Have you ever heard of the term Woofing? Worldwide Opportunities on Organic Farms (WWOOF) is a worldwide movement to link visitors (WWOOFers) with organic farmers, promote a cultural and educational exchange, and build a global community conscious of ecological farming and sustainability practices.

It is a worldwide movement, idea / organisation where people go and work on farms in exchange for food and accommodation. The idea is also not to work all day, but 4 to 6 hours per day and to also get some time off to explore the area.

We tried Woofing for the first-time last weekend. It was great to get to know new people and a new area. We were hosted by a wonderful family. Reinhardt, his wife and three children. The Saturday we did some work like moving a wooden goat pen, collecting wood from a cut down Hullender tree and moving small hill of dirt. It was hard physical work, but enjoyable to do some physical work where one can feel and see the work done, instead of just sitting behind a computer all week long. It is also a great way to get some exercise in while doing something useful.

It is a great concept where one can exchange value with each other, but there is no money exchanged. Very similar to the idea of a Gift economy as explained in the book “The money less man” It is also a great way for the host to get help with some of the challenging tasks on the farm, and to meet interesting people from all over the world.

While working, it is also a good time to have some interesting conversations, and it makes the work more fun and makes the time go by fast. It is a great opportunity for cultural exchange, where we can learn more about the German way of living and they could learn more about South Africa.

As we plan to start our own sustainable farm and community in the near future, this is a great opportunity to visit places that has already done that and learn from them.

I can highly recommend it and would love to do it again soon, so hopefully, this was the first of many. We plan to do some traveling this year in Europa, so hopefully we can fit in a Woofing weekend or two. It is also much more affordable to travel this way, so we can see many more places.

You can find out more on their website: https://wwoof.net/