Green Vacations on European Farms. By Jeanne Nuss, AP, July 28, 2009. "Backpackers pining for European adventure have discovered life on the farm, shoveling manure, feeding pigs and making butter as a recession-beating way to sate their wanderlust. Their ticket to an earthy taste of the Old Continent is an innovative Web site that connects travelers with a network of organic farms stretching from Portugal to Turkey and around the world. World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms, an organization founded in Britain, has been around since 1971 but has lured many more volunteer farmhands in recent years as hard economic times forced people young and not so young to seek a cheap way to take a European vacation. This year 15,700 of them are scattered across Europe getting their hands good and dirty, compared to 6,400 in 2004, WWOOF says. The number of hosts is up, too, roughly doubling to 2,240 in that same time span. The organization also offers farm stays in the Americas, Africa, the Middle East and the Asia-Pacific region. For a few hours of work a day -- other chores include milking goats, collecting honey and making compost -- volunteers get a place to stay, fresh food to eat and a bargain."
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment