WWOOFin'

So, yeah, sorry it's been so long. But I'm tryin' to write a bloody dissertation, for sheep's sake. It's hard and it takes lots of thinking and writing. And blogging takes a certain kind of outward looking energy that i find it hard to muster sometimes.

Where've I been? Well, only the friendliest, prettiest part of the England, that's all. (No arguments here, please, it's subjective and I'm standing by it, admittedly having seen really very little of England.) I've been to Cornwall!

For my dissertation, I conducted interviews with farmers in Cornwall about their business, their markets and their perceptions or experiences in the NHS local buying programme. Basically, I'm looking at where public food procurement fits into the current situation of working small farms.

Now, Cornwall is a monster tourist destination--it's population doubles during the school holidays--which means its an expensive place to find lodging for an extended research project. So I WWOOFed it. There's this programme, used to be called Willing Workers on Organic Farms, now called Worldwide Opportunities on Organic Farms. (nice marketing decision, that name change, huh?). Anyway, you join and they send you a list of organic farms who will provide room and board in exchange for work. So, I found a woodland project that sounded nice (home brewing, permaculture, music and woodworking were listed in their blurb) and made myself a deal. Really, they told me they didn't have much going on and said I could just stay there, which was perfect since I had county-wide interviews to do. I ended up helping out by re-doing some compost systems, hanging out with the kids, and raking a community path (and some other bits and pieces of weaving willow and putting up hay), and I got to stay in this caravan for just over two weeks:



It was really great. Really. There was no running water or electricity, but there was a composting toilet and lots of friendly meals on the verandah down at their house. This was my view nearly every evening, and my "host family":

Yeah, now you're starting to get the picture. It was the perfect summer getaway. They also have these charming children, who have loads of energy and are endlessly talkative and love having stories read to them, especially Peter Rabbit stories.

It was great. And I walked and bused and trained all over the Cornish countryside, talking to great farmers and seeing the landscape. I couldn't have asked for better research conditions!