Kibbutz

[Graye]

Has anyone ever been on one? Is it still possible to take part? I was all set to go as a student but one of the many wars broke out, my parents wouldn't sign my passport application and so I never did get to go. A friend did go at that time and apparently spent a lot of his six months sitting on the kibbutz border with a machine gun and very little time actually doing anything productive. Although we had chosen somewhere which grew plenty of their own food and had been told we would be basically farming I suppose security became all important at that time.

The whole concept really appealed to me then and wonder whether they are still a way of life there?

[Clara]

I think most of the kibbutz have just turned into intensive agro-businesses these days - acres of plastic greenhouses in the desert (like almeria). Why not WWOOF instead?

[JulieSherris]

I was thinking about joining as a WWOOF host - but then got a bit worried that a volunteer would get bored..... and what if the volunteer was a vegan, or was more green than us? Oh, I worry about the little things....

So, I shall soldier on & spend the next 3 weeks dragging trees around, then the next 4 months or so cutting the tree trunks down into logs, building raised beds, chicken houses, pig fences, building the polytunnel, etc etc ....... I shall think again about WWOOFing........

[Clara]

We're wwoof hosts - I think so long as you write good profile telling people who you are and what the work will be like then that's straightforward. There is very specifically a box on your profile telling people whether you can cater veggie or vegan - I don't have vegan wwoofers because it would make life too difficult for me, and that is not why I became a wwoof host.

The emails of application can often be scant on detail so I always ask for more information from applicants: experience (or not, sometimes that is what you need), what are you hoping to get out of wwoofing, what drew you to our listing in particular etc etc. This is first and foremost our home and I want to feel like I might want to sit and converse with this person over dinner.

[Graye]

I think most of the kibbutz have just turned into intensive agro-businesses these days - acres of plastic greenhouses in the desert (like almeria). Why not WWOOF instead?

That's really sad if it looks anything like Almeria. So they import labour to work them or work them themselves? I suppose it had to happen just from the point of competing but it's pity nevertheless.

I've known a few people who have done wwoof type things but I wasn't planning on going - just reminiscing really!