First stop – Old Hall East Bergholt, Suffolk

Bob and Sarah Peg at Old Hall

Beginning at the beginning with what on earth is Wwoofing....

WWOOF stands for World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms http://www.wwoof.org.uk/

WWOOF UK is a membership charity, teaching people about organic growing and low-impact lifestyles through hands-on experience. There are thousands of Wwoof hosts around the world offering placements at a myriad of interesting communities and projects. Becoming a Wwoofer is a fantastic way to travel cheaply, learn new skills, experience alternative ways of living in community settings and to meet other travellers.

Carrots with tall netting to keep out carrot fly

Old Hall is a community of adults and children sharing this old manor house and 70 acres of land at a beautiful site in the middle of Constable Country in East Bergholt, Suffolk. Much of the land is cultivated or used for raising livestock, providing abundant food for the members. We were given a warm welcome by all at the hall and our two weeks of work was varied and interesting. 

The Wwoofers day was structured in two shifts working for different community members. The morning shift from 9.30 til lunch and the afternoon from 2.00 – 4.30pm. Leisurely tea breaks were always included mid shift!

Signs let the Community know
when things are ready to pick

The tasks included tending to the areas that provide nearly all of the community’s fresh fruit and vegetable we planted cabbages, weeded French beans, broccoli and spinach, picked raspberries and cherry plums for eating, freezing and jamming and harvested and bagged up potatoes. We also  loaded up the ‘Dragon’ – a wood fired water and central heating system, slashed nettles, strimmed thistles and cleared brambles, stacked wood and tidied up the garden in preparation for the ‘Ruby Do’ Old Hall Community’s  40^th birthday party which will take place later this summer. Outside of Wwoof shifts it was possible to help or watch members with their regular duties or additional work such as weaving willow hurdles, feeding the pigs and milking the cows, making cheddar cheese and churning butter in the dairy.

There is always someone making cheese!

We made friends with other Wwoofers who included university students from England, Switzerland, and The Netherlands interested in community life and low impact living, teachers from Spain looking for a cost effective holiday close to London where they visited on their days off and a retiree who has been Wwoofing their way around the UK for the past four years!

Willow Hurdles made by Richard 

The members of the community range in age from young children to pensioners, some have been there since the beginning in 1974. Each individual or family has their own unit including a lounge and bedrooms, the kitchen is a shared space. Each member contributes around 15 hours of time per week to the running of the farm i.e. tending vegetables or livestock and looking after the domestic tasks such as cooking, bread-making and washing up.

Highlights of our stay included meeting the members of this diverse and interesting community – chatting over a cuppa or being inspired round a late night bonfire; the delicious food – abundant vegetables, occasional succulent meat dishes, creamy milk and tasty cheese; walking the footpaths around the estate – meadows and woodland with wonderful views of Constable country.

Old Hall Lawn and Main Building