2.21.2013

Farm, woman! --- WWOOF

A few weeks ago I wrote about the Farm School in Central Massachusetts as an option for those who have the money and want to put it to a semi-traditional education in farming. I wanted to continue in this vain for several more posts about different options to get your feet, or your whole bod, wet in farming. I'm calling it Farm, woman! because I like directives, but you can ignore the title if you are a man or don't like being told what to do. I presume that many of you have an interest in farming or in growing a little vegetable garden, or simply love cute baby animals based on your coming here to read about it. So pardon the presumption if this isn't universally true. For those of you whom it is, I wanted to present to you these options because it is so much easier to get sucked into farming than many think. 

The farming intro I am presenting you today with is Wwoof-ing. WWOOF (or the World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms) is an organization that puts willing (but not necessarily experienced) farm hands in contact with farms that need and want extra labor. You use wwoof as a verb and a noun. You are a wwoofer. You wwoofed in Brazil last winter. You are wwoofing in the south of France this summer. You can wwoof nearly anywhere in the world, including right here in the United States. Generally how it works is that you pay for your transportation and then the host farm will give you room and board in exchange for x number of hours a day (usually around 4 or 5hrs). I have never wwoofed myself though we have often entertained the idea of setting up a wwoof program on our own farm. Nick wwoofed on a banana farm in Australia when he was a senior in high school. My sister Fiona wwoofed in Argentina. 

Because I don't have the first hand experience, I wrote my sister to ask if she would share a little bit about her own. She obliged as younger sister's ought. What she wrote back is as follows:

Wwoofing is a great opportunity to travel with intent. The first time I went to South America I traveled backpack style with two friends and we jam packed a route that took us from Buenos Aires through Chile and up to Lima, Peru in six weeks. When planning the trip the map was an open invitation to go any where in the world…well anywhere in between our points of arrival and departure. The trip was amazing, unforgettable, one of the first of its kind for me. But I remember multiple days where we would watch a movie in our hostel or make dinner and go to bed, or go to the same café for three days in a row before we switched cities because we were so tired or drained from 24 hour bus rides and operating outside of our comfort zone 24/7. At the end of the trip I realized I wanted my next travel to be a little different. I wanted to dig deeper into the place I was visiting. I wanted to connect with land and people and maybe feel a bit useful too.

I found that opportunity through wwoofing. There are a few things in this world that really make the basics count. Farming is one of them, you get dirty, you work till you are starving, and sweat in the sun, and by the end of the day you are truly exhausted. The kind of exhaustion that makes you melt onto horizontal surfaces. You look at bathing, eating and sleeping through a very simple lens. You need them. And that is refreshing.
To wwoof in a foreign country, or in our own, you need to get a wwoof membership for that country or region. Three years ago I paid 45 dollars for a year membership to Wwoof Argentina. The membership will give you a list of Wwoof affiliated farms, their contact information, and a basic write up of what a wwoofer should expect from that farm.  Some farms ask for a more lengthy commitment (a month or more is typical.) Others are okay with folks coming by for a week.
To get the most accurate idea of what to expect, be explicit in your emails and questions to the hosts. How many hours a day of work is there? What type of work can you expect to do? (I ended up working more on cob houses than I ever did on gardening or animal husbandry) Do you have to pay for food?  There is also a spectrum of community experience. Some farms will ask for just one wwoofer at a time. Others want 10.  Think about what you want out of the experience.  Do you want to gain hard farm skills; live communally; travel with intent and connection? Figuring out what type of experience you want most will help you narrow down your options.
Of course, there is a deal of variation between what you have planned for and what it will actually be like when you arrive. I have heard of many instances when the host farm is much different than what was expected. This was true for the farm I worked on as well. From my experience the most successful wwoofing is done when you go into it with an open mind and welcome the unexpected! You are walking into someone else’s life. It is dynamic and filled with details and components unknown to you! And you are filled with dynamic bits and pieces and working cogs that are as of yet unknown to your hosts. Getting to know your hosts and their community and becoming a person to them is, I think, one of the most rewarding aspects of traveling as a wwoofer.


As we are rounding out the winter and heading feet first into spring, I wanted to present to you this option of how you can immerse yourself in farming this year, whether it's for just 2 weeks or 2 months. If any of you have had experience with wwoof-ing please share with us about the good, the bad, and the advice. 

*top photo credit to Nick

23 comments:

  1. I almost (but not quite! Chickened out in the end for a city job) wwoofed on a banana farm in Australia too! My husband and I travelled Australia and New Zealand and met so many people who had done it, and you know what, I struggle to remember anyone telling us of negative experiences with it. Everyone we met said it was hard work, yes, but well worth it. I'd still love to give it a go at some point in the future.

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  2. I'm frustrate with myself that I never took advantage of this opportunity. Back when I had the freedom to travel, I wasn't interested in farming. I worked as a nanny, instead, to visit the places I wanted to go. Now I'm married and have a son - I'm not sure wwoofing is in my near future. I had a best friend who wwoofed in New Zealand though - she had great things to say about it. :)

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  3. I started WWOOFing when I was 17, traveling in S. America, Costa Rica, and France. I still keep in touch with my farm hosts and am planning a trip to take a group of unschoolers to the first farm I went to as a teen next January. It's a great way to meet inspiring, life-long friends. These days we host our own WWOOFers. Are you guys thinking about signing up as hosts? Most everyone in the valley who host WWOOFers asks that they stay for at least a month. It takes time to train people, and in the middle of the season, we want a good return on that investment. Much love, Kate. Will you both be coming for the wedding in October??

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    1. Sounds like an awesome trip you have planned next January. We may host wwoofers in the future. Things are too disorganized on our farm at the present to subject kind strangers to a day in the life, let alone a week or a month.

      (and yes, we are planning on coming to the wedding, provided our little babe is ready to travel, and that somebody can look after the farm).

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    2. Marian, would you mind sharing some of your recommendations for places to WWOOF in France?? :D I'm going in the Fall and would totally appreciate it!

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  4. Thank you for this, it's something we need. We are moving back to France with my husband, if you remember me talking about my family's land in Brittany a long time ago. And we want to learn to Farm, and then start our own, thanks to you now I have farms to contact. It's amazing!

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    1. I do remember and I'm so happy that you have some farms to contact now! I hope it works out well back in Brittany!

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  5. Love this series!

    Do you already know about Quillisascut Farm School? It's a West Coast option, more of a long weekend thing, but I went to their Intro to Farming workshop a couple years ago and loved it. You learn about how their place came together but they also arrange for you to visit other farms/orchards in the area for different perspectives. Such nice people too.

    http://quillisascut.com/

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    1. Thank you for sharing this link! Looks like a great program, and perhaps better suited to those who need to realistically keep their jobs while they learn the basics of farming.

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  6. WWOOF is great because, like your sister said, there is such a VARIETY of available experiences - intense, labor-heavy farm experiences or free-spirited hippie community living experiences...you can find whatever it is you are looking for. WWOOFing is where I fell in love with farming, where I met my husband, and because of WWOOF...we now have our own farm, next door to our host family. I am definitely a proponent.

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    1. Yes, Hannah you guys are such a WWOOF success story. I didn't realize that's how you met!

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  7. I have been following your blog and Instagram for quite some time now and have never commented! :-)I believe I stumbled upon your blog through bluebird. I completely admire the life you and Nick have chosen for yourselves (along with your critters). I truly enjoy seeing the hard work you put in to the farm to make your dreams a reality.

    Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge on the Farm School and WWOOF! While the Farm School is out of my budget, WWOOF sounds like a dream come true. My researching skills need a little fine tuning I suppose since I have never heard of such an organization.

    Thanks again and Congratulations on your pregnancy!

    -Rachel A
    I am @Rabernethy22 on Instagram :)

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    1. Oh I'm so glad this sounds like something that would work for you! I hope you do get to wwoof somewhere soon! Please share your experience with me if you do wwoof or find something similar !

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  8. I love reading people say "i wwoofed..." makes me laugh!

    I am eagerly awaiting to find out if I have been accepted in the the BUFA program here in portland, oregon. BUFA stands for beginning urban farmers apprenticeship. it is an 8 month, part time commitment to learn how to farm and urban farm and a suburban farm with two different purposes. CSA/farmers market from one and supplying a food bank from another. I am SUPER excited and have all of my fingers crossed that I get accepted! check out http://web.multco.us/sustainability/bufa for more info.

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    1. I just went to the website, what a great looking program. I think its so important to have citydwellers learning skills to feed themselves too. Let me know how the program goes if you get accepted!

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  9. What a really awesome concept! Thank you so much for sharing. I'm holding out hope that there might be some opportunities near DC....

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  10. Thank you for this post. We are going on a trip to Argentina in April and I am hoping to fit in a short WWOOFer stint while we are there. It will be months before I am able to get my hands in the dirt here in Alaska.

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  11. have you ever posted the recipe for those to die for cookies you apparently sent to Melissa this week?? If it's not a secret recipe, i want it!!! (-:

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    1. Well as kind as Melissa is about my cookies I can't claim originality, I use the Joy of Cooking recipe, but I do it from memory and I think my memory is off as they are always flat and crispy and not fluffy and plump like they ought to be.

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    2. Joy of Cooking is the best! I do the same thing with the key lime pie! and people freak about it!

      the ham and cheese quiche is a delicious go to as well!

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  12. Just found your blog through Melissa's. Love it!

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  13. oh kate, i am so glad you're writing about this! when i first started reading your blog about a year ago, i had just signed up for the wwoof france site, and saw your space as such inspiration for my coming adventures.

    but then i got sidetracked and ended up moving to the virgin islands for a few months to save money before heading to europe to wwoof. hopefully by june i'll have saved enough to spend this summer and fall on a few different farms throughout europe!

    and if you ever decide to take on wwoofers, i'd be honored to help organize and/or be a part of longest acres chaos :)

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  14. This is so helpful! I love reading about peoples' experience WWOOFing. I just started (literally, yesterday) seriously planning for my own WWOOFing adventure. I hope to go next summer! I'm glad your sister mentioned some of the important questions to ask a host; thank you! I'm definitely going to follow your blog; I'm sure I will learn a lot. Take care!

    -Alyssa

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