Our Experience with WWOOFing

A few months ago, while researching ways to save money on the road, we ran across a website for something called WWOOFing (WWOOF = World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms). The basic idea is that you work on an organic farm for a pre-arranged length of time in exchange for food, accommodations, and a cool experience.

We're always looking for ways to reduce our heftier expenses, so I paid the $40 WWOOF USA membership fee and spent some time researching various WWOOFing options along our planned route through Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona. One small farm stood out to me: Sunflower River in south Albuquerque. Other WWOOFers had given it and its proprietors high praise.

Morning glory at Sunflower River

Our experience at Sunflower River

To learn more about Sunflower River, I contacted Kat Heatherington, one of the owners. She responded almost immediately, and through a long email exchange over several days, we worked out a plan: we would arrive in mid-August, stay at the farm for 3-4 weeks, and help with the harvest. They would provide a spot for us to park the RV, an electrical hookup, and full access to the community house on the property. Sam would be more than welcome on the farm; as part of his homeschool experience, he would have a chance to explore the gardens and learn about the chickens, turkeys, and peafowl. As a bonus, he and the little boy who live there could play together.

We arrived at the farm on August 19. Kat was waiting for us at the big gate leading into the property. Our first adventure was seeing whether the RV would actually fit through said gate (it's amazing how the size of our RV seems to change depending on the situation we are in... When in an RV park, it's dwarfed by the tall, shiny class A rigs, but in other instances - like this one - we feel like we're driving a tank). It did, and we pulled right into a flat, shaded spot next to Kat's cottage. We were able to plug into the 20 amp outlet on the side of the building and discovered that we miraculously had enough power for the A/C or the microwave, though not at the same time.

Once we were settled, Kat gave all of us a comprehensive tour of the property, which consists of vegetable gardens, a cottage (it houses an impressive library of books that interns are encouraged to peruse and borrow), bird pens, a barn, a community house, or mahazda (which the Sunflower River stewards renovated entirely on their own), a sand pile and playground structure, a ritual ground (for ceremonies, I think, though we were not present for any), a festival area, and fields that seemed to stretch for acres. The farm is large, but deceptively so: it's narrow and gives the impression of being rather small at the front, but it extends back and back and back, all the way to an acequia (irrigation ditch) and, beyond that, the Rio Grande River.

The turkeys, which the farm raises and then sells at Thanksgiving

The garden was bursting with tomatoes

Dining area in the mahazda

Kitchen in the mahazda

Library in the cottage

Kat explained that interns are expected to work at least 20 hours a week, but how we managed our time was totally up to us. Nobody was going to be banging on our RV door at 7 AM, telling us to get started. We could work at our convenience, particularly during the week when most of the farm stewards (as the primary residents call themselves) were at their regular day jobs. 

After we settled in, we wandered over to the community house to decide what our first farm tasks would be. Sunflower River has an extremely organized method of task distribution. On the wall in the kitchen hang several whiteboards covered in Post-It notes. Some Post-Its list tasks just for the stewards, while others list chores that interns (working visitors) can take. Every week, the stewards hold a meeting to decide which tasks are most crucial, and they make those available to interns. Each intern is expected to select 2-3 of those tasks and complete them before selecting new ones. If questions arise, another whiteboard lists the steward-on-call for the day as well as their phone number.

In other words, we were impressed by the efficiency.

We selected a couple of smaller chores, such as weeding and plucking grapes from the vines around the ritual grounds, but the task that required most of our working time while at Sunflower River was clearing one of the large back fields. Dense thickets of sunflowers had completely taken over to the point where walking from one side of the field to the other practically required a machete. Moreover, this sunflower forest had become a haven for thousands of grasshoppers that had invaded the property in the spring. Because Trent and I both enjoy repetitive manual labor (who knew? but apparently we do), we gathered gloves, wheelbarrows, and shovels and dove in. Over the course of a week, we cleared approximately 3/4 of the field and displaced many grasshopper families ("Do you realize what you're doing to them?!?" Sam would exclaim from the sidelines as we worked. I actually started to feel a little guilty.)

Trent working the wheelbarrow

Sam helping out in the sunflower field

Sweaty but enjoyable work

One of the eight bajillion grasshoppers hanging out in the sunflower field

On one of the last days we were there, we helped clean out the turkey, chicken, and peafowl pens. Of all the jobs we completed, that was the most physically demanding. The turkey run had flooded thanks to a combination of monsoon rains and a faulty watering system, turning the bird poop, straw, and soil first into a dense sludge and then, once it finally dried, something resembling toxic-smelling concrete. It took five of us armed with spades, shovels, and wheelbarrows to remove the heavy layer of fly-infested grime and replace it with fresh straw. The chicken and peafowl pens were a breeze in comparison.

We also had the opportunity to do some work at another local farm a few miles north of Sunflower River. There, the owner needed to clear out his garage so that he could create a space for a permaculture workshop. We spent an afternoon organizing the usual items one finds in a garage storage space, carting them across the property to the barn and workshop, eating some delicious homemade vegan food, and getting to know some of the other farmers in the Albuquerque area.

Taking a break after work at the north Albuquerque farm

At Sunflower River, Sam was particularly interested in harvesting the grapes and chatting with the chickens, but a few days in, it was clear that his favorite activity was playing in the sand pile with Gawain, a chatty, kind, and clever little person whom Sam took to immediately. The two of them would design and build cities of pyramids, then destroy them with landslides. It amused them for hours. Jenny, one of the stewards and Gawain's mom, seemed to share our if-they're-happy-let-them-play parenting style, and so sometimes the two of them would be out there well past dark.

Harvesting grapes

Trent attended one of the weekly Sunflower River community meetings. At the meetings, the property owners/stewards share a meal, talk about what was accomplished the previous week and what the work priorities are for the upcoming week, and hash out any issues or conflicts. After the meeting, Trent commented that the stewards have an impressive diversity of experience, education, expertise, and interests to bring to the farm and the community.

Why we left early

I have a terrible habit of taking on too many things at once. I don't mean to, and yet I do it repeatedly. There's a disconnect between what I think I *should* be able to take on and what I can actually do, and ultimately it was this disparity that prompted us to leave Sunflower River well before the month was up.

In addition to our farm work, we had an armful of other obligations to meet. I was homeschooling Sam and facilitating an online class. Trent was working his 35-hours-a-week publishing job. Both Trent and I were trying to keep up with the blog and our social media accounts. I was training for my upcoming marathon. Plus, I wanted to explore Albuquerque with Sam. Then there were the other everyday chores: laundry, tidying the RV, preparing meals. And, as someone pointed out to me, we're still adjusting to this whole living-and-traveling-in-an-RV situation. That takes energy, too.

It was just too much. Maybe it wouldn't be overwhelming for everyone, but it was for us, and so we decided to leave. Kat and the other stewards were very gracious and understanding, which was a total relief as I was worried that our departure would offend them and/or upset their plans. 

They took it in stride, maybe in part because they're just that zen (they certainly seemed to be), or maybe because they have years of experience in working with interns. Plus, the way they structure their task system is such that farm operations are somewhat buffered by unexpected events.

Would we recommend WWOOFing to other RVers?

Absolutely! It's a great way to connect with a local community, make new friends, learn about organic farming, and save some money. And anyone can do it. You're 19 years old and need a change of pace? Try WWOOFing. You're 85 and need a change of pace? Try WWOOFing.

That said, make sure you know what you are getting into. That's our first piece of advice: whether it's via phone or email, make sure you and the owner of the farm are on the same page. Ask questions. Ask a lot of questions, and do not hold back. Be clear about what your needs are in terms of accommodations, facilities, RV hookups, etc. If you have children, make sure they will truly be welcome, as Sam was at Sunflower River. You don't want to wait until you get there to have these conversations. If the owner balks during these preliminary discussions, well, that's some valuable information you can use to help you decide whether WWOOFing is right for you.

In fact, one of the best things about our experience was how communicative Kat and the other stewards were about their needs and expectations. From her very first emails, Kat let us know what they most needed from us, and we appreciated that. 

Second, read the reviews from other WWOOFers. Once you're a member of WWOOF USA, you can see what other WWOOFers have to say about a particular farm. Trust me, not all farms get stellar reviews! The comments for Sunflower River were excellent and helped us make an informed decision.

Third, evaluate your schedule as honestly and critically as possible to see whether WWOOFing really fits in. If you're working from the road and homeschooling your kids, do you have the time, energy, and patience to put in the hours on a farm? Sure, maybe you'll save some money, but will it be worth the stress?

Fourth, be aware that WWOOFing may come with some inconveniences. For instance, because we were hooked up to a regular 20 amp electrical outlet, our electricity repeatedly shut off (not much of a problem given that temperatures were cool and we had access to the community house). We didn't have water or sewer hookups, so whenever we wanted to cook, wash dishes, shower, or use the bathroom, we had to trundle over to one of the buildings to use their facilities (again, generally fine, though kind of a pain when you have to pee at 3 AM). In other words, expect to exercise flexibility and a roll-with-it attitude.

Finally, expect to learn something about yourself: 

• I learned that extensive contact with sunflower stems and certain weeds makes me break out in hives, seeing chickens and turkeys cooped up in pens really bothers me (darned vegan that I am), grasshoppers are kind of cute even when they're accompanied by thousands of their friends, and I have a chronic tendency to overestimate my bandwidth. 

• Trent learned that the Progressive Industries EMS-PT30C Portable EMS RV Surge Protector was a great investment. It protected us when the voltage dropped on our weak 20 amp hookup, and it prevented a high amp draw which could have damaged our electrical gear. He also learned that, although partial hookups are fine in theory, realistically, he'd prefer to have full hookups. I have to agree. Maybe that makes us RV wimps, but that's where we're at right now.

• Sam learned that he really loves harvesting grapes. (I'm hoping he'll want to own a vineyard one day. That would be rather convenient.)

Will we WWOOF again?

Maybe at some point, but for now, probably not. We're still trying to get our bearings with the RV lifestyle. We're going to focus on establishing consistent paid work, homeschooling, writing, and finding reasonably-priced accommodations as a way of conserving money. That said, when we see opportunities to volunteer in or otherwise get involved with the local community, we will do that.

If you have questions about WWOOFing, or if you have your own WWOOFing experiences to share, please post them!