Farm 3

My visit here was a fleeting one - a mere 9 days. It was slightly a stay of convenience, fitting in between the end of my roadtrip (blog post still pending. whoops) and a commitment to helping out at a community event in Halifax. A few days of potential farm time were sacrificed to spend a couple of days with friends in Wolfville on my way to the farm; a dose of much needed familiarity amongst the travelling and new places.

My third farm was run by a couple in their 50's. Both work - Eugene as a part time church minister (mostly from home), and Judy as a full time nurse. This farm was much smaller scale than the last two, with it feeling more like a homestead - set up primarily just to feed and provide for the owners. In fact their only product  for sale was the wool they get from their 50 odd sheep (and sole remaining mohair goat). Their goats provided milk and cheese, the chickens, pigs, cow and lambs provided their meat, the ducks and chickens their eggs, and the garden most of their vegetables.

This scale of farming really appealed to me. I never went into wwoofing expecting to end up farming myself - I want to learn to be more self sufficient and provide more of my own food, and this is exactly what these guys are doing. And with this lifestyle comes a new way of eating. I cooked quite a lot during my stay, and each of the meals I cooked (frittata, pork mince cottage pie thing, garlic scape pesto) were primarily made up from ingredients produced on the farm. You start by looking at what's in season (and for meat, what's in the freezer), and plan your meal that way, rather than pondering what you feel like eating and then sourcing the necessary ingredients.

It was a quiet life on the farm. Judy was away over the weekend I was there, so it was only Eugene for a fair bit of the time. There was nowhere withing walking distance to go from the farm, and the bikes they had were unrideable (not to mention the 30+ degree heat making cycling far from tempting). I had a lot of spare time (they respected the wwoofing guidelines of 30 hours a week) so I read a lot, did a fair bit of writing, made a stop motion animation film for a friend's birthday, chatted with Eugene and Judy, and learnt a lot along the way. Cheese making, picking wool, splitting wood, barn chores, looking after the sheep, painting the farmhouse, weeding, picking peas... the work was the most varied out of any of the places I'd been. It was a perfect farm for 9 days - a nice relaxing break. Much longer and I might have started to go a bit crazy through lack of people and anything to do, but it was good to put my feet up and chill for a bit and experience life on a smaller farm.

And here endeth the Nova Scotian section of the adventure...

Ambrose the angora goat

Hanging out with the goats...

The farm...

Home made goats milk feta

Spinning wheel and wool!