Hazelmere Farm: Summer love

So after Janto and Laura left (June 12th perhaps?), my mom and I were the only ones on the farm because my dad was in Taiwan visiting my po-po (grandma). We panicked a little bit because no prospective WWOOFers had contacted us yet, and then out of the blue three Germans emailed us from Naniamo and asked if they could come as soon as possible. Sabrina, Jackie and Robert chose our farm as their first ever WWOOFing farm.

And since then we've had no short of help.

After the trio left, Andrew from New Brunswick came.

Part of the reasons why we've had lots of help is owing to our partnership with LUSH Valley Food Action Society on the "Job Creation's Program". This program employs four trainees who are learn about farming at our farm, the Red Fish Ranch (a talapia farm), a cucumber farm, a dairy farm, Tsolum farm and Lannon Rd Garden (the last two are dedicated to growing vegetables for lower income families) Since the middle of June, 2 trainees have been coming to our farm to work.

Another part of the reasons why we've had ample help is due to our well developed skills to recruit our family and friends into working for us for free. Summer is an exuberant time because we always have visitors. So far we all had our respective friends come over to visit: dad's high school friends, mom's high school best friend forever auntie Jullia, auntie Julia's son Allen, her friend, her friend's friend, and her friend's friend's kids, my friends Meghan, Michele and Michael and my other friend Alice and her best friend Dustin.

In August the demography of this household has been over-represented by Taiwanese middle aged folks. We have three middle aged WWOOFers from Taiwan (they have many other much cooler attributes other than being middle-aged, but I'll leave those till future posts). My mom's sister and her mom (aka my grandma) also came for their annual visit/labour camp.

Growing up with my paternal grandma who loves to host people, cook up delicious feasts, our house always had larger than normal volume of pots, plates and utensils. Though none of my parents nor I are as fanatic about hosting dinner parties as my grandma, I guess hosting has become an intrinsic part of our lives. Furthermore, a family farm is a perfect place to bring people together, an ideal set-up for friends and family who want to come for a longer visit. There are always things to do, and these things are almost always refreshing to our guest. Although having too many people all at once can be tiring (especially for my mom) sometimes, it's been a blessing to have the company of loved ones, and to be able to share our lifestyle and wholesome food with them, not to mention that most of our guests are quite self-sufficient and are rather willing to have their labour exploited by us ;)