#whatididonmydayoff
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Chef Poppy is now properly suited up for work @thefoodsmithduxbury. #whatididonmydayoff #toomuchtimeonmyhands #coronavirus #lego #legochef https://www.instagram.com/p/B_dIHkOB24Q/?igshid=1tzmdcods2zvs
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WWOOFer for a Day (March 2017)
WWOOF stands for Worldwide Opportunities on Organic Farms. While I was on the cruise in Mexico, I had been researching options for traveling and working abroad and thought that I’d start first across the country. I’d always been interested in learning how I could live a life more independently with a low-cost of living, so I wanted to know how some people lived almost completely off-the-grid and self-sufficiently.
I bought a membership to WWOOF’s database and explored my options with organic farms nearby. That’s when I found Milk and Honey Farm, an organic homestead run in Yadkinville by Eric, Melissa, and their five kids, Nora, Paul, Hattie, Christina, and 10-month-old Rebecca.
Their farm was about a 2-hour drive away with rush-hour traffic on the morning drive. I had been emailing Eric and Melissa back and forth for about 3 weeks before coming up. I drove up to their homestead and farm on March 28th to see what it was all about.
Through the winding roads and lush green hills of Yadkinville, I found their house located at the bottom of a hill on 40-Acres of land. The GPS could only take me so far, and then the rest of the way I followed their directions in the email that they’d sent to me. The farm was like I’d traveled more than just distance, but also time.
I drove up the gravel drive-way to be greeted by a sleeping old dog named Red at the entrance, and the ducks scattered to make room for me to park my car. The sky was a bit overcast, but the weather was mild and breezy the whole day. Eventually the sea of clouds dissipated into cottontail rabbits by mid-afternoon. Perfect weather for a perfect afternoon on the farm.
I got out of my car, and saw the children all standing there in curiosity at who could be visiting them that day. They’d met people from all over the world: New York City, France, Germany, and even the Philippines to list a few. I’m sure it was always exciting for them to see who was coming up to the farm next since they didn’t really have any neighbors close by, and it was a great way for them to learn about other cultures. The homestead was pretty isolated, but had no real need to be nearby anything when everything they’d ever need was right there. And they had each other.
Melissa invited me to come inside of their house which was build in the 1930s. It still had the original charm of the past, with a seemingly all-wooden interior. In the kitchen, there was a stove, an oven, a sink, a refrigerator, another refrigerator on the porch, then three more refrigerators in the outdoor pantry, but no microwave. She was cooking lunch in pressure-cookers on the stove that I’d never even heard of before. On the countertop there were about a dozen jars filled with milk. She was in the process of making and canning yogurt, and was going to move onto making butter and buttermilk too. Their two cows were both lactating, so there was currently a surplus of dairy options for their family that they had to figure out ways to make use of.
She asked me if I’d ever used a pressure cooker before.
“Nope.”
She asked me if I’d ever made butter, yogurt, or buttermilk.
“Nope.”
She asked me if I’d ever made flour, cornstarch, grits, or anything completely from scratch or if I’d ever worked on a farm at all before.
“Nope. It’s all new to me. Have you ever taught somebody about your way of living from scratch?” I said.
She said that it was pretty common that nobody knew where their food come or how it was made, but that her farm wasn’t the standard either since so much food that we eat comes from large manufacturing plants with added chemicals. But she showed me how food should be consumed naturally.
She took me outside to show me around the farm. They grew apples, figs, persimmons, pears, blueberries, pecans (unsuccessfully), black tea, barley, wheat, ocra, corn, potatoes, sweet potatoes, onions, radishes, grapes, peas, and they even had their own bees to make honey and brew mead. They had chickens to lay eggs for them, and to sit on eggs that were from other poultry; one hen sat on a duck’s eggs and was the new mother to three ducklings. They also had geese, African Ginnies, goats, and cows.
Everyone in the family had a job every day except the baby. Even the four-year-old was responsible, smart, and caring enough and to carry and entertain the 10-month-old child. I was so impressed by the maturity and kind nature of these kids. They were all very humble, grateful, hard-working, and knowledgable. They were definitely brought up by great parents who taught them well, and they were also accepting and nice to strangers.
I didn’t see a television anywhere in the house. There was no time for that. For entertainment, the kids read books, road their bicycles, chased the ducks, played with each other, wrote in their journals, or watched the live birth of their two-week-old calf, Gusty.
I didn’t do much work on the farm since I was only staying for a day. They gave me easy tasks like re-planting onions from the seeds that sprouted and mulching the blueberry bushes. Most of the day was spent just informing me about how things worked and how their family lived every day.
After planting onions, we went inside for lunch and washed our hands with the handmade soaps in the kitchen which were made from lye and milk. Their family didn’t eat meat very often, and usually saved the butchering of farm animals for the winter months. Often they would rely on a diet of grains, dairy, and vegetables. We all sat around the dining room table and Eric delivered Grace. He even thanked God for my visit and prayed for me to have safe travels in the future!
We had sweet potatoes, steamed kale, beans of two different varieties, homemade grits, and salad. Melissa also made a delicious hibiscus tea and gave me a taste of her persimmon puree which she was going to later turn into pudding. We talked about past WWOOFers, their travels, and mine, and then we quickly cleaned up the table and saved our food scraps for the worms in the compost bin in the garden. With no wrappers or really anything covered in plastic, I couldn’t even find a garbage can in their household because everything was put to good use and never wasted.
We went back to working on our individual projects, and then before I left I was given a tour of the farm of the parts I hadn’t seen yet. We finished making butter, and then Melissa told me the story of how she’d met Eric in college. She only knew about living on a farm and had never lived in the suburbs or the city until she went to NC State for Agricultural Studies. She said that college would have been a total waste for her if she didn’t meet Eric because she learned more about farming by actually doing, and learned more about the biology of plants in college rather than anything practical. Eric had lived in the city and the suburbs before, but he didn’t want to be stuck behind a desk the rest of his life and preferred life on a farm. He studied agriculture, and then studied abroad in Switzerland where he picked up beekeeping. He later WWOOFed on a farm in New Zealand, and learned that was what he wanted to do the rest of his life, only now he hosts his own WWOOFers in the summer.
It was such a humbling and eye-opening experience being on their farm for just a day and I enjoyed spending time with their family so much. WWOOFing is definitely something that I’m going to do in the future, but first I’ve got my eyes set on living in Alaska this summer. There will be time again to work on a farm in the future, but I’d rather it be abroad for the full experience. I just hope that I can find a family that is as wonderful as theirs.
#wwoof#travel#farmlife#organic#self-sufficient#blog#yadkinville#whatididonmydayoff#lifeblog#march#2017#northcarolina#family#milkandhoney#thebrowns#dog#instaxmini#fujifilm#instax
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Had a blast laying the musical tracks in the studio for @mercetheseries today! Can't wait to start shooting this hilarious webseries! #merce #actorslife #whatididonmydayoff #fromgramstodomandbackagain (at Millrose Music Recording Studios)
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#nerdalert! #whatididonmydayoff #iheartreadingrainbow
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