Our fellows!

We collaborate with different local, regional and national actors! Treat yourself and get to know their stories!
* The list is always in progress! :) 
Slow Motion Tours, created by one of the founders of Casa da Horta, PJP, develops alternative tourist programs and routes with the aim of providing a different way of getting to know and getting involved with local realities. The main focus is to allow participants to learn about the local reality in a deep and meaningful way. These are unconventional tourist routes because they are focused on social, ecological and cultural aspects, despite the fact that history is always a relevant element. Participants will discover the lesser-known side of the city of Porto - old rural farms, abandoned houses, municipal gardens, wonderful panoramic views and much more.
Espaço Musas works as an autonomous department dedicated to art, culture, leisure and knowledge. It is located within Sport Musas e Benfica, a sports association hosted in the same place, which animates a chess team affiliated with the Porto Chess Association and the Portuguese Chess Federation.
Quinta Musas da Fontinha, in turn, works as an autonomous division dedicated to agroecology and permaculture, which animates a set of urban vegetable communitarian gardens in a biological way. It is located on a hill just above the Musas building and is also a place for workshops, meetings and debates.
address: Rua do Bonjardim 998, Porto
Bananeira Hortas Comunitárias is a public urban community garden installed in the Fontaínhas district of Porto. The place, named after the banana tree that was found in the area, started to develop during the quarantine in Portugal, between April and May 2020, following the idea of a group of active citizens. After a few months, the project already had more than 50 people, including a part of the surrounding community, and continues to expand rapidly in ​the area, recovering and regenerating the space previously occupied by, firstly, illegal houses (firstly) and, secondly, illegal and dumping activities.

address: Alameda das Fontainhas, Porto
Cicloficina do Porto is formed by a group of volunteers who meet with the aim of learning and teaching about the world of bicycles. Here you can find different tools for repairing and dismantling bicycles, drinking tea or a beer, building bicycles-monsters, storing your tools or cycling in the company of other bike enthusiasts.

address: Rua João das Regras 151, Porto (Macaréu - associação cultural)
when: every Wednesday, 16:30-19:30
Movimento Gaio is an environmental association of local, regional and national action, with several years of experience in protecting  the endangered Portuguese forests. Its mission is to return its characteristic forest to the Portuguese people, carrying out its activity in a responsible and professional manner. They intend to develop a culture of co-participation.
Campo Aberto is a non-profit association, of unlimited duration, with legal personality, which aims to debate and promote the exercise of citizenship in the field of the environment, especially in its natural, rural and urban dimensions. This is the basis for their interest in urban issues, which are considered decisive in terms of quality of life and the city environment.

address: Rua de Santa Catarina 730, 2º Dto, Porto
SPEAK contributes to inclusive cities where everyone feels at home and where diversity is championed.
With SPEAK newcomers and locals living in the same city are brought together through community-led language groups and cultural exchange events. Through these experiences participants learn from each other, explore common interests and make new friends, breaking down barriers and tackling prejudice in their cities along the way.
The São Nicolau Social Centre is a non-profit community space dedicated to social intervention working through various social responses in a closed and innovative way. It favours collaborating with other like-minded people and organisations, seeking to respond to the needs of the population. The Social Centre aspires to be a reference local development organisation in its territory, facilitating access for all citizens to fundamental rights and their consequent autonomy and freedom

address: Rua São João 79, Porto
The Quinta Pedagógica do Mitra in Campanhã, former Quinta da Vila Meã - is a space undergoing rehabilitation by the Associação Movimento Terra Solta, the community and the Parish Council of Campanhã, which aims to provide environmental, social and cultural education. The Quinta is a space in constant evolution and dynamism open to citizen initiatives in environmental, social aspects and workshops. During the year there are several trainings and events. The Community lunch stands out every Saturday with the gates always open. It was the basis for the creation of a community orchestra, the Orquestra Comunitária Mundo em Campanhã.
address: Quinta de Vila Meã, Rua Dr. Maurício Estêves Pereira Pinto, Porto
Gata da Mata learns from nature and creates with nature. They explore, learn and teach about edible and medicinal wild plants, and plants that can be found in your garden. Sometimes, they create other DIY projects, always in awe of the environment.
Spruce Up Europe is a series of short documentaries, articles and a network of young people using the space of old houses to create social and cultural projects. It was initiated by Marine Leduc, a journalist from France, and Ana Perfeito, a filmmaker from Portugal. The project started in 2013 in Bucharest, Romania, where both of them were doing a European Voluntary Service. They discovered that the Romanian capital was full of uninhabited houses but young people renovate them to make their own projects. These young people use the rich potential of these houses for social and cultural activities dedicated to local communities. Little by little, they have discovered other places all over Europe and met many people involved in these kinds of initiatives. They decided to create a bigger project and to build a network of “houses”.
Based in Lousada, Associação VERDE is a non-profit association created to integrate the conservation and regeneration of nature into the daily lives of the Portuguese. Its team of biologists, ecologists, as well as economists, jurists, designers and communication professionals create meticulously studied strategies to ensure the preservation of Portugal’s natural habitats.

address: Avenida Sá e Melo, 196; 4620-009 Lousada

small producers / ethical businesses

Trigo do Umbigo
Home bakers who ferment bread slowly and constantly experiment with it. You can try their bread in our starters. Or you can check out their Instagram page to find out more. They deliver to Ermesinde or Porto.

where: Ermesinde, Porto
Mândria
Small collective making fermented drinks.
You really (really!) have to try their famous ginger drink! 

where: Ermesinde, Porto
Monte Mimo is a family farming project in Alentejo that works the land with the aim of its regeneration. Existing already for 10 years, they are inspired by the principles and practices of permaculture, Holistic Pastoring, Water Retention Landscapes, agroecology and syntropic agriculture based on Ernst Gotsch. Meanwhile, they integrated a productive system inspired by J.M. Fortier - Market Gardener, within the regenerative agroforestry system. Their house has off-grid electricity and water systems.

where: Mimosa, Alentejo
Zapatista coffee is sourced directly from the farming cooperatives in Chiapas, southeastern Mexico. They are cooperating only with small-scale farmers united in cooperatives and who organise production and export collectively, supporting several villages and ensuring that the community is self-sufficient and able to work and live on the land.
Also, organic agriculture is still an essential part of the self-concession of Zapatista coffee cooperatives: They have a deep traditional knowledge of the environment and nature and purposefully stand out from farmers associated with the government, investing in sustainable agriculture.

You can drink Zapatista coffee at Casa da Horta, or take a package home.
where: Chiapas, México, via Germany

Other projects/ places that you probably want to know about!
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The Macaréu Cultural Association was born from a group of people guided by fundamental ethical principles of freedom, dignity, equity, respect for difference, and by the echoes of some voices that never die out. It is an open, diverse and inclusive urban place - welcoming community, meeting, integration, awareness and transformation - attentive to multiple forms of cultural expression, seeking to value, promote and cross knowledge in freedom of thought, word and individual or collective action; a place for cooperation, integration and community development under the umbrella of human rights and civil duties, proposing a diverse and cohesive community. Exhibitions, conversations, debates, documentaries, films, workshops, performing arts, concerts and other playful artistic expressions and voluntary and solidarity actions are the most visible face of Macaréu cultural association.

address: Rua João das Regras 151, Porto
A Gralha is a self-managed social centre that offers facilities, equipment and resources for grassroots social movements, autonomous groups, collaborative projects and the community in general.

address: Travessa Anselmo Braamcamp 74, Porto
The main objective of Fruta Feia is to reduce the tons of quality food that are returned to the land every year by farmers and thus avoid unnecessary expenditure of resources used in its production, such as water, arable land, energy and working time. By changing consumption patterns, this project aims to ensure that in the future all quality horticultural products will be marketed equally, regardless of size, colour and shape.
Parallel impacts include the population's awareness of the problem of food waste and the fact that ugly food is not garbage, and also the possibility of consuming  seasonal and regional products at a lower price.
Re-food is an independent, citizen-oriented and 100% voluntary organisation, a solidarity and an eco-humanitarian community that works to eliminate food waste and hunger in each neighbourhood.
Re-food operates in and for the community, working without wages and avoiding any and all costs or investments that do not serve its mission. Re-food has a low cost/high productivity model that improves the quality of life of people in need, while reinforcing the social fabric of the local community.
Gato Vadio, an association based in a library-café, was born with the objective of creating, producing and presenting cultural, artistic and social events as well as editing, spreading and promoting publications.

address: Rua da Maternidade 124, Porto
Auditório CCOP is a multifunctional space located in the city of Porto. The Auditorium operates in the building of Circulo Católico de Operários do Porto, in a completely renovated structure that offers its users any technological and functional resource that they may need.

address: Rua do Duque de Loulé 202, Porto​
Maldatesta was born as one more effort of refusing the somnolence of repetitive movement.
It tries to create an open space for the hidden city, open to those who, in general, don’t give up in their act of building barricades in life to face the projects of death growing around us. A space where the culture that is generated from the catacombs of society follows an anti-authoritarian praxis. A space for free and anarchical experimentation.

address: Rua de São Roque da Lameira 2236, Porto
Espaço Compasso is a non-profit Cultural Association whose purpose is to promote, stimulate and popularise various forms of art and culture, with a particular emphasis on the use of art as an instrument of social intervention. They encourage the creation of alternative means of subsistence and cultural development, supporting social entrepreneurship projects and sharing art in the form of classes, workshops, exhibitions and events.
address: Rua da Torrinha 113, Porto
Mafa Mood started in 1931 as a sports club and was later converted into a cultural association. To this day, it carries out social, cultural, artistic, environmental and recreational activities.

Beija-flor cantine is a vegetarian cantina that opens a few days a week. Food made with great passion by really cool people and at affordable prices.

address: ​Rua do Telhado 265, Vila Nova de Gaia
Salpicos Verdes is probably the most heart-warming vegetarian restaurant in Porto. Big statement, we know, but it's absolutely at place. Salpicos Verdes looks like a traditional Portuguese restaurant (tasco!), but serves only vegetarian and vegan options, at very affordable prices.
Run by an extremely sweet lady, who prepares a variety of dishes daily and will greet you with an infectious smile at the counter. 

address: ​Rua Álvaro Castelões 90, Porto