Bienvenue à la ferme... pour la deuxième fois

 My second wwoofing experience, now back in France, I went to live and work on a small fruit and vegetable farm. Situated 25 kilometers south of Toulouse, Renée and Nigel's farm is a small organic (obviously) farm that supports a CSA with 25 boxes of produce, weekly. During the summer months they have between 1-3 wwoofers at any given time, and they (we wwoofers) live off in a cabin to the side of the main house. Today's post will be a quick tour of the location, just to set the scene.

Here's la cabane. . . a strawbale building, with a comfortable rustic feel. Somewhat uncompleted, it still managed to be a lovely home for a month.

Off to the side of the cabane was a lovely veranda with grapevines, where many a night of food, laughter, drinks, charades and shenanigans were to be had. You can just see the table peeking through the grapevines below.

We were also lucky enough to have a partially constructed ecologically friendly swimming pool. Not yet a fully functioning plant-filtered swimming pool, Nigel had to empty and re-fill it every few weeks in order to not get overrun with algae. Check out the working cinderblock/plank diving board! There were a few encounters with creatures--frogs, tadpoles, these incredible tiny spinning creatures, and a possible nighttime encounter with a mouse, but lovely after a hot day's work on the farm (minus the possible mouse). Luckily no encounters were had with the wild boars that got into the rows of carrots and leeks, invading from the nearby reserve.

The farm grew spinach, lettuce, carrots, leeks, white and red onions, broccoli, cabbage, Chinese cabbage, green and yellow courgettes (zucchini), white, purple and globe aubergines (eggplant), squash/pumpkins of many kinds (we never did try cooking those pomme d'or), potatoes, turnips, beetroot, grape vines (mostly not yet bearing fruit), a whole variety of heirloom tomatoes and cherry tomatoes (favourite being Mexican Honey cherries, and least being the noires), green peppers and hot peppers, apples, peaches, plums of several varieties, rhubarb, fennel, basil, and various other things. Did I forget any obvious ones, fellow wwoofers?

For our part on the farm, we cleared new ground, formed new beds, composted, sowed seeds, planted plants, weeded rows, picked produce, boxed/bagged and weighed items for the CSA, cleaned greenhouses, sorted farming supplies, etc. One evening we got to go to where the folk from the CSA pick up their produce. It was a really nice addition, in that each person came to select their produce, so you physically got to see people enjoying the fruit of your labour. Not only that, but each week two people were designated to bring wine and snacks, so people hung around chatting, drinking, and eating. This made it a much more human experience than that of the CSA I participated in the States, where I never saw another person, and just picked up my box of produce from the loading bay at National Geographic.

Farming things I learned:
* Sometimes you have to be very careful, other times, not so much
* Efficiency is key . . . I can't make everything perfect and beautiful
* Some seeds have clay covers for protection, and they look like sprinkles for cakes, but probably don't taste like them
* All those straight lines I drew in graphics class and all that measuring I do for illustrations is very important and helpful for having a good "eye" when creating new beds for plantings and when actually planting plants
* Some lightweight tools are amazing, and I will never have a large garden without them (what is the French word, sarcleur?)
* I don't like weeding fennel, but most other things are fine.
* It's all about the compost.

In the house we helped to prepare foods, wash dishes, set tables, cook, and generally help out. It was pretty fabulous (although mildly terrifying) as Renée is a retired chef, and suddenly I found myself reduced to something like a 16-year old with no culinary knowledge whatsoever, and perfectly able to fail in all sorts of menial tasks. For some reason, the pressure also caused me to drop just about anything I was holding when in Renée's presence . . . suffice to say I was a mess. Despite this, I learned some fabulous new recipes, and am interested to expand into all sorts of new ground once I stop cooking on a camp gas stove and actually have something to work with.

And last, but not least whatsoever, we emptied and cleaned dry toilets. My least favourite job on the farm--as I can bet a few of my friends would guess. Fortunately for you, I took no pictures of that particular task. But, task completed, I realized that I can actually accomplish that, despite squeamishness . . . which leads me to believe that I can actually do anything if I put my mind to it. 

Leaving the bee farm

Before I left the farm I did a quick run around, documenting  many of the other things that I got to do during my stay here.

There was land to till, and beans to sow.

Tomatoes to pick.

Wood to stack.

Hives to clean.

Hives to stain.

 

Posters and maps and signs and sundry to paint and design. Of course :)

Honey to fill and stack and label and pack. And if you haven't tasted sunflower (Tournesol) honey, I highly recommend it. Liquid sun, for sure.

Kids to entertain. Louna and I currently hold the record for their version of raquet ball. 96 hits in a row, keeping the ball from bouncing on the ground.

Dinners to prepare and eat and clean up from. Mainly eat, Dany was the chef of the household. (Alan, Manon served you your portion on a little spoon--not wanting you to miss out, even though you'd already left).

And some parting images of the pyrenees in the wintertime--with the ruins of the local castle in the foreground, and the hives mid summer amongst the tournesol (photos by Stephanie).

And it looks like I'll be returning in September, because Dany and Stephanie have decided to get married. They've been together for 15? years, and when I asked why they decided to do it now, they told me I'd have to return for the marriage to find out. So I guess I will. There's to be a local band playing, and traditional dance lessons in the afternoon. I got to be the first, or amongst the first to see both outfits. Fun times with the locals :)

A la ruche.

The following is a little taste into an experience going to the bee hives.  After we collected the pollen (this set of hives is set up so that pollen can be collected from a box underneath the hive. Pollen is sold for use in cooking and salads, etc) Stephanie decided to have a look how the honey was going because the Chataignier (Chestnut trees) were just about finished flowering, and when the honey is completely sealed off, it will be harvested.

Showing me how this particular hive is not quite ready yet.

 Busy bees

 Putting the frame back into the crate.

 I've totally done all of that. In fact, one of the scariest things I've done during this trip (many times now) was to take one of those frames out, and shake all of the bees of it so that we could change out these little shelves for collecting Royal Jelly. Really not scary after the first couple of times, but that first time (this was post-numerous bee stings) was nerve-wracking.

Closing the lid.

These are the Chestnut tree flowers.

If you look closely, you can see a bee landing with two pollen sacks that look like bright yellow panniers on a bicycle :)

It's me, in ma bee suit. Jessica, your lovely Ecuadorian scarf came in much handy in keeping my hair back!

And again.

Afterwards we collected some wild mountain thyme for our herbal tea break that afternoon.

And that's the beehive experience.

Woofing

Woofing, or wwoofing, is working through World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms (there have been a couple of different names for this group, but this is its current iteration). You live with a family, get free food and board, and work with them on their farms. The hope is that you both gain culturally and socially, as well as learn more about farming techniques of the specific location you have chosen.

As this is my first experience, I'm unable to generalize, but it has been lovely to have been accepted into the family, and to learn how an actual beekeeper works. I don't ever want to be a professional beekeeper, but the thought of owning a single hive on a large property hasn't as yet deserted me.

In the evenings, we've gotten to participate in the lives of the family. Manon (10) had a clarinet concert and an end of year "spectacle" in which the children of the school she goes to put on a circus for parents and friends. We also went out as a family after the concert for celebratory drinks in Mirepoix, the big smoke, close to Tréziers (which really is a pretty tiny, still very medieval looking town). On quieter days we've spent evenings at home watching movies (I now can understand and watch a full French movie as long as the subtitles--in French--are on), reading stories, or just talking and having endless cups of herbal tea. This family is vegetarian, eating solely organic foods. They don't have alcohol or coffee or even black tea in the house. Honey is used almost solely in place of sugar (as you'd imagine, I guess). It's an interesting experience, and probably great for my body, but I do miss my cup of black tea in the morning. (Postnote: the other woofer, Alan, had a stash of black tea, so now I'm golden).

In addition to experiences with the family, Alan (the other woofer, who is from Brittany in France) and I  have been able to get out and about a little and visit the surrounds. We explored more of Mirepoix one day, wandered by a nearby lake, and went out for dinner one night at a questionable restaurant (the fact that the place smelled like cats should have tipped us off, but before the night was out I think we saw four different cats--not really what I want to see in a eating establishment).

More adventures to come, I'm sure.