WWOOF (Worldwide Opportunities On Organic Farms) is a worldwide membership charity offering volunteers a different, hands-on type of working holiday. The charity has branches all over the world, who put their members in touch with hosts that can provide working holidays based around organic growing and low impact living.
All WWOOF hosts sign up to a directory, and sign a declaration to say their farm, small holding, or gardens are run using ecologically sound methods. There are over 400 hosts in the UK, of all shapes and sizes, so you can be sure to see some interesting places if you take up this opportunity. Example locations include The Isle Of Lewis, The Pennine Hills, South Devon, The Thames Valley, and the Scottish Highlands.
Any interested volunteers will sign up to the site, pay their membership fee, and will then be able to search through all the potential WWOOF hosts, their locations, the type of farm or smallholding they run, and the tasks they are looking for volunteers to help with. There are opportunities to learn about and gain experience in local food production, growing, harvesting, preserving products, and animal husbandry. The wide variety of tasks on offer to volunteers includes carpentry, clearing ditches, woodland management, helping with livestock and hay making. Volunteers could end up working at sites with large market gardens or farm shops, helping with growing in polytunnels, coppicing, or even hedgerow harvesting. So, you could end up helping to make liqueurs, walking sticks, and ointments using natural ingredients.
Anyone taking on a WWOOF working holiday will be offered food and accommodation in return for their work, and usually some time off during their break. Although some locations are quite isolated, there’s normally transport available to the main towns and local sites, and sometimes activities like horse riding on offer through your hosts.
If you’re still not convinced this is a formula that works, consider the facts. WWOOF was founded in the UK in 1971, after a group of friends organised their own working weekend on an organic farm. After the success of this and future trips, the word spread, and other organic farms got in touch looking for volunteers. The end result is a global charity offering connections with over 6,000 hosts worldwide, and around 500 under the UK charity umbrella. How’s that for a success story in green volunteering?
