Going Organic

There was a huge farmers market in Dunedin on Saturday morning, probably 35 or 40 stalls selling everything from the farm and quite a few other organic goods. Had a great bacon buttie for my breakfast and went to meet Shaun from Wairuna Organics to hitch a lift back to the farm where i now am.

Shaun and Pia have a 3 acre organic farmstead that provides them with a wonderful lifestyle and a pretty good income from what i saw at the market. My home for the next week or so is an old green caravan, parked in the middle of an established apple orchard, quite close to the kitchen and with the most wonderful view of the vegetables, marching in straight lines up the field opposite. Beyond a wooded area and then out onto rolling hills way off into the distance. It's great to see quite so much space and the light in the evenings as the sun sets sets the landscape aglow.

There is plenty of time to check out the view as most of my tasks so far have been out on the vegetable fields. Weeding three rows of carrots that you can only imagine how long they are, dissapearing up over the brow of the hill like one of those neverending walks to an ellusive summit. Then back down again, this time hoeing between batches of the most wonderfully colourful lettuces and stir fry leaves. On to the cabbages and broccoli that run in the same straight rows. I'm promised a change of scenery tomorrow, with tomatoes, courgettes, squashes and pumpkins, cucumber and herbs.

Free time spend swinging in the hammock under the apple trees reading, exploring the local village and discovering what is over them there hills up past the woods. Probably just some more hills.

You can probably imagine what the meals are like, all freshly harvested veggies, meat from one of their recently slaughtered cows, sheep or pigs, milk from the pet cow all plentiful, home made and organic. i think i may be here for a while. Maybe you should go and eat something, i am, i've made myself hungry just writing about it all.