Grow your way around the world
Travelling by tractor with WWOOF
Marin Bonk
If you are allured by foreign cultures, willing to learn valuable skills, prepared for a challenge and low on cash, I am compelled to share with you a well-kept secret: WWOOFing.
I have had the pleasure of WWOOFing my way through Scotland, Wales and Ireland. I was challenged, inspired and enlightened by my experiences. World-Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms, or WWOOF, enables people to get out of the city, onto the land, and to learn about organic food production, all the while contributing to the momentum of the organic food movement.
The WWOOF Association provides an international placement service to individuals (aka WWOOFers) interested in working on organic farms in exchange for room and board. There are placements available in over 37 countries around the world from Australia to Ghana.
It’s a win-win situation. Participants are provided with the opportunity to develop a wide variety of new skills, and will likely leave with a deeper appreciation for the origins of their food. At the same time, WWOOF hosts welcome helping hands to their organic operations that are naturally labour intensive.
For those who don’t immediately see gardening as their cup of tea, WWOOFing still has much to offer travellers who are willing to leave the tour bus in the dust. The authenticity of cultural immersion that WWOOFing conveniently facilitates for travellers is one of its most extraordinary features. Rather than dine at restaurants serving local foods, why not cook alongside and learn the recipes of people that have been preparing local dishes all their lives?
For backpackers, it provides a solid excuse to get off the well-beaten track. Exposure to less visited nooks and crannies can be both refreshing and rewarding. On the coast, in rural Wales, I stayed in a house over a century old where I collected and prepared free-range eggs for market. At the end of my stay, my hosts arranged for me to stay with friends of theirs, who took me caving and hiking in the days that followed. To boot, my hosts took half a day to drive me there! It is not uncommon to have experiences that are above and beyond what you’ve bargained for.
At times, travellers inevitably yearn for the comforts of home and, if on the road for a long time, perhaps even a bit of routine. The wholesome, home-cooked food, comfortable accommodation and general warmth that are typical of a WWOOF placement are likely to satisfy this longing and be a welcome change from cans of beans and old hostel mattresses that are the daily reality of many travellers on the backpackers trail.
Last but certainly not least, WWOOFing works wonders towards stretching a tight budget. Although I had a work visa while travelling, WWOOFing was a much more attractive alternative than any available work. It accommodated my desire for mobility, required little commitment, provided stimulating and challenging work, and was monetarily equivalent to having a job where all my wages would have gone to food and accommodation anyways.
Each country has its own WWOOF association that manages its national database of placements to which individuals can subscribe for a small fee. Each placement listing provides a brief description of its location, nature of operation, host expectations and contact information. It is up to the WWOOFer to arrange placement by communicating with potential hosts. In my experience a week was the minimum heads up time that a host required to accommodate me, but typically more advanced notice was necessary.
All hosts provide a roof overhead and food on the table (usually organic and often vegetarian), but the other perks of each placement vary greatly. I spent a full day touring the Scottish Highlands on horseback as part of my host’s trekking business. The location of the placement setting may be a backyard garden, a large-scale eco-village or anything imaginable in-between. Minimum stay may be as short as a week and as long as a year; while work expectations range from four to eight hours a day, four to seven days a week. Such tremendous variety allows for placements that suit everyone’s fancy.
If leaving the country is not in your current game plan, do not despair; you need not travel far to get involved. Canada has its own WWOOF association with over 400 placements across the nation – more than 10 within Manitoba – all of which can be browsed on the net at no cost.
My best advice to future WWOOFers is to show up with an open mind, willing to learn and prepared to get your hands dirty.
For more information visit www.wwoof.org for links to international WWOOF associations, and www.wwoof.ca for Canada’s WWOOF association.
