My first Wwoofing trip in the UK

I came to wwoof in the UK last spring and spent half a year traveling and wwoofing.  This year, I am taking off to another wwoofing trip in a month.  And I thought, I should write about my wwoofing experiences from last year before I go, both for my records and for people who are interested in wwoofing in the UK.

I will always remember the hard work and rewarding taste of tomatoes

I went to 5 different hosts in 6 months, stayed between 2 weeks to 8 weeks at each host.  I think it's quite an accomplishment for a farming newbie.   I had little knowledge and experience in farming and yet managed to survive half a year on farms.  In fact, I learned a lot about growing and completely fell in love with organic food.  If I could do it, anyone can do it.   I hope this little story of my adventure gives some clues and courage for future wwoofers.

There are so many different types of hosts to choose from - big commercial farms, smallholdings, houses with small gardens.  I chose smallholding type of places last year because that's what I want to do myself in the future.  Whatever your purpose is, you should ask yourself these questions before you start looking.

Would you like looking after animals or tending plants?
Are you fit for heavy manual labour or not?
Would you like friendly, homely atmosphere or commercial farms?
Do you want to work on your own or work alongside experienced host and other wwoofers?
Do you want to live in rural area or close to a town?

If you ask yourself these questions, it will not be difficult to find the right host for you.

My first host was Bosley Patch in Henley-on-Thames.  It is a smallholding owned by a family and I lived as part of the family.  They have veg gardens, flower gardens, a few poly tunnels, a small flock of lambs and chickens and 2 pigs.   I was there for 6 weeks and learned the basic skills and knowledge about growing vegetables.  I did a lot of weeding, hoeing, planting and watering and for the first couple of weeks, different parts of my body hurt because they had never been used before! 

baby lettuce plants that I planted out

lovely, sweet peas I picked from the flower garden

The host cooks her veggies, bakes bread from her home-grown yeast every day.  Now and then she also makes puddings with her fruits and my favorite was her pressed raspberry shortcake.  I liked it so much that I got the recipe from her and ever since I have baked it myself whenever I got raspberries.

My favorite, pressed raspberry shortcake

I also had some entertainment too while I was here.  I went to Windsor and Oxford for sightseeing, and saw the famous Henley Royal Regatta from the host's father's boat.  That was fun.

Beautiful rowers...hmm

My second host was Trinity Farm in Nottingham.  It is a community style farm where workers live on or near there, with a farm shop on site.  I lived in a caravan like other workers.  The farm has about 2 to 3 acres of vegetables patches and soft fruits bushes.  They also have some 40 chickens to sell the eggs at the farm shop.

My favorite view from Trinity Farm

Here, like at Bosley Patch, I did a lot of gardening job and now harvesting as well.  I was very happy picking tomatoes, salads and fruits because they were so fresh and tasty.  In fact, I was amazed by the quality of the food they grow there.  Their plants looked so healthy.  And they tasted so good.

happy healthy tomatoes

They follow biodynamics principles, one of the organic methods, and it seemed to be working very well.  In bioudynamics farming, they plant and harvest following the biodynamics calender, which tells you when to do what on your farm, and also have interesting ways of making natural fertilizers.  I didn't fully learn about all these, but I'm definitely interested to know more in the future.

me making biodynamic sprays

This farm is my favorite farm I've been so far.  I was there for the longest, 8 weeks in total, and had so many good memories learning more about growing and living with other workers.

lunch with everyone, out in the filed

The third one was Old Manor Farm in Preston.  It is a house with gardens, which needed a lot of weeding and other maintenance work.  I shared a room with another wwoofer.  Because of the type of work needed while I was there, which was mostly weeding and pruning in the flower garden, life there could have been mundane.  Luckily, I had fantastic company throughout the 2 weeks - 3 french girls, 1 Italian guy and 1 french boy.  We had so much fun going out on weekends and just chilling after work.  I think I succeeded to convince the French boy to come visit me in Japan some day, even though he had no interest previously.

I liked this a bit wild, lovely garden at Old Manor Farm

my beloved French wwoofers!

After Old Manor Farm, I went back to Trinity Farm because I liked the farm so much!

My fourth host was Yewfield in Ambleside in the famous Lake District.   It is a Bed and Breakfast with vegetable gardens and a small poly tunnel and green house.  I stayed in one of the rooms at the B&B and worked in the gardens.   The work included daily watering and harvesting plus pruning hedges and clearing brackens.

I pruned this hedge!

and picked loads of apples!

I worked for 6 to 7 hours at other farms but here I was asked to work only for 4 to 5 hours until lunchtime.  So I decided to explore the neighborhood in the afternoon.  I walked to nearby towns through interesting footpaths, through woods and sheep pasture.  The Lake District is known for its beautiful rural scenery.  I camped for 2 weeks after wwoofing at Yewfield and I personally think it's a must see place in England.

Beautiful Tarn Hows, up behind Yewfield

Wherever you go, you will meet sheep!

I made friends with a Chinese lady who runs a B&B near Yewfield with her English husband.  We got along immediately and we both cooked a dinner for each other.  You never know where you find a new friend!!

I made sushi rolls but she bought the ingredients for me.  How nice.

My last host was Craichlaw Estate in Kirkcowan, which is a small town in southwest Scotland.  I chose this place in hopes for learning about trees.  It is an old estate and has a huge land with woodland, farm land and part of a river.  I spent most days cutting down unwanted trees in the woodland and pruning hedges here and there in the vast garden.  It might sound boring, but it was very pleasant to work in woods, listening to birds, wind and leaves.

 

Golden aspens rustling in breeze

my hedge work

After work and on weekends, the host family showed me around their land, took me to local nature attractions and taught me about the typical west Scottish landscape.

a walk in their farm land with the family

view from a nearby hill, a typical Scottish landscape

coastal walk

The host family leads a very traditional life and they have meals and tea time at about the same time of the day every day.  I especially liked the tea time, which was always at 4:30 in the afternoon after work.  The host served me tea and homemade puddings.  Because I thought it was such a nice tradition, I would like to introduce the 4:30 tea time to my life when I have my own smallholding.  

Wwoofing can be hard especially if you are new to farm work or if you don't speak the language well, but I can say it is definitely worth a try.  You will realise there's so much to learn about the food you eat every day and the environment you live in.  And hopefully you will agree with me that there is nothing as pleasant as to work under the sun and feel you are part of the nature.

Happy wwoofing everyone!