Certainly, the main activity that WWOOF Italy carries out as an association is to create and foster relationships between hosts and WWOOFers. For years, however, it has been considered important to give more and more emphasis also to the relationships between hosts and hosts, knowing that resistance farming has much more chances of success if it is embedded in a network of people who share its aims and methods. Alongside local meetings, farm days, and the lasting acquaintances and collaborations that arise in those contexts (often facilitated by the coordinators who create these meeting opportunities) there is an even more effective way to strengthen the relationship between one host and another: spending time on another host’s farm as a WWOOFer.

Imagine!

Imagine a shepherd from northern Italy who, out of the busy seasons, finds a way and time to spend a week with a shepherd from southern Italy: a way to learn about different working techniques, to disconnect from one’s daily routine while still staying within the scope of one’s interests, to take a small vacation in the unconventional and inexpensive manner typical of WWOOF.

Imagine a coordinator who instead of making a couple of hours visit to a member who has chosen to become a host finds a way to spend a couple of days on this new farm with WWOOFer: is there a better way to get to know each other more deeply and to make WWOOF perceived as a close and participating association from the very beginning?

Perhaps it is from the multiplication of these exchanges between hosts (who represent the more solid and enduring base of the association’s less volatile WWOOFer base) that the perception of our association increasingly comes through as a community of people with similar values, purposes and lifestyles.

Sabina did

This was the thought of our member Sabina, who has had a farm as a host in Veneto for several years but also has the curious and interested spirit of a WWOOFer. We leave it to her to describe her experience:

“I have been traveling for two years asking other hosts like me for hospitality to visit, live, share WWOOF experiences in other places in Italy.
At the end of the season, I leave.

In this way I reverse the position of host into woofer to learn about and collaborate on other people’s projects.

I also change the territorial situation by traveling to the sea, eager to immerse myself in the blue rather than the green that instead characterizes where I live. Sicily and Liguria, my latest destinations.

I put myself at the service of new realities, routines, food, activities, curious to learn and compare with the gracious members who hosted me.

They were diverse and inspiring experiences, scents, colors, atmospheres, music, dances, landscapes, flavors, rhythms, stories,…. I brought home inspiration and suggestions for my family and our reality. With Dino and Helene, and with David.

We said goodbye aware of the richness of the relationship and the dialogues undertaken on the issues of food production or social relations.

Sharing work, food, everyday life, beauty and hospitality is really good practice….even in someone else’s home.

It was a real pleasure for me to feel welcomed and to realize that I could be of help to other projects consistent with the values of WWOOF.”

How to.

From a practical point of view, it is very simple for a host to go WWOOFing: since you are already a member of WWOOF Italy, you do not need to pay another fee but only to notify the office(staff@wwoof.it) that you intend to have an experience as a WWOOFer. This will activate the relevant insurance coverage. Clearly, if you intend to WWOOFing abroad you will instead need to pay the fee to become a member of the national WWOOF association of the country you intend to visit. At that point all that remains is to go through the list of hosts, find the one that seems most interesting to us and write him a message on his profile to check availability and make arrangements. Then, all that’s left is to go!