Much to do!

Our last few weeks at Ulf’s farm have been great. He has been generous with everything and has made us feel very comfortable in his home. He feeds us excellent food and a lot of it! Ulf says “the only way to not get fat while staying here is to work hard.” Apparently I’m not working hard enough because my pants are getting a little snug! We have had many jobs while staying here; I’m going to give a brief description of each below. Some we have enjoyed very much and some not so much. All have been a great learning experience.

Harvesting Strawberries- I only had to harvest strawberries one time, in the freezing rain. I did such a crappy job Ulf had to send Lucas out after lunch to help me do it again. We got more strawberries the second time than the first. I guess I was just too picky, only picking the perfect ones. Needless to say Ulf has not asked me to harvest strawberries since. I am ok with that. J

Hoeing the fields- In the beginning I much preferred to be down on my knees picking weeds than using a hoe. Ulf says “hoeing is like a violin, it takes at least 10 years to master.” We have to pick and hoe weeds a lot! I am getting used to the hoe and don’t mind it as much anymore.

Mucking out the stables- This is a job I do not like at all. Ulf says some people LOVE this job. I find it very hard to believe. Lucas and I had to muck out the pig pen together, which was very dank. The smell is so bad it actually burns your nose and eyes. Lucky for me I got the job of holding the door shut so the pigs couldn’t come into the area that Lucas was cleaning.

 A few days later Ulf very casually asked me a half hour before lunch to shovel all the shit off the concrete slab in Lucy’s area. My reply was “right before lunch!?!” He said, “A half hour is plenty of time for this job.” I have to say although I had to do the heavy lifting with this one it wasn’t as bad as the pig pen. Cow crap doesn’t burn your nose like pig shit does. I filled the wheel barrel four times with cow crap! I did manage to finish just in time for lunch to hit the table (although I no longer had an appetite).

Planting crops- Just yesterday Ulf got 1000 small plants that needed to get into the ground. Lucas and I worked on it all day yesterday and today. This is a pretty easy job, although being bent over for such a long time got really hard. Monday Ulf put a fresh coat of manure on the field we were working on. It was a real treat slipping and sliding through that! Plus the smell was a constant reminder of
what we're digging in.

Cleaning jars- It rained here for a week straight so Ulf had to get creative with jobs for us since we couldn’t be out in the field hoeing. My job for two days was washing jars for honey and sausage. Three of the pigs went to the butcher this last Wednesday so Ulf needed the jars cleaned anyhow. I probably hand washed a couple hundred jars. The best part was being in the kitchen right next to the warm stove. Everyone else had jobs outside in the cold and rain.

Digging potatoes- This is Lucas’ all-time least favorite job. He has to dig potatoes Friday morning before the store opens. This is really hard work! Plus the large amount of potatoes he has to get. Since the first day I have helped him to make the work a little easier. He gets very crabby from this job. He told me “we are NOT growing potatoes back home!”  

Honey production- We are very fortunate we were here for the collection of honey. Ulf “stole” the honey from the beehives (We got to watch). Then Lucas or I had to open the combs by scraping off the wax. Then put them into the honey spinner and spun all the honey out of the combs. The honey goes through two strainers and collects in 5 gallon buckets. We Filled 9 buckets. Lucas has to stir the honey by hand everyday until it gets milky (about a week). Then Ulf puts the honey into jars that get labeled and go onto the shelf to sell. It’s quite a sticky mess but a lot of fun! We both enjoyed every part of the honey process and we still want to have bees some day.

Opening the honey combs

We have to work hard, get dirt under our nails, animal crap on our shoes and hay in our bras (maybe just my bra) but so far it has all been worth it. By the end of the week we get to be a part of what goes into Ulf’s store and then onto our and other peoples tables. Getting to know Ulf and how he operates his organic farm is the best part of our experience so far. We are quite sad to be leaving Saturday, but are also super excited to see the next farm, meet the next family and start the next chapter of our adventure.

A small cage Lucas built for holding momma & baby birds

While I was washing jars Lucas was building a table