Farm life

We are writing now from our new home in Kerikeri where we will be based for the month of June. This is our first time working for a full-on farm and the experiences we are getting here are wonderful. Our hosts Marty and Becky have 65 acres and a little shop on their property where they sell their own and local organic produce and goods. The shop is operated on an honesty system, meaning that customers ring up their own purchases and leave the money in an honesty box. Every Sunday they sell their own produce at the Bay of Islands Farmer’s Market. The market is lovely and we have gone twice now to admire the stands selling everything from fruits and veggies to honey, baked goods, coffee, mussel fritters, and even some fabulous falafel. At the same time, across the street, there is an Artist’s Market where locals can sell their handmade crafts and art.

Murple at the Cabin

Marty and his son Andrew at the Market

The store (back room)

The store (front room)

The few weeks we’ve been busy doing a variety of things for the farm and shop, including preparing beds and planting beets and turnips, weeding garlic beds, feeding the pigs and chooks (chickens), drying and preserving persimmons, keeping the shop in order, harvesting and packing sun chokes (Jerusalem artichokes), oranges, kiwis, mandarins, green beans, Russian kale, cauliflower, beet root, kohlrabi, tamarillos, choi, chards, cabbage, mizuna, and daikons.

Sean with the ladies

Tamarillos

In the garlic fields

Louisa and the freshly planted turnips

And if that wasn’t enough, we’ve been cooking all organic and mostly farm-fresh food with our great German roommates and fellow wwoofers, Jenny and Ronnie. They taught us their basic bread recipe and now we’re baking bread every other day, which we all enjoy fresh from the oven (actually a toaster oven) slathered with yummy organic butter or fresh locally made cheese.

Louisa making bread

The finished product

Despite getting off to a cold and rainy start over our first weekend, the two weeks turned out to be mostly beautiful and sunny, which has made working and showering (in the basically outside shower) easy peasy…. We work from about 8:30 to 12:30 and have the afternoons to do what we like. The town of Kerikeri is only a few minutes away and though it is small, it has a cute main street and a great used bookstore that we have spent a good amount of time browsing. Unfortunately, because it is so small, the internet access is limited and the only wireless we can find is at the McDonalds! It felt wrong, but we went ahead and used it to skype the parents back home. Life is peaceful here and we spend most evenings relaxing in front of a roaring fire and reading, journaling or playing cards.

The Fire Beast

We’re taking lots of notes, photos and getting in some more reading. This week’s read for Louisa is Lady Chatterly’s Lover by D.H. Lawerence and for Sean, Island of the Color Blind by Oliver Sacks. And for some organic reading, The Cook’s Salad Garden and The New Organic Grower’s Four-Season Harvest. Our hosts and friends here in New Zealand have introduced us to so many great books that we’re excited to have the time to actually read! I’m sure we’ll have some good recommendations to send back home when it’s all over.

The wwoofas

We’re having such a wonderful time participating on a working organic farm and getting to know our hosts and friends. We even attended a local ceilidh night where about thirty locals and three foreign wwoofers danced together in the Waipapa town hall to traditional Celtic music. (If you’re not familiar with this activity, it’s something like square dancing to Irish music : ) It was actually quite fun and interesting to be a part of something that the average backpacker would never experience.

Hope all is well, Sean and Louisa