Farm Life: Day One

World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms, commonly referred to as WWOOF, is an international organization that connects small organic farmers with volunteer workers. WWOOF exists for a few reasons, one being that it is expensive for small farmers to hire workers and another being that is it difficult in many countries for a foreigner to get a work permit. Rather than getting paid, WWOOFers are compensated with room and board in exchange for an agreed-upon amount of work that the host farm usually has listed in their WWOOF profile. In our case, we are expected to work six hours per day, five days a week, with a minimum stay of two weeks. Most countries have their own sub-WWOOF organization (WWOOF Hungary, WWOOF Austria, WWOOF Poland, etc) which may or may not charge a membership fee (from what we saw, most fees are between $20-50 per year; WWOOF Hungary was free). After a potential volunteer has signed up for their WWOOF membership at their country of choice, they are given contact details for the host farms (you are able to browse the host list without signing up) so that they can arrange their stay. We stumbled upon WWOOF.org when we were planning our trip two years ago - we figured it would be a cheap way to extend our trip to Europe (which we were determined to have last from EURO2012 to Oktoberfest in Munich) and a way for us to get some hands-on experience in working on a farm and living sustainably. Since WWOOF Hungary offered free membership, it was an easy choice for the frugal-minded traveler.

We took a bus from Budapest out to western Hungary, to the village of Hegyesd (pronunciation: Heg-eshed; remember, the "s" makes a "sh" sound in Hungarian), which is close to Lake Balaton, the largest lake in Central Europe. When I confirmed with Peter, the farm owner, that we would be arriving on the 14:15 bus out of Budapest that he had suggested when we first began communicating, I thought it was odd that he didn't ask what we looked like - I wasn't sure how big the bus station in Hegyesd would be, so I sent him a description of us anyway. Well, Hegyesd has a population of about 170 people - there was no bus station, just basically a stop on the side of the road. When we got off, a man came running up to us, calling to his son, "Here! The girl with the pink shoelaces!" (pink shoelaces courtesy of Discover Football :D ) and we all shared a laugh. As Peter put it, they never would have had a problem finding us. We were the only ones at that stop.

The farm's main operation is beef production; the owners, Peter and Barbara, keep a small herd of Hungarian Grey cattle, which is a breed native to Hungary that were, in the 1970s, endangered to the point of near extinction - less than 300 animals existed at one point. In an effort to preserve their native species, farmers in Hungary were encouraged to raise Hungarian Greys and today they are much better off. Peter mentioned to us that they never have trouble selling their beef because people come to them specifically because their beef is Hungarian Grey. In addition to the cattle, the family has about thirty chickens (also a native Hungarian breed; I forget the name but they are similar looking to our zebra-striped Plymouth Rock chickens), a bunch of rabbits, five pigs, and two sheep, all of which will be eaten at some point. There is also a young orchard and a small garden with potatoes, strawberries, onions, watermelons, cucumbers, tomatoes, herbs, corn, squash..... And lots and lots of weeds.

After a quiet first evening that consisted of us meeting Peter, Barbara, their son Aaron (who we met at the bus stop) and three other WWOOFers (two of which were leaving the next morning), going on a short walking tour of the farm, and eating stag for dinner, we went to bed since breakfast was at 6am. Work would be from 7am-1pm Monday through Friday.

Breakfast was homemade bread, homemade jam, tea, milk from a local dairy farmer, boiled beef tongue, and sheep testicles sliced and fried with bacon.

So yes, we have been here less than 24 hours and already we have eaten stag, cow tongue, and sheep's balls - dubbed "swinging steaks", haha. I'm sure the list of strange things we have eaten will only get longer as our farmstay progresses.

The rest of Monday morning found us in one of the smaller plots with corn, pumpkins, and lots and lots of weeds.

My back hurts just thinking about it. We spent about four and a half hours of our first day pulling weeds. The whole time I was having yet another mental freak-out session: I don't think I'm cut out for this!! Is this really what we're going to be doing for the next month?!?! My back already hurts. Do we really have to do this all day? I know the answer to that - YES, because there are so many freaking weeds here! How did this get so overrun?! This is ridiculous. I would never let my garden get this out of control. I'm so tired. I changed my mind - give me my desk job back, thanks.

After Barbara had shown us which weeds were to be set aside to feed the rabbits, we were pretty much left to our own devices (so, Steve worked really hard to pull as many weeds out as possible while I sat on the ground alternately pouting/complaining that my back hurt and digging up the really big roots that I was determined to exhume so that no weeds could re-sprout from it). Barbara came back to check on us at the end of the work shift and had us de-eye and peel potatoes for lunch for the last hour. Whew - thank goodness for that last hour. I can peel potatoes. I get to sit down in the shade while we do it. It was also nice to talk with Barbara in a calmer environment without a bunch of people around.

We had homemade gulyas soup for lunch (lunch, the main meal in most of Europe, always starts with a soup) followed by stew and dumplings. Then it was naptime.

Suppertime, getting to know Peter, Barbara, Aaron (who is a few years older than we are), and Michael, an Austrian who is our fellow WWOOFer for the next two weeks, and sleep was all I could bring myself to do for the rest of the day.

And so concludes day one at the farm.