First Week

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After the first night of debauchery, we all awoke early to be to work by 8 (After getting to bed around 3:30 or 4... Who knows what time it was we scaled the walls again). The way in which the “work” is operated here (its honestly not real work in my mind) is that each wwoofer is required to work 6 hour days Mon - Fri. Sat everyone works for 3 hours in the am and no one works on Sunday. Those 6 hours during the week, however, can be split anyway one so desires. Because the afternoon sun is SO hot and SO intense, most wwoofers (and Luchana herself) work from 8 am - Noon, then again from 5 pm -7 pm.

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I spent my first morning working with Analea and Tiago (they worked the am before they left in the afternoon), digging up potatoes. Firstly, they are so adorable and were so much fun to spend the morning with. Analea told me all about how much she hated Paris (she lives right in the city) and that she didn’t blame me for not having any desire to go. She did tell me wonderful things about the rest of the country that inspired me to see to explore to other regions. She and Tiago also gave me a mini Italian lesson while we moved hay and dug in the ground for potatoes.

The office and other wwoofers rooms
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The first day in the gardens and fields reminded me so much of my dad and being a little girl digging potatoes with him. It brought back vivid memories of Dad using his trusty pitch fork (that he seemed to use for everything) and me always wanting to use it, but him never letting me. While I was using a fork myself I pictured my dad using his when we dug up his potatoes. I was for a minute taken aback that I was so far from home, but felt closer to my childhood home than I had felt in a very, very long time.

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The morning four hours seem to fly by. But when you’re out in the country, in the Italian sun, playing in the Italian dirt, how can they not? Before I even realize it, noon arrives and we’re done with work for the morning! We then all gather in our eating area and began preparing lunch of pasta salad, salad, and fresh fruit, all of which are picked from the gardens and orchards that day. Oh my, how I had missed fresh produce. Produce at a supermarket is NOT fresh. Picking it off of the vine shortly before you eat it, that is fresh. All of our meals are fresh, organic, and delicious. After we all eat together we have a couple hour break, which was spent by most, napping. Firstly, afternoon naps should be a universal concept. Secondly, I had my hesitations about sleeping for an hour or two and then getting up and not feeling groggy or too tired. However, I actually find the concept to be even more refreshing when I awake, because of the mentality behind it. I know before I lay down that this is my afternoon siesta and that when I awake I have just a couple more hours of work and more playing in the dirt to do. I then awake refreshed and motivated. Honestly, best naps ever.

Some of the gardens
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The farm is so large and there are so many tasks to be done. Depending upon the day, and Luchana’s mood or needs is dependent upon what we do. The first couple of days I spent weeding. Luchana gave me a few rows of bed and showed me which plants were vegetables and which were weeds and I went to town on those for a couple of days.

I had a wonderful time weeding for those couple of days. (Honestly, I wish she’d let me do it everyday) I was on my hands and knees, in the dirt, in the sun, and again, was brought back to childhood memories. It reminded me of “weeding” around the pool in the patio when I was a little girl, but my parents telling me not to. (Then, all I cared about was getting rid of the greens and not the roots, so really I wasn’t doing anything productive.) Also, it was calming and it allowed me to be by myself and with my thoughts. It was amazing. There’s something about being out there early in the morning when the dirt and plants are still moist from the morning dew and watching as the sun rises and the dirt and plants dry beneath your working hands. It’s really indescribably beautiful and I feel so lucky to experience it first hand. I came up close and personal with an earth worm one of those days, something I haven’t done in at least 15 years. I picked it up and held it in my hands and the memories of playing with them when I was a child all came back to me. What happened to that childhood curiosity and appreciation of the earth I once had? I’m beginning to find it again…

More gardens
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The work on the fields is nothing incredibly physically demanding, by any means. The hardest thing, really, is understanding enough Italian/Spanish to follow the instructions that I am given… and the heat of the sun. (It is literally 6 hours a day in the direct sunlight. There is no shade aside from my sun hat) In the first week that I have been here I’ve dug potatoes, weeded, planted lettuce and fennel, tied up tomatoes, sorted fruits and vegetables for market sales, and learned all about the sciences behind composting. The work is easy and the hours are painless. What I’ve begun to appreciate about being here are all of the things that I’m doing to help the farm sustain itself, in addition to everything that I am personally gaining. I’ve never felt more connected to my father since he died than I do now. I stood amongst tomato plants the other day just taking all the scents in and letting all the memories flood back to me. (Eliza, you are SO right about the sense of smell being the strongest form of memory!) I wasn’t even working with the tomatoes, I was just passing by, but the smell and the recognition of that smell stopped me dead in my tracks and I literally stood there for a good few minutes just taking it in. I began remembering things I hadn’t thought of in years: summers playing in the pool and running out to snack on cherry tomatoes, gathering tomatoes from the garden, fresh tomato and cucumber salads my dad used to eat almost everyday in the summer… all of these memories and feelings, just from that smell. That inexplicable yet unforgettable smell. It was amazing. It really made me miss him more than ever, but not just in an “I wish he were here” type of way, but instead a “I wish I could remember and had taken more advantages of those times we had together” type of a way… if that makes sense.

I love working in the gardens for this reason mostly. Everything I do, it reminds me of my dad. I weeded around carrot plants one day and it reminded me of how anxious I used to get about the first frost of the season because that meant it was time to pick the carrots! I remember how we used to get all bundled up and go out in the crisp afternoon fall air and pull up the carrots and how he used to instruct me not to pull from the top of the plant because Id rip the plant and it would be harder to get the carrot, but instead pull from the ground up. I haven’t thought of these memories in ages, until now. Being here has made me happier and more content that I have felt in a very long time. I’m happy to just spend hours alone, or with people, in the gardens weeding, digging, or planting. I love to feel the sun on my back and shoulders while I let my thoughts wander. Despite the heat, humidity, and mosquitoes, I am really happy right now and that isn’t something I’ve been able to say so confidently and with such assurance in a very long time.