So yes, you will be welcome at NeverLand Farm when you come. Please let me know more about your dates and a last minute note, like "see you in 3-7 days" is nice. I have tried to answer most logistics questions on the rest of the web page. Please see that for most stuff. I am trying to introduce the concept of community we use here at the farm more completely and fairly, so I have gotten verbose for the rest of this letter. You can skip the explanation if you like tho. The bottom line is that there is a minimum weekly donation of 25. towards ongoing projects and instruction. This comes to $3.67 a day. Don´t be stopped here guys, read on for details.
Our farm has been built up and maintained by wwoofers, we have several who return every year. We call them the lost boys! And the whole town loves them. When you come ask almost anyone if they have a picture of any volunteers, they most likely will. We live pretty happily here.
But economically things here are getting very difficult. Ecuador is a country that has dollarized. And along with the change of currency came the fast and dramatic increase in cost of everything. Especially, of course, food. In recent months we have seen flour and rice more than double in price. Oils, sunflower and olive, have tripled. Meat is expensive and organic soy products even more so! Included in our vision-goal statement is to become a sustainable biodynamic organic farm and intentional, more or less egalitarian community (see thefec.org) while maintaining that sense of fun and play every day that keeps us all young (always time to play pirates)(and food so good we tell everyone lick the plate). However to keep having our volunteer program and still be sustainable we must ask that each wwoofer participate in the farm as a community member. In saying as a member, I am actually saying an egalitarian community member. With everyone making an equal contribution in labor and food expenses it creates a more equal situation. Instead of one person eating gourmet meals and another living on beans and rice and garden produce, we eat together and join forces. Instead of one person weeding and working the gardens, picking fruits and cafe, we do it together. Sharing. This means that all food in our kitchen and gardens is communal, no one needs to ask anyone permission for snacks or whatever. But cook enough for all please! The farm provides candles, tp, shampoo, natural soaps, wine (with meals, sometimes), local grown tobacco, our own grown cafe´, meat and vegetarian food, three meals a day, laundry for sheets and towels gets done, Andres, and Carlos, get enough money, mostly, to support thier families ( the kids often come to work with him), and more.
As each person comes in as member I do not have to insist on a minimum work day, you work for yourself and you must be self motivated enough to get up and go do something. Woofers tend to work about 4 hours a day. Sometimes for 5 days a week. Often less! But more if we are all having fun! And we all cook together. Projects include everything from building a new composting shitter to hosting a puppet show in the nearby pueblo, teaching english at the local elementary and high schools to evacuating a sick neighbor. Painting tshirts for the kids or walls for the farm or the shop in town that needs painting (we just helped paint the church, too). And always caring for our land and harvesting fruits and garden produce (we have 68 varieties of fruit). All of our produce stays on the farm to support the farm (in other words, we eat it all). The farm is in a valley, biodynamic, we own the whole valley. Membership in this community includes sharing all of the privileges in the farm, which we actually do quite nicely. It also means sharing the responsibilities of the farm. As owner I feel responsible for making sure that everyone who comes to us has good food and is physically safe in this environment. I take care of sick woofers (travel in SA for a week or two and you will appreciate this). But as each of us are community members I expect that anyone who takes on a project takes care to do this as they would in their own home, because, in fact, for your time here, Neverland IS your home. As each of us is in a membership position I expect that if someone comes who cannot contribute equally it is up to the farm as an organism, our community, the people who are there, to decide if we can support that new member or not. Mostly we do. In the time I have been practicing woof like this I have not had many complaints. A german girl recently decided we could eat less meat and save money. So we switched to tofu and tempeh. More expensive but she was happier. Another volunteer decided we must have electricity. He is covering the micro hydro model himself. Soon, hopefully, we will not only have electricity but be able to supply all of our neighbors with lights. In a place that has never had lights, and for our aging neighbors, this is gonna be NICE! School supplies have been purchased, a local farmer is getting a new farm- the woofers have been pitching into a fund for him. With woof we have become a sustainable community, and sometimes a large one at that. And the result- a sustainable organic, biodynamic farm where anyone can come, can participate as member, can have their own space and can LEARN how this is possible for our joint futures. Community and sustainable farming. I hope you like this idea and can come and share with us. Members who come for more than one month should talk with me about how to manage it economically. I look forward to seeing you one and all! Peace, Tina
Our farm has been built up and maintained by wwoofers, we have several who return every year. We call them the lost boys! And the whole town loves them. When you come ask almost anyone if they have a picture of any volunteers, they most likely will. We live pretty happily here.
But economically things here are getting very difficult. Ecuador is a country that has dollarized. And along with the change of currency came the fast and dramatic increase in cost of everything. Especially, of course, food. In recent months we have seen flour and rice more than double in price. Oils, sunflower and olive, have tripled. Meat is expensive and organic soy products even more so! Included in our vision-goal statement is to become a sustainable biodynamic organic farm and intentional, more or less egalitarian community (see thefec.org) while maintaining that sense of fun and play every day that keeps us all young (always time to play pirates)(and food so good we tell everyone lick the plate). However to keep having our volunteer program and still be sustainable we must ask that each wwoofer participate in the farm as a community member. In saying as a member, I am actually saying an egalitarian community member. With everyone making an equal contribution in labor and food expenses it creates a more equal situation. Instead of one person eating gourmet meals and another living on beans and rice and garden produce, we eat together and join forces. Instead of one person weeding and working the gardens, picking fruits and cafe, we do it together. Sharing. This means that all food in our kitchen and gardens is communal, no one needs to ask anyone permission for snacks or whatever. But cook enough for all please! The farm provides candles, tp, shampoo, natural soaps, wine (with meals, sometimes), local grown tobacco, our own grown cafe´, meat and vegetarian food, three meals a day, laundry for sheets and towels gets done, Andres, and Carlos, get enough money, mostly, to support thier families ( the kids often come to work with him), and more.
As each person comes in as member I do not have to insist on a minimum work day, you work for yourself and you must be self motivated enough to get up and go do something. Woofers tend to work about 4 hours a day. Sometimes for 5 days a week. Often less! But more if we are all having fun! And we all cook together. Projects include everything from building a new composting shitter to hosting a puppet show in the nearby pueblo, teaching english at the local elementary and high schools to evacuating a sick neighbor. Painting tshirts for the kids or walls for the farm or the shop in town that needs painting (we just helped paint the church, too). And always caring for our land and harvesting fruits and garden produce (we have 68 varieties of fruit). All of our produce stays on the farm to support the farm (in other words, we eat it all). The farm is in a valley, biodynamic, we own the whole valley. Membership in this community includes sharing all of the privileges in the farm, which we actually do quite nicely. It also means sharing the responsibilities of the farm. As owner I feel responsible for making sure that everyone who comes to us has good food and is physically safe in this environment. I take care of sick woofers (travel in SA for a week or two and you will appreciate this). But as each of us are community members I expect that anyone who takes on a project takes care to do this as they would in their own home, because, in fact, for your time here, Neverland IS your home. As each of us is in a membership position I expect that if someone comes who cannot contribute equally it is up to the farm as an organism, our community, the people who are there, to decide if we can support that new member or not. Mostly we do. In the time I have been practicing woof like this I have not had many complaints. A german girl recently decided we could eat less meat and save money. So we switched to tofu and tempeh. More expensive but she was happier. Another volunteer decided we must have electricity. He is covering the micro hydro model himself. Soon, hopefully, we will not only have electricity but be able to supply all of our neighbors with lights. In a place that has never had lights, and for our aging neighbors, this is gonna be NICE! School supplies have been purchased, a local farmer is getting a new farm- the woofers have been pitching into a fund for him. With woof we have become a sustainable community, and sometimes a large one at that. And the result- a sustainable organic, biodynamic farm where anyone can come, can participate as member, can have their own space and can LEARN how this is possible for our joint futures. Community and sustainable farming. I hope you like this idea and can come and share with us. Members who come for more than one month should talk with me about how to manage it economically. I look forward to seeing you one and all! Peace, Tina
posted by Chirusco at
6:45 PM
1 Comments:
tina
for some reason i chose to look up johnny love wisdom and chirusco today on the internet. I was thrilled to come across this blog, it looked like you have taken a hiatus until this afternoon. Very peculiar how we cross paths every now and again.
Palmira mike
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