WWOOF #1: A learning experience

Well if there was a place that we were going to learn a lot about our mutual give and take on this earth, I think we found it at Rex and Jo's. These two lovely people moved on to their current property last November and have hosted over 35 wwoofers this past year and have planted over 200 trees, not to mention all the veggie gardens and other projects they have under their belt. They are very passionate about permaculture, a concept that I remember trying to read up about on wikipedia before I left which I quickly decided was over my head and I would just have to learn once I arrived. What it basically boils down to is working mutually with the land to replenish it's needs so that it will replenish you. They are essentially building a "food forest." They design their food forest according to the layers of a natural forest and how each layer's relationship allows "a diverse community of life to grow in a relatively small space." Each element has multiple functions - some examples of this are the sheep grazing on a paddock that is unusable for growing, and therefore providing shit for the compost. Or instead of planting large pines as shelter trees from the wind, planting feijoa trees (a native NZ tree) which provides shelter but also produce delicious fruit and pollen for the bees!

Planting trees

They are very serious about every element of their design plan and see each "problem" as a solution or resource. For example, dandelions are not a weed. They are delicious in a salad and fantastic nitrogen fixers for the soil. Plants like carrots and marigolds are dynamic accumulators, meaning they have long roots which mine the minerals way down in the ground and bring them up to the soil or sometimes even manufacture more healthy minerals! Many dynamic accumulators are often considered weeds as well. Most of it sounds pretty simple and obvious but there is a lot of planning that goes into it and it can become pretty scientific when it comes to testing the soil pH or observing the micro-climates that exist within one property.

If you are interested in learning a little more about permaculture from someone who is a lot more knowledgeable, there is a good video here...

"Better Than Chocolate Cake"

We have been eating all kinds of new and different things. Rex and Jo are primarily vegetarian (Rex eats meat only when it's served at a dinner party or something) and like to include as many raw vegan meals as possible into their diets. My body is quite confused by this change of pace and hasn't always reacted favorably, but I'm sure it is thanking Rex and Jo for what I refused to ever give it. I certainly don't mind the raw vegan desserts we have had the chance to try, however. We have had a chocolate mousse type dessert that was made mostly of avocados and cocoa and a "cheesecake" made from soaked cashews. YUM. Some interesting things we have eaten at Rex & Jo's that are NZ born-and-bred...

• Tamarillos - also known as a "tree tomato," this fruit is sweeter than a regular tomato (think a tomato meets a kiwi)
• Feijoa - I have only tried a dried one, but they are amazing, like candy! when fresh, they are a small green fruit with a flesh and pulp similar to a guava
• Gold Kiwifruit - another kind of kiwi that hasn't made it too far outside NZ because it ripens more quickly, it is just like the green kind but a little sweeter, and the skin is much less furry (it is common to eat these skin and all like an apple).
• Kumara - NZ's sweet potato, 3 different varieties are grown throughout the country. It was a staple food for Māori (the native people of NZ) before European contact. Very tasty.

We even learned a new way to say grace that some Japanese wwoofers taught Rex and Jo.  "Itadakimasu" (pronounced EE-tuh-dah-kee-MOSS) means thank you, but to EVERYONE who had a hand at getting the food to your plate (farmers, drivers, supermarkets, god, cook, etc.). Steve and I liked the idea of stopping for a moment to think about and be grateful for how your food got in front of you before slurping it down and joined in this grace before each meal.

Rex and Jo are into a lot of "hippie-dippie" ideas as well that aren't quite as concrete as planting and gardening. Yoga is something we are all familiar with, but ideas like Reiki, EFT, and Heartmath are all pretty new to Steve and I. It mostly has a lot to do with being one with the energy that surrounds you and self-healing through those means. But there were some helpful concepts about our relationship with time and stress that I thought most of us back home could spend some time considering. For example, considering what energy drains in our lives are affecting our happiness. The worst energy drain is what we truly value out of sync with where our time & energy go. Most people's time priorities look like this:
1. Work
2. Primary Relationships & Family life
3. Mundane chores of everyday life
4. Social Responsibilities
5. (if there's any time left over) Ourselves
So basically, the only way to make more time in your life is to say NO - schedule less, cancel appointments (self-management instead of time management). To befriend the present moment and go with the flow.

Well it's a cool concept in any case.

A little masonry experience never hurt anyone

We have done a lot of different work on their property including...digging lots of holes (both for posts for wind cloth & the retaining wall and for planting trees, etc.), weeding, cutting & stacking wood, planting trees, mulching, chipping bricks, cutting chicken wire, laying brick & mortar for the greenhouse foundation, building a compost pile, cleaning up & organizing, building a retaining wall near the water tank, etc. A lot of the work awakened some muscles that have been lazily chilling out for quite some time and some of it was more exciting than other parts, but all of it made you feel like you put in a good day's work and got you nice and ready for a good night's sleep.

There were a few things I was certainly not ready for at Rex and Jo's. For one, our introduction to the compost toilet. What's that, you ask? Basically imagine a wooden box with a toilet seat on top in a small shed outside. You sit on the toilet seat, make your shit, wipe (with toilet paper made from recycled paper of course), cover it with some gerbil bedding and clear outta there. If you have to piss, there is a large bucket provided to take care of that. After a year of sitting on a compost pile (enough time for any of the bacteria, etc. to be eliminated), the human shit can be used as fertilizer around trees and plants that you don't eat. The piss can be used immediately on the new trees to add nitrogen, but in small doses only. Needless to say I was only brave enough to use the compost toilet a handful of times and only because I needed to go number 2 and I could feel the guilt of wasteful water consumption from our hosts every time I flushed the toilet inside (I would say the toilet was never flushed until pissed in 5-6 times). It's definitely taking the "if it's yellow, let it mellow" idea to a whole new level.

They also had some vague opinions about the negative effects of such things as wireless internet, cell phones, and television (none of which they had except a very rarely used cell phone). Keeping informed on global news was of no importance and actually seen as a block for empowering your life in a positive way (since such a majority of it is all the horrible things going on in the world). They believed strongly in enriching one's life through the arts, as their home was a menagerie of instruments - several guitars, 4 ukuleles, and a keyboard. Rex takes a weekly painting class as well as a ukulele class and Jo was re-introducing herself to drawing by focusing on using her right brain to see things differently.

Here's footage of Steve performing some John Lennon songs with WWOOF co-host Rex at the Katikati Bowling Club (sorry, must log in to Facebook):


In the end, it was definitely a transformative experience and one that we will surely take a lot from - both lessons and some unique memories!

A summary of 5 important things learned that we would like to adopt in our future lives:
1. Food Forest. The first plants that will grow on whatever small piece of land we own in our future will be fruit trees!
2. Water conservation. Being mindful of times when the water can be turned off is a good way to not be wasteful with a resource that is not readily available to everyone.
3. Be aware. Look around you and think about things differently. See how a problem can be a solution and how you can make use of waste.
4. Less stress. Everyone has the exact same amount of time in each 24-hour day. Learn to use it efficiently while still finding time for yourself - self-management not time-management.
5. Eat well. And creatively. It doesn't have to be full of sugar and fat to be delicious (but it sure does help). Research new ways to use common ingredients to make something new!

A family photo with Henry the neighbor

Note: I know this post was kind of all over the place, but so many new things were crammed into our brains in the last 2 weeks that it is overwhelming to break it all down. If there is something you are interested in knowing more about throughout our experience, please leave comments and I will try to hit on those subjects in future posts!!!