Un été en Ecosse : un blog digne d'un grand reporter...!: juin 2007

Premier message sur ce blog, en espérant le compléter jusqu'à la fin août 2007 !

Nous sommes en juin et je suis à la recherche d'une ferme en Écosse où poser mes bagages...
Une ferme, me direz-vous ? Eh oui! N'ayant pas assez de sous pour faire ma touriste tout un été, pas assez de temps disponible pour être employable en Écosse, j'ai décidé de m'inscrire au WWOOF (prononcer wouf, comme un aboiement)...

Voici la définition du WWOOF de Wikipédia :

WWOOF vient de l'anglais World-Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms ou Willing Workers on Organic Farms (WWOOF), ce qui se traduit en français par Travailleurs volontaires dans les fermes bio . Il s'agit d'un service d’hébergement qui facilite les placements de travailleurs volontaires dans des fermes bios. Le quartier général international est à Lewes, en Angleterre. De nombreux pays ont leurs propres organisations affiliées.

Principe

Les fermes qui souhaitent devenir un hôte WWOOF indiquent leur détails soit à leur organisation nationale (si elle existe), soit au bureau britannique. Les informations sont alors collectées et publiées dans un carnet d'adresses. Les volontaires intéressés payent une faible cotisation annuelle pour recevoir une copie de ce carnet et une carte de membre. Ils peuvent alors contacter les fermiers directement pour s'arranger sur la durée du séjour et les formalités. La durée de séjour dans une ferme peut varier de quelques jours à plusieurs mois ou plus rarement quelques années.

Les volontaires du WWOOF ('WWOOFers') ne reçoivent normalement aucune forme de paiement ou d'aides financières. Les hôtes offrent la nourriture, l'hébergement et les occasions d'apprendre, en échange d'une assistance en maraîchage ou activités de jardinage, ou tout travail agricole.

Une grande variété de volontaires ont utilisés le WWOOF, depuis les étudiants en vacances jusqu'aux hippies itinérants ou des personnes qui sont intéressées par l'agriculture bio ou le jardinage bio pour eux-mêmes.

Le rôle des organisations WWOOF est de mettre en contact les voyageurs avec des hôtes. Ils maintiennent un rôle de superviseur et sont capable de jouer le médiateur s'il arrive le moindre problème. Les hôtes doivent offrir un accueil chaleureux et amical dans un environnement accueillant et avoir une expérience dans les méthodes de cultures biologiques.

MMh, pas mal du tout ! Cela me correspond assez !

Je m'inscris... Je passe sur les galères, envoyer des livres sterling par courrier (ce qui est interdit par la loi), pas de nouvelles du WWOOF ensuite, la peur que mon courrier ait été volé par un facteur malveillant... Et enfin, le soulagement, la réception des adresses des hôtes WWOOF Britanniques... Youpii! La recherche commence. Pour que vous puissiez vous rendre compte, je mets la carte de l'Ecosse. Je veux partir dans la région indiquée "Perth and Kinross". (vous pouvez cliquer sur la carte, elle s'affiche en plus grand, et en pas flou surtout)

D'emblée, une des descriptions me botte VRAIMENT !
Je mets la description, pour ceux qui savent l'anglais!

;-)

Situated on a southfacing 140 acre farm, overlooking Loch Tay. We are converting into a self-sufficient, sustainable community-style Eco-village, based on Human Values, Permaculture with zero-waste policy. Gold awarded for our Green Environment Policy. This season's target: to build a couple of yurts; a recycle and composting street; dry composting toilets; raised vegetable beds, a polytunnel and a plastic bottle wall, a children's play area; a labyrinth around 3 tipis. Committed wwoofers (No alcohol, drugs; preferably long-term stay) will be housed in caravans. Keywords: Vegetarian, cooking, breadmaking; 12 Munros; canoeing, sailing, cycling, golfing, (fishing, BBQ-ing); campfire, music, beach.

J'appelle la femme qui tient cette ferme, elle me dit que c'est ok, je suis super contente... Je regarde donc sur internet les pages consacrées à Fearnan, la petite ville d'à côté. Et là je tombe sur le blog d'un WWOOFer français qui a passé beaucoup de temps en Ecosse, dont 3 semaines dans cette ferme. Il décrit l'atmosphère, le boulot, tout... Et c'est vraiment horrible !

Donc je me décourage une nouvelle fois. Et je reprends pied. Je contacte un autre hôte. Je mets aussi sa description.

Near Dundee, small estate of 100 acres including nature reserve, woodlands and ponds, parkland pasture with flock of Jacob sheep, orchard, gardens and beautiful old house. Traditional country life (beer-brewing, bread-making, Aga cooking, home curing and smoking), sustainable building skills (lime and clay, timber construction, stone dyking) and forestry activities (woodland maintenance, tree pruning, game-keeping) - we always need help with a wide variety of jobs. Have architect’s practice specialising in sustainability and green issues. Own room in house, long-stayers preferred.

Ca m'a l'air extrêmement sympathique. J'envoie un mail et j'attends patiemment ma réponse pendant une longue semaine... Raaah, que c'est long lorsque l'on veut réaliser un projet !! Enfin, j'ai la réponse! Je la mets ici (c'est long mais si ça vous embête, vous pouvez passer.) Ca me donne vraiment envie d'y aller. C'est pas loin de Perth, là où vit Sarah, ma copine de BTS.

Sarah, qui est devenue une "Scottish girl" !

Voilà le mail !

Dear Enora

Thank you for your enquiry about wwoofing at Gagie. I am sorry for the delay in replying. The best thing is if I give you some information about Gagie and then you can get back to us if you think it might suit you.

I would like to mention first that with this Wwoof placement, most of the jobs that we need to do are associated with the work involved in running a large, historic house and its gardens, rather than straight organic farming. So more cutting grass, painting and weeding flower beds rather than hoeing rows of organic carrots!

We have been Wwoof hosts since 2004 and have very much enjoyed having wwoofers from Germany, New Zealand, Canada, Denmark, the Netherlands, Italy, France and USA . We do not have any separate accommodation for wwoofers, so they live as part of the family and outside working hours are in general welcome to join us in whatever we are doing. We usually try to have at least 2 Wwoofers here at the same time, because it is more fun if you have someone else for company when you are working and to go and do things together in your free time.

We have a small country estate rather than a farm, with a lot of woodland and a marsh that is a nature reserve. We have a flock of about 50 Jacob sheep, which are reared organically, an apple orchard and ornamental gardens around the house. We usually grow some vegetables in the walled garden next to the house and this is done organically with no chemicals. The house is a small castle, which was originally built in 1614 and has had bits added on in each century. You can find some pictures if you look at my husband's architectural website http://www.gagie.com/ ; click the "Gagie" button.

There are always lots of jobs that need to be done, especially on the house and other old buildings, such as painting, tidying and cleaning; in the garden, there’s planting and weeding vegetables, care of flowers and shrubs and cutting grass. On the estate, there are trees to be pruned, sometimes fences to be repaired and from time to time, the sheep need attention. I have also been creating a woodland walk, so there is path maintenance & transplanting snowdrops in the spring. This year, I would like to do repairs to some of the old stone walls. And there are always the usual household chores, including helping to prepare meals and clearing up afterwards.

We enjoy all things to do with food! So we eat quite well here and sometimes are able to sit down to a meal that is entirely home-produced – lamb, venison, pheasant or chicken with home-grown vegetables – but that depends on the time of year. We eat recipes from all over the world and I am always grateful for any help in the kitchen. We hope that each wwoofer will cook one evening meal per week, so bring some recipes! Everyone should be able to cook - so if you can't do it already, it's time you started to learn! We also regularly make our own home-brew beer.

At Gagie there is a tennis court and bicycles, if you like doing these things. We have a piano and some other instruments - including a guitar - and we’re always really happy if people come and play them!

I do yoga, sing in 2 choral societies, do a lot of gardening and am interested in photography. If I have time, I like to do craft things and the jobs that I want to do this summer are repairing some chairs with rush seats and doing some gilding. We have three daughters. The two eldest live in Edinburgh - where there is the famous International Festival for 3 weeks in August-September - so we go quite often to Edinburgh (1 hour). We have 3 dogs – 2 springer spaniels, Finn and Moberty, and a Jack Russell terrier called Flora – and Guinness, a brown cat. The dogs are always very happy if wwoofers take them for walks. We live only about 10 minutes by car from Dundee, which is quite a pleasant, medium-sized city with the usual shops and supermarkets, plus cinemas and a good theatre.

My husband, France, is an architect who is interested in green technology and conservation. He will be away some of the time, as he is involved with a building project in France near the Pyrenees – there’s a bit about that too on the website

Regarding working hours, it would be about 6 hours per day for 5 days and if you’re around for the other 2 days, then helping with the usual household chores, such as clearing the table or emptying the dishwasher, would be appreciated. We are a rather untidy family, so anyone who can help keep order, especially in the kitchen, is always welcome!

We are interested in all sorts of environmental issues, including sustainability, green architecture and recycling. We are quite happy to give tuition in English and cookery. We like to have people around and sometimes, if we go away, it is really good to have someone here who can look after things.

In general, we prefer wwoofers to stay a few weeks because it always takes a little while to get to know each other and for you to settle in and feel at home and to learn your way around the place and the jobs that need doing. If you have any questions, I shall be happy to answer them. Anyway, you can let us know if you are interested in coming here. You would be very welcome. Perhaps you could let us know a bit more about yourself and your other interests.

Kind regards, Clare Smoor

Comme elle le met dans son mail, je vais voir le site web de son mari qui est architecte en éco-construction http://www.gagie.com. La maison est magnifique, et apparemment j'aurai ma propre chambre à l'intérieur !

I like it !