Wwoofing: escape the stresses of urban living
Would you like to learn how an organic farm works? Would you like to have an organic farm and you do not know where to acquire all the knowledge? or you just would like to have different holidays?
Now you can do it with WWOOF. World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms is a worldwide organisation for volunteers to work on organic farms in exchange for room and board. The duration can be from 4 weeks up to 6 months. The work in the farms can be: attention to animals, cleaning the farmyard, picking fruits and vegetables and planting them, works related to the wood,etc.
The organisations publish the lists of organic farms or gardeners and then the volunteer helpers (“WWOOFers”) choose the hosts that most interest them and make direct contact to arrange a stay, better by phone but also they can arrange everything by email.
It all started in the UK 40 years ago. It was set up as Wwoof (Working Weekends on Organic Farms) and still have the same acronym. It is run according to the same principle whereby volunteers work on “host” farms and smallholdings in exchange for food, accomodation and an opportunity to learn about organic agriculture and acquire practical skills. Some people like to do it occasionally or at weekends and some other people see it as a cheap holiday and an opportunity to meet people.
It is an adventure, you can visit other regions or countries relatively inexpensive and “go native” and find out about the life of the people living there.
If you like to do it you need to pay a small fee but for the country you would like to do it as there is not international membership. For example , if you like to volunteer in the UK you need to become a member of Wwoof UK and the annual fee is £20 for individuals or £30 for two applicants.
Check out the list of all legitimate organisations at Wwoof International.
If you like the idea become Wwoofer and tell us your experience!
