The Farm
Not all of my days are spent galavanting around Oahu. Occasionally I do a little work. For those of you who may be unfamiliar, the WWOOFing program is, at its core, a work trade program. You put in work, and whoever you're working for gives you room and board.
I am WWOOFing at a farm in the backroads of Waimanalo called Honest Greens. One of the things that initially attracted me to this farm was their use of aquaponics. Without getting too detailed, plants are used to clean water that goes into fishtanks. The fish in turn excrete waste into the water which provides nutrients to the plants. We use this process to grow several varieties of lettuce, watercress, mint, basil, lemongrass, green onions and ong choy. In the fish tanks we house tilapia and catfish. We also have several soil gardens where we grow the aforementioned plants in addition to dinosaur kale, beets, several kinds of herbs, and even more varieties of lettuce. We also have rabbits, lots and lots of chickens and some goats. The rabbits are for eating (I ate a rabbit heart one night), the chickens are kept alive for their egg laying abilities and the goats are stubborn lawn mowers that yell at you.
My morning view
Each day begins at 07:00 and one or more of the WWOOFers has to do the AM chores. This includes tasks like cleaning filters on the aquaponics system and feeding fish, moving the goats to greener pastures, feeding the chickens, taking care of the rabbits, emptying the compost from the kitchen, watering the gardens and setting the mongoose traps. After all the chore items are completed, we generally tackle whichever project is most pressing. Some days are special, Friday mornings for example involve harvesting bean sprouts, cleaning and packaging the eggs for market on Saturday morning. Days are five hours long, five days a week. Some days you have to cook or do PM chores so hours can vary slightly, but most days you finish by noon and are free to moped all around Oahu gathering material for your blog.
On Saturdays, and sometimes Sundays, we go to farmers markets.Saturday market is in town, specifically at the Ward Farmers market in Kaka'ako. The Sunday market is at the Kailua Elementary School. On market days we begin harvesting at 05:30 (high school Joe wouldn't have liked that very much). The truck is usually loaded and on the road by 06:45. When we arrive we set up our tent, tables and get the produce out for customers to check out. We sell all our items by weight, so with every sale I have to do some quick mental math. It's super fun to sell a bunch of produce to a lot of people who are stoked you're there, and try a lot of new, sometimes weird, tasty foods. I've only been several times but it's always a great time.
Harvesting sprouts in the morning.
The best part about the farm is the people. They have made the experience exponentially more valuable and enjoyable. Some of the people I've lived and worked along side of here I would never have talked to at home. When I first arrived I knew no one, and now, I feel like I am leaving a family behind. Everyone is welcoming, helpful, pleasant and radiates good vibes. All of the people I met here have been some of the nicest, most welcoming and fun people I've ever met. As an only child I'm used to having a lot of my own personal space. Living in a shared/community setting was one of my biggest fears before boarding that first plane. Now I realize that fear was entirely unfounded. Everyone here has been respectful, fun to work with and great to live with. I'm sure you can run into a few bad apples on the road but it seems to me like most of the people who WWOOF are just great to be around. If any of you are reading this, thank you for making my experience so much more than I thought it would be.
Here's a one take tour of the farm. Please ignore the mistakes and goofs.
