Wwoofing with the Kettles

Lion's Mane Sunflower

For the past 10 days we have been staying with wonderful new wwoof hosts, David and Betsy Kettle and their two teenage children. We have learned heaps from our knowledgeable hosts, especially from Betsy, who teaches year-long courses for the local community college on organic gardening and permaculture design. We spent a full day last week sitting in on one of her classes, which is held on the premises in her own home and gardens, and learned about pruning fruit trees, identifying pests and beneficial insects, and how to make homemade pickles! (There was a lot more than that packed into the eight hours, but those were a few highlights).

A corner of the big gardens


Betsy showed us her preferred method for tying up tomato plants. We loved the twists that so neatly and gently support and separate the stem from the stake.


A student garden


Pickle-making with the class

David taught us how to build a hot compost pile
Ingredients: grass clippings, weeds, kitchen scraps, chicken poo, hay, and water.


After a couple of days the temperature in the middle of the pile was already up to 65 degrees celsius (=150 F)! This high temp is necessary to kill weed seeds, a requirement for meeting organic certification standards


We sowed this entire patch with buckwheat on a Sunday and by Tuesday it was already covered in little sprouts


Seedlings! Sean and I spent several hours separating and replanting seedlings for the winter gardens (cabbage, cauliflower, arugula, mizuna, komatsuna, etc)


More beautiful sunflowers