It’s hard to say so soon, but … this farm life stuff is pretty great.
Granted, I’ve stepped into quite an awesome situation here at Cortijo el Cura with Mike and Janine. Their house is resort-like, compared to what I semi-imagined my accommodations would be like while wwoofing. I think the location and setting of the farm is just unbelievably beautiful. No joke - I often walk out the door and say to myself one of many things like “wow” or “holy shit” or “fuckin A” - all referring to where I am and what I see on a daily basis. The following is an edited version of an email I sent my mom on mother’s day telling her about my experience so far.
On Friday, March 16, I took an 8:50 bus from Granada and met my wwoof hosts (the farmers) Mike and Janine in Orgiva around 10:30. I initially got off at the wrong Orgiva stop - it’s a small town and didn’t think there would be more than one! Having the feeling I wasn’t quite in the right spot, I called my hosts. The main bus stop was just around the corner, I wasn’t too far off. After we connected, we hopped in their diesel Suzuki Samurai along with their dog Bobby and headed for their part of town.
The farm is in Mecina-Fondales, a small village 18 km from Orgiva, near a slightly larger village called Pitres. There’s a market on Fridays in Pitres. We stopped there and they bought a bunch of vegetables and bread and such. After that, we headed to their farm. Their farm a little ways off the paved main road. It’s a twisty dirt road and their farm is located on the side of a mountain, essentially. There’s a photo set up on my flickr account where I’m putting all my photos from this area if you haven’t seen them yet.
It is very beautiful here! I really didn’t expect it to be like this. The pictures I’d seen online didn’t do it justice, that’s for sure. But to credit Mike (he’s a photographer too) it is a hard property to photograph! They have 5 hectares. The house and main farmland is on 2.5 and then they have another 2.5 ha plot a short distance away where the spring for water is. They don’t drink the water from the spring, as they don’t have a way to filter or treat it to make it potable. At the spring there’s really just a crude dam and a plastic pipe that picks up the water and delivers it to several different holding tanks. Sometimes it comes out the tap at the house a bit reddish-orange from the iron-rich earth around here. We use it for irrigation, to shower with and it’s pipped to all the taps.
The farm doesn’t produce a surplus yet. Right now everything they produce is used for self-sustainability. Now that I’m here, I can say that have a bit a work to do before they can produce enough surplus to sell. The land hasn’t been tended for a long time, maybe over 15 years, and most of the terraces are completely overgrown with brambles and a hearty, woody plant called broom. Clearing more land will have to happen before they can grow enough to sell. They’re gonna vary the work I do, but it’s mostly going to be clearing land and preparing beds. (which is fine with me!)
I have to say here that my first few days on the farm were a bit difficult for me, really. The Monday before when I was in Malaga I was hit with a cold. I took it easy for a couple days and felt better, but wasn’t totally over it. Then on Wednesday (this was March 13) Adrian and I went to Granada. There is where we met our couchsurfing hostess Lilie, an awesome French girl studying in Granada. We hung out with her and she took us around Granada. In Malaga, Adrian and I had taken it easy. But in Granada, we were out late - until around three am - and then up late at Lilie’s. A bit of smoking, drinking and not really taking it easy … so, leading up to being on the farm wasn’t ideal. I was quite tormented physically when I arrived on the farm. However, I was really looking forward to shifting my living, getting fit and being a wwoofer!
All the work so far has been great! Not difficult, but for the first two weeks, while still fighting a cold and being out of shape, I found it quite physically exhausting. The first day, I helped dig over some beds and cut in some compost so Janine could plant some new seeds. One bed was incredibly hard and rocky and in another, we found a giant boulder underneath a few inches of topsoil. Saturday, my second day, I planted some parsnips and helped Mike with clearing one of the terraces. All I did with clearing was to remove the branches and brambles he was cutting out. Our work on Saturday was cut short due to rain. They really need rain, though, and it was Saturday, so they didn’t mind at all staying inside the rest of the day and watching the rain! Sunday is our day off from farm work. Although, I did wash the dishes and pans from the lunch and dinner we had on Saturday.
Monday (March 19) we went over to where their spring is. Mike had on his galoshes and worked on the dam. I got to use the strimmer, which is a weed eater with a 4-prong metal disk on it and cuts through 1-inch or smaller brush and branches with no problem. Mike wanted to fortify and cover the spring source and re-run the water pipe running from the spring so that it descends at a constant downward pitch from the spring to the holding tanks so they have less problems with air-locks and waterflow. Before we fixed it, the pipe was kind of up and down and they wanted the pipe up and out of the way of goats that get herded through the area. I was clearing brush and brambles so we could re-route the line. Using the strimmer was more work than I thought it would be. It takes both hands and sometimes you really gotta force the blade through the thick brush. That, and maneuvering and pushing myself up the steep sides of the mountain and maintaining an angled position to cut through the thicket can be tiring. We took a break around noon and then went back for another hour before lunch. About the time we got back from the break, though, the wind had been picking up and was quite strong by the time we broke for lunch at 2 pm. Luckily we brought back all of our equipment, because the wind was so strong after lunch, they decided it was too dangerous to work outside again. This mainly because we needed to use the chainsaw to make any more progress near the spring. So, it had to wait until the next day.
That means the rest of the Monday was pretty much free. We all sat in the main room reading, talking, and using the computer. It is great to have the amenities they have here, namely the wifi access. I really never, ever expected to have this on a farm. I always thought it would be too expensive, and a place like this too remote. Their internet service is provided wirelessly, too. They have a receiver on the side of teh house pointed at a mountain across the valley. It’s decent speed and a perfect application of the technology! What I’m saying with all this is I spend a lot of time on the computer! So does Mike and Janine. I guess a computer is a good thing on a farm - I’ve read before that nowadays it’s a must as it can be a source of income as well as a means of communication as well as a way to pass the time. Alas, they only have solar power, so we really can only use the internet during the day and for a few hours when the sun doesn’t shine. They have a bank of batteries which the solar charges, so computer usage can extend beyond the hours of sunlight, but not for long. They did have a wind turbine, which could provide power all day and all night long if it was breezy enough. Unfortunately several weeks ago a big windstorm launched the turbine off it’s mountings and pretty much destroyed it.
We wake up about 8:30 and have breakfast (after which we sit and digest for 20-30 minutes or so). Then we head out to work. Around 11-12 or so, we’ll have a coffee/tea and a light snack (digest it) and head back out to work again. Around 2 we have lunch. Usually, I think we’re supposed to go back out and work for a while longer, but this didn’t really happen the first few days. Now that I’m a bit more seasoned and we’ve got some projects going, we do get out after lunch sometimes. I’m supposed to be working 5 hours a day, 6 days a week. The first few days, I think they took it easy on me. After the work is done, I generally have had lots of time to read and work on the computer, walk and even take photos. The time is really nice. Living on a farm is really a dream to me. I can really be at peace and totally restful and have never enjoyed reading a good book more.
Apparently the soil produces well. They haven’t put anything additional on it aside from some mediocre compost, and they don’t really have much of that either. They can grow quite a variety of veggies, though I’m not sure exactly yet what they’ll grow this year. They also have quite a lot of almond trees. Not a huge orchard, I don’t think, and they probably don’t produce enough to sell. They have a few olive trees here and there, but they aren’t abundant. They’ll plant more when more land is cleared. They’re gonna have chickens at some point, but don’t have any animals at this point other than their dog Bobby. One of the projects we are working on is to build a chicken shack, and they may even get chickens by the time I leave.
The only thing I wish I had in this experience is more Spanish speaking in daily life. I still think I really want to learn Spanish. While quite a monumental challenge, it would be a tremendous skill to acquire. Here, on Mike & Janine’s farm we speak none. Mike and Janine are from the UK and only speak Spanish when they have to with the locals. I honestly don’t mind that much they don’t speak Spanish as it is certainly less frustrating to me and it’s certainly easier to get along. The next two farms I’m looking at definitely speak Spanish, so maybe I’ll further my speaking there.
Let’s see, what else … the food is really, really good. Mike is a good cook and I am very well fed. I was a little worried about this, as in traveling I seemed to have worked up a major appetite and sometimes couldn’t or didn’t buy enough food to satisfy it. I thought with all this physical labor, I’d be even more starving all the time. Not a problem here. Breakfast is perfect: coffee, juice and muesli. Lunch is usually light but sufficient and dinners are always hearty and tasty. I am always starving and always stuffed when mealtime come around! I think I’m even putting on a little weight!
All in all, I think this is simply amazing. The accommodations are far and above what I expected. Something tells me Cortijo el Cura and Mike and Janine are a bit of an exception to what most wwoof hosts are going to be like and I’m enjoying it while I have it. I really think this is what I want to do with my life, and Mike and Janine have a set up very close to what I’ve imagined when I’ve thought of a farm for myself. The size, the location, amenities, etc. Even though I doubt I’ll ever be able to afford a place in such an idyllic setting. Especially in Spain, of all places! Right now I am reassured that my dream is definitely real and there are people already living it!