by Davide Damiani 3A (scientifico)
Woofing from WWOOF “World Wide Opportunities On Organic Farm” is not a hobby, it’s a life style!
It means a circuit of organic farms that give hospitality in exchange for manual work.
It was born in 1971 in England and now involves 50 countries and thousands of farms all over the world.
The activities, 6- 8 hours per day, go from gardening to seeding, from looking after animals to milking, from harvesting to picking olives. But you can also build a wall or make cheese.
Woofing gives a job to people who haven’t one, or it gives the opportunity to improve a foreign language and make friends from the whole world. You can work for a few weeks (for example during the summer holidays) or for some years, moving between different farms. People who want to try those kinds of experiences should look at wwoofinginternational.org and choose the place and the farm that they prefer. Obviously you need to contact the local farmers for more information and availability.
I was a “woofer” last summer in Ireland. At first I didn’t know for how long. I thought about just a few weeks but at the end it took me two months.
My host family welcomed me like a member of the family. My tasks changed according to the weather, so if it was raining I used to work “in the tunnel”, if the weather was better, I used to weed, seed, feed the hens and so on…at the end of the weeks (on Thursday or Friday), I usually picked our vegetables and took them to the weekly street market that took place in Dublin.
It was a great experience above all thanks to the family who I stayed with and their simple style of life, which I learned to love. Besides I realize that I developed new skills through my farming experience. Surely I’ll go back next summer, I think I’ll probably spend two more months there.
Life is full of opportunities, let’s travel on!