Yard work has never exactly been my calling. One of my least favorite activities in the entire world is mowing lawns, so at home when it was my turn to do this I would always do the job at a run, so as to get it over with as quickly as possible. While this technique was quick, it always left some untidy bits around the lawn. My Dad used to think that I sabotaged the lawn on purpose so that he wouldn’t ask me to mow it anymore (I swear I didn’t Dad!). Now what does this have to do with my New Zealand adventures you ask? I swear it’s relevant, because I just spent this past weekend working on an organic farm, and it was a completely voluntary experience!
I will explain how this works, because working on a stranger’s farm is actually much easier than you might think. There is an organization called WWOOF, which stands for World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms, which involves a system of WWOOF hosts (farmers) and WWOOF workers (can be anyone!). You register online in the country of your choosing (New Zealand in my case, but it exists in the US and other countries as well) and create a profile of yourself or your farm. From there it is up to the hosts and the workers to contact each other via email or phone and try to arrange stays. In my case I found a lovely family in Wanaka who was willing to take me in for a long weekend.
The deal is that the worker comes and helps out for 4-6 hours a day in exchange for a place to sleep and meals. The tasks required of the WWOOF-er vary from place to place and season to season, but I’d say my experience was a pretty standard one. I did all kinds of different things, and given that I have zero farming experience the family was very kind, patient, and willing to share their knowledge of organic farming with me. On my first day I went out and fertilized the vegetable garden. I did so with this giant, rectangular, plastic backpack with a pump on the side and a long extension pole-thing where the spray actually came out. The fertilizer was made from compost drippings, so it was completely natural and wonderful. I felt like Buzz Lightyear preparing for blast-off as I stood out there pumping my giant plastic backpack.
Other tasks included taking down a wire fence, feeding chickens, helping to cook dinner, baking cookies with the kids (ok this wasn’t really a task, but it was a really fun activity!) weeding the garden, raking the compost, overturning soil, and my personal favorite…herding sheep! I feel like my New Zealand experience is complete now that I can say I have herded sheep!
I’m not really sure that I’m cut out to be a farmer, and I still definitely hate yard work (weeding the garden was less than thrilling), but overall I had a great experience this weekend doing things I’ve never done before and learning all about basic skills I really knew nothing about. The family I stayed with really welcomed me in to their home and helped me to have a successful first time WWOOFing and I’m definitely thinking of staying with them again. Thank goodness they have sheep, so I don’t have to worry about them asking me to mow their lawn!
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