Volunteer farmers in an ecovillage. I am a volunteer. Working on an eco-farm Countries with WWOOF organizations
The Sebezhsky district of the Pskov region is a land of lakes and forests, where between the Bolshoye Olbito and Anninskoye lakes there is a large and, perhaps, the most famous eco-village in Russia - “Clear Sky”.
Residents of the settlement invite not only guests who want to spend a few days in nature, take a break from the bustle of the city and breathe fresh air, but also volunteers who are close to the ideology of eco-villages, eco-volunteering and agritourism.
Job
“Clear Sky” accepts volunteers to work in the garden, vineyards, vegetable gardens and on the farm in general. There are many pets here and you also need help caring for them.
In addition, volunteers can help with construction work, picking mushrooms and berries, planting trees and other farming activities.
You will have to work for four hours in the morning. The second half of the day is free time.
Provided
Residents of the settlement offer volunteers free accommodation and three vegetarian meals a day.
Transportation costs and purchase of food for specialized diets are at the expense of the volunteer.
Requirements
There are no special requirements for volunteers at Clear Sky. All that is needed to become a member of the community during your stay in the settlement and help with housework is hard work, responsibility, physical ability to work and the desire to make a feasible contribution to the life and development of the eco-village.
Participation
Helpers can choose the duration of their volunteer activities. Arrival dates and work periods are negotiated with the organizers individually.
Contacts
You can learn more about the Clean Sky ecovillage and contact the residents on the official website.
You can find out more about volunteer work in the settlement.
Do you think it would be nice to try life in another country and monitor it? It often happens that you find a lot of cool projects, but to join any of them, you need to go through seven circles of bureaucratic hell: application form, competitive selection, interview, collection of documents, etc. And sometimes you also have to pay something. If you need something free and fast, the sites helpx.net and workaway.info will help. With their help, you can live in another country, working 5-6 hours a day in exchange for food and housing.
What is workaway?
Conceptually the sites helpx.net And workaway.info are similar, but Helpx appeared earlier, so its design and functionality are not as nice and convenient. These sites are a platform where hosts and volunteers (or work crews) from all over the world meet. The former have projects, but do not have enough manpower (or brains) to implement them, the latter have a desire to travel and skills with which they can be useful to others. In exchange for help (5-6 hours a day with 2 days off), the hosts offer volunteers food and housing. This is an arbitrary standard, but hosts are not required to adhere to it and can make adjustments. Therefore, some of them offer only housing, while others are essentially looking for free labor. As you might guess, accommodation options can also be different - from a separate room with good conditions to a bed in a common room with children or other assistants and workers. All these points must be discussed during a Skype call with a potential host.
The workaway project was created for the sake of intercultural exchange. He assumes that a volunteer comes to a family, becomes part of it and is involved in all its affairs. To become a volunteer, you need to register (it costs about $20 per year), fill out a profile, find a suitable project and please the host. No bureaucracy, but no guarantees either. The system works on trust. There are stories when conditions were very different from those agreed upon, or when a volunteer who arrived at the site was told “sorry, but we no longer need volunteers” and closed the door.
What to write in your profile?
A profile on workaway is something between a page on social networks and a resume. On the one hand, you need to present yourself as a pleasant and interesting person (some hosts invite volunteers not so much for the sake of work, but for the sake of fun and that same cultural exchange), on the other hand, you need to clearly list what you can do well: work with children, teach a language, cook, garden, take care of animals, build or repair houses, etc. If the choice is between a professional and an amateur, the host will give preference to the professional, no matter how interesting and charismatic the amateur is - be sure to focus on your professional skills. It's good if it's something practical. Avoid banality and don’t forget to post several personal photos, choosing those that show you in action, and not against the backdrop of an autumn forest. You must also indicate in your profile the expected duration of participation in the project. Most hosts welcome long-term volunteers (2 weeks or more).
What projects are there on workaway.info?
Most often, help is sought by farmers (caring for gardens, animals, harvesting) and families with children (language teaching, childcare). Some farmers need pumped-up guys who know a lot about hydroponics and those who have experience working in the garden (at a minimum, you need to distinguish basil from arugula). But basically everyone who is hardworking and resilient is welcome, because most likely you will have to work under the scorching sun. These projects also have one more nuance. Most farms are located far outside the city, and often in completely inaccessible places - high in the mountains, for example. With all the ensuing consequences: living in a tent or trailer, minimal amenities of civilization (often without the Internet), lack of opportunity to go to a big city. If you have long dreamed of trying on such a life, welcome, the selection of such projects on the site is huge. Send an application to a remote Portuguese village to a farm specializing in growing mangoes and avacados. Why isn't it heaven?
There are also many owners of hostels, guesthouses, campsites and surf centers at workaway. Some of them are looking for labor (essentially, a cleaning person), others need a sociable and interesting person (with good knowledge of the language) who will help register guests and entertain them with interesting conversations (and even give excursions or instructions).
Another category of hosts are non-profit organizations, social and cultural projects. Social projects are most often localized in Asia and Africa, they are looking for volunteers who can teach the poor and less educated English. Cultural projects invite volunteers to help prepare and conduct exhibitions and festivals.
Sometimes you'll find hosts who need help with their restaurant business (cooking and cleaning). Such projects can be found in Morocco, Turkey and Portugal. This work, like the farm, is not for the weak, but how interesting it is! If you dream of living in France, then it would be nice to have some skills in repairing and restoring houses. Many hosts from this country are looking for those who will help them restore old estates.
“If the choice is between a professional and an amateur, the host will give preference to the professional, no matter how interesting and charismatic the amateur is.”
If the topic of yoga and vegetarianism is close to you, then there are also such projects on workaway, not only in Asia, but also in Europe, where the fashion for eco-lifestyle forces people to settle in deserted places and practice spiritual practices. They welcome like-minded people in their projects. There are also projects related to helping homeless animals, and entrepreneurial hosts who need the help of professional marketers, SMM specialists and designers.
Getting into a good project is not so easy, especially with an “empty” profile (no reviews). Allow several weeks for searching and correspondence and keep in mind that only a third of the hosts will respond to 15 submitted applications, of which only a few will be happy to accept you.
How does everything work in practice?
A regular contributor to 34travel shares his workaway experience
Irina Gorbach
I searched for my project for three weeks. Two hosts wrote to me themselves, but of all the options, only one was really cool - the small guesthouse Casa Amarela Belem in Lisbon, where I went.
The guesthouse I found myself in is a project of the Finnish-Portuguese family Annastina and Vascu, which they started three years ago in a large rented house. In addition to the guest, they are raising three children, and Vascu is also actively involved in politics and runs the Association of Bubble Football Clubs of Portugal. Their home always sounds like laughter, smells of coffee and garlic, and everything tends to be in perfect order. The house is located in the outskirts of Belem, just a five-minute walk from Torre de Belem and 10 minutes from the Jeronimos Monastery. For me, this location was ideal, because Belem is located exactly in the center between the city and the ocean beach line. Go left - half an hour and you are in the city center, go right - half an hour and you are on the ocean. Belem itself is also beautiful. When I was too lazy to go somewhere, I enjoyed walking around the neighborhood and local pastry shops, reading while sitting on the wide embankment. This is one of the richest areas of Lisbon: clean, well-groomed, surrounded by flowers (the jacaranda tree was just blooming when I arrived!) and not very touristy (all tourists cluster around the tower and monastery).
The house has three floors. The ground floor is where the family lives, and the next two floors are the guest area with a large living room, kitchen, dining room and bedrooms. Vashka and Annastina made the feature of their guesthouse ideal cleanliness and a high level of basic services. Simply put: sparkling bathroom fixtures, crisp white towels and linens, perfectly made beds, a kitchen stocked with everything you need including coffee, tea, sugar, condiments and cold drinks, and daily housekeeping with towel changes.
Entering the guest part of the house, the first thing I saw was the shower counter in one of the rooms. She winked at me with her shiny eye, and I was stunned, imagining how many hours it would take to rub her to get her to this state. Then I saw the perfectly made bed and thought that, having decided to stay here for the entire 90 days, perhaps I had gone too far.
“The owners were always happy about my culinary experiments. True, they seemed to eat our Belarusian okroshka only out of politeness.”
Annastina greeted me with the words: “I have good and bad news for you. Good - tomorrow we are going to the Arrábida National Park to the beach (if you want, of course), bad - on Sunday I will need your help with cleaning the rooms in the guest house.” In practice, everything turned out to be not so scary. Every day a cleaning woman came to the guesthouse and took care of the plumbing in the bathroom in 30 minutes, and made the bed even faster. Inspired by her skill, I began to upgrade these skills. The first five days were hard not so much mentally as physically, after a couple of weeks I learned to do all this almost like cleaning a woman and even enjoyed the process.
My main stress factor was language. Annastina and Vashku speak English fluently and fluently, but before coming to them I dealt mainly with the written language. I was completely bad with oral: every now and then a line with a printed sentence flashed before my eyes, which I wanted to pronounce, but could not, because my tongue was slurred and the stresses fell in the wrong places. The same problem occurred with the perception of oral speech. For the first three weeks, in the evenings, sitting at the Tagus, I opened the Duolingo application and learned to pronounce and hear words in such a way as to distinguish “wardrobe” from “carpet.” A month later, I already understood 80 percent of what I heard. And two months later I began to think in English from time to time and speak more or less freely in a relaxed atmosphere. In addition to Duolingo, Vashku and Anastina, I spoke English with locales.
Cleaning the rooms was not my main task. The idea was that I would be able to do this and be able to connect to the cleaning woman on the days of mass eviction and check-in of guests. what else have I been doing?
I cooked a lot. I love to cook. And Annastina and Vashku were always happy about my culinary experiments. True, they seemed to eat our Belarusian okroshka only out of politeness. Vashka also loves and knows how to cook; he was especially good at rice with seafood and baked fish.
Went to the shop for groceries and to the bakery for fresh breakfast bread.
Checked in for the guests.
Helped around the house on small things (wash and hang towels, wipe crumbs from the table, clean up, weed the garden, etc.).
Photographed the rooms and garden to promote the guest house on Facebook and Booking and did a photo project to decorate the front door.
Made decorative birds and painted flower pots and old windows.
As a rule, the second part of the day was free, and every week there was one day off, on which I did nothing in the house and went to see other cities. If we talk about the conditions in general, I was very lucky. I had a separate comfortable room, free access to a refrigerator and a common table. In addition, with my family I went to the beach, went to a cafe and to a traditional family holiday - the Arraial de Belem festival.
This festival is one of my most vivid Portuguese experiences. During it, the whole Portuguese family (including small children and grandparents) come to an open area, where first they eat traditional food at large tables - caldo verde soup (this is a green cabbage slurry with a piece of choriza sausage), bifanas (a sandwich in which sandwiched between pieces of bread is a piece of boiled pork), fried choriza (spicy sausage), grilled sardines and boiled snails (I never got around to trying them). And then they have fun and dance until late at night (despite the fact that it is a weekday).
“Life for the Portuguese is extremely simple and straightforward. They drink espresso and beer, love simple food, watch and play football as a leisure activity, and almost never travel outside their country (why, if it is the best?)”
For the Portuguese, life is extremely simple and straightforward. They drink espresso and beer (more often than wine), love simple food, watch and play football as a leisure activity or go on holidays, almost never travel outside their country (why, if it is the best?), still remain religious and adhere to traditional values, are indifferent to the technological process (I could not find a suitable protective film for my phone), laugh loudly, talk to strangers on the street and put family first in life.
I received a classic workaway experience lasting almost three months with full inclusion in family life in one of the most beautiful countries in the world. And it seems to me that I will never go on a long vacation as an ordinary tourist again, because workaway gives much more: the opportunity to be busy and useful, to live the life of locals and learn new things. By the way, now Casa Amarela Belem really needs a professional carpenter.
Photo - Irina Gorbach
After hanging out for two weeks in Jeju as tourists, we went to the fourth and last farm in Korea: the two-month period of visa-free stay granted to Russian tourists was coming to an end. The farm had a WWOOF Korea code of JJ-112 and a tangerine theme. The owners of the farm also ran a guesthouse, where we were offered to live in a common room. The tangerine season in Jeju doesn't start until November, so we weren't expecting anything particularly interesting and thought that weeding would be our main occupation. No matter how it is. But first, the good stuff:
Besides us, a lot of people volunteered at the farm: American-born Korean Jenny and her boyfriend, Korean Kwan, French women Sophie and Isabelle (the second left the next day), Shian from Singapore, as well as Monica from Lithuania and Katie from Taiwan. Thanks to the Koreans on the team, we had no language barrier with the hosts; everyone understood what needed to be done and how. Of course, I was happy to finally socialize, especially since everyone spoke English. The guesthouse had two hefty rooms in which we, the volunteers, and ordinary guests who paid to stay lived. We were entitled to breakfast and dinner together with the guests in a cafe (the guesthouse provides half board), and lunch at the host’s parents’ house, which is located nearby. There was also a ranch with horses nearby, which you could pet if you wanted by carefully approaching from the side. And from the veranda of the guesthouse you could see the sea. Here, in fact, are all the advantages that emerged during our stay.
I'll tell you a little about the daily routine. Considering that there was only one bathroom for each room, the ladies and I had to get up at 7 so that everyone had time to perform water procedures and be in time for breakfast at 8. There was supposed to be no food until all the guests had served their food and started eating. They were mercilessly woken up for breakfast, so everything went according to schedule. Afterwards, we were supposed to clean the guesthouse: vacuum, clean the restrooms, and also make our beds in a certain way. At 9, we were supposed to start working on the farm.
However, in the three days that we have been here, we have not yet seen the farm. The entire scope of work is concentrated around the house of the parents of the owners of the farm. These are granny and grandpa, quite nice, unlike the owner of the farm, our host, who turns to us: “Hey, Russia!”, being unable to remember the names, which, however, he didn’t even ask. We spent the entire second half of the first day repairing their bathhouse using cement and the devil, and the entire next day we painted the house. You are supposed to work until 16:00, and there is no long break in the middle of the day, only a short lunch break. As a result, for now, for now, we ended up at the guesthouse closer to 17, and we still had to stand in line for the shower. Dinner was at 7 pm, and again we had to wait until the guests took the food, while the volunteers huddled on the sidelines. Dinner was quite human, and after that everyone was free until the morning.
To be honest, for me it’s a crapshoot of working hours, despite the fact that the work had almost nothing to do with wufing (volunteering on organic farms). Considering the fact that we already had excellent volunteering experience on two other farms (three days on the third does not count), where we worked together with the hosts, communicated and shared knowledge with each other, our stay here became increasingly unattractive. The hosts not only didn’t work with us, they practically didn’t speak to us. We worked alone, since the hostess was in the guesthouse all the time, the owner for some reason disdained working together, and grandma and grandpa were a little too old for these things. We devoted one day entirely to painting the house. All except two girls, who for some reason were always busy servicing the guesthouse (the French woman and the girl from Singapore had been here for almost two months, and in the local hierarchy they clearly occupied a position superior to us, newcomers). It was hot, but we all tried and almost got the job done. Somewhere there was a rumor that a Korean barbecue was expected for dinner, and everyone was looking forward to fried meat (except Monica, who was a vegetarian). Later, during dinner, it turned out that only guests and hosts were allowed meat, and the volunteers had to be content with small fried fish, mostly consisting of bones. When Monica asked for some lettuce leaves (traditionally they wrap meat in them), she was refused: otherwise there might not be enough for the guests.
We, of course, were not going for food, but we were shocked by what was happening, because before this it had never happened that the owners of the farm and the volunteers not only did not eat at the same table, but in general received different food not in favor of the latter. Also new was the inequality of rights among the woofers: here two “old guys” gave out instructions with all their might and had access to such benefits of civilization as a coffee machine, and the six of us were in the “give-and-bring” position, if anyone talked to us at all. In general, none of the charms of wufing (working together to achieve common goals, cultural exchange and communication) were even close to being seen here.
And yet there was one big plus, why we didn’t send everything on the first evening and didn’t move out wherever we looked. Thanks to him, and also good company, we decided to stay and not change plans. So, if on other farms we got one day off a week, here there were much more. We worked for three days, and now we are left to our own devices for two whole days. And this is very cool, because Pasha and I will be able to go through those hiking routes that we have not yet walked, despite the weather forecast promising rain throughout the day.
Of course, we will leave a corresponding review on the wwoofkorea website to warn other guys who are hoping to have a positive experience here. And now we ourselves will know what to look for when reading the description of the farm and reviews about it. And - yes - we decided to continue volunteering in other countries, not only in Korea, and have already agreed with one farm in Malaysia.
Unfortunately, there is only one photo in this post, because we are talking about woofing, and we were all doing something else.
UPD: I am adding this paragraph after the main text. The situation changed somewhat for the worse: in the morning the host tried to kick Monika out (from Lithuania) because someone (obviously a French woman) complained to him that she was working like crap (even though we all, apart from two privileged ladies, work the same). So not only did he tell her to vacate the premises, but he also complained to WWOOF Korea. Monica cried all morning because of how unfairly the farm owner treated her. It’s good that there is a Korean on our team, and he called the Korean office and explained what was happening. They find Monica another farm, but the situation is absolutely terrible, and all the guys are upset because of the unfriendliness of the hosts and because of the discrimination towards newcomers. We wanted to leave today, but then we decided not to change our plans, and we didn’t want to leave the guys in this nasty environment: after all, it’s much easier together. I didn’t think that such a wonderful thing as wufing could be ruined like that. But the lack of respect and attention from the owners eloquently tells us that here we are not volunteers helping with housework, but free labor, and the rest of the time we are unwanted guests.
The essence of the program is the exchange of labor for housing and food. A volunteer worker works on a farm 4-6 hours a day, in exchange for which the host farmer provides him with housing and food. Neither the farmer nor the volunteer pays the other.
To participate in the program, a farmer must pay a small annual fee to WWOOF in his country, declaring that his farm meets some organic farming standards (meaning at least the volunteers won't have to deal with pesticides), and that the volunteers Those working on the farm will be provided with housing that meets sanitary standards.
For his part, the volunteer must pay an annual membership fee ($40-$55) to the WWOOF organization in the country where he would like to work. He will receive a directory of farmers participating in the program in that country, and will then be able to negotiate with any of them about the period of his stay on the farm.
Countries with WWOOF organizations
Currently (2012) there are WWOOF organizations in the following countries:
Farmers in many other countries that do not have their own WWOOF organizations also participate in the program. A directory of these "independent contributors" can be purchased through an international or Australian WWOOF organization.
Visa situation
Any person can, of course, freely work on farms in the country of his citizenship, as well as in the country where he has the right of permanent residence. To work in other countries, it may be necessary to obtain an appropriate visa. The type of visa required depends on the immigration laws and practices of the country being visited, as a regular tourist visa (or its visa-free equivalent) may in some countries prohibit any work, even without monetary remuneration.
International treaties
In some cases, countries allow citizens of the other contracting party to live and work freely on their territory. (For example, EU countries, or Australia and New Zealand are in accordance with the Trans-Tasman Travel Arrangement). This naturally allows their citizens to work on WWOOF farms as well.
There are also agreements between a number of countries, mainly in Europe, the British Commonwealth, and East Asia, which allow youth from these countries to obtain a Working holiday visa, allowing them to work for a year or even two in another country; travelers on such visas make up a significant portion of WWOOF volunteers in Australia and some other countries.
Australia
Australian authorities allow WWOOF work on a tourist visa, provided that the main purpose of visiting Australia is tourism, the volunteer is not paid (providing room and board or reimbursement of expenses is permitted), and that in the absence of foreign volunteers, the farmer would not hire Australians instead salary.
Canada
In principle, foreign citizens need a special work permit to work in Canada. However, it is not required for work activities that are not paid and in which the foreigner does not compete with the Canadian workforce. Thus, short-term work (1-4 weeks) on principles comparable to WWOOF does not require special permission, and thus it can be done while in Canada, for example on a student or tourist visa.
Write a review about the article "WWOOF"
Notes
Links
Excerpt describing WWOOF
Why did it happen this way and not otherwise?Because that's how it happened. “Chance made the situation; genius took advantage of it,” says history.
But what is a case? What is a genius?
The words chance and genius do not mean anything that really exists and therefore cannot be defined. These words only denote a certain degree of understanding of phenomena. I don't know why this phenomenon happens; I don't think I can know; That’s why I don’t want to know and say: chance. I see a force producing an action disproportionate to universal human properties; I don’t understand why this happens, and I say: genius.
For a herd of rams, the ram that is driven every evening by the shepherd into a special stall to feed and becomes twice as thick as the others must seem like a genius. And the fact that every evening this very same ram ends up not in a common sheepfold, but in a special stall for oats, and that this very same ram, doused in fat, is killed for meat, should seem like an amazing combination of genius with a whole series of extraordinary accidents .
But the rams just have to stop thinking that everything that is done to them happens only to achieve their ram goals; it is worth admitting that the events happening to them may also have goals that are incomprehensible to them, and they will immediately see unity, consistency in what happens to the fattened ram. Even if they do not know for what purpose he was fattened, then at least they will know that everything that happened to the ram did not happen by accident, and they will no longer need the concept of either chance or genius.
Only by renouncing the knowledge of a close, understandable goal and recognizing that the final goal is inaccessible to us, will we see consistency and purposefulness in the lives of historical persons; the reason for the action they produce, disproportionate to universal human properties, will be revealed to us, and we will not need the words chance and genius.
One has only to admit that the purpose of the unrest of the European peoples is unknown to us, and only the facts are known, consisting of murders, first in France, then in Italy, in Africa, in Prussia, in Austria, in Spain, in Russia, and that movements from the West to the east and from east to west constitute the essence and purpose of these events, and not only will we not need to see exclusivity and genius in the characters of Napoleon and Alexander, but it will be impossible to imagine these persons otherwise than as the same people as everyone else; and not only will it not be necessary to explain by chance those small events that made these people what they were, but it will be clear that all these small events were necessary.
Having detached ourselves from knowledge of the ultimate goal, we will clearly understand that just as it is impossible for any plant to come up with other colors and seeds that are more appropriate to it than those that it produces, in the same way it is impossible to come up with two other people, with all their past, which would correspond to such an extent, to such the smallest details, to the purpose that they were to fulfill.
The main, essential meaning of European events at the beginning of this century is the militant movement of the masses of European peoples from West to East and then from East to West. The first instigator of this movement was the movement from west to east. In order for the peoples of the West to be able to make the warlike movement to Moscow that they made, it was necessary: 1) for them to form into a warlike group of such a size that would be able to withstand a clash with the warlike group of the East; 2) so that they renounce all established traditions and habits and 3) so that, when making their militant movement, they have at their head a person who, both for himself and for them, could justify the deceptions, robberies and murders that were accompanied this movement.
And since the French Revolution, the old group, not great enough, is destroyed; old habits and traditions are destroyed; a group of new sizes, new habits and traditions are developed, step by step, and the person who must stand at the head of the future movement and bear all the responsibility of what is to come is being prepared.
A man without convictions, without habits, without traditions, without a name, not even a Frenchman, by the most strange accidents, it seems, moves among all the parties that worry France and, without attaching himself to any of them, is brought to a prominent place.
The ignorance of his comrades, the weakness and insignificance of his opponents, the sincerity of the lie and the brilliant and self-confident narrow-mindedness of this man put him at the head of the army. The brilliant composition of the soldiers of the Italian army, the reluctance of his opponents to fight, his childish audacity and self-confidence gain him military glory. Countless so-called accidents accompany him everywhere. The disfavor into which he falls from the rulers of France serves to his advantage. His attempts to change the path destined for him fail: he is not accepted into the service in Russia, and he fails to be assigned to Turkey. During the wars in Italy, he is on the verge of death several times and is saved each time in an unexpected way. Russian troops, the very ones that could destroy his glory, for various diplomatic reasons, do not enter Europe as long as he is there.
So what about woofing? Let's work for food and get some fresh air. For example, in the French Pyrenees. Where they make foie gras... Country skills will come in handy.
Organic cottage
WWOOF is an acronym that has two meanings in English: World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms, that is, “Worldwide Opportunities on Organic Farms,” or Willing Workers on Organic Farms, that is, “Voluntary Workers on Organic Farms.” In general, we can say that this is a kind of ecotourism that allows you to combine relaxation and work in the fresh air with gaining knowledge about organic agriculture, which has become especially fashionable in Europe over the past few years. Although this knowledge will be surprisingly familiar to many Russians. In essence, this is the same Russian dacha: a compost heap, mandatory waste separation, saving water and electricity, manual labor and a minimum of fertilizers. In Russia it is a forced “ecologically friendly farm”, in Europe it is a hard-won one.
A farmer who wishes to participate in the program pays a small annual fee to WWOOF in his country, confirming that his farm meets some organic farming standards (for example, no chemicals are used) and that volunteers will be provided with sanitary housing.
A volunteer who wants to participate in the program contacts the office of the organization of the country where he wants to visit and pays an annual membership fee ($20-60). In exchange for this, he receives a catalog notebook with a list of farms, their addresses, conditions and telephone numbers. Then all that remains is to write off and call the selected people and arrive at the appointed time. 
As a rule, such an ecotourist stays on the farm for a period of no less than two weeks; the stay can be up to six months. You don't have to work that much - four to six hours a day - in exchange for food and housing. The farmer and the volunteer do not pay each other any money. In 2010, 50 countries were registered in the system, although 20 had only one farm. Work on a farm for food and housing (and not only on a farm) can also be found through the sites http://www.workaway.info/ and http://www.helpx.net/ However, no one there can guarantee “organic” farms, but some exclusive offers are possible.
The work can be very diverse - in South Korea you will help make kim-chi and tofu, on farms in France - picking grapes, collecting coffee beans - in Northern Thailand, and on the Kangaroo Islands - honey from Ligurian bees. Of course, there is still the issue of visas. Work, even volunteer work, sometimes requires a special visa. The type of visa required depends on the immigration laws and practices of the country being visited. But in some countries there is a simplified exchange. For example, Europeans can go to work in New Zealand without a visa.
There are no such concessions for Russians, but in many countries you can still work for free and on a tourist visa. In addition, farm owners can help you with invitations. And, of course, why specify for what purpose you are going to Spain - to watch bullfights or pick apples. In Australia, wufing on a tourist visa is allowed to everyone; in Canada, you can also work “for free” for one to four weeks.
The story of one farm
Jane and Peter and their 13-year-old daughter Eli-Flo moved to France from Albion 12 years ago when they realized they had become terribly disconnected from nature. It was impossible to buy a plot of land in England for the amount received from the sale of their modest apartment, but in the Pyrenees there were plenty of very good offers. They really liked the name of the farm - “New Doors”, since they were just opening the doors to a new life, so they decided not to change it. This is how the New Doors permaculture farming association appeared. Yes, in the French Pyrenees, opening your own association is a piece of cake. Therefore, in Miron - a neighboring town of 3.5 thousand inhabitants - there is a fairly developed shooting club, swimming clubs, bagpipe clubs and a couple of hundred other clubs and organizations. This is because registering such organizations allows you not to pay taxes on your commercial activities (for example, on the sale of fruit grown in your garden). Therefore, small and very small businesses in this region are thriving - farms from all the surrounding villages producing homemade apple juice and cider, foie gras and pates, buns, waffles and bread, fresh vegetables, fruits and canned food from them, thousands of types of cheeses, represent their products at the Saturday morning market in Miron. What a sight this is! Wood crafts and handmade ceramics, baskets, salad, croissants - everything is mixed under the roof of the covered market, which flows out onto the street, filling all the surrounding streets of medieval Myron. However, things that are sold here are not entirely “handmade” - Turkish jeans, Chinese combs, T-shirts from Thailand, etc. The prices are not at all rustic. It’s not for nothing that France is considered one of the most expensive countries in the European Union. 
Of course, before getting on their feet and becoming a farm that provided itself with vegetables and fruits all year round, Jane and Peter had to work hard - restoring the house, building another one, putting the garden in order. Woofers helped them with this - from the very first year they had them regularly - once every few months - and helped them build, dig and weed. A very cozy van was allocated for the volunteers - a mobile home turned into a guest house with a wide bed and electricity. The farm, in general, is small - a couple of donkeys for preparing firewood, very thick, but “working”. Ducks with ducklings, hens with chicks. Three cats and one “very protective dog” named Bomba. Several fig trees, from which Jane sells figs at the local market. Cherry trees. A pond with six carp - fish not for food, but to test the purity of drinking water. Well, beds with all sorts of little things.
Wufing from personal experience
Having learned that we got from Barcelona to the tiny village of Beloc-Saint-Clemens, a hundred kilometers from Toulouse, in just 12 hours, Peter was very surprised: for an experienced hitchhiker, getting there in just twice the time of a car is a good result, but for a first-time hitchhiker The hitchhiking experience is simply superb. However, we would have gotten there faster... We had problems only in Spain - the Spaniards rarely give us lifts, but the deeper we got into the French wilderness (Toulouse-Oche-Miron-Belok-San Clemens), the friendlier the people became. And so a neighbor takes us to the very doors of Les portes nueves (“New Doors” in French)... We are met by 13-year-old Eli-Flo and her friend Emily. My parents left to look for us - they received our message and did not think that we would find a ride right to the door.
I met a family of British musicians and farmers by chance - through my French friend Joanne, who, having learned that I wanted to try wufing, gave them their contacts. This way I managed to avoid the registration procedure and registration fee. Well, I already had a Schengen visa. 
The first three days we really worked very hard. The task was to clear a fence overgrown with thorny bushes and the area around it overgrown with grass. In three days, the task was completed, at the cost of two pairs of slippers almost torn to shreds. Jane and Peter were surprised and asked to cut the nettles under the fruit trees. We asked if they knew that nettle hay is very beneficial for ducklings and chicks in winter. Of course not. I had to make hay. Well, it was quite easy. Meals are provided by the owners. In the morning - “French” breakfast - cold juice or tea, white bread with butter and jam or honey. Unusual for us, traditional for them. At 4 o'clock in the afternoon there is tea, which for the British is just tea, without any sweets or buns. At 6 - an aperitif (three types of homemade liqueurs), smoothly turning into dinner - invariably appetizing. Then the program became more varied - trim branches using a special pruner, eat cherries from a tree, help load a canoe into a car to take it to the river and ride it...
One day we went to the cottage of Jane’s friend, who breeds horses, to restore order there, since the owner broke her spine after falling from a horse and was in the hospital. This farm, according to Jane, was more “manicured”, but we liked it less than “New Doors” - everything was too “civilized”. Here our task is to put back the stones that have fallen out of the fences, cut the grass with a lawn mower and... swim in the pool. Which we did with pleasure.
After restoring the stone fence, the owners realized that they could trust us with more serious tasks, so the last thing we did on the farm was repairing the steps going down to the garden. The earthen steps, covered with broken shards and bordered by boards, crumbled - 12 years ago they were erected by the first woofers, who now have their own farm in England...
This work was creative - we had to re-plan the entire staircase. But the owners were satisfied. Then we were entitled to the weekend - we wandered around the neighborhood, walked the dog, slept in the shade and sunbathed in the sun. We swam in the pool again. We ate barbecue and drank. In general, woofing was definitely a success. The week flew by like one day. It was a pity to leave, but Peter and Jane promised to leave the farm at our disposal for a whole month - when they went on vacation...
Text by Natalya Vladimirova, photo of the author, published in the in-flight magazine “Vladivostok Air” No. 49, 2011.