What the *** is wabping and its not
the London Borough? Some of you will have heard of woofing and know
that it stands for Working On Organic Farms.Wabping is "Working
at Bush Park". Woofing, or more correctly wwoffing (the name
changed from "Weekends On Organic Farms" to "Willing
Workers on Organic Farms") is best explained on this site for
Australia or this one for the UK.
The original idea was that you offered your services in exchange for
board and lodging. But we actually charge you for the privilege. Well
not exactly.
Working at Bush Park is an informal
offer for those wishing to join in on the farm and perhaps learn a
skill at the same time. Unlike the hosts of true woofers, we do not
earn an income from the farm, it simply forms part of the attraction
for B&B visitors, so you do still pay for B&B accomodation
with other meals by arrangement or from various village pubs. We are
not officially organic but run on the same principles. You will have
read elsewhere our reluctance to bombard the animals with chemical
worming treatments. Even the horses are only wormed once a year.
We do hope to eventually run formal
Rural Skills courses that would include, hedge-laying, coppicing,
stone walling, etc. but that is for the future. If interested we can
run specific courses to order and offer Bush Park as the venue. The
cost of the tutor would be split between course members who then would
only pay for B&B accommodation. Meanwhile we can offer the opportunity
to see what its like to run a smallholding, learn strained wire fencing,
gate building (take home your own 10' five bar gate for as little
as £30!), gate hanging and tree planting. You can always help
mucking out and learn about muck heap management but you have to be
a special sort of person to appreciate that! E-mail
with any questions.
Some useful links
The
Devon Hedge Group
Stonewalls and Hedgebanks
Torbay Coast and Countryside Trust
