Welcome to Farm Veles & the Veles Institute—a living landscape where tradition meets sustainable innovation. Through permaculture, natural building, and community learning, Petra and Janez invite you to explore practical ways of living in balance with nature.
Welcome to Veles Farm
INSTITUTE FOR A SUSTAINABLE WAY OF LIFE
The people behind Veles
Petra Jazbec & Janez Jordan – Co-creators of Farm Veles
From an abandoned stable to a thriving social-permaculture farm, Petra and Janez combine permaculture, natural building, mentoring and facilitating group processes to create a living example of sustainability. They lead workshops, restore the farm, and inspire initiatives—dreaming sustainable futures while building them, hand in hand. Learn more about us here.
Veles, also known as Volos, is said to be the god of abundance and the underworld. Buying the farm, the couple was also connecting back to their Slavic roots. It seemed to them that living on the farm a balance between abundance and the underground was to be held; between light and dark; ease and challenge. Out of this vision, Veles Farm was born.
What we do
Natural building
Crafting Healthy Homes with Nature
Led by Janez Jordan, Farm Veles offers decades of expertise in natural construction, from straw-bale houses to clay and lime plasters. Through hands-on workshops, mentoring, and off-site training, participants learn to build sustainable, beautiful, and healthy homes while gaining insight into regenerative living principles. Want to get involved in a workshop, looking for his services or just want to learn more about natural building? Get a closer look at Janez’s work here!
Volunteering
Join the International Volunteering Community
Farm Veles hosts European Solidarity Corps volunteers from around the world, offering hands-on experience in permaculture, natural building, DIY projects, and community initiatives. Volunteers live sustainably, learn from Petra, Janez, and professional mentors, and grow personally while contributing to a thriving regenerative farm. Check more about it here!
Erasmus+ / LIDER+
Train, Facilitate, Inspire
Through LIDER+, Association Veles collaborates with a wider team to run Erasmus+ trainings for youth and community leaders: Dragon Dreaming, Leader in Me, Art of Facilitation, and Let’s Celebrate. Participants gain practical project management, facilitation, and sustainability skills, connecting with global networks and collaborating on lasting projects. Learn more about the Erasmus+ opportunities here!
Veles soul
Personal Growth & Inner Balance
Veles Soul, a branch of the Veles Institute, is dedicated to personal growth, reflection, and holistic well-being. Under Petra’s guidance, individuals and groups explore balance, self-awareness, and connection with nature, creating space for inner growth and a renewed sense of harmony. Get to know more here!
Jošt Kozelj
Collaborator, Virstan Institute, Personal and business coach
“Veles is a place that offers a different view and way of life – an opportunity to experience being in Nature with its various forms of expression. Surrender to the rhythm it offers, and changes will begin to happen to you.”
Marina Ristic
Co-fоunder of Zeleno Doba, Serbia
“Thanks to Zavod Veles Farm, the “Zeleno Doba” association in Serbia was born, and we are eternally grateful! We could even say that, without Veles, Zeleno Doba might not exist at all.
In Veles, we learned how to run a sustainable project, how to use facilitation, what does it mean having family permaculture farm, and how incredibly beautiful it is to have the support of such people for your dream projects and decisions. My highest recommendations! Who knows, maybe Veles will completely change your life, too.”
Anna Sofia Fallucchi
Volunteer Sept-Oct 25, Psychologist, Italy
“Veles is a place of reconciliation: with yourself, with nature and with people. It invites you to stop, breathe, and to “just” exist: this is something we often forget to do in today’s world, which leads us to experience states of psychological distress. In Veles you may not find solutions to big life-questions but it is certainly a place that hold the space to ask them.”
Manja Vrenko
Sunny Hill, GEN EU
“Veles Institute has left its mark in the Slovenian and European space by transferring knowledge from the Ecovillage Movement of Western Europe to the countries of the Western Balkans. The effects of Veles Institute’s work are visible in the European Ecovillage Network GEN Europe through the increasing participation of young people from Slovenia and Eastern Europe in the activities and projects of the youth section of this movement – NextGEN.”
Jernej Tramte
Volunteer, Natural builder
“Veles is one of the rare success stories in education about self-sufficiency and community that operates on a European level. Veles is a treasure trove of knowledge that I gladly return to several times a year, as it also represents a place of connection and friendship for me.”
Tomislav Gjerkeš
President of the Slovenian Permaculture Society
“The Veles farm is home to big hearts with a vision for a new era and an ear for the needs of modern generations. With a good connection to the elements, they have developed a deep relationship with nature, which they know how to share with others.”
Angel Balashev
Participant, Volunteer, Co-founder of seek2achieve
“Veles and the people that it attracts are an infinite source of inspiration to me. And being part of it as a training participant or volunteer is an experience that cannot really be put in words, only to be experienced…”
Peter Šeremet
Аssociate, natural builder – Farm Mokavec
“Veles gave me a home, support, friendship, knowledge”
Aljaž Kužner
Participant in “Leader in me”
“It’s a place of community, where I got to experienced important and much needed values that are now huge part of my life.”
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