Green Acres

is the place to be (doot doot). Our WWOOF (world wide opportunities on organic farms: an organization where people volunteer on organic farms for room and board) host Natalie met us at the Halkida train station around noon. We drove through Halkida out to the farm, which was near a small village. We were immediately greeted by orange trees whose limbs were sagging with fruit and two very old German shepherds.


The olive farm is a shadow of what it once was. The farm house is a testament to its former greatness. It is a beautiful two-story house. It has been modified for the more modest needs of the current owner (4th or 5th generation, not sure which), but remnants of the old days still remain. The old dining room, sitting room, and balcony are currently unused, but they tell you a little about the house's past. The dining room is extremely large, with a high ceiling and a simple, but elegant chandelier hanging over the table. It is the type of thing you see in movies about plantations in the pre-Civil War south. They still have all the old chairs, table settings, and barware (decanters, wine glasses, etc.), but none of it is in use. The parts of the house that are in use have been changed from storage rooms into bedrooms and from olive pressing rooms into sitting rooms. I do believe the old kitchen is still in place downstairs. There is a new one upstairs, but I'm not sure what the room used to hold.


The olive part of the farm is extremely small. They only have a few dozen trees. They get a few hundred pounds of olives every other year or so. That may sound like a lot (it is for a family of three), but most farms get about a ton. Because it is so small, they only need a couple volunteers to do all the picking over two weeks. The job is rewarding. You can see exactly what comes out of your effort. After 2 weeks, we had nearly 100 liters of olive oil to show for our labor.

Olives

This goat was a royal pain in the ass and one mean bastard.

The two of us picking olives.

Impression of WWOOF after one week:

We discussed it, and it would be helpful if WWOOF had a rating or comment system for each farm. We weren't aware that the owner of this farm is basically a vegetarian, because there was no mention of it in the description for the farm. That wouldn't be the biggest problem, but the only things she buys for the volunteers are foods she would eat. If you are used to eating meat, that can be an issue. When we first got to the farm we had leeks, potatoes, pasta, eggs, yogurt, fruit, squash, homemade jams (awesome!) and a jar of salted fish (not bad actually: olive oil, garlic, onions, a few spices, and sardine-sized fish). There isn't a lot there in the way of protein though. We could go out and buy meat (we were told as much), but the WWOOF host is supposed to provide full room and board.

I got the feeling that most of the farms cook breakfast, lunch, and dinner for the volunteers. That's not at all true on this farm. You cook your own breakfast and dinner. They cook lunch only on weekdays. Again, not a big issue, but the cooking supplies were lacking. We eventually got bread and cheese, but still no real protein. We did find that there were usually leftovers after lunch. She let us have those for dinner, which saved us from having to cook. Again though, very little protein available in the meals, because they eat a mostly vegetarian diet and her son hates beans.

The host also owns a language school that dominates her afternoons. That is fine, because not much work is done in the afternoons we found. However, she was gone nearly every morning as well. We were on our own doing work we weren't entirely familiar with from the very beginning. If she had spent the very first, or even the second, day with us, I don't think that would have been a problem. She had an appointment with the doctor the first day though. A friend of hers flew in from England, and that occupied her the second and third days. The fourth day she did work with us in the morning. The fifth day, we took what we had to the olive press. It didn't help that her friend treated us like hired help rather than volunteers.

The olives go up...

...they come back down cleaned and sorted...

...they get mushed up...

...and finally become olive oil.

we ended up with 46 kilograms of olive oil after a week of labor

Emily put in all the new bricks for the oven

Nice view

And she's finished

The farm had three family members: the host, her son, and her mother. The host was great. She was a lot of fun to be around, and she was very laid back. Her mother was illogically OCD. As soon as a meal was over, we had to have our dishes washed and put away or she flipped out (happened the very first night). It was a sign to me that she doesn't cook very much, because my grandmother's kitchen was NEVER clean except for maybe the day after Christmas. That was a big maybe. Whenever our host's son was around the farm, she wasn't. That was a problem, because he is nine and has a proclivity for getting himself in trouble. He shook olive trees that didn't have tarps under them (causing god knows how many to fall into the grass to be eaten by the goats or stepped on by us), broke two branches in one tree (that I had to get to the ground), and almost broke a chicken's foot. It feels like we are babysitting anytime he is around. That is not what we signed up for.

I don't want to make it sound like it was all terrible. The work is honest, and you can see what you've done. The actual olive picking part has been fun, and it has been nice getting to know a different side of Greece. There are just a few things that have made the experience less than amazing.

Over the weekend, we had time off to do what we wanted. On Saturday we took some bikes that Natalie had and biked around the area. We went to the waterfront, which wasn't far at all. It was very nice, lined with cafes and a pretty walkway. We biked along that for some time until we were hungry for lunch. Being on the waterfront, the cafe had only fish and seafood, probably caught that very same day. We had some fish and calamari, accompanied by wine, of course! It was a beautiful day and the food was delicious. We biked around a little more then spent the rest of the evening relaxing at a cafe in the village. On Sunday, we didn't really do anything. Slept in, played computer games, went into town, relaxed at a cafe, and in general did nothing. It was nice.

Outdoor dining in December with a view of the Aegean.  Not bad.

Impression of WWOOF after two weeks:


Richard's Opinion:

This week was a lot better. The host's mother went to Athens for the week, and the host's son stayed away from the olive trees. We also decided on more relaxed hours. Before we arrived, I was under the impression that this would be a real working farm. On a real working farm, you just have to get things done when it comes time for a harvest of any kind. So, last week, I worked a couple longer days. After figuring out that this isn't really a working farm, I decided to relax a little.

It was a good thing I decided to work a little less, because the host wasn't with us a single day during the week. She had various appointments and work-related things to do, so we were on our own. Her mother was gone, and I have a feeling she told her son not to bother us too much. If I had worked 7-8 hour days like the previous week, we probably would have been finished by Thursday. Instead, I relaxed a little and worked 6 hours a day. We still finished, but on Friday. Which was just fine.

As far as WWOOF is concerned, it seems mostly like a way to get cheap labor. Your experience will depend on the farm, the host, and the season. The farm and season dictate the type of work to be done. The host will make the experience enjoyable or excruciating. The experience was fine this time, but I could have seen it going worse. It really depended on the rest of the people in the house, not our host. I would have liked a little more warning about her mother's habits (as in prior to arrival). That would have made getting settled in smoother from the beginning.

Emily's Opinion:

The second week was a lot better than the first. For the most part it was us and Natalie. However, because she took off Friday for a trip to the olive press, she had make up classes in the mornings. We didn't get to see her too much, and also had to cook lunch on our own for two days. That was ok, since she provided more fresh vegetables from the farmer's market. I was ok with the strict vegetarian diet up until Thursday of the second week, when in the middle of picking olives my body broke down and I was really hungry, tired, fatigued, and generally not in the mood to do more picking. On Friday we finished the rest of the trees and did some more relaxing, naturally!

Saturday in the morning was more relaxing (we certainly did a lot of that this trip, huh), and then in the afternoon Natalie taught me how to make soap. In the summer, she makes various cosmetic products and preserves to sell at local markets. Today we made cinnamon soap, and it smelled like cookies :) Before beginning our experience on the farm, I really wanted to learn something worthwhile, such as gardening or making something. Up until this, all we did was wake up, eat breakfast, pick olives, eat lunch, pick more olives, eat dinner, go into town to a cafe to use the internet, go back, watch a movie, and go to bed. This time of year there is no gardening nor making of things like preserves (nobody wants olive preserves), so it was difficult to find something to learn. Luckily Natalie had to make soap, so I was excited to learn. This was one of the highlights of WWOOFing for me. In the evening we went out to dinner with Natalie and got a huge spread of mussels, feta cheese, fish, and calamari. Then we went to a bar for some honey-raki. It was great to finally have a chance to talk with her for more than 20 minutes, although it was our last night.

My overall impression of our experience was perhaps a 6 or 7 out of 10. The first week was tough to get through with Natalie's son causing a ruckus in the olive grove and her mother going crazy at our dishes and general lack-of-her-idea-of-order. I enjoyed all the food Natalie cooked us, although there wasn't much meat (we were always full, though, and it was always tasty). I loved making soap, and seeing the process of olive pressing. I would go WWOOFing again, but I would want to do something where I can learn more about gardening or making things, not just harvesting.