WWOOFing (Willing Workers On Organic Farms) is a great way to learn about sustainable living, to travel around a country, mix with the locals, develop networks with other WWOOFers and have an ‘intercultural eco experience’.
It works like an exchange WWOOFers volunteer their help to organic ‘host farms’ and in return receive food, accommodation and opportunities to learn about sustainable living and organic lifestyles.
Its easy to join, you just pay a small fee for a book which lists all the host farms in the area and then arrange your experiences with the places that interest you most.
I used the WWOOFing book to travel around the east coast of Australia for three months. There was a great variety of things to do – including hand pollinating fruit trees, cutting down banana stalks and spending time with a retired host who now has WWOOFers on his yacht!
For six weeks I stayed at a tropical fruit orchard in the Tablelands. Their main produce was custard apples, although they had a great big vege garden which fed the family and they had between 4-12 WWOOFers over the time I was there. Custard apples aren’t very good at self fertilising so we were taught how to collect the pollen and then how to paint it onto the flowers to ensure the next harvest was fruitful.
After a few hours of work we would load into the van and check out the local sites and events in the local community. One such occasion was a movie night in the community hall where everyone brought blankets and pillows then sat to watch the premiere of Lord of the Rings – complete with a pot luck desert at half time!
Another of my favourite memories was the bananas. Living in a tropical environment is not complete without banana palms and we always had stalks of bananas hanging in our living room (100-150 bananas ripening on each) - a never ending supply of my favourite fruit! Home made banana cake and banana ice cream were often on the menu :)
All in all I met heaps of really interesting people, learnt some great ideas about making a sustainable household and had a heap of fun doing it!
Id love to hear about anyone else’s WWOOFing experiences in New Zealand, or in other countries!
To find out more about WWOOFing log on to www.wwoofinternational.org.
Comments
Good on you, Tink. Glad you had a great time on your WWOOFing adventure.
I have never WWOOFed but I have met a lot of people from other countries who have come to New Zealand and are travelling around using the scheme. In fact my brother met his Canadian wife while she was WWOOFing here - and now they are married with a couple of kids!
Submitted by Lindis on 13 May 2009 11:38:58