WWOOFing in Jaipur

After leaving the comforts of the beach we booked an overnight train to Mumbai, stayed for a few days, and then another overnight train to Jaipur. Overnight trains are great in India. You buy a ticket for Sleeper class and you get to sleep on a little cot that folds down from the wall with another 5 people in your little section. First of all, you're saving money by not having to stay in a hotel, and by eating chips, cookies and/or cheap indian train food. Also, you might get a decent nights sleep before everyone on the train starts having normal full voice conversations at 4:30 in the morning. Plus, once you crawl into your little bunk, it is much harder for the Indian men to stare at you.

Sarcasm aside, I really do enjoy Indian train trips. It means you are off to a new adventure, and I actually sleep pretty well in the tiny bunks. These two train journeys brought us to Jaipur, one of the larger cities in the desert state of Rajastan. We were really looking forward to getting to the farm at which we would be working. The farm was about an hour outside of the city and we arrived by auto rickshaw.

The farm was located in the beautiful country side outside of the city. The main crop they grow is amla (looks almost like a crab apple, and is predominantly used in ayurvedic medicine in powder or pill form). They have over 2000 amla trees on their property. They also grow a lot of wheat, oats, onions, garlic, spinach, and carrots, but they are all used exclusively on the farm for food for the staff and animals.

Stephie and our harvest of Amlas

Right from the start, we had strange feelings about our WWOOFing experience. When we arrived by rickshaw, we weren't greeted by anyone and had to wander around until we found a fellow WWOOFer (Ashley) who was already at the farm. Eventually a man came over and took our passports to check us in, and told us we could start by weeding the garden with Ashley. So we proceeded to do this with little more direction than a point of his finger as to the general area we should be weeding. Ashley was great in giving instructions in terms of where and what exactly we should be doing.

After an afternoon of weeding we met the sketchy man who helped us cook and lurked around during our stay there. Throughout our stay we never received any directions/instructions, tours of the property or any interaction with the local workers and their family. There was never much more than pointing and one sentence instructions. It was no where close to previous experiences we have had while WWOOFing. Even with the weird atmosphere we managed to have a decent time and enjoyed being a such a beautiful place. But if someone is thinking about WWOOFing in India, I would recommend checking out one of the many other farms before you go to the one outside of Jaipur.

Stephie enjoying the sunset from our window

Sunset over the freshly planted wheat

These huts were rented out to vacationers, but we had very similar and quite nice mud hut rooms

One of the best experiences of our time there was hanging out with an Indian family that was staying for a night in these rooms. They had come to Jaipur from Bangalore to go to a family wedding. We spent the night chatting with them around a campfire and they cooked some delicious Indian food.

Getting ready to pick up amlas

This old man was very adept at climbing the amla trees

The method is pretty basic. Either this man or one of us would climb up into the amla trees and shake them violently knocking them to the ground. Then use a very long stick to beat the stronger ones down as well. Then pick them off the ground into your burlap sack and carry back to main pile.

Steph and our amlas

Drying amlas

We were told repeatedly that we would learn how the amlas were boiled and dried and then made into powder for selling, but it never happened. We just stumbled across these on one of the roofs when we were wandering around.

I love clotheslines of anykind

View of some of the small gardens, a freshly planted wheat field and amla groves in the background