Week One of WWOOFing

As Liz, Ziggy and myself travel around this fine nation, we decided to add a little work to our play with WWOOFing. WWOOF: Worldwide Opportunities on Organic Farms is part of a worldwide effort to link visitors with organic farmers, promote an educational exchange and build a global community conscious of ecological farming practices.

According to their website: Visitors, or ‘WWOOFers’, spend about half a day helping out on a host farm, learn about the organic movement and sustainable agriculture, and receive room and board during their visit – with no money exchanged between hosts and WWOOFers. WWOOF is an educational and cultural exchange program. WWOOFing is a way to learn practical farming skills, be part of the organic agriculture movement, and experience the heart of American agrarian culture. Our first WWOOFing experience was with Sylvanaqua Farms in Earlysville VA. Liz sought out this location and the hosts Annie and Chris Newman along with their one year old daughter Marion and two dogs Beebop and Mini opened their home to the roaming gnome team for the last week of April. With positive attitudes, we jumped right into the new environment ready to work and learn. 

Sunday Night: We arrive to the family home around 5pm and meet with the Newmans. One WWOOFer, Jean was already at the house and had been working with the farm for the past two weeks. Jean is a 19 year old young adult from France who is visiting, travelling and working on farms on the east coast starting in Miami and moving up to Boston & RI followed by a month in Canada. He was able to show us the closing operations for the two farms that Sylvanaqua tends to.

-- Adventure Farm is five minutes to the north and is a shared land space from the owners. The Newman team along with their partner Julio tend to small pens of chickens, hens, two goats, three sheep, a dozen ducks, a handful of small pigs (50-70lbs) and about 10 larger pigs (100-150lbs). This lot is mainly used for the above livestock to be fed and raised for processing and sold at markets. At the end of each day, all pens are watered for the night and the birds are enclosed in a chicken wire box for protection. Unfortunately, sometimes the wild animals are able to outwit the farmers. In the past week, the small chick pen had been raided by suspected raccoons with numerous casualties. They encouraged us to bring the dog to the farm so his scent would hopefully deter the chick killers.

-- Buck Mountain Farm is five minutes to the south and owned by a lady by the name of Rose. The farm is mainly used for a small herd of cattle and another pen for Rocky the bull. There are two pens of chickens that Sylvanaqua farms tends to. One pen is an old converted Little Debbie truck. Another is a coup on a trailer. All animals get fed either once or twice a day and water is checked in each container. At the end of each night, all animals are collected into their pens and closed up for the night. Sometimes, its easier said than done and you end up spending 15 minutes chasing hens in the twilight and trying to get everyone to bed.

Monday: Morning chores include feeding and watering everyone. Jean shows us how its done at a near running pace. He was very diligent about his duties on the farm. The broiler chick pen had been raided in the night and three were dead on arrival and two very badly injured. I took it upon myself to give mercy to one of the chicks with my hatchet on hand. 

In the afternoon, Julio came by the house with supplies from the hardware store to build a third brooder hut in the back yard. All wood had been pre-measured and cut which was nice. It was just a matter of putting it all together and screwing it down. Short work for a team of four. Earlier in the day, Chris (host) left to pick up ten piglets from a farm a few hours away. After dinner, we closed up both farms and were exhausted from our first long day. Ziggy decided it would be fun to jump into the sheep enclosure and start herding the three animals in the dark. We only noticed by the blue LED collar zipping around the ring. It took us a good minute to catch and calm him before putting the pooped pooch in the car for a break. Chris returned around 9 with the piggies who slept huddled in the hay lined truck bed.

Tuesday: Another busy day starts with opening, feeding and watering all animals at both farms. Luckily, duties were split and team Jean / Chris opened Buck Mtn in addition to introducing the new piglets to their enclosure at Buck Mtn. Liz and I headed to Adventure farm to meet Julio and help start the day. Julio taught us how to milk the two goat Esperanza (Hope in Spanish) and Lola (Lola in Spanish). The goats know whats up and head to the milking platform without much fuss. They are ready to get the milk out and the feed in. Once they are on the platform, the utters are cleaned with hot soapy water. Then two or three clearing squeezes are done to get any muck out before collection. The milking process takes practice. The index and thumb come together like an OK sign and is placed high on the utter. When OK is contracted, the utter will hold the milk and the remaining three fingers squeeze to press the milk out and into the container. On average, they produce about a quart a day; sometimes more, sometimes less.

Prior to lunch, Chris (host) and myself teamed up to get errands run for the upcoming farmers market in the afternoon. Its the first of the season and it was a mad dash to get a table, info board and all the food ready for sale. We ran over to Buck Mtn where we used a vacuum sealer and scale to weigh and package cuts of broilers that had been processed the past Friday and were in a walk in fridge. Chris showed me the cuts and how they were made; breast, thighs, wings, tenders, and the remnants. He took care of the cuts and doled them out to me for weight, bag and sealing them up. When we got back to the house, Julio helped install the metal roof on the third brooder enclosure. We were now ready for chicks which came shipped to the PO in two cardboard boxes each containing 100 peeping chickies for a total of 200! We got the feed and water together and then introduced the little yellow fuzz balls to the new home.

Liz and Chris hurried off to the farmers market which started at 3pm. This was Jeans last day at the farm and I offered to drive him to the Greyhound station in Charlottesville. While out in town, I tried desperately to find a new rain jacket to buy. I originally got a nice one at Costco for around $15 but have since misplaced it. Costco no longer carries the rain coat and so I tried Kmart, Dicks sporting goods and TJ Maxx all with failed results. Dicks had coats starting at $60! Too rich for the currently unemployed and volunteering crowd. Liz found one at Walmart for $30 and its a breathable light weight cloth called Frogg Toggs. It wicked the water very well and I think I'm a fan. The only issue is the material looks very brittle and any sort of scrape, tear or roughage could make a hole. I also made a stop to Trader Joe's on a hot tip to seek out their 3L box-o-wines for only $12; SOLD! I bought three to stock us up for the next few days/weeks.

Once done with my errands, I joined Liz and Chris at the farmers market along with Annie, Marion and Chris' mother Faith. We continued to sell until 7pm when the market closes. At the end of the day, they made a decent amount of sales especially for the wicked windy and wet weather that fell on the region that afternoon. At night, Liz and I sealed up both farms being sure to get all escapee chicks back in the pens for the night.

Wednesday: Liz and I were up at 6am to meet Julio at Adventure farms. We were moving the broiler hens pen to another grassy spot. The enclosure was deconstructed and the chicks motivated with feed to move to the new spot before setting up the fence once more. All animals, once again, are fed and watered at both farms. Annie made a delicious breakfast of fresh home raised sausage and veggies.

After breakfast, we were asked to pick up 30 ducklings that had arrived at the PO right up the road. Liz had to control her excitement. The 30 little billed fluff balls were set to live with the peeping chicks we got in yesterday.

Later in the morning, we processed more chickens for distribution in the vacuum bags. Two different local restaurants placed orders with the farm. After one more trip to Adventure farm with three bales of hay for the chicken pens and a pickup of the 11 ducks at the farm, it was finally lunch time. After food, we headed back to Buck Mtn with the ducks in a pen in the back. We set up the slaughter rack which basically is a spinable rack of cones above a large plastic basin. THE NEXT DESCRIPTION IS GRAPHIC read at own risk: The ducks are inserted into the cone head first with the belly towards the outside and wings tucked in. The process that the farm uses involves a turning of the ducks head to aim the blade towards the jugular. The avoidance of the windpipe is key to keeping the duck from spoiling or making it harder to process. The cut is made about an inch above the ducks eye with a sharp blade and a quick cut. The bleed-out takes a few minutes (some ducks take longer) and twitching & explosive defecation may occur. Chris showed us the process on the first two, Liz performed the process on 4 ducks and I did 5. Once bled and limp, the ducks are laid out in the walk in freezer to chill before the de-feathering occurs.

That night, we did dinner on our own since our hosts were out for Marion's first birthday. The farms were closed down for the night and we called it a day.

Thursday: Thursday was a trying day. The alarm goes off at 5:45 so we can meet Julio at Adventure farm by 6:20. Only ten minutes late, we begin opening operations at the farm. The forecast called for rain and we knew it was coming. As we fed and watered the birds, we could hear it in the distance. A moment later, it began to rain. The rain turned to a driving pour and I hid out in the hen house for protection. Liz was not as lucky and was soaked from head to toe including her LLBean rain coat. She trudged on in the rain and I knew I couldn't wuss out in the hen house. We worked as a team while the rain poured on us. We cautiously trudged in the mud to feed all animals at both farms and at the house. By the time we got to the house, we were cold and wet entirely. A change of clothes and we felt a bit better but with each outing during the day came more wet socks in squishy shoes and heavy clothes fully saturated. This was a tough morning to say the least. 

Fried chicken for breakfast along with some left over cantaloupe gave us a boost of energy but also made us lethargic. We futzed around for a short while before heading back to Adventure around noon. Julio requested our help with a till-free garden bed in the shape of a peace pattern. The native quartz which sat around 3" below the surface gave us a hell of a time removing from the vicinity. By 2pm, we had run out of energy and were ready for lunch. A delicious meal of chick peas in red sauce with spinach over couscous with a fried egg on top. I personally made sure to get my calorie intake. 

After lunch was more animal care at the house. The rain started back up. We took a brief respite before charging back into chores. While Liz held house to help with dinner, I weed whacked the field a bit and made sure all chicks were happy, watered and fed at Adventure. Back at the house, a delicious local free range steak was waiting along with fries and a kale salad. It was quickly cleared from the table by the family. Out once again for the closing duties, we hurried our nightly chores in the pending rain. Both farms closed up before 9pm, we return to the house for much deserved showers and clothing air-out.

Friday: With a few hard days of field work behind us, we requested a break from our chores for the day so we could explore and regain some strength. Chores were completed in the AM and after a brief nap caused by pancake-itis, we headed out to see some sights. We stopped to find a local geocache to get our Virginia badge - Woo. Our journey then led us up the road to Barboursville Winery and Ruins. The ruins attracted our attention first. Preserved as a ruin after its destruction by fire on Christmas Day, 1884, Barboursville was one of the largest and finest residences in the region. The only building in Orange County known to have been designed by Thomas Jefferson, Barboursville was constructed between 1814 and 1822 for Jefferson's friend James Barbour, Governor of Virginia (1812-1814), U.S. Senator, Secretary of War, and Ambassador to the Court of St. James.

After a few snapshots, we headed to the winery where $7 got us a wine tasting glass and up to 20 tastes of their signature and award winning reds, whites and dessert wines. A very good deal and great Friday afternoon activity. After the winery, we packed up and drove into Charlottesville to the downtown pedestrian mall where we stopped in a burger joint for some amazing specialty burgers with fries and fried oreos for dessert. It was a treat-yo-self kind of day. We finished up with some window shopping and then headed back to the host house.

That night, we completed our chores with Chris and he helped round up the broiler birds (57) from Adventure farms for processing tomorrow morning.

Saturday: Morning chores were started a bit later than normal but seemed to go much faster. Maybe we are finally getting the swing of this. After breakfast, Liz and I stop by Walmart to grab 200lbs of ice for the upcoming bird processing. We meet with Chris and Julio and Julio's father (also Julio) at Buck Mtn farm to start the activities. GRAPHIC CONTENT AHEAD -- Julio and Julio take on the slaughtering, blood letting and initial defeathering activities which uses a scalder, which as you can imagine is a large tank of scalding water that the freshly killed birds are dunked into to loosen the feathers. This is then followed by a de-featherer which is a circular tub with rubber prongs on the inside and tumbles the chickens about to thrash the feathers off and into a bucket.

Liz, Chris (host) and myself were on the processing end of the operations which included sharp knives to cut off the heads and feet first. Then an incision was made to open the bird from the lower abdomen. A hand inside the bird and good grasp is enough to remove the esophagus to anus in a cautious pull. When completed right, the gallbladder is NOT ruptured and all things are peachy. Sometimes, the gallbladder was cut and a florescent green liquid would squirt. Quick hosing operations were taken to make sure it was washed off asap. From the innards, only the heart and liver is retained for freezing and selling; everything else is composted. Once the lungs are removed, the chickens are put on ice to be placed in the fridge for further processing.

Overall, it was a fairly messy process but with five people, we were able to defeather and process 57 broiler hens and 6 ducks in about 3 hours. We took a late lunch, which did not include chicken, and then had a few hours to break with a nap. Night chores were completed and after a quick shower, we went out to see the Grey Brothers. Annie's father plays bass in the psychedelic jam band and a small gathering was held to eat, drink and jam out. It was a rather enjoyable evening aside from getting lost on a dark dirt road getting there.

Sunday: We woke up a bit later than usual and got to the first farm around 7:20. We met Julio at Adventure farm and had to capture/corral three pigs that had escaped. We managed to round them up and put them back in the pen. During the day, we worked to secure a new open air enclosure for them in the field. The stubborn piggies required a netted fence and three levels of electric fencing to keep them contained in the field. Additional hoeing was completed on the no-till planter and the sheep pen was moved (this includes rounding up the escaped sheep during the move). 

Nightly chores were completed almost effortlessly. We are getting much better at this on our last night here. It also helps that it hadn't rained that much today. Only a light drizzle. Of the 200 chicks that were introduced earlier in the week, numerous have passed away from exposure. This includes but is not limited to: exposure to the ~50deg nights we have had with nothing more than a heat lamp; exposure to the rainy weather that has doused Virginia and hopefully made a dent in the Shenandoah fire which burnt more than 10,000 acres; exposure to other chicks in the brutal baby chick battle grounds where mosh pits and body slams are not only acceptable but expected. Our hosts let us know that we are not to blame for their loss and there is no such thing as a 100% success rate.

Monday: Our last day at Sylvanaqua Farms is bittersweet. We perform our morning chores and are finally getting good at them. We have learned volumes in the past week about small scale organic farming including huglebeds, keyhole gardens, animal husbandry and care, poultry processing, goat milking and more. We are ready to move onto the next adventure but will surely miss Annie, Chris and baby Marion along with their dozens of poultry, ducks, sheep, goats and pigs. We move onward to Peppers Salsa farm in Hamilton VA where we hope to learn veggie growing techniques and more. The weather forecast looks wet but we will hopefully keep our spirits dry. Come back and find out more about this adventure. Thanks for reading.

SPECIAL SPOT LIGHT

This weeks special spot light award goes to Ziggy! This week, Ziggy had surpassed our expectations. Our little pitbull has proved that he is growing into a very patient and obedient dog. He has met and played with a half-dozen dozen dogs of various breeds. His play is fast paced and friendly rather than aggressive. Recall has greatly improved and he will wait on the porch with no leash while boots are being put on. His love for exploration and independence is still prevalent but his is always eager to blitzkrieg down the field when we need him to. Numerous opportunities to chase and harass ducks, chickens, goats and hogs have been bypass to sit and watch or wait patiently. The goats are the only instigator and give Zig the run around since they naturally want to be herded and he wants to chase. Once again, no aggression or desire to bite or hurt. He has done wonderfully meeting new people and even a one year old baby with no issues. Good on him and I am sure we will continue to improve his abilities as we move on.