| It was my second day cutting sugar cane on a small organic farm near the rural Costa Rican town of Jicotea. The sun blazed down on the sloping hillside of felled cane. Myself, 22-year-old Zack Schar (son of this organic farm's owners, Mark and Peg) and Edgar Hidalgo, the farm's thick-muscled hired man paused for a rest. A machete dangled from my rubbery arm as I surveyed the houses, fields and fragmented jungle on the opposing side of the valley.
"Mucho juvia," said Hidalgo joking that the sweat-soaked back of my red jacket had been rained on. This sweat was a small sacrifice for a priceless environmental and cultural experience. Although I was an unofficial participant, an increasing number of international tourists are joining Worldwide Opportunities on Organic Farms (WWOOF), an organization whose organically minded traveller members receive room and board in exchange for a few hours of daily agricultural labour.
I'd met tall, quiet Zack at the local roadside pulperia, or confectionary. I was enjoying a pop when he invited me, an obvious tourist, to meet his parents. Their coffee and cane farm was up the hill on the opposite side of the road. Minutes later I sat at the family's kitchen table enjoying a steaming mug of organic coffee and accepting an invitation to stay with them. Soft-spoken, thoughtful and exceedingly friendly, the couple made me right at home.
An electrician, Mark had travelled extensively in Latin America, falling in love with the land and its people. With one visit to Costa Rica, Peg was likewise taken. The couple moved here from Ashland, Ohio in 1999, bringing two sons, Zack and 11-year-old Ethan. Though a small-scale farmer, Mark experiments with growing and processing methods and plans to increase coffee production over time. He is very involved with the local organic coffee producers association and sees the product as a means for Costa Rican farmers to make decent money while easing environmental impact.
Soon I was learning all about organic farming. Whereas organic farmers eliminate weeds manually, Mark explained, conventional coffee growers apply paraquat regularly because the country's heavy rains quickly wash it away – use of this dangerous herbicide is restricted in North America. Although growing organic coffee eliminates the expense of chemical fertilizer and the product commands a good price, it’s a tough sell because it requires a three-year transition phase where profit drops and work increases. Local farmers, hit hard when the price of conventional coffee tanked a few years ago, are reluctant to risk the sacrifice.
The Schar's commitment to organic ways made WWOOF a good fit. The family is currently taking a break from the program, but at the time of my visit, they hosted about 30 WWOOFers yearly. Worldwide, 10,000 people are at work on participating farms (Costa Rica has five) on any given day.
Formed in the U.K. in 1971, 22 countries including Canada and the U.S. now have their own national WWOOF organizations, while organic farms in another 37 countries, like Costa Rica, Spain and Norway, belong to WWOOF Independents. WWOOF members learn about organic growing techniques while improving communication within the organic movement and helping farmers make organic crop production viable. Most WWOOF host farmers maintain sustainable, ecologically friendly lifestyles and are either commercial organic growers or part of organic co-operatives or communities. Typically, travellers pay about $40 to join WWOOF and must arrange farm stays in advance through contact information provided by the organization.
The Schars have been overwhelmingly happy with their mostly college-age guests. "It gives us a little hope for the future," says Mark, "that those young people aren't afraid to learn or work. They've been down-to-earth, caring people."
My own duties during a weeklong stay on the Schar farm included pruning the banana trees that shade and provide nitrogen to the coffee crop. I also helped hand-sort coffee beans, did landscaping, helped Mark secure his worm corral against marauding armadillos and bagged the worms’ castings as fertilizer. Duties for WWOOFers vary with the farm and time of year – five or six hours a day, six days a week may be spent tending fruit orchards, composting, planting or harvesting gardens and crops, feeding animals or chopping wood.
WWOOF participants also have opportunities to explore the community and countryside. Young Ethan Schar and I gathered and sold palm flowers and sang karaoke with most of Jicotea at a small open-air restaurant that serves fresh trout from its own pond. Unforgettably, Hidalgo invited me on a daylong horseback cattle drive. After herding a handful of cows to a mountain pasture, we visited a picturesque hidden waterfall for a swim. All the while, with a limited grasp of each other’s languages, we discussed everything from Calgarian versus Costa Rican rodeo to the Spanish translation of famous Canadian beers.
Mark and Peg made pancakes the morning I left, and we washed them down with sugared up coffee. Ethan, uncomfortable with goodbyes, ran off to help in the field with a quick "good morning!" I was sad to go, and I understand why WWOOFers sometimes stay put for months at a time. Not only are farm stays easy on the wallet, but their rewards are priceless. I developed an interest in organic agriculture and fell for rural Costa Rica and its friendly folk. I ache for the day I can return, yet left vowing to visit a WWOOF farm in another country.
To learn more about WWOOF visit www.wwoof.ca and www.wwoof.org |
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