First, my beautiful friends and I always plan a special girls reunion every year where we camp or stay in a cheap spot and enjoy each other's company. This year, Lake Tahoe came up as the next location as my friend Emily had a cabin there that has been in her family for years. Since I knew I would already be venturing out to Cali for this reunion, I decided to experiment with getting closer to our earth and see what our farmers do everyday and how our food gets to us. I had heard about WWOOF through several friends, some good, some bad experiences, but I wanted to see what it was like for myself.
The best way I have found to choose a place to WWOOF is simple, the comments. I was not going to take the chance by WWOOFing at a place that even a stranger would not comment on or make a bad comment about. Even if they gave them five stars but didn't have the time comment, to me this was better than a place with no comments at all. The Kern family not only had several comments but had several five stars. So did about 5 other places. I sent messages out to them and heard back from a few. Sue Kern, the mama, could pick me up from Fresno off the train, so that's where I was going.
The second that I actually arrived not only on the foothills of the Sierra Nevadas but also in the small community of farmers outside the town of North Fork, I was completely enamored with this place. I immediately saw the passion and dedication of the Kerns for their farm and sustainable farming techniques. Hansel, the daddy, split from high school when he was just 16 years old and decided to start a farm that practiced parts of what is now called "permaculture", techniques that involve sustainable land use design. Here's a helpful description from our friend wikipedia:
"Permaculture is based on ecological and biological principles, often using patterns that occur in nature to maximise effect while minimizing wasted energy. Permaculture aims to create stable, productive systems that provide for human needs, harmoniously integrating the land with its inhabitants. The ecological processes of plants, animals, their nutrient cycles, climatic factors and weather cycles are all part of the picture. Inhabitants’ needs are provided for using proven technologies for food, energy, shelter and infrastructure. Elements in a system are viewed in relationship to other elements, where the outputs of one element become the inputs of another. Within a Permaculture system, work is minimised, "wastes" become resources, productivity and yields increase, and environments are restored. Permaculture principles can be applied to any environment, at any scale from dense urban settlements to individual homes, from farms to entire regions."
The more I learned about these techniques and how people all over America are incorporating them into their farms and lives changed my life. I had always been looking for a way to be closer to the earth and as a strong Virgo, I am practical to the extreme (often so practical that it transfers over to be cheap). This seemed like the best decision I ever made. Here is a picture of the view right off of the Kern's land.
And here is Sir Hansel is his regular attire.
We spent our mornings milking goats. We spent our days weeding and planting different vegetables. We spent our afternoons swimming in the river, bailing hay, attending farmer's markets, reading, talking, and roaming around together. We spent our nights listening to music and learning from each other. I felt closer to the earth and more connected to people than I had ever been.
I want to continue descriptions and pictures of my trip out there. They will probably come scattered about other posts and with no fluidity whatsoever. But, I wanted to start somewhere. It's not much but hopefully it will give you a little inspiration to maybe get out there and find a farm of your own to WWOOF on.
No comments:
Post a Comment