WWOOF Italy Farm Lesson: Healthy Worms and Pitiful Wagons

Healthy Worms: Today I spent six healthy hours spreading manure around trees, and I have never seen more plentiful, happy, healthy worms than I did today! They were a vibrant red; none of that pale pink I’m used to. It made me very excited for these fruit trees and that were the lucky recipients of this splendidly rich manure, because if it made them half as happy as it made those worms, I’m excited to see the season when they bear fruit!

My clothes are covered in manure. My shoes, socks, pants, all layers on top, and it’s in my hair. Honestly, though, as I am now, I’m probably cleaner than I am after a day spent walking the streets in an urban center like New York. Manure that has been composted is dirty in the dirt sense, but it’s clean as can be in the natural and sanitized sense. Yes to manure-smeared clothes, No to city smog!

Pitiful Wagons: The wagon who acted as my helper in this manure spreading extravaganza had a flat front tire. Not just low, but big hole, floppy flat. A wagon full of manure is heavy. The manure pile was conveniently at the bottom of a hill, and the trees were decoratively spread out on the way up the hill, from 3 to about 80 meters away. That meant each trip was uphill with a full barrel (always mentally note the flat tire), downhill with an empty one. To go uphill, I had to backpedal in order to make sure the precious load did not topple over (a tiny tilt and the lack of tire meant balance was next to impossible). Backpedaling, I could not gain any momentum by taking either big steps or leaning back, as either meant the stands of the wagon would get tangled with my feet and we’d both topple over. Going downhill was hardly easy, either, as any small divot meant the tire-less wagon would come to a dead stop and, again, topple over. My trips downhill were marked by uncontrollable serpentine handling that had me laughing out loud and talking to myself at the absurdity, and the trips uphill were marked by 2 meter gains and then stops for panting, cursing the wagon or backing up into trees and yelling at them for getting in my way (the nerve!) Good thing I’m in the middle of nowhere, where the only witnesses are the worms and the bees!