Travelling 2012: WWOOFing at Pikkunuppu

Pikkunuppu is an organic farm in the east of Finland, near a town called Joensuu. This is the driveway in to the farm

and the main house

This is the log cabin I stayed in

and the view from my front door

This is what the farm looks like

It has its own private lake, surrounded by birch trees, where you can swim after a hard day's work in the fields

In May the water is not longer icy but it's definitely invigorating. Here's the lake one afternoon after work

Pjotr and Niina live here year round and welcome wwoofers from about April to September each year. Here they are, talking about farm things

And here's Pjotr with Michele, Tobi and Teddy, some of the wwoofers from May 2012

This is what wwoofers like like when wwoofing

and after wwoofing

(This photo is a fake as wine costs so much in Finland, wwoofers only drink water and sometimes saffron tea.)

This is all of us, spic and span after a day in the onion patch, Teddy, Pjotr, Niina, Michele, Tobi & me.

Here's the shed before and after we planted the seed potatoes

and here they are going to the field

and being planted

This was cabbage planting day. Once the cabbage is in the ground, the fields are covered in gauze to keep out the cabbage moths.

These are the rows of onions we planted as well as the garlic (which is underground)

and the celeriac and parsley

The idea was to keep the rows straight but it soon became clear that some of us had difficulty with the concept of straight lines

Eventually Pjotr put out string lines for us to follow - that made it easier.

At dinner time, we had Teddy the wonder cook using every ingredient known to humankind whipping up a feast for us

and Pjotr making the so simple and so delicious no-cook chocolate cake

Michele and Tobi also impressed with their rosti, apple pie and chocolate crumble while Niina followed up with lasagne, garden greens salad and the best home baked bread ever.

Mmmm yummy.

I think it's going to take a few more laps around here for me to get back to my pre-Pikkunnupu weight.

This is the sauna (pronounced 'sowna' not 'sorna')

It has a proper wood burning heater, lots of hot and cold water and soft birch branches to whip up the circulation. I tried it and it doesn’t hurt a bit. From here, you run all the way down to the lake and jump in to cool off. I didn’t try that. I kept my lake swims for after work (and before dinner).

This is what the path to the neighbour’s place looks like

And this is the forest just over the hill. Look how many shades of green there are in Finland. If you look even more closely, you might see an elk or a bear or even a wolf (that's if the hunters don't get them first).