I awoke to my first day as a Wwoofer to the sound of rain....heavy, set-in-all-day, British summer holiday rain. Which to be honest I thought was pretty appropriate, considering I'll be wwoofing around the UK. Might as well start as I mean to go on, right?
But it did make me quickly realise just how disorganised I am at the moment. The night before, I'd checked the email from my hosts, and their clothing advice: boots, waterproofs, gardening gloves if you have them...and I'd thought, yeah, I've got that.
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| All wrapped up for my first day of wwoofing! |
Hmmm....well, not exactly. Cut off jeans and a big hoody aren't really the same thing, especially when you're faced with less than perfect weather. Luckily we had some waterproofs lurking in the cupboard and I found a nice warm sailing fleece which did for me through the day.
So, I arrived at The Nursery, Acomb and was very warmly welcomed by Jane, who was rushing out to collect Tony, having found out that the farmer and the manure that was being delivered wasn't happening due to a complication....the life of a farmer is never easy it seems! But I was happy to make a cup of tea before we got started in earnest.
Now, I'm not afraid of hard work, but by gosh we were busy! Jane and Tony are mainly "weekend farmers" in that they have the 9-5 job Mon-Fri and then use their spare time to manage their land. They also run a farm box scheme for local residents, and during the day I helped put the boxes together.
First of all, I was given a tour of the land. It's about an acre all in all, but the clever thing is that it is spread like a maze around the other gardens on the street. Driving past Jane and Tony's house, you would never think there was more behind, but it really does go on and on. I was amazed at each turn: there are hen coops, an orchard, a lovely large greenhouse and a polytunnel behind, smaller greenhouses for propagation, and different veg plots for courgettes, beans, potatoes, etc etc! The overall effect is lovely and though having lots of land is a benefit for growing, it really is possible to get produce in a tiny garden, (-hint there for city dwellers!) They also have two allotments which I haven't seen but I'm told are well used.
I was first put to work picking some basil as Tony informed me it was time to be "packing up summer". This was a joy to me as I just love basil and reminded me of holidays in Italy where we can go help ourselves to the crops grown by the people we stay with. This basil smelt and tasted the same. Practically medicinal in it's strength and not a patch of anything you can find in the supermarket, even the stuff growing in pots. Having got the best of the basil, we cleared the earth and I was shown how to plant in spinach. Tony is a very neat gardener, using the rake to line up his plants and it really does pay off. Not only does everything look ordered, but it's much easier to hoe the weeds and know how much you have of everything.
After that I was put to work preparing the red onions for the farm box. They were laid out, having been drying for a while, and so all I had to do was remove the flakey layers and trim the tops. Any with a long stem were put aside, ready to be plaited by Jane and then hung on the wall. Beautiful.
I then got on with picking the tomatoes. Now, I mentioned how delicious the basil smelt....this was nothing compared to picking tomatoes. Seriously, there is nothing on this planet like the smell of tomato vines. The sensory experience alone is worth growing your own food, let alone the taste of everything.
Anyway, before I get carried away, back to what I did....well, the list really is endless, so I'll just bullet point the rest:
- potting up some seeds and putting them in one of the greenhouses to propagate
- preparing the farm boxes ready for 2pm, which included me foraging for courgettes, snapping beans fresh from the plants, counting out potatoes and sharing out apples
- giving the polytunnel a spruce, clearing away some cucumber plants, and planting out some more spinach....and being neat and planting in rows is actually harder than it looks!
- rummaging for apples, sorting the bad from good, the bruised going to a local resident for use in cider making. As Tony explained, it pays off as they'll get some of the end product!
The day was interspersed with plenty of tea breaks, which obviously made me happy, (tea lover that I am) and Jane and Tony were really friendly, asking me questions about my teaching course and were also very helpful with all my questions. Lunch was simple but delicious: salad with home made chutney and organic bread from Betty's, their one indulgence! To them, eating mostly their own produce is now a normal occurance, but being completely new to this, I was amazed at how independent they were. If you can grow it, it really is madness to buy it in the shops, especially when it won't be as fresh, taste as good and have that added satisfaction factor because you've grown it yourself. Obviously farm shops are a step closer to this dream, but even if you put aside one tub for potatoes and maybe a compost sack for tomatoes....well, it's a start?
I finished off my day trimming the potatoes...the amount of foliage was unreal....even Jane and Tony were amazed. This type were blight resistance, but as a result the foliage didn't die back on it's own. We cut it all away and this will help thicken the skins of the potatoes and they should be ready in about two weeks, which is when I'm hoping to go back again. We also managed to fill two green wheelie bins and four big tubs with the stuff, even with Tony doing his speciality trick of jumping in the bin to flattening it all down. That's a LOT of foliage! (we also came across many fuzzy caterpillars, BIG fat slugs and a frog, who got carried off to the pond).
This job finally completed, there was just enough time to check out the pear tree at the bottom of the garden and see if there were any ready for picking. Some were attainable with the help of a ladder but many were higher up so the use of a pear hook was employed. This is similar to lacrosse, in that you reach up and twist the pear off the branch, catching it in the net attached. I was allowed a go, and wasn't too bad... a hard hat is encouraged as pears when they fall on your head can be painful. Luckily I escaped any pear related injuries!
At the end of the day, (around 6pm) my work was done and I set off home. But not without my own bag of goodies, very kindly given free of charge, and with plenty of advice and very muddy fingernails! I was utterly shattered but felt great and had a nice outside glow to prove it.
I can't wait to get back there and on with the rest of my travelling, though I do have a better idea now of what to expect.
I'll save that for the next post!
Liz.
