1. What is ESC
2. Erasmus/ESC – Who are we
3. Being a volunteer at Hästekasen
4. Long ESC
5. Team ESC
6. Methods and traditions
Apply here
Hästekasen Facebook photos
Read about our “green” approach
Our project is very popular, 100´s of people apply.
Team ESC (meaning you can do one even if you have done ESC before)
1) May 2025
2) July 2025
3) September 2025
Possible schedule for a one month Team ESC
Day 0) Travel day (or 1-2 days before)
Day 1) 9.00 Introduction and get to know each other. You must have arrived here.
Day 2) Team building (personal presentation) and farm orientation
Day 3) Field work #1 (or berry/mushroom). Evening in fire dungeon.
Day 4) Natural clay wall building ALL #1
Day 5) Natural clay wall building ALL #2
Day 6) Half day free. Orientation + fire + camp skills
Day 7) 1/2 day Field work #2. Until lunch/ half day + CAMP OUT
Day 8) Sleep + reflection/ debriefing. 1/2: day: 3-4 buckets of clay to Mountain. Party #1
Day 9) Half day free / sleep. ½ day: Field work #3 Harvest?
Day 10) Natural clay wall building ALL #3
Day 11) Natural clay wall building ALL #4 + werewolf or drumming
Day 12): Free day: Airsoft. + soft skill workshop. Slaughter?
Day 13) Orc path + Berry/mushroom.
Day 14) Chop fire wood + mid term evaluation + Party #2
Day 15) Free day (take down tents and move into wagons)
Day16) Free day
Day 17) Free day
Day 18) Carpentry: storage or sheepfield roof
Day 19) Carpentry: storage or sheepfield roof
Day 20) Half day Free. Workshop soft skill. Workshops: goal setting, Ikigai, life wheel.
Day 21) Natural clay wall building ALL #5
Day 22) Natural clay wall building ALL #6 Maybe island house
Day 23) Berry/mushroom/harvest/conservation. Soil work.
Day 24) Half day Free. Afternoon: discussions.
Day 25) NF house technical work, and/or Viking camp house technical work.
Day 26) ?
Day 27) Field work #4 + Cultural night
Day 28) End evaluation + Half day free.
Day 29) Free day
Day 30) Free day
Day 31) Travel day.
Day 32-34) Last travel day in order to get reimbursed for travel, travel after this and you will not get back your money. You must travel back to your resident country.
Free days: as in the schedule. On top of this you can take 2 extra days free when ever you want, but you must tell the day before, and only one free day from the clay wall work.
This is the project!
Notice that WORK is in the center of everything.
Non-formal and Informal learning through practical work.
This is not a school or a course – this is learning by doing in a non-formal way. You must actively take part.
You must understand that the volunteer work is mainly the building work, and sometimes small scale farming. It is obligatory to take part in these activities.
The community living that involves you cleaning and cooking is NOT part of the regulated ESC work.
- Main activities (depending on season):
- Living in a community, sharing household.
- Natural building with logs, wood, stones, clay, straw.
- Survival nature skills / camping.
- Possible to do handicraft.
- Manure work. Recycling of resources.
- Work in forest.
- And some:
- Food preservation, baking.
- Permaculture gardening/ small scale farming (some animals). Soil and
- Special Topics: Leadership and entrepreneurship
Before you apply – read everything below.
1 month European volunteering (ESC) Teams, on a community small scale farm and adventure center in Sweden. Outside, dirty, practical work for practical people in beautiful nature.
You are expected to participate at least 38 hours work per week.
Your travel costs will be covered up to a limit.
You will receive 150 euro pocket money every months
Food and accommodation is covered.
PRACTICAL INFORMATION for participants
Note
This is not a 9-5 kind of activity.
Some days we “work” 10 hours, other days we may just sit in an watch films and drink tea and talk. There is lots of room for improvisation.
Some days there are a course at the farm and the ESC may have to adapt to that, take part, or support, or take a day of.
Sometimes you will have to take initiative yourself.
Mostly vegetarian food, absolutely no smoking (not even in your freetime). Restricted use of shower, laundry, dryers, heating. Limited Wifi and internet use. You will be part of a self sustainable and environmentally friendly life style, where we save resources, using less comfort.
There is no city here – only trees, rocks and sea.
If you want follow the activities at Hastekasen farm (ecological farm community) you can follow us on facebook.
Other things we may do
Scrape old paint. Dig. Trim fruit trees. Play musical instruments.
Recognize wild plants and herbs e t c. Repair engines e t c. Build homepages. Hatch chickens. Carry. Work with piping. Move big stones. Watch films. Move and spread manure. Climbing trees and rock. Research on internet. Read about farming. Go on excursions. Carry hay. Listen to music. Discuss… and more.
Share the vision.
Be interest in doing the work described.
Have a passion for being in the forest and on the sea.
Preferably you have already tried short stays in communities. Now you want to stay longer and live “slower” and simpler.
Remember, this is not a city. Just a few people in a house on the countryside with low living standard. Simple life is a goal.
COMMUNITY LIVING
You will share household with many others. You will have to clean, cook, bake e t c. You will share your free time with the people living here. Food will be simple and mostly vegetarian. No nicotine allowed. We try to avoid too much sugar. We drink alcohol on special occasions.
Living conditions are simple, sometimes 15 degrees in your room (spring/autumn), there are maybe ants and mice and mosquitos.
You will work, and live at the same place. The community living is not officially part of the volunteer work, but you have to live here and follow the rules of the community. Make sure you check out these rules before you accept.
On team ESC´s you will share room, and mind you, there may be a spider or some ants also living there (this is the country side).
If you want to visit nearby towns there is a bus station 5 km away, the nearest shop is 15 km away. Most volunteers do not leave the farm much, but usually takes a longer vacation in Sweden (we will help you organize this). The nature around Hästekasen with sea and forest is great places for excursions.
SIMPLE LIVING
You must use the outhouse dry toilet, maximum 3 showers every week. There is not much sense taking morning showers since we do physical work in nature. We do not have to feel “fresh” when working in nature.
Max 1 laundry every two weeks, do not use the electrical dryer (wind will dry your clothes for free, without environmental impact).
Sometimes we have Wifi. Mobiles must stay in your room. Because we try to be “here and now”. No TV, no videogames – not even in your freetime (if you want to fit into the vision), because you chose this ESC because you want to do things in nature with others. We often watch films/documentaries together.
This is what we mean with simple lifestyle – saving resources, becoming more self-sustainable. Do not expect Swedish high material standard.
Sometimes there are electricity cuts, you will have to make a fire to keep warm and to cook. There is no city here, civilization is far away, no shops, no cafés, no bars – nothing. A 5km walk to the bus. Here you find only nature, and weather. This is a rural experience. Come here because you are looking for this experience. Do not be too romantic about “Swedish countryside”.
FOOD and shopping
To follow the vision of sustainability, save resources, low impact, simple living and health… these are the guidelines for food shopping:
– No alcohol, wine, beer except at our official party days.
– No soft drinks, no juice. We usually drink water.
– No meat (only our own sheep) (if you eat meat, you have to take part in slaughter)
– No bread (only our home baked)
– Very little candy/cookies/chocolate (you can buy your own)
(only some sweet things we eat together, or our own baked)
– One fruit per person per day (focus on local produce)
– Avoid long transported food (such as exotic fruit)
– No luxury pre-cooked food.
– Focus on trying to use homemade jars from last years harvest.
All these restrictions reflects how much of the planets resources we want to use. Being adaptable and consuming less, will make you empowered, more self sustainable on a personal level.
Qualifications
You need some of these:
- Prior experience of practical handy-man work.
- Be able to live simple with less comfort.
- Initiative and work ethics (activities is obligatory)
- Background of economic problems, or social problems, or school problems, emotional problems e t c
These are also good:
- Be able to communicate in english.
- Planning a future life on the country side.
Emotional warning
You will be moved out of your comfort zone, you will be nervous, you will feel that too much is asked of you, you will think about going home, you will notice how much you do not know, you will be angry, you will be questioning your self confidence, you will be questioning the people that organize the work. There will be demands and expectations on you, you will be expected to remember things, to be able to repeat and do things just after being shown them once, in time, you will be expected to be able to lead others.
Your potential is great, we have great expectations on you. Your hands and feet are not enough, you need to be focused and aware, your ability to observe and analyze and remember, you need to write some things down, you need to take responsibility and initiative. You need to bring your “heart”, to care about the things here.
Out of 145+ volunteers so far 7 has wanted to leave earlier, 5 has left earlier.
Hästekasen will help you grow. You will be welcome back if it is a “fit”.
PHYSICAL WORK OUTSIDE
It will be dirty, you will sweat, you will touch animals, you will touch worms, your body will at times hurt, sometimes it is boring, sometimes it is cold and raining. It will make you mentally strong.
We expect you to be able to lift 30% of your bodyweight (men 40%).
Possible outdoor activity skills on your free time e t c
– Learn to swim (depending season)
– Orientation in a forest
– Camping in the forest.
– Canoe (not winter)
– Yoga
– Fishing
– Climbing trees (mainly summer)
– Zip line
– Ice scating, skiing (flatland) (if there is ice)
– Bikes
– Bow shooting
– LARP
Personal development
We will discuss things like what you could be doing five years into the future. We will discus things such as empowerment, learning, skill, responsibility, performance: motivation, confidence, goal, discipline, identity. Things that shape our life.
Remember you have come her for a new experience, not to recreate the life you had at home. That means you will have to adapt to new things, maybe even things you do not like.
https://openpsychometrics.org/tests/IPIP-BFFM/
Our personalities
You
We are very much interested in your skills.
Maybe you know something that we can use, or do here.
You will need to tell us things like allergies, food preferences and strengths and weaknesses that we have to be aware of.
We can not accept smokers. Food will be mainly vegetarian.
Other
We will help planning your own personal vacation/excursions you may want to do.
Work and activities should be characterized by awareness and mental presence. Learning and experience will be an obvious target, among others. The functional work should also involve aesthetic aspects.
What does simple living during youth exchange /Short ESC mean:
