These thoughts and insights are quite new to me. Thank you for expanding my awareness. I 've been a WOOFER in the past but was never mindful of this aspect of the farmer's experience of visitors.
Difficult for many to grapple with this kind of vacation as it is life experienced in the slow & thoughtful lane which can be discomforting if you like to be an edgy individual always looking for the next bright shiny thing to light up an emptied life.
I love your thoughts. I am a South African, and we stay on farms often, when we go away for weekends or longer. Here in South Africa, farm stays (unless they are luxury affairs) are usually more affordable than hotels or resorts, and - for me at least - much more enjoyable. The quiet, and the solitary location of most of these places is what makes them so special, and conversations with the farmers, as you say, is always wonderful.
Lovely descriptions of the landscape, people and farming lifestyle, Hadden. Great advocacy for farm stays too, definitely an effective way of supporting those very committed stewards of the land.
Such a beautiful read and so insightful. It has definitely made me consider things I never have before, which I think is a real testament to your writing
You write so well Hadden. But this post brings me face to face with a dissonance that can underlie a too uncritical romanticisation of farming. Who gets to have this sort of access to the land? By what means was this land 'acquired' and by what ongoing means was that enclosure enforced? These stories can be invisible to us in a time where capitalism has conditioned us to see only bureaucratic neutral transactions and lines on maps. But in a settler colony like South Africa, this meant decades of violence against the people whose connection with that land ran centuries (millennia?) deeper. I don't know anything about the Hart family specifically, or whether this is a history that has been openly acknowledged and reckoned with by them, as you don't mention this in your piece. But as someone who has such a deep fascination with farming, I am interested to know whether that question of who gets to be a farmer / who is able to have access to land and how, is one that troubles you too?
This was wonderful, Hadden. I honestly would never had thought to seek out a farm stay for such a purpose (beyond staying with my own brother and his wife on her family dairy farm), but this has me willing to try it out. A win-win situation for all!
These thoughts and insights are quite new to me. Thank you for expanding my awareness. I 've been a WOOFER in the past but was never mindful of this aspect of the farmer's experience of visitors.
This post is balm in such an unsettled world. I could hear these ramblings every day....and I wish these farmers well.
Thank you.
Difficult for many to grapple with this kind of vacation as it is life experienced in the slow & thoughtful lane which can be discomforting if you like to be an edgy individual always looking for the next bright shiny thing to light up an emptied life.
I love your thoughts. I am a South African, and we stay on farms often, when we go away for weekends or longer. Here in South Africa, farm stays (unless they are luxury affairs) are usually more affordable than hotels or resorts, and - for me at least - much more enjoyable. The quiet, and the solitary location of most of these places is what makes them so special, and conversations with the farmers, as you say, is always wonderful.
Lovely descriptions of the landscape, people and farming lifestyle, Hadden. Great advocacy for farm stays too, definitely an effective way of supporting those very committed stewards of the land.
I agree, staying on a farm is brilliant. I even got to milking cows!!! Fresh milk straight from the cows is delicious. Thank you Hadden
Love this, thanks for sharing!
Such a beautiful read and so insightful. It has definitely made me consider things I never have before, which I think is a real testament to your writing
You write so well Hadden. But this post brings me face to face with a dissonance that can underlie a too uncritical romanticisation of farming. Who gets to have this sort of access to the land? By what means was this land 'acquired' and by what ongoing means was that enclosure enforced? These stories can be invisible to us in a time where capitalism has conditioned us to see only bureaucratic neutral transactions and lines on maps. But in a settler colony like South Africa, this meant decades of violence against the people whose connection with that land ran centuries (millennia?) deeper. I don't know anything about the Hart family specifically, or whether this is a history that has been openly acknowledged and reckoned with by them, as you don't mention this in your piece. But as someone who has such a deep fascination with farming, I am interested to know whether that question of who gets to be a farmer / who is able to have access to land and how, is one that troubles you too?
This was wonderful, Hadden. I honestly would never had thought to seek out a farm stay for such a purpose (beyond staying with my own brother and his wife on her family dairy farm), but this has me willing to try it out. A win-win situation for all!