Wwoofing Away, 1st stop!
Trip Start
Jan 05, 2010
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3
7
Trip End
Apr 06, 2010
Hastings, North Island, New Zealand
Monday, February 1, 2010
Anyway, here I am - in the town of Hastings in the Hawke's Bay Region on the east side of the North Island. And while this is not officially my first stop on the wwoofing adventure, it is my first stop on an actual, working farm! I am wwoofing for Epicurean Supplies Ltd. (they actually have a pretty neat website www.epicureansuppliesltd.com), a business owned by one man, but operated by many. There are about 8 - 10 mostly full-time, paid employees, along with a current group of 11 wwoofers (of which I am happy to currently be one of them). Howerver, there have been up to 20 wwoofers even within the last month - but everyone seems to be happy with 11 for now...(hmmm 1 shower and 2 bathrooms - yah, that's enough!)
I arrived on Monday and have had 3.5 days of work (the usual wwoofing situation is 4-6 hours of work/day, 5-6 days a week, but here it is 3.5 full days of work, with 3.5 days off). I have done a variety of tasks so far; planting celery seed in trays, sorting and cleaning up garlic that has been drying (smells incredible in that greenhouse), transplanting baby cauliflower and kale starts, and for most of the other two days I helped with the packaging up of some orders, as well as a bit of coriander and pepper harvesting. The variety of peppers here are numerous and colourful - I know they must exist elsewhere in the world, but I was blown away to see white-fleshed peppers - so cool! (ah, the simple pleasures/excitements in life...).
The farm is a fairly big operation, and has several orders to fill that make their way to various places each day. They are selling not just to local shops and restaurants, but also to places as far as Wellington (it takes about 1/2 to a full day for the produce to get there) and Auckland, and all around the Hawkes Bay region. They are selling to large, chain supermarkets and small cafes, and lots in between. It's a busy place with lots of things happening at the same time (planting, transplanting, weeding, harvesting, cleaning, packaging, etc). There is a courier that comes 3x/day, 5 days a week to pick up the packaged produce.
The last few days have been the first days of sun in a long time, and it has been a very wet summer for this area so far. It's amazing how a little bit of sun can brighten (apologies for lack of a better word) everyone's outlook and mood! Now it is back to feeilng like a real summer; I got skunked on my surfing lesson which was supposed to happen in Gisborne. For the full two days i was there, we had some of the worst storms that place has seen! Extreme weather warnings kept surfers on the beach (or, more likely, tucked away inside somewhere). So, alas, I still cannot add surfing to the list of things I have tried yet. But I am not giving up hope - I still have 2 months left of summer here and many beaches to find my way to yet! I shall continue along my quest...and of course keep you all posted!
Anyway, I am enjoying my time so far, and have had fun getting to know my fellow wwoofers...All 8 French and 2 Americans of them! I guess this would be a good time to practice that grade 12 french that is collecting dust somewhere upstairs? I'm trying a bit...here and there! The Americans just left yesterday, so I am probably going to have to up French game up a bit I suppose. Although a new girl arrived just yesterday as well; another Canadian, who has been living in Tofino the last three years! Small world indeed.
We are all sharing one kitchen, and the general rule is that we take care of ourselves for breakfast and lunch, but dinners are more of a communal affair. A couple of people usually take on the dinners, and each night it will change. Last night was my night...and, well, I am pleased to say that it went off alright, and everybody seemed happy enough! And the fact that we didn't eat until 10pm was no real problem either - I don't think I've eaten before 9 or 9:30 since I arrived! I have to admit, I was a bit nervous at the thought of cooking for so many, but there is such amazing
produce to work with here, that I don't think one can really go too wrong...After soliciting for some help over the world of facebook and doing some brainstorming with myself, I decided to do a crustless veggie quiche (with sausages, as this is a meaty crowd). I gathered inspiration from friends' advice over facebook and also from my dear mom (thanks mom!) whom makes a very tasty
"vegetable pie", but I tried a new variation and used shredded potato as the "crust" thanks to a quick google search...add some sauteed hashbrowns with garlic, shallots, and rosemary - et voila! Buon Appetit! I am happy it actually turned out alright, as I wasn't too sure what the outcome might be...a good experiment nonetheless!
Alright, lastly...I've enclosed a few pictures that I took the other day...hope to have more in the coming week and a half that I am here. But for now, here's a very brief visual tour of where I am spending my time.
I think that's all for me for now...I am on hand to assist with tonight's dinner - cutting onions is my task, I believe...and I can't believe I'm saying it, but where are those handy onion goggles?!
Cheers all -
Gillian :)
Comments
Thanks, Gill :) Any interesting meals from the French contingent? Amazing dinner hour... more like Spanish time! How can you wait so long? Thanks so much for doing the blog.... what a treat! Hugs, M/B