Upon arriving at Cascina Lema I knew we were in for some fun. I remember pulling up to the gates in our hosts pick up truck and seeing dogs jumping to great us, a goose walking behind them, a baby goat tied to a pole and hearing a ridiculous screeching sound coming from the barn (which we later found out was Ferula, the donkey)
We had no idea what to expect and for the next 14 days we became part of our host’s family. As well as making friends we worked daily picking fruit and working in the garden. I had no idea I would enjoy picking fruit as much as we did. We picked blackberries, blueberries, raspberries, currents, strawberries, peaches, and more. We also worked with the animals (pini the pig, tina the goat, chickens, geese, cats etc)
The quality of the fruit and vegetables was absolutely amazing. I have no been around that much organic fruit ever, a dream come true for a fruit loving vegan like me. The accommodations at Cascina Lema was in a room renovated and built for renting out in their agrotourism business therefore it was clean, beautiful, and even had a rainhead shower, a tv, and screens! This was my first WWOOF’ing experience and I did not know how good we had it. A typical day would start anywhere from 730-930 with breakfast (usually cereal in tea or coffee haha which Colin quickly became fond of) and then off to pick fruit until lunch. The weather was a bit rainy some days and therefore there were quite alot of bugs. They ranged from mosquitos to midges to spiders. When picking fruit you really get over your fear of most bugs since many bugs hang around the delicious sweet fruit… I dont want to scare anyone away, but only to state that there were alot of bugs. I am not a bug loving girl and I got over it, so don’t worry! just pack from natural bug repellant because that is something we wished we had. The farm produces lavender oil as-well which we use as bug repellant and to treat bites after the fact. We used up the bottle like crack but it really works! After experiencing a few other wwoof hosts I can say that the hosts at Cascina Lema are amazing. You will learn so much- which is so important to me. I enjoy the work but the whole point of this journey was to learn about organic farming and bring knowledge back home with me to use in my own garden down the line etc. Some farms give you a task but with no explanation, Lele will teach you new skills, explain what you are doing, and make you laugh through the long days.