Wwoofing at De Zaaier in Belgium

My last wwoofing adventures for this year were both in Belgium and what a lovely country that turned out to be.  The first place I went to was an organic farm & shop in the north, not far from Brugges

where the main crops are pumpkins, sprouts (as in the Brussels kind) and potatoes.

This year, however, has been particularly bad for sprouts and all the related cabbage types as there's been too much rain & not enough sun.  This is one of the cabbage fields with the neighbour's farm in the background

and here's the home veggie patch with my little wwoofer's house in the background.

The wwoofer's house is in fact a two hundred year old bake house

still used every week for bread baking.  Here's the oven getting primed up

and now ready to go.

And here's Diederik, farmer & bread maker extraordinaire, turning the sour dough into loaves

preparing the loaves for baking

and popping them in the oven.

This is the end result, all ready for the shop

We also made bread rolls (I helped with the toppings)

As well as bread, the shop sells a huge range of organic produce including some of the best looking and tastiest vegetables and fruits I have come across in my travels, much of which is locally grown.  The warmer climate produce comes in from Italy and Spain.

I was particularly taken with these cabbages, looking for all the world like huge green flower buds about to open

and these cauliflowers that really do look like flowers. 

Here are some other things you can get in the shop

Yes, that's organic beer with a cork stopper wired on to keep in the goodness.  It was very tasty.  I forgot to photograph the range of organic chocolate but I can recommend the 'Love Choc' made from raw, not roasted, cocoa that comes all the way from Ecuador. Very, very tasty. 

And this is the shop

and the garden behind the shop with a woven willow cubby house for the kids to play in.

There were also a few animals at this farm.  Some chooks

who, in the winter time, live in this delightfully rustic chook-house,

a cat or two 

who wanted to live in the bakehouse with me but who usually live in the stables,

and some pigs including this lovely sow 

and her 11 hungry and fast growing piglets who have their very own pig pen.  

All in all, this was one of the loveliest and most interesting organic farms/businesses I have seen.