Do You Mind Passing the Sap?
Six adventurous Wake Forest students decided to spend their spring break on a WWOOFing farm. What the heck is that you ask? WWOOF stands for World Wide Opportunities for Organic Farming. It is an international network of small farms focusing on sustainable and organic methods of agriculture. Our WWOOFing farm is called Hurricane Run Farm maintained by Kevin and Barb Bradbury (who we will hence forward refer to as our fearless leaders), a lovely couple who specialize in maple syrup, vegetables, fruits, bread, and granola. We were able to sample some of these tasty foods on our first day, but we had to get there first...
Spring forward? Whose got time for that? Not some of our WABbies (Moriah). After sleeping through six alarms (Moriah), we finally began our WWOOFin' journey to Otway, Ohio. We couldn't leave without our leader extraordinaire (Moriah), so we were glad she finally decided to wake up.
We started our vantastic trip (this group is big on puns), by getting some much needed caffeine from Krankies (can I get a "Miel"???). Good vibes and kickin' music filled the beautiful machine we call Fran the Van. While some might be intimidated by a seven hour drive, this group knew that in a van named Fran, nothing could go wrong. We showed our appreciation for all things van by asking some local West Virginians on the side of the road to assist us in a van photo shoot (see below). It's one thing to be in the van, but it's another thing to be on top! All in all, the seven our drive was a piece of (organic) cake compared to locating the farm. With the lack of GPS and the help of some friendly Ohioans, it only took us two trips around the mountain and a seemingly endless drive up a half-mile driveway to make it to our home for the next week.
We were greeted by Barb outside of their beautiful home and immediately knew this was going to be one WWOOFin good week. She gave us a tour of their house and the barn that Kevin built by hand, where we also be sleeping this week. After letting us get settled, we ate the vegetarian chili and rice that she had prepared for us. To accompany this delicious meal, Kevin gave us a cool glass of sap? Apparently sap is a non-sticky clear substance that comes from the sugar maple trees in Kevin and Barb’s front yard, and you can drink it. We were surprised that it is actually quite refreshing, with a taste like a slightly sweetened water. We never thought we would find ourselves at a dinner table asking if someone could pass the sap, please. Oh yeah, and there were homemade oatmeal chocolate chip cookies on the table to finish off our dinner. Since we arrived in the evening (thanks Moriah), there wasn’t much work for us to do around the farm. Instead, we spent our time chatting with our fearless leaders about everything from their accomplished children to how you make maple syrup. Then, we took advantage of the recent snowfall and the great hills surrounding the farm by sledding down the mountainside to finish off our day.
On our schedule for tomorrow is maple syrup evaporating. We’ve been told the aroma is amazing and we can’t wait to let you know how it goes.
In the meantime, be sure to check Kevin and Barb’s farm on their website: http://www.oeffa.org/userprofile.php?geg=1258