Entries about farm

So although the wwoofing portion of my trip has now concluded I still want to talk to you a little bit about what I did on the farms.
A typical work day consisted of about 4-5 hours of work and the rest of the time for myself.

At the first farm, the one with a manageable sized garden I must admit that I worked more than that..but on my own account. I was completely enthrawled with the garden and really wanted to witness change and progress throughout my time there. I had certain small projects that I was put in charge of. (For example: Take care of plant x and y)

Of course there was other daily tasks that needed constant love such as weeding, watering and clearing. And even though some of those tasks can become tedious at times they always felt necessary for eventual change.

I worked on this farm for 15 days and I could have done much longer. I felt so involved with the garden and it was so easy to get up in the morning to put my energy and love into it.

I had lots of time to reflect on things while working and it became quite clear to me why I have been longing to work with the earth again. Being in my dowtown Toronto setting for the past few years I feel that I have become quite disconnected with the planet I live on. I have forgotten about so many plants, medicinal plants, wild edibles and most of all I have forgotten some basic principles of nature...
Principles that I think should be common knowledge among the masses but unfortunately at this point in time are really not.

So why is that? Well I could go on and on about why this is (mass production, processed foods...etc etc). We have basically become used to going to the supermarket and buying the products we desire without a second thought about the work or the process involved. I think it is so important to go back to the roots of it all and really understand how plants work.

I often have the desire to feel like I could sustain myself (at least for a period of time) if food was no longer readily available to me. But the more disconnected I got, little by little this desire decreased. Thankfully this journey has brought back these feelings again and I am really excited about it all. I am ready to relearn and learn these principles and put them into practice because for me that is fulfilling.

There is so much more I could say on this topic...but it is too long winded at this point

So friends, how much do you know about growing your own food? How long could you survive without all the resources in place today? What will you do to learn more? What fulfills you?

Sam

Where do I even begin....
Well here,s a brief overview of the Moulin Neuf farm.

Dates of my stay: August 1st-August 15th , 2012

The moulin neuf is a very small farm close to Ivoy-le-Pré in the Centre area of France. It is owned by a woman named Dominique.
Dominique and her daughter (artist, costumer) reside there.
They have about 2 hectares of land which hosts a fair sized organic garden, a small field, 3 main buildings, a prairie for the donkeys, a small forest...
and basically it is just BEAUTIFUL here!

Buildings: Very old farm house buildings
Main house and 2 barns
I sleep in one of the barns in a spare bedroom it is quaint!

Bathrooms : dry toilets in the 3rd barn, great for the environment and not smelly because since they are dry there is no fermentation
with the water... excrement and wood chips is all you will find and this is actually composted

Animals: 2 donkeys, 4 cats, 2 dogs, 30something hens, 6 roosters... a wild pheasent that comes and eats in the garden..
and probably more!

Typical tasks:

Weeding
Picking
Planting
Clearing
Watering

Everything I work on is physically demanding and some of the most rewarding tasks I have ever done!!!!

More on this later.... pics to come

Although a great portion of my trip will be backpacking, staying in hostels, visiting cities, taking trains etc...

I decided to incorporate a wwoofing experience into the journey as well. In brief wwoofing stands for World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms.

As per the wwoof France website the main aims of WWOOF are:

- To enable people to learn first hand organic growing techniques.
- To enable town-dwellers to experience living and working on a farm.
- To show alternative ways of life.
- To improve communication within the organic movement.
- To help develop confidence in becoming self-sufficient.
- To meet interesting people and make useful contacts.

Why?

I think it goes without saying that I love fruits and veggies.

But without going into too much detail one of my goals is to one day have my own organic garden with which I can live more sustainably and feel more connected to the earth. In order to realize this goal I thought it would be a good idea to do some woofing. So here I am in the middle of nowhere in France doing my first of two farms!