Charlie's Last Post

Hey everyone,

I've been away from the farm for just shy of a month now, having been to LA and driven back across the country to Chicago and then New York in the time since I've left, yet my life at Pope Valley Fruits has never left my thoughts. When I drove Kai to the airport in Oakland and then drove down to LA to visit a friend, I was re-introduced to what it's like to live in civilization. It was pretty jarring and surreal. My best example is showering: when I took my first shower post-farm in LA I was scared half to death of all the water surging out of the showerhead. It seemed endless, and the way it was coming out reminded me that there is such a thing is extreme water pressure. It felt, in a word, decadent. I took my shower as quick as possible so as not to waste water. I'm glad to say I've kept the habit from my farm days.

The amazing thing about coming back to civilization is that many things become novelties since you've been gone. Things like beds and air conditioning (that sinful luxury). The downside is the knowledge that you have lived without these things for a period of time, and not just lived, but lived well. And the realization you get from that is how over-saturated and wasteful much of it seems. My time at the farm will definitely inform how I make my own home in the future.

I must say, despite how much I dreaded my domestic days and bemoaned my fate when they came, they ended up being some of the most valuable time I spent in Pope Valley. For one, I can now look at a stove without feeling like I'm looking at something strange, foreign, even hostile. And how I made Kai and Denise laugh, with my shudderingly naive questions about how to cook an egg and other basics! I should be ashamed, but really, I just chuckle when I think about how young I was then. So young, so inexperienced, so green. (I haven't changed much from that, but basically, I can now fry an egg.)

I think the thing I really loved about living in Pope Valley was the simplicity of it, how stripped down it was. When you weren't working, besides a trip to town/Turtle Rock (or the AARP-type place for some poker) your only options were to read, sleep, or swim, and perhaps play Quelf (how I miss it!) with everyone on a given night. I was never flooded with sensations of anything that wasn't natural—no ads, no flashing lights, no traffic, no horns, no anything except a million billion stars, the milky way, the back porch of the bungalow, and some good friends. Ah, and the heat, lest I forget. There is that. But I even miss the heat a little bit, honestly. It made cold water taste so good, and it made the rest at the end of the day feel deserved.

But that's just the down-time. The work itself, as I've written before, was so essential, and also pretty simple. (Note: I speak for myself here. That irrigation stuff that Nicolas and Denise handled seemed more complicated.) Dig, hoist, hose, stack, pour, scrape, smooth, mix, roll, pig-ring, pound, clip, clop, bippity-bop (not in that order.) All these daily menial projects went toward building something good, an organic fruit farm and a home for Nancy and Terry. Many required working as a team with another person or more, which is a surefire way to build friendships. I'm remembering John D. Rockefeller's quote, "A friendship founded on business is better than a business founded on friendship." Well, a friendship founded on digging is better than digging founded on...? Hm. I should work on that a bit more, but you get the idea. And when I did work alone, which was fairly often, I relished being able to concentrate so much on a basic activity, trying to bring to it an awareness and a thoughtfulness. This is probably the most important habit that I've kept. It's very easy to do things—like type a blog entry, or drive a car, or cut an apple, or ask for your change—without really thinking about them, and without really being present. The reason I always requested the grunt work was not because I wanted to let my mind wander, but rather because I wanted to anchor it to something simple and repetitive while I savored the present moment.

(Okay, let's be honest. I wanted to get buff.)

((Marginal success.))

Well. It's pretty simple. Pope Valley and the people who live or WWOOF there, I salute you, and I miss you. I cherished my time with you. I will be back one day.

Charlie

Happy Chickens, Happy Wwoofers

Hubert is clearly after the same spot of shade as Lola and Wanda ...

The Wwoofers head to the Local Senior Centre for a night of poker !

Beautiful Lake Berryessa from the farmJenna digs to Chinachickens
Celebrating Denise & Jamie's Birthday ... in 1970

How many Wwoofers does it take to build a root cellar?

Perfecting our techniques ...

The temperature has dropped to below 100F today so the laptop works and we are once more able to blog. We have had an amazing July here at the farm with exciting new projects on the farm and new Wwoofers arriving just in time for a series of summer parties, Pope Valley Style.

Our lovely Charlie and Kai have recently left Pope Valley to continue their summer adventures. We miss them terribly but luckily the arrival of four new Wwoofers has helped. Brandon from LA arrived last week and has already become a very skilled roofer. Also new on the farm are Melanie, Allison and Jenna (all friends at Barnard).

We have been working on building a new root cellar here at the farm. It has been an great experience for everyone and we are learning so much. I have been so impressed how well we are all working as a team and we can now mix and pour concrete like a pro. The plywood roof went on last weekend and the final pour is on Friday. Then hopefully in a couple of weeks we will have a cool space to store the fruits and vegetables (which will also double-up as our cinema).

Other projects have been extending the fencing further out from the main animal area. This will give our goats more area to play in and more shrubs & trees to munch on. The roof is now on the goat and chicken hut and the animals are super happy. Jenna and Allison have been digging and digging .. and are now planting new grape plants around the main house. They have used our new seaweed compost as it has proven to be so successful on other plants in the garden.

We have been having great fun as a group as well. Jamie and myself celebrated our birthdays with a marvelous party in which everyone dressed up in 1970' s or 1980's clothes (rummaged from the thrift stores of St Helena). Music and sushi was made and a talent show performed. We have also started socialising with the locals at the Spanish Flats Senior Centre and are now welcomed for regular cross generation poker nights and lunch time bingo. Much fun is had on Lake Berryessa .. if we are not swimming or kayaking in it then we are harvesting seaweed .. the best way to survive the afternoon heat.

Well that's it for now from our little bit of paradise.

One month at Pope Valley ... and it keeps on getting better and better

Pope Valley Wwoofers hit San Francisco .. they are loud and they are proud!

Pope Valley Wwoofers are ready for Gay Pride 2009

Pope Valley Farm at dusk

No job is too high for Kai, our resident Mowgli !

Jamie carefully selects the largest watermelon (there are a lot of Wwoofers to feed)

The boys enjoy evening sporting activities (I drink tea and eat animal crackers)

Charlie attempts the chocolate game .. pipped to the last mouthful by Mike

Our yummy figs

I cannot believe that I have been at Pope Valley for a month already. I almost cannot remember life before I came here. I have gone from a complete city girl who sat behind a desk for almost the last 10 years to someone who can build a fence, grow vegetables, milk goats, swim for hours in a lake and fall out of a canoe!

It really is quite amazing here. What we are all learning from Nancy, Terry and Jamie is life changing. I used to go to the store once a week and buy lots of packaged and processed foods and now I am eating organic fruits and vegetables every day that come out of OUR gardens. The Wwoofers are all great cooks so each day we have meals prepared from the garden, milk from goats on our cereal and water from the well or spring. I am not sure if I will ever be able to go back to the city living but I do that I will not shop or eat the same way again.

I love most of the projects that we work on .. Jamie and Nancy have this amazing way of making everything fun and we all work well together .. so no job seems too daunting when you have so much support around you. The last week we have been working on painting the Wwoof HQ, goat and chicken stalls (aka Tiki Hut) and the solar shed. The farm now looks even more lovely.

Apart from milking which is just amazing, I absolutely love working the garden. Nancy is wonderful about sharing her horticulture knowledge and a complete beginner like me is already seeing success. The cow peas and golden beet seeds that I planted a couple of weeks ago are sprouting out already. Cannot wait to actually eat some of them later in the summer.

We had our first ripe figs this week and the pumpkins are huge. Every day we have lots of green beans and tomatoes to pick. The eggplants are my favourite as they are a really beautiful plant and taste yummy.

Outside of working on the farm we are still having fab adventures from marathon swims in the lake, kayaking (followed by rock jumping ... not quite as brave as the young ones here .. but hope to have the courage by the end of the summer), as well fun trips out .. last weekend was Gay Pride Parade in San Francisco.

We lost two of our fave Wwoofers this week .. Mike and Hannah have left to continut there amazing summer road trip and are now heading to up the Northern Coast of California. We miss them terribly but are we are soon to be joined by new Wwoofers on Monday and the house / tents will be full, the dinners huge and the Quelf games loud and silly. I cannot wait for the what July brings .... Denise. x

Photos from Charlie

the summer solstice party

jamie, goddess of the harvest

denise, goddess of the kitchen

a prideful mike and hannah

the view from our humble abode

our humble abode, pre-paint
happy pride, san franciscowhat, me cooking?

pope valley raconte par un francais...

Hello

Sous le soleil de tapant de californie je suis en compagnie de 5 autres wwoofers. Ici reigne une superbe ambiance aui reunie conviavilite et travail.

Nous travaillons environ 6 heures par jour, a peu pres 4 le matin et 2 l'apres midi. Les taches aue nous effectuons sont diverses et variees. parmis elles, il y a les taches quotidiennes, reparties entre tous les wwoofers, elles comportent la verification du niveau d'eqau dans les reservoirs, nourrir les animaux etc...

Et d'autre part, il y a les travaux qui varient de jours en jours tel que la recolte des algues pour le compost (experience tres amusante), l'installation de l'irrigation pour les plantes...

en ce moment nous finissons de repeidnre la maison, cela nous a pris 5 jorus environ, le travail a l'arrivee est superbe (il faut savoir etre modeste) ils ne nous restent plus qu'a faire deux ou trois retouche et nous serons pret a attaquer un nouveau travail dans la bonne humeur.

En effet, a pope valley fruit, la bonne humeur est permanente. Pas de stress, tous les travaux se font dans la bonne humeur et dans la convivialite.

Voila je crois que j'ai termine je vous conseille donc a tous de venir decouvrir pope valley fruit et son paysage magnifique. Moi et tous les autres wwoofers vivons une experience que nous ne sommes pas pret d'oublier, et ceci ne nous deplait pas.

Nicolas

L

Two Weeks In

Hello everyone!

Please allow me to regale you with some meanderings regarding my time at Pope Valley Fruits.

My first thought is about when I arrived here. After an epic 4-day drive across the country, and after nearly losing my mind driving the hilariously curvy roads around here, I made it to the farm. The driveway was no less windy, but as I drove further up, I saw flashes of blue Lake Berryessa beneath the mountains in the distance, and I knew I'd picked the right place. As I turned down the driveway, I saw various small tents and buildings sitting in the sun, and after some confusion about which split in the driveway to go down, I was greeted warmly by my fellow WWOOFers, whose names I remember promptly forgetting in my excitement to have arrived. I re-learned them very quickly, however. (If all else failed, I could have known them as The Couple, The British Lady, The Frenchman, The Fellow New Yorker, The Daughter, and The Boss.)

I remember Katrina showed me around, and we went swimming in the lake. It was a perfect way to settle in after a long day of driving. As we walked down to the lake, I looked around the little inlet that the farm is situated in. I was progressively more blown away with every step I took. I expected this place to be pretty, but as I walked behind Katrina, my eyes popping out of my head, I saw that 'pretty' didn't even come close. For those who haven't seen it, the farm is on a hillside, one section being Nancy and Terry's trailer/laundry room/tool room/sleeping tent (really amazing place to sleep, so jealous)/bungalow. On the other side, just across the way, sits the WWOOFer housing and the goat/chicken sheds and the goat enclosure. I knew very quickly that I wanted to sleep outside in the field just outside the house (which I now dub Schneider Pastures). The path down to the lake that Katrina introduced me to winds its way through knee high grasses that turn gold in the evening, swishing this way and that, the hillsides dotted with green treetops. Sometimes I forget that I'm in California and think that I'm in some otherworldy Tuscany, even though I've never been to Tuscany (or even Italy) and I think the landscape is probably quite different there. Maybe it's the light here (that California light!) At any rate, this place looks very much like the Tuscany of my mind, though that's probably no help to anyone. The path manages to eventually make up its mind and get itself down to the sadly-sinking lake. The view from the lake is amazing. You're in this small inlet surrounded by jaggedly-rolling hills, grasses and trees, and at the time of the day that I was introduced to the view it looked like something out of an old photograph of unexplored country.

That's the quality that I so cherish here, actually, that feeling of unexploredness. Nancy and Terry have managed to create a real home here without impinging on the beauty of the land, and I admire their committment to that ideal. Solar power, composting, using home-grown food as much as possible, an emphasis on less waste--less of a footprint, really. It is an ideal to live up to, and I won't forget it. I may not be able to do much about it now, as I don't have my own house and even if I did it most likely wouldn't be on a farm, but here I have come to see the importance of finding a piece of land to connect to and then treating it with love and respect.

I came here to do hard work. My view on my ideal job here: the more grunt, the better. And after two weeks here I can still honestly say that that is true, which is satisfying to write. To put not-too-fine a point on it, I like digging ditches. And clearing brush, and sawing stuff, and using the pickaxe, and...While those jobs are really tiring (manzanita trees are just too damn tough), they are not at all tiresome. I came here to get away from that feeling of needing to fulfill any image or goal that I set for myself. That's why I like grunt work, or something like painting, too. It is routine and monotonous and it frees my mind. I get to concentrate on a task, and then by occupying my hands I get to just wander in my head, without trying to. Thoughts become very cloud-like, passing by naturally and dissolving or combining. There's nothing here that I should be doing, nothing I should be thinking. I just consume my mind with whatever I'm doing.

Some of the work, both grunt and not:
-Like I said, clearing brush. Saws, loppers, pickaxes. I had to create a path from the goat pen all the way down to the ravine. It was blocked by endless branches, and in conjunction with Nicholas (The Frenchman) and Kai (he arrived after I did, so no nickname) I cleared it out.
-Using pig rings (I love that they're called that; it makes me hungry) to connect our fence to the government's fence that runs along the boundary of the property.
-Digging ditches for water-drainage pipes. The soil in one spot was absurdly rocky, so Nicholas, Kai, me, and Mike (1/2 of The Couple) all took turns blasting away with the pickaxe. It felt good.
-Driving fenceposts for further fencing. You use a thing that looks like an upside-down combat mortar, and slam it on top of the fencepost. That thing is heavy.
-Harvesting sea-weed in the lake to be used as fertilizer. Denise (The British Lady--really, she has the best accent) perfected a method of using your foot and wrapping it around the slimy, creepy-crawly sea-weed and pulling it up to your hand to drape it over the boat.
-Painting the WWOOF house. Really hurts your brush arm after a while, but it's so hypnotic and fun.
-Milking two of the three goats, Jada and Wanda (named by Katrina). That was daunting at first, and I kept squirting myself in the face with goat's milk. It doesn't cool you off, either, because it's quite warm. So it was both embarassing and fairly uncomfortable. Denise did a good job trying not to laugh too hard. But after a while, I found my grip and was able to almost keep up with her. I don't think I'll ever be as good as she is, as I think she's the master milker.

I'm sure there's some other stuff, but those are the ones I can think of at the moment.

As for my off-time, I've gone into town with everyone a few times and gotten sushi/ginger ale/scooby snacks (I love them so), and I bought a few books at the local bookstore. There's a lot of quiet time to read around here, so that has been pure heaven. We also went to the gay pride parade in San Francisco this past weekend, and that was great fun.

And this is all just two weeks in! It feels like I've been here for much longer, and while I am sure some a little civilization might be nice after three more weeks, I am not aching to get there and am very much cherishing my time here, now.

Charlie

Our little Eden!

A typical day at Pope Valley Farm

• Wake up from your tent/hammock/bed around 7 and make your way to Pope Valley HQ house.
• Eat a delicious AND nutritious breakfast of 10 grain/oatmeal pancakes/cereal all with our "fresh squeezed" goat's milk.
• Request and recieve your daily assignments ranging anywhere from seaweed harvesting to trail blazing to gardening.
• Slowly filter out to begin work after maybe a chapter of your favorite book or a quick knit full of mistakes and progress.
• Work/talk/guzzle water/play with goats/eat animal crackers until lunch around noon full of--yet again--delicious and nutritious things.
• After a quick nap or swim in the lake it's back to work for another two or three hours. This work is usually easier since it gets so hot.
• FREE TIME!! Join fellow WWOOFers for a round of the best game ever--QUELF. Or go for a kayak ride or try to stand up on the surf board in the lake or read or write or blog or eat ice cream. This is a great time of the day.
• Dinner made by the chef for the day always suprises and delights.
• As the hot California sun sets over the magnificent Lake Berryessa the temperature cools and the day begins to wind down.
• It's so much fun!

Pope Valley Summer Solstice 2009

It is the day after the most wonderful Summer Solstice Party. Terry, Nancy, Jamie, Sabira plus us ever-growing number of WWOOF'ers (currently Katrina, Hannah, Mike, Denise, Nicolas, Charlie and Kai) .. and Nate who was visiting this weekend, celebrated the summer solstice in style last night. The day was made even more special as Terry and Nancy connected the very last wire and we have solar powered energy at the WWOOF HQ. The occasion was marked with an emergency dash to St Helena for ice cream for the new fridge!

The Pope Valley WWOOF'ers are probably the happiest WWOOF'ers in the world this summer.

Oakland v. Pope Valley

Hey folks- this is Sabira Stash, posting for the first time about Pope Valley Fruits. My parents, Nancy and Terry, own the farm, so I spent a good part of my life poking around these hills. For the last 5 years or so, however, I've been living in the San Francisco Bay Area. I get out here as often as I can wrangle up a ride, and always wish I could stay longer.

How can one begin to describe the differences between Oakland (the city that is my sometime home) and Pope Valley? Pope Valley is not a city. I don't even think it could be termed a town. And, although the numerous farm sheds, goat milking sheds, tool sheds, and other 'miscellaneous' sheds on our land call to mind a quaint country village, I doubt that Pope Valley even qualifies as a village. It is a . . . valley. A beautiful, wild valley where in order to survive one must carve a living out of the very land, dredging the depths of its hillsides to find water with which to grow sustenance. (How's that for drama, eh? Haha.)

I have a mind to debate the merits of Oakland versus those of Pope Valley. And, while I could very easily weigh their pros and cons in a rational and sophisticated manner, that would be BORING! To 'de-essay-ify', I would appreciate it if readers would heretofore consider this to be a (100% accurate) documentation of:

The Ultimate Fighting Championship Showdown of Cities: Oakland, CA versus Pope Valley!!!!! (Feel free to gasp here.)

In this fight, I pit (purely in my imagination- please do not try this at home!!) the residents of Oakland against those of Pope Valley.

To begin, we need to consider the relative population sizes of the two regions. It is obvious that by purely numerical standards Oakland, as a city of several million, would kick Pope Valley out of the water. However, quality over quantity, my friends! Pope Valley is a tough community. As we see on our farm every day, hiking up and down hills, blazing trails, and swimming across huge lakes serve its residents well in the strength department. Also, it has been observed that most Pope Valleyans have super secret strength reserves! In order to tap into these reserves, all they have to do is munch on a few leaves of one of the Valley workers' staples: our abundant, brightly colored, delicious rainbow chard. Upon consumption, Pope Valleyans have been known to undergo such feats as leaping across the 50-yard-wide Pope Creek, assembling and mounting an entire 10-panel solar array single-handed, and doing all the dishes created by a hungry pack of Woofers. (I know that there are more W's and O's in that word, but I always forget how many. Sorry.)

As I was saying . . . Oakland has the numbers, Pope Valley has the strength and Super Hero abilities. So far, I'd say they're about evenly matched. However, there are more factors to be considered. What about environmental issues? Oakland, though not an extremely disgustingly polluted city, still has its fair share of smog and car exhaust. Pope Valley is clear of any such pollutants; in fact, judging by the amount of stars visible on a clear night, the valley seems to be remarkably free of any atmospheric interference. The stars are so big and bright, Woofers have been known to lie for hours staring up at them.

But here is the crux: is pollution a pro or a con, in an Ultimate Fighting Championship Showdown of Cities? I say that depends upon where the actual fight takes place. If it were to 'go down' in Pope Valley, there is a possibility that Oakland residents' lungs would explode, not used to all this fresh, clean air. That would put Pope Valleyans ahead. But if the fight were to happen in Oakland, that city's residents would be at an advantage. Pope Valleyans would not know what to do with the pollution, whether it be the common type or mental pollution. Whether created by the constant visual bombardment by advertisements or by the sounds of motors revving and music screeching, Pope Valleyans would not survive long on the streets of Oakland.

We come to an impasse in our Ultimate Fighting Championship Showdown of Cities. And to me, the two places themselves are as evenly matched as their populations. Some people argue that it is better to live a completely natural life, off the grid and separated from most of society. Others gasp and look horrified at the thought of going a day without access to their local beauty shop's supply of cosmetics. I fall somewhere in between. I love the bustle of culture and constant stimulation that makes living in Oakland so great, but I hate the pollution and lack of wilderness. Every day that I am in Pope Valley I do amazing things like help install solar systems (which was NOT a one-man job, regardless of how much chard one can consume), swim and kayak in the lake, and observe first-hand the incredible growth taking place in the garden and orchard. I milk goats and throw compost scraps to chickens. I have a grateful (and hungry) population of Woofers to try out new pizza recipes on, after a day off spent exploring the hillsides.

Holy Moley, what am I saying? POPE VALLEY IS THE WINNER!!!!!

It's hard to imagine, when I'm out here, that there is another way to live life. But sooner or later, work calls and I return to my studio apartment in downtown Oakland. Sigh. It's hard to go back.

The Brits Have Invaded (well ... just the one)!

Hello from Denise ... this is my first blog of the summer from the wonderful world of Pope Valley Fruits. I've joined the my fellow WWOOF'ers, Chloe, Katrina (Suzannah is now back in NYC), Mike and Hannah (from Philadelphia) at WWOOF HQ on the farm. I have been here six days and it has been an amazing mixture of getting to know everyone - including the goats and chickens, learning how the farm functions on a daily basis, working hard on very satisfying projects, cooking great food that has just been picked from the garden 10 minutes before, exploring the stunning surrounding area and giving the thighs a good work out every day on the way back from swimming in the lake. As a London girl, I bring with me very little farm experience but I have brought good tea and marmite (yep, just me who likes it) and a genuine interest in the way this farm works ... and perhaps leave a small footprint which will help the farm develop in the future.

Nancy, Terry and Jamie are providing us all with the knowledge and encouragement to help us improve our farming skills and we are already starting to become 'experts' in certain areas ... Mike is inspiring to be the best goat shepherd Pope Valley has ever seen and if the you need a runaway chicken caught, then Chloe is your girl. As for me, my fence building skills are improving daily (along with my shoulder muscles) and I seem to have won everyone over with my first loaf of bread.

Yesterday, our four young chickens were joined with six new four month old chickens who could start laying eggs any day now .. Jamie is going to build them some laying boxes tomorrow so we will keep you posted. They had all moved to the new large chicken house which we built last week. Unfortunately, we didn't build the divide between the two sets of chickens quite high enough so the five us spent yesterday evening trying to catch the young ones - Sunshine, Jethro, Hubert and Tyra - who had escaped. I think the chickens enjoyed the game as much as us. They are now safely back in their old home, until improvements commence on the new home tomorrow.

Once the fence is completed around the new goat area, then Jada, Lola and Wanda will be moving in next door to the chickens. The gardens and orchards are just bursting with fruit and vegetables ... each day we find new things that have ripened and are ready to eat. Very soon the grapes and figs will be ready and I will be in heaven.

So all is great on the farm. We all have the day off today so have spent the morning enjoying this incredible sunshine (I'm from England so clearly not used to it). I'm off to do some yoga by the lake and later today we are all heading to the big lake for some swimming and beach fun. Bye for now.

Off with a bang!

Our summer season is underway, with 3 wwoofers and Jamie, Nancy, and Terry working hard on various projects. Our first 3 wwoofers are 3 19-year-old girls from Barnyard College in New York City, and they are happily plunging headfirst into whatever job we give them, and learning a lot, too! We all have been spending lots of time swimming in the lake every day, although temperatures haven't been too hot lately.

The garden is mostly planted, and some things are already producing delicious frutis and vegetables for us to eat, namely, tons of Chard. Our first squash bloom showed up today, and this year we will have our first pomegranite crop.

GOAT NEWS!! We got our first 3 goats on Tuesday. They are all gorgeous. 2 are milking (twice a day, tons of delicious milk) and one is recently bred, which means she's due to have 1-4 babies in 5 months. The goats' names are Jada, Lola, and Wanda. Their happy bleating rings through the hills whenever they see us coming!

On Monday (Memorial Day) Katrina, Chloe, and Jamie (that's me!) went for a day kayaking trip into Lake Berryessa from our house. It was so beautiful, we stopped on an isthmus to eat lunch and explore, and then took a swim in the clear turquiose water before kayaking home to meet Suzannah, who had just arrived from the airport.

Now it is time to go milk the goats, and then inside for dinner, which Chloe has prepared, including a chocolate cake from scratch!! Life doesn't get better than this.