On a small organic food farm in Langley, a stone’s throw from the U.S. border, lives a young German couple lives with their two-year-old daughter, Lily, among patches of leeks, tomatoes, arugula, onions, garlic, 24 chickens, many other vegetables and an abundance of peace and quiet. They like to add one more element to the mix as often as possible: strangers from around the world.
Nadja Moritz and Marcel Sachse are members of an international organization that facilitates the exchange of work for room and board on organic farms. WWOOF is an organization that started in England as Working Weekends on Organic Farms. It was an initiative to get city slickers to stick their soft hands into some dirt and become acquainted with what was, at the time, a burgeoning world of organic food production.
A World Wide Opportunity
Today, WWOOF (now WordWide Opportunities on Organic Farms) has members in almost every country in the world and has become a popular way for travellers to save money and for farmers to get some much needed labour. A “Wwoofer” will find a farm’s profile online, message the farm owner, and ask to come stay for anywhere from a couple days, to several weeks. In exchange for a few hours of work each day, the Wwoofer gets a place to sleep and food to eat — often the same organic produce they are helping to grow.
Moritz and Sachse were themselves Wwoofers long before they became hosts. Soon after meeting as opponents at a handball tournament in Seattle, they dated and worked on farms in Quebec. Both were born and raised in Germany, but Moritz had been living in Vancouver since high school and Sachse was on a work exchange in Seattle.
Sachse had never Wwoofed but he had met fellow travellers who had, when he was in Australia. It seemed like a fun way to travel while saving money and learning.
“We went there and we did one week in Lachute; That was more close to the Ottawa side. And then the other one was close to Chicoutimi, that was very good. One was very English-speaking, the other was just plain, there was no English. That was tough, so in a way, that’s why we did it too because we wanted to brush up our French,” says Sachse.
A Passion for Farming
The couple then moved to Vancouver and soon after began working on a farm on Ladner’s Westham Island.
For both, it came as a bit of a surprise that they had found a passion for farming (Sachse studied international business administration and Moritz studied forestry).
When Moritz’s parents were considering buying a five-acre property in Langley, the young couple decided to go in with them and start a small farm of their own. And it was an easy decision to become WWOOF hosts as soon as possible. They both continue to work on the farm in Ladner, which they love, but continue to grow their plots and use more of their property to make food.
They had their first guest earlier this year, a young woman, Marianne, from Ontario who was a true Wwoofing enthusiast. She was spending two years going farm to farm.
“We would have kept her probably for the whole summer,” says Moritz.
“She was awesome.
“It’s just wonderful to know there’s someone out there who is puttering along. And they can go at their own speed. You don’t have have to worry about it because you’re giving them food and you’re teaching them and they’re staying here but you’re not paying them by the hour, so you don’t have to be putting that pressure on them like ‘You need to get this done right now!’” she says.
'More than a meal and a bed'
Marianne came for more than just a few meals and a bed, though.
“She was also a keener. She was really keen… She had a clear thing in mind: She wanted to learn about gardening, permaculture, homesteading, those kinds of things. She really wanted to take home a lot of information.”
The hosts have a new guest already confirmed to come stay for two weeks and have had requests from Wwoofers from around the world. They say they are eager to meet more Wwoofers and learn as much as they teach.
The social element, they say, is perhaps the most powerful though, as it takes a good amount of trust and openness from both sides to make the scenario work.
“You are allowing people into your life for a certain period of time. I can’t see it’s something anyone can do because you have to open up, even as a host, to share your stories,” he says.
“When people come and watch what you do [and your] private things. It’s not just working at the farm... They also get to know what you do in the evening, how you do things, all your quirks,” says Sachse.
“The only time we don’t see them is when we sleep. From breakfast to dinner, you spend time together… It’s very eye opening but everyone brings their own stories…
“It’s an opportunity to grow.”
Growing Relationships
Marcel Sachse likes to think of himself as a “relationship manager.”
But the relationships he manages aren’t between people; they’re the interactions between the various plants on his small Langley farm, called Pinsch of Soil.
Practicing a farming technique known as permaculture, Sachse puts plants side by side when he knows they can be beneficial to one another, in a kind of symbiotic relationship. This is also his role in his own, human, relationship with his farming partner and wife.
“Nadja has a whole lot of the knowledge of the vegetable plants that actually grow, how they grow and [how] they should look when you transplant them and how you should care for them.”
And it is Sachse’s role to know the placement of the plants.
Dandelions or horseradish plants have long roots that reach deep into the earth and draw up nutrients for themselves but also for their more shallow-rooted neighbours. This is why you’ll find dandelions and horseradish plants next to the pear, plum, and apple trees on the farm.
Sachse says it’s all about working with nature to design the most efficient system possible.
“You try to put plants in relation with the soil and the relation that they have and try to include the different patterns or find patterns in nature and apply them on the land.”
Conserving water is also important in how Sachse designs the farm. Borrowing from the world of landscape design, he built a mound at the bottom of a small hill on the property. The water that seeps into the side of the mound is then absorbed by the plants growing in it: onions, garlic, herbs and flowers—which are themselves edible as well as being beneficial to the plants around them by attracting the right kinds of insects.
Were it not for the mound, that water would simply keep flowing off their property, he says.
As the couple makes plans to expand their farm farther back into their property, they will need to clear a patch thick with alders, blackberry bushes and other greenery.
The answer to that problem is, of course, introducing a new relationship.
The couple hopes to soon adopt goats and keep them for more than their milk and companionship. They will have the goats munch through the underbrush and make way for new plants and, naturally, relationships.