Bayside Woman Living the Farm Life Dream

“Karin had an office job for 25 years. She never thought she’d be a full-time farmer in Humboldt County.”

World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farmers tweeted the above look into a Bayside woman’s dream farm.

In case you don’t know about WWOOF where unpaid volunteers work on smallish organic farms, here’s a description from their website:

WWOOF is a worldwide movement linking volunteers with organic farmers and growers to promote cultural and educational experiences based on trust and non-monetary exchange, thereby helping to build a sustainable, global community.

As a volunteer (or WWOOFer as we call them) you will live alongside your host helping with daily tasks and experiencing life as a farmer.

As a host farm you will open your home to receive visitors from your own country or abroad who want to connect with the land and support the organic movement.

 

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Post-Jerry Lettuce Head
Guest
Post-Jerry Lettuce Head
6 years ago

This is the the future. The viability of non corporate farming and permaculture is either here already or coming soon. So much destroyed ag land, regenerative farming may be the only way forward. Very hard work but it is one also of the last ways to break the shackles of a homogenized lifestyle. As we see the generation shift in farming & food production, new opportunities are emerging.
I really hope to see all of these types of farms succeed. Brings tear to my eye just thinking about.

Thank you, for the diversity of this story Kym. Helping to wake me up from the negativity that the cannabis scene has been lately.

Shak
Guest
Shak
6 years ago

Free room and board while learning the ropes through hard labor. What’s not to love? At least they’re not making people pay for the pleasure of working hard for their education like the so called Natural Building creeps do.

Hosts will want to be sure they have backups on call. Cancellations seem to be the norm, which leaves the farmer in the lurch during harvesting/shearing time.

Steve
Guest
Steve
6 years ago

Let’s see,counting on someone else to do your work for yourself what a set up…i guess the hippies aren’t so fucking stupid after all.

Kristin Eide
Guest
Kristin Eide
6 years ago
Reply to  Steve

Steve,
You obviously havent met Karin or been to her farm that she works at 365..
The WWOOFers sign on og tjeir free will and get an amazing life experience.
Next time you wanna spew your ignorance, pls dont

Margie Koltun
Guest
Margie Koltun
6 years ago
Reply to  Kristin Eide

Karin isn’t trying to have someone else do her work. Her work is 24/7. She is committed to helping others learn how to run a farm and she is amazingly good at it, with or without WOOFers. I’ve known her for over 30 years and she is more committed to this than anything I’ve ever seen her do, except for being a mom, which she was/is still amazing at. The WOOFer I met at her farm was totally into being there and she seemed very happy to be able to live in the US, room and board free, and learn from this wonderful woman.

Steve
Guest
Steve
6 years ago
Reply to  Kristin Eide

I call Bullshit, every farmer i know (real ones) from Kansas don’t

Dan
Guest
Dan
6 years ago
Reply to  Steve

You mean the ones that exploit migrant workers?

Sharpen your pencil
Guest
Sharpen your pencil
6 years ago
Reply to  Dan

Lol, that was a good one!

just me
Guest
just me
6 years ago
Reply to  Kristin Eide

so i work hard for free and you feed me and give a place to sleep. yep going to get a amazing life experience for sure. passing yourself off as someone who cares. nothing like $100 worth of labor for a little food. out of the kindness of your heart. how nice. lol

Geepers creepers
Guest
Geepers creepers
6 years ago
Reply to  just me

Its more like an internship. It also allows people to travel to new places and not pay for hotel/food. Everyone ive ever met who has done woofing has been happy with it.

But obviously a lot of folks reading this dont get that a lot of people are wanting to learn how to be more self sufficient. Starting a farm on your own with no experience is costly on many levels with a low success rate.

just me
Guest
just me
6 years ago

Starting a farm on your own with no experience is costly on many levels with a low success rate. and your point its what. on second thought i have a lot of weeds that need to be pulled, pruning, need house painted, laundry, house cleaning sign me up. all i have to do is let strangers stay with me, feed them and give them a place to stay. what if it doesn’t work out. this could be a real problem being strangers home.

Nicehorsey
Guest
Nicehorsey
6 years ago

We tried Woofers on our farm. It wasn’t successful. Farming is hard work.

Emily
Guest
Emily
6 years ago
Reply to  Nicehorsey

It’s hard to tell people what to do and expect hard work when you aren’t paying people. And woofers are only expected to work 4-6 hours /day. That’s not normal farm worker hours

just me
Guest
just me
6 years ago
Reply to  Emily

i work a farm. my im up at 4am. day starts about 6am. ends about 7 or 8 depending on if the animals have problems. what do i do with these guys after 4 or 6 hours. i dont bring strangers home. its not safe. who knows who they are

Thinking allowed
Guest
Thinking allowed
6 years ago

Hmm… I sort of feel that romance in this not overly honest clip. There are times when it’s like that. But to get those moments you have to go through 2am hard births with your hand up the rear end of your favorite doe, hoping you can save everyone. Endless de-pooping of sheds. The hard days when all those adorable little bucklings are disposed of. Trying to find out why the water has dried up. Losing that wonderful doe to the neighbor’s free ranging dogs. Spending thousands to have the calcium rich hay for the girls in milk. Endless feet trimming. Etc, etc, etc.

But then again I believe in the good moments too. And I don’t mind the rest too much.

Spring Hill Farmstead Goat Cheese
Guest
Spring Hill Farmstead Goat Cheese
6 years ago

Well what a surprise to see this here. I have had very good luck with wwoofers for the last four years with few exceptions (really just one a month ago). I recommend farmers work side by side with their wwoofers until they feel VERY confident the wwoofer understands the task. I find great success giving regular chores to the wwoofers, for example letting the ducks and geese out every morning and putting them in at night, feeding the goats at night, harvesting berries etc. That way they have a chance to be successful and own the chore. I like to think there is something for everyone here, and have had so many great experiences I highly recommend the Wwoof program and I am happy to talk about it with anyone.

A Former WWOOFER
Guest
A Former WWOOFER
6 years ago

Good wwoofers are often taken advantage of or mistreated. Incompetent and-or lazy wwoofers are a dime a dozen.

Good hosts are few and far between.

Either way, slave labor/serfdom at its finest. Carry on, Humboldt county.

– A former wwoofer

Skippy
Guest
Skippy
6 years ago

We were WWoofers at an organic farm in 2010 in exchange for an RV spot.
We learned cob building and lasagna gardening. If your looking to travel or stay
In USA then check out their site.

Stormy
Guest
Stormy
6 years ago

Slave labor has returned to the U.S.! And it costs $40 to register just for a list of farms. Unbelievable anyone would buy into this. We need paid work, not servitude.

Victor G. Flashman
Guest
Victor G. Flashman
6 years ago
Reply to  Stormy

Interesting you say you need paid work. I can’t seem to find anyone to do anything in SoHum. My opinion is that everyone complains, but no one wants to really do anything, or build anything…

It’s easy to get high and bitch about stuff, a little harder to build a life based on work or study. AND it’s very hard to have a successful career! It CAN be done though!

If you can’t get what you need here, you may need to leave, at least for awhile…

Emily
Guest
Emily
6 years ago
Reply to  Stormy

Well, trading labor for housing/ food is not an unfair deal. When you consider the cost of a small cabin with heat, electric, usually wifi, and meals, they are actually getting a pretty good deal for a few hours of free untrained labor (which would normally be minimum wage)

Gepoto
Guest
Gepoto
6 years ago
Reply to  Stormy

Tell that to the people makin federal minimum wage of $7.70 an hour. You have to work 70 plus hours a week to feed your family, and not well.
The yearly wages of someone making $7.70 fall under official govt poverty wages.
As with any line of work, there are crappy bosses and crappy workers. It happens, but theres a lot of good too

just me
Guest
just me
6 years ago
Reply to  Stormy

$40 i get it. its a scam.

Dan
Guest
Dan
6 years ago
Reply to  Stormy

If you don’t have experience you can’t necessarily be expected to get paid. This is as much teaching people as it is getting work out of people.

Sharpen your pencil
Guest
Sharpen your pencil
6 years ago
Reply to  Dan

It’s hard for millenials to understand, most have never worked an honest hard day in their lives. Mommy and Daddy have bought and paid for everything, so the idea of putting in hard labor is beyond them, and getting nothing more than fed and a place to stay they just can’t comprehend. This is what happens when people aren’t taught that hard work pays off….. Just go to school and party for 6 years and you’ll have an awesome piece of paper telling you that you’ve arrived.

Honeydew Bridge C.H.U.M.P.
Guest
Honeydew Bridge C.H.U.M.P.
6 years ago

Didn’t Charles Manson start WWOOF?

Victor G. Flashman
Guest
Victor G. Flashman
6 years ago

Don’t rag on it. There’s no bad experience, only bad experiences… Kids, explore, but be ready to bail! Always trust, but validate!

AND it’s nice that someone is farming something other than pot! Love those farmer’s markets!

Sadtruth
Guest
Sadtruth
6 years ago

Your words are true . People today seem to complain about everything. And scream for something to be done ,but only a small few ever leave the house to do anything, and even less will leave their county or country to get a first hand look at what it is really like in other parts of the world. I wish we could have our young be required to serve either in the military or peace corpse 2 or 3 years between college and high school. I feel that it would give many direction in their lives, and help them to think and see their future more clearly

just me
Guest
just me
6 years ago

lol what?

Gepoto
Guest
Gepoto
6 years ago
Reply to  just me

Get kids hands in the dirt out in the sunshine and fresh air and off of screens, thats what she’s saying, to me at least.
Lets encourage young people to learn to grow food, its not rocket science.