hiking oportunities. Small and long walks. Directly from the farm, but also driving distance away. It is also some nice public day-trip cabins around Balestrand.
For weekend trips we can visit the ecological high school couple of hours away, the glacier, mountain train in Flåm. Go on boat trips to mention some. Theese are also places many wwoofers visit on the way to or from us.
Some weekends we go on trips together with the wwoofers, and sometimes we help the wwoofers to go on their own.
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Learning opportunities
Vegetable farming
Poultry farming
Sheep or goat farming
Forestry
Wild foraging
Flower farming
Aromatic or medicinal plants, teas
Methods or systems
Holistic management
Regenerative agriculture
Host type
Production farm
Certified organic
15
Hectares
|
37.1
Acres
Renate
Member since 2022
Languages spoken:
English, Norwegian
Sun
Mon
Tue
Wed
Thu
Fri
Sat
Response rate: 42%
Response time: typically within 9 days
Vestland
Balestrand 30 km, Sogndal 60 km, Førde 60 km. You can arrive Balestrand by bus or express boat. Skyss.no gives you the opportunities. Contact us when you are getting close to Balestrand and we will pick you up
Reviews
Heide
Germany
•
September 2025
We spend one splendid week at Rendedalen Gard in August and can only recommend this farm! We were the first wwoofers bringing along two little kids and they really loved it. Even though the kids couldn't talk to each other they got along very well and had a lot of fun. The whole family is extremly warmhearted, joyful and just great to be around. We also enjoyed the common trips and especially the villages' Barbecue at the bonfire by the sea - Tusen Takk for everything and Lots of Love! Heide, Ferdi, Lorenz and Theresa
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Emerick
Canada
•
September 2024
We stayed at the farm for 3 weeks in august. It was our first wwoofing experience and it has been wonderful. Renate, Bård Kjetil and their 3 cute kids were generous, fun and so kind. We've did some wwoofing (volunteering) five days a week with weekends off. The days started at 9, helping them until 12, then 1 hour lunch break and again from 13 to 15. The tasks were never the same so we learned a lot of new things (weeding, removing the cow's fences, cleaning the sheep's barn, preserving food, harvesting from the garden, chopping wood, picking mushrooms and blueberries,...). We were sleeping in a little room next to the sheep's barn. There was all we needed: double bed, complete bathroom with a hot water shower, desk area with a mini refrigerator, kettle, essential oils, teas and a portable heater (helpful with the humidity in the room since it rained so much). For the meals, we always ate with the family in the house. Their kitchen was always lively and full of good food. For the dinners, we took turn for cooking. It was a nice way to discover new dishes and to share the typical meals from our country. We had beautiful moments eating all together and getting to know each other around good food. During our free time, we did hikes around, we went swimming in the fjord with the family, we visited the village of Balestrand and we went up in the mountains to sleep one night in the family's cabin. We will keep so many good memories from our experience at at the farm. We miss you 💚
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Lara
Slovenia
•
August 2024
We spent a little bit less than 3 weeks on the beautiful Rendedal farm. It was by far the best Wwoofing experience we've had! Renate is an amazing host and we felt so welcomed right away. The work on the farm is varied and interesting, I learnt a lot about regenerative agriculture. We also loved playing with all the kids and learning new Norwegian words with Bård Kjetil😊
The room that we had also had an amazing view of the whole valley. And the food was delicious! We will definitely try to recreate some of Renate's dishes:)
We would love to come back one day☺️
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Reply from Renate
WOW! Thank you so mutch! This was really a revieu we could go on holliday with :) We will definately recreate some of your recipies as well :) Thank you so mutch for all your good work and your time here! -Till next time :)
Mathias
Sweden
•
June 2024
As a norwegian/swedish couple courious towards alternative small-scale farming, we were lucky to get the possibility to stay 3 weeks at this beautiful sheep- and marketgardening farm along with an amazing hardworking and caring family! They have been so good to us, offering nice sleeping facilities, plenty of food and taking us with them/transported us to hikes and trips during free-time. This makes it enjoyable to work for them. We have had many different tasks during a busy (and unusually hot) time from mid may, with lambing, preparing beds, planting and fencing. Renate is an inspiring woman who dares to challenge the common way of farming and living - she taught us so much. Bård Kjetil taught us everything there is to know about fencing (we even recieved diplomas), the children enjoyed playing with us, and the dog Collin loved to join us for a walk in the evening. We got so much outcome and good memories of this stay. Thank you for the opportunity, and we hope to be able to meet again!
- Mathias & Rebecka
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Reply from Renate
Ohhh THANK YOU SO MUTCH ❤️
We have desided to have the whole day off today, and started it together with breakfast reading this review. Crying in gratefulness.
It was a pleasure having you on visit, teach you, learn from you, get to know you. It is so rich to spread the farming-practises we are starting to get to know. And discuss all the different approches we test and some times fsil with!
Good luck further On! And Looking forward to meet you again. From all of us
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Annegret
Germany
•
August 2023
I had two really great weeks wwoofing at the farm of Renate's family. Everyone was welcoming and kind! The tasks were always changing and I liked it a lot that I didn't do the same one entire day.
The working day was well structured and my sleeping place so nice. I learnt many new things, enjoyed the interesting conversations with Renate and fell a bit in love with the dog Collin 😍
I felt trusted and was very happy to get the chance of staying a night in the cosy hut up on the hill in Grøndalen.
Thanks so much making my stay that easy and letting me feel so welcome in your family!
You touched my heart. Anne
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Ann
Belgium
•
August 2023
It was a wonderful experience to wwoof in Rendedal.
Renate is very friendly and welcoming. She did everything to make you feel at home.
We worked 5 hours in a day, the weekends we were free. We did a lot of weeding. From time to time we had the chance to plant and cut,flowers. One day I fell on the ground and hurt myself badly, Renate gave me lighter work. which helped a lot.
The family was very nice,
The surroundings were amazing, the swimming in thé fjord unforgettable . We stayed a night in the cabin, this was also something to remember.
Thank you so much Renate, we are such a lucky bastards that you accepted us.
Ann and Mieke, from Belgium
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Reply from Renate
Thank you so much Ann and Mieke <3
We were so lucky bastards as well that got your visit here!
Look forward to see you again! And look forward to more quiet days so I can tell all about what has happend here after you left.
BIG HUG!
