Wow – nearly a month has passed since
our last update and the only explanation I can offer is this. You
know when you're having a great meal and no one speaks because
they're all too busy eating. It's kinda like that. We've been at Les
Costils farm for over 3 weeks and its all just been so fantastic that we
either haven't had time to write, or we've been having too much fun to write.
We arrived here in mid-May with plans
to stay for 2 weeks. Les Costils is an organic dairy farm. The main
thing they produce here is organic milk from about 35 cows. The first
thing you notice about this farm is how well-loved all the animals are.
If you watch enough documentaries about how factory farming works, you
begin to think that places like Les Costils don't exist. But they do
and they're wonderful. The cows are left to graze in their pasture all
day long, and are brought in twice a day for milking. Alain, the
owner, talks to his cows and cuddles them a little bit too. He said
that when he was learning the ropes about dairy farming, he was working
with a guy who really knew what he was doing, but wasn't affectionate
towards the cows. His partner wasn't mean to them, but for him it was
just a business and that was all. Then Alain noticed that on the nights
he would do the milking (he and his partner would take turns) the milk
production was always higher. Over the years he has found that the cows
absolutely give more milk when they're in a better mood. It shows when
new people start milking, regardless of how gentle they may be - it's
still something new to the cows which makes them nervous. But it's just
so wonderful to see a farm run in this way.
And its not only cows - on the farm there
are about a dozen chickens, 4 pigs (and 2 piglets), 2 goats, a bunch of
horses, 4 dogs, a cat and a goose who is in love with our car. Beatrix
the goose lost her mate not long ago, and she has fallen in love with
her own reflection, which she can see on our dark navy car. 3 of the
dogs are large setters, used for helping get the cows in at milking
time, and the other one is just large enough to see with the naked
eye. She's a chihuahua mix, which is normally the type of dog I don't
like much, but she's great. The piglets are about the size of kittens
and are super cute.
And all of this provides for some of
the best food you've ever had. We have milk straight from the cow
every day. Rather than going to the store, we tell who ever is on
milking duty to fill up a bottle and bring it back. We've also made
fresh cheese and fresh cream from the milk. The eggs we have are also a
day old. I wanted an omelet the other day, so I went to the coop,
grabbed some eggs and made an omelet using the veggies from the
garden and our cheese. We as volunteers have many duties, but the main thing the
volunteers do is look after the garden. It was one of Fanettes main
jobs for our first 2 weeks. Its a nice large garden, just big enough
that one person could maintain it, but it would be a full time job.
It's actually better for 2-3 people to maintain it. The garden isn't
used to grow anything for sale - only to provide fresh food for the
people on the farm. We have a huge salad for lunch everyday, usually
picked right that day. There is a never ending supply of the freshest
meat you could ever find. Now, Fanette and I have been trying to cut
down our meat eating for the past 2 or so years, but that's mainly
because we are against the practices of factory farming. With this
meat, we've been eating more meals with meat in it because we can eat it
guilt-free. :) Speaking of meals, we have been having some amazing
dishes prepared by Rebeka, Alain's wife. She does some amazing cooking,
and using all ingredients which are in-season. I remarked the other
day that a certain dish might have been better with potatoes and she
replied that they're not in season. I think it really is amazing that
she cooks such good and varied meals using only whats available locally
at this time. Also, every Friday night is Pizza and beer night.
Rebeka makes some home-made pizzas with hand-made dough and fresh cheese
from the farm topped with some greens from the garden. The beer is a
local brew which comes in a bottle with a cork and a hand-drawn label.
It's about as tasty as it is potent. :) Fanette is not a beer
drinker, so she brought over some wine to drink while we had beer.
Well, when the beer was finished, we attacked her wine. The Rebeka
offered us some of the local liquor called Calvados (it's a type of
schnapps). Once that was gone, Rebeka suggested we get a bottle of
wine from the cave. Now, we had just talked about this wine the day
before. I noticed it while getting something else, that there was a full rack full of
wine bottles covered in dust. When I asked about it, she said it belonged to
Alain's parents who lived on the farm before them, but now neither of Alain or Rebeka were big wine drinkers, so in
the 10 years which they've lived there, none have been opened. We
decided to try one. We opened and took a sip - and it was without
question, the best wine I've ever had in my life. We all wondered how
old it was, as the year was not on the label, which had fallen off the
bottle as we took the bottle out. I picked up the cork and read it, "St
Emeilion, 1960". 1960!! I was drinking a wine bottled before me.
And I'm old! We found the old label and although it was very faded, it
did in fact say 1960. Deciding we should not open yet another one, we
went back to our little house and finished our $5 box-o-wine and called
it a night at 5am with our Latvian friend.
Which
leads me to my next two points. Our house, and the Latvians. There
are 2 guys from Latvia here, one of who came here as a WWOOFer a couple
years ago and liked it so much, and was so well liked, that they worked
out a way to have him here permanently. Later, he had a friend come as a
woofer and he also stayed, then a couple more came and went, but never
more than 2 at a time. So there is always a Latvian or two here
working. They're great people. Very fun and very hard working.
They'll stay up until 5am, and then go off working the next day.
And our house. One nice (and rare)
thing about Les Costils is the accommodation. Les Costils is made up
of a few buildings. The main house where the family lives and where
we're invited for big meals, then there is "the loft". The loft is
where WWOOFers normally stay. Its a big space above the main barn which
has been beautifully converted in to a loft space capable of sleeping
maybe 8 people. It has a kitchen, bathroom, and a huge party area which
normally has a ping-pong table in it. As the Latvians were in the
rooms there, that meant if we were to go in there, we'd be in the main
room with no privacy. So Rebeka suggested we go in the Garden House,
so called because its adjacent to the garden. It's where the
groundskeeper used to live, but he left a year ago and the house has
been slowly painted and refinished as people had time. But as we were a
couple, it sort of fit us well. And we LOVE it. Its a cute little
cottage-y type building, built in the style of the Normandy house. Not
sure how old it is, but maybe about 200 years old. The main house is
300 years old, so this one is probably not far off. Rebeka gave us a
tour of the house and pointed out some of the work she wanted done.
The floor was poorly painted once with wall paint and was not doing
well. She suggested scraping and re-painting. I suggested tiles.
They discussed the idea and figured if they have a volunteer who knows
how to tile, why not take advantage of that fact and do it. And there
was my big project for my time here. Scraping the old paint and tiling
the main areas of the cottage.
Earlier, I said our house was 'rare', and
that's because at many WWOOF sites, volunteers are given a room in the
main house. Which is just fantastic, but it's not as nice as having a
place of your own. The garden house suits us perfectly. We all get to
see each other all day long and at meals, but in the evening, we can all
have our private time. We liked it so much, we decided to come back
for more. We had some appointments come up in Paris at the doctor and
at immigration, around mid-June. We planned to be in the east of
France all of June, but that would mean making a 6-7 hour trip back,
rather than a 2 hour trip back, so we changed our plans and stayed here
for 2 more weeks. And we may be changing our plans again. One of the
Latvians is getting ready to go home for an extended stay, and we've
been offered the position to replace him. This will be starting in
August. So from that point on, instead of moving around the country, we
will be here for the next year or so. Its a huge change to our plans,
but one we're so happy about. There is still so much work to be done on
the garden house and all around the rest of the farm. So I will be
working as a handy-man mostly, and Fanette will be a farm hand. She
goes milking at least once a day, and tends to the garden or helps with
the meals at the other times. There's always animals to be fed, let
out, or put away for the night. There's aways a lot to do. And at the
end of it all, we sometimes relax in the home-made Latvian sauna, which
is another update for another time as it's getting very late here.
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| WWOOF in Normandy - 2 |
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