Hello, friends and family! I am glad you came to read about my life and the insights I’ve gained. Here’s my first update on my current travels. Hopefully there will be more to come. I’d love to hear back from all of you so feel free to reach out <3
Harvesting vegetables last fall on a farm back in Colorado and waking up to fresh raspberries and tomatoes on the bush at Zach’s farm in Hygiene awakened a deep desire within me to cultivate food in a cyclical way and to share it with others. My seasonal job would be ending shortly and I had a winter free of obligations. I had heard about this program called WWOOF (World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms) through word of mouth back in college and thought it could be a great way to travel and learn about farming firsthand. After a year and a half of living and working in Boulder, Colorado post-graduation, I decided it was a great time to try something new.
For the past three and a half months, my partner Zach, his dog Rocky, and I have been wwoof-ing all around the eastern U.S. from North Carolina up to Maryland and West Virginia traveling from farm to farm, working there in exchange for food and housing. We never know what to expect until we arrive there and for the most part have been pleasantly surprised with warm and welcoming hosts and a beautiful property to get to explore.
So far we’ve been to a gourmet mushroom farm, a humble homestead in rural Tennessee, a pig farm, a new honey producing farm with lots of animals and vegetable garden space, a brief stay at a Quaker wilderness retreat center (which did not work out and we left early), and a 130 acre diverse farm utilizing traditional methods. We currently don't have an end date to this trip but we hope to keep farming through the summer and reach peak vegetable production season in the northeast. It’s been a cold and wet winter so far up in the Appalachian mountains, yet there’s still much to do and learn about to prepare for spring such as farm and tool maintenance, animal care and life cycles, seed starting, weeding, and compost cultivation. As spring approaches, I'm so happy to see wildflowers bloom as new life emerges here in West Virginia.
Our previous WWOOF stays have all been eye opening and enjoyable in their own way, yet this our current stay at Evan’s Knob has already been the most impactful. This farm is not like the others and so much hard work goes into the land here and it shows in the output.
So far we’ve been weeding, laying compost, starting and transplanting seeds, cutting firewood, feeding baby lambs, laying weed covers in the garden, burning last year’s weeds, and many other tasks that farm life requires. Our hosts, Kathy and Reid Evans, are two hard-working, no nonsense folks. Kathy is one of the most dedicated individuals I’ve met and cares for most of these 130 acres on her own. She also shears her herd of sheep and hand spins wool and makes her own wool garments. I’ve been able to learn some of this craft and have already made some things of my own. Together we’ve made soap from scratch and tore it up with the chainsaw. Spring is finally here and leaves are budding. The green houses are up and running and early leafy greens are going in the ground this week. This is what I’ve been waiting for all winter and I am so grateful to be here to learn all that I can about organic farming.
Zach and I are always surprised by how much we can grow outside of our comfort zones on this trip. It was definitely scary for me to pack up my comfy Colorado house and leave for an indefinite road trip with no clear destinations at the time. We show up to farms with little knowledge of the accommodations or the workload or even the food situation. We trust in positive reviews on the wwoof website and hope for the best. We have been so lucky to meet some kind and accommodating hosts that are there to help inspire young farmers and also get lots of work done. The trade of labor for room and board has been more than fair and we have the opportunity to travel to places in the country that we would have otherwise never gone to. Seeing rural America has been eye-opening to say the least and I'm truly grateful to be born here and have the time and funds to be able to travel indefinitely and rack up all the experience I can.
My desire to plant and harvest vegetables is being realized and it’s only growing stronger the more I feel comfortable and capable of doing it myself. There is SO much more to learn as the growing season goes on and I don’t want to quit any time soon. My love for food is a huge driving factor behind being a part of the process of where food comes from and how much work it takes to have it. My search for understanding of this notion has just made me more grateful for the plants and animals that nourish our bodies every day and has been a journey to never take our food system for granted. I am enjoying the step away from packaged food from Trader Joe’s and eating carrots straight from the ground (a little dirt never hurt anybody). I believe everyone, if presented with an opportunity, should take time to work on a farm and really see where food comes from and to take that into account when choosing what to eat for dinner.
I am actually starting a book on this topic called “The Omnivore’s Dilemma” by Michael Pollan, so if you'd like to read along with me we can have a mini book club!
Thanks for reading my first update and there will be more to come! 🙂