WWOOFERS

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Wwoof stands for World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms. It's a world wide program which connects organic farmers with a source of low cost labor. Farming organically is still very labor intensive, as mechanical methods of weed and insect control haven't received the attention or research that chemical methods have. Wwoofers generally help half a day at any of a variety of jobs. In return, the Wwoofers receive room and board and have a chance to see a lot more of the world than they would staying in hotels and eating out all the time. And the hosts have a chance to experience different cultures they might never otherwise have had a chance to see.

If you would like to take part in the program, either as a wwoofer or a host farm, please check out their website: Wwoof Canada

Now, to meet some of our Wwoofers:

Kaori Iida came to Canada to improve her English. Many Japanese like to come to PEI to visit the land of Anne of Green Gables. Here, she is helping to dig one of our new varieties of potatoes on a warm day in October.

Thomas Errson came from Alberta, biking his way around the country before leaving for forestry school in Sweden. This picture was taken in our driveway just before he left for New Brunswick.

Iris wasn't technically a wwoofer, but she came to learn about organic farming in Canada. A law student from Switzerland, she also likes to cook, especially her own brand of "Canada cake".

Taichi was our first wwoofer. He stayed for a month, helping with all aspects of the farm, but most importantly with control of the Colorado Potato beetle, which generally means picking them by hand and dropping them into a bucket of water. It was only after he had left that we found out how much he hated bugs!

This is Soichi and his girlfriend Sawa. They were both students from Japan. Soichi came to Canada on a working tourist visa so he could see the country. Sawa flew over during his last week in PEI so they could go to Charlottetown and do some sightseeing. Soichi would go out in the yard and catch grasshoppers to feed to the turkeys, a treat the turkeys really appreciated.This picture is of a genuine Japanese meal they cooked for us one night.

This is Yu, enjoying a canoe ride in Stanley Bridge.We had a lot of fun with his name and, as you can imagine, it caused quite a bit of confusion until we got used to it. He left here to stay on a farm in Cape Breton.

Jeanine (left)and Reiko digging potatoes for the market on Saturday. Reiko came from Tokyo, where she worked as a consultant for different businesses.