It was incredible.

Flo and I were gonna go down to London during that week but the plan fell through. So I spontaneously emailed several farms on wwoof in the area. Nick from the Incredible Farm in Walsden was the first one who got back to me, saying that I could come but would have to stay in a tent. Why not? I thought. In my head I was like, 'If it's pissing down that week I'm gonna stay home.'

But when the time came, I was desperate to get out of the city, rain or shine. It was a great decision I made, and on top of that the sun was shining every single day during the visit.

The farm was started 5 years ago by Nick and Mike. It was built from scratch, from an empty piece of land. They built 3 poly tunnels, dug a few ponds, grew fruit trees. Now they produce variety of salad and other fruit and vegetables for sell at shops, cafes and tiny stall they have every Friday. The most amazing thing was that the farm was totally off grid. All the electricity was generated by solar panels, and water collected from the rain, including the one used to water plants. There was a compost toilet and very basic shower facility on site.



It was a nice warm day when I arrived just after lunch time. I walked from Walsden train station to the farm, along this lovely canal in between s the hills, Ducks and ducklings were playing about in the water. This lovely stroll went on for a while until I reached Incredible Farm.


Mike, the head grower, gave me a quick tour of the farm, from the first poly tunnel all the way to the field where Custard and Rhubarb the cows were grazing on. He then asked me where I wanted to put my tent on. Once I decided, (and my decision was ‘anywhere’ because I wasn’t vey fussy. If it rained there would be no escaping anyway.) I met the other woofers who were staying there at that time, Thorsen from France who would be there for 3 more months, Brahm from Boston who would be there for two more weeks and Emma from France who just arrived the day before me and would be there for 3 months. Emma, who was staying in a tiny cabin offered to let me stay in there with her. It would be too cold for me to stay in a tent, she said. And that night she was proved to be right. I was forever grateful for her kindness.

I did wonder why so many French were staying at that place, and there were two conclusions I could come up with. The first one was that this farmed appeared on a French documentary, first thing in the film. And the second one, according to Nick, was that French students needed to achieve a certain score on TOEIC test to graduate from university, and that was how a lot of them choose to learn English.

Tasks at the farm changed from day to day, ranging from watering, picking salads, weeding, hay making, cooking lunch, milking Custard, moving firewood etc. If I were to stay longer, I was pretty sure there would be more tasks to do, one certain thing would be picking berries and making jam.



It was a lovely community to be a part of. We took turn cooking lunch and washing up. With a number of volunteers there, we had dinner together or went on a walk and did some grocery shopping in town together. I felt very welcomed there, also by Nick and Helena, his wife, who were knowledgable and willing to share there stories with you. We had a lovely barbecue around the fire together on a Friday night, sharing food and stories on the lovely evening. The same was with Mike, who led most of the work we did during the day. He was kind and understanding, and he worked alongside the volunteers throughout the day. He also insisted all of us over to his lovely family house in Todmorden for yet another dinner around the fire. It was a lovely evening.



There were walks around, Todmorden was a lovely town and Hebden Bridge was just a trek away. It was such a great and supportive environment, and there was so much more to learn. I didn’t want to go back home on Sunday evening, to the chaos of the city life. I enjoyed the calm and quietness in the nature here. It was a good balance really, not too cut out from the outside world, just enough for you to feel connected to the nature again.