World Wide Opportunities On Organic Farms

For several years we have been mentioning the WWOOF program that we are hosts for. It is a volunteer program based on the exchange of work for room and board. For the people working on farms, it allows for an opportunity to see another part of the world, travel in a fairly inexpensive way, live with others in a community, and learn a new skill. We have been hosting WWOOF volunteers for about 5 years and have had wonderful experiences. For us, we have been just as committed to making sure the experience for the volunteer traveler is as rewarding as the help they give us. Usually we ask for about 4-5 hours of work a day in exchange for room and board. We want the folks that visit us to feel at home, to have enough free time to see the beauty of Maine, and to experience the lifestyle of a small rural community. There is a lot more to it than this prearranged barter of work for board. Our WWOOF volunteers come as WWOOFer’s, but leave as friends. We almost always hate to see them go. Most recently we had a three week visit with Cristina from Milan, Italy. She was awesome! We loved having her around, we loved all of our meals together, sitting around the table chatting about everything under the sun. We learned a lot about life in Italy, she learned a lot about small rural towns in New England. She was an amazing help here at the nursery during our busiest time of the season. On her time off, Cristina was able to bike or hike and visit the wonderful lakes we have near by.
Last season we had visitors from Columbia, California, and a young friend from right here in Maine. Next week another young college student is arriving from Connecticut. She contacted us and expressed an interest in learning more about growing her own food and sustainability. I think she’d also like to play around with some fiber. We can surely make this happen…….plenty of wool kicking around! Since being part of this awesome exchange program we have considered WWOOFing ourselves. You can WWOOF at any age, and can pretty much go anywhere in the world. Where would we go? I’ll have to think about that!