The Greatest WWOOF hosts in the world

Ok, maybe that is a bit presumptuous of me, considering that I've only wwoofed at a dozen places, of the thousands there are on the planet. But in my world, Chuck Burr and Karen Taylor are the best hosts I've ever had. And I commend them for it. Since I arrived in Ashland they have only been the nicest, warmest people i could hope to work with, learn from, and share good times.

I don't know the whole story, but Chuck got these 10 acres outside Ashland last year, and since then has remodeled the house and now the barn, has planted a half acre of blueberries for a U-Pick(figure it out yourself), planted the first stages of a large food forest, deer fenced the property(with one side planted with grapes that will trellis up the fence, I wished he had done the whole fence), and is now working on a bathhouse to be used in workshops and permaculture courses he plans on having on the farm. Karen has planted a beautiful vegetable garden and is propagating a bunch of perennial vegetables as well, including tons of my favorite, new zealand spinach.

I've been weeding the rows of blueberries the first three days, and today i helped chuck place the two 3000 gallen tanks that will catch all the rainwater from the house roof for irrigation. I've also plain hung out with him, karen his land partner, and chuck's two kids ages 6 and 10 who were here for the summer but left today. WWOOFing isn't like at the homestead where i put in a whole days work. there's time for other things like, swimming in the neighbors pool, and going to the lake for a barbeque with friends(who have horses!), going into town for a nice dinner at a palce that specializes in local cuisine. Tomorrow we're going to a house auction in the morning, then to town where i'll play guitar on the street for a while until i head over to a potluck dinner we're invited to. This is my life and I am so happy.

Ashland is a cool town. it's got tons of art and culture. Shakespeare festival, tons of plays and theater of all kinds, music, lots of spirituality classes and groups. It's really close to California, and it shows. But that's not a bad thing. i don't know when it happened that i came to think negatively about California. it's a combination of bad wwoofing there and a negativity which i picked up from other Oregonians. Anyway, it's a hip town, lots of tourists, lots of money being thrown around, lots of businesses for a town of 20,000, half the population of my home town of West Orange, NJ(which doesn't have a tenth of what's going on in Ashland, Oregon). It has two, count 'em, two synagogues, one reform, the other, renewal. And here I thought I was the only Jew in Oregon! There's even a Steiner/Waldorf Pre-school with jewish aspects called Gan Neveh Shalom. pretty cool, huh. And a guy who does kabbala art. And a guy who does Mayan calendar readings for free in the park. Same park, Lithia park has water with high mineral content that tastes worse than piss but which is probably really healthy. And a really big food co-op, and tons of organic farms to the west in the applegate valley where chuck and I will see when we drive out there on Sunday. Whew!

What's that you ask? What have I been eating while I am here? Well let's start with the breakfasts. Fruit shakes,blueberry pancakes, oatmeal with honey and almond milk, toast with tayberry jam and earth balance, tea.

Lunch and Dinner: Roasted zuchhini on whole wheat with tomato and lettuce. Lasagna with chard, basil, ricotta, and mozzarella cheese. Pizza! Gispacho.

Dessert: Zucchini cake with chocolate chips, Blackberry Sorbet.

So if you got it in your head that I've been roughing it, think again.