During spring break, I partook in what will (or possibly already has) become the cliché spring break activity for progressive-minded, environmentally-aware Wesleyan students: WWOOFing. For those unfamiliar with this unusual verb, WWOOF stands for World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms. The organization connects organic farms around the world with volunteers interested in sustainable farming and helping out. WWOOFers volunteer on the farm, and, in exchange, they get to live and eat on the farm for free. It is an affordable way to travel the world, improve language proficiency (or learn a new one altogether), and meet exciting, like-minded people.

My WWOOFing experience on Rancho Magante, a farm in the Dominican Republic, not only introduced me to sustainable farming, but also redefined my conception of eating locally.

Rancho Magante is a sprawling 1,500 acre property located one mile from the Dominican coast. Owned by Henry and Maria Mensen, a newlywed couple who began purchasing farmland little by little two years ago. Their mission is “to create a community that becomes fully self-sustainable by using green energy and green methods of living.” They currently grow yucca, plantains, bananas, papaya, avocado, okra, pineapples, yams, squash, mango, coconuts, oranges, and guanabana. They are also experimenting with lettuce, carrots, cucumbers, beets, beans, corn, tomatoes, eggplants, peppers, basil, parsley and oregano. They do not use pesticides or chemical fertilizers on any of their crops. Despite everything they grow on the farm, there are still hundreds of acres of unoccupied land waiting to be used.

All of the meals I ate there were strictly vegetarian, and the majority of the ingredients come from the farm. Like many Dominican homes, plantains are a staple of their diet. Every morning we made smoothies from bananas, oranges, guanabana, or any other fruit that was ripe and within reach. For lunch we often had fried eggs (from the neighbor’s chickens); an okra, red onion, and tomato salad; and fresh bread. An average dinner would consist of an arugula salad with a spicy dressing made from green tomatoes; mangú, boiled green plantains which are mashed, topped with thinly sliced red onion, and baked in the oven, and fried eggplant. The few ingredients they buy in town are wheat products, since they do not grow wheat on the farm.

Every task I was given on the farm overwhelmed me, since American farms almost always rely on plows and other machines to do the work for us. When I was told to begin clearing a field, I was given a hoe. To dig vegetable beds, I was given a shovel and a pic axe. I learned how to properly water plants, and how to use a machete. I was exposed to yucca, okra and mangú for the first time. I learned what types of soil different crops prefer, how to plant the head of a pineapple in order to grow a new one, and how to pick fruit and vegetables without hurting the plants.

What seemed like simple tasks took hours and were surprisingly exhausting. However, the hard work I did on the farm was indescribably rewarding—especially when sitting down to eat the fruits of my labor (literally). After weeding the yucca fields or making beds for parsley plants all morning, I felt an intimate connection with the food on my plate every meal—I knew exactly where it had come from and it was comforting to know that I had helped grow it. Other than the few times that I have picked a few basil leaves from my backyard and added it to my mom’s pasta sauce, this sensation was foreign to me.

WWOOF counts on the fact that its volunteers learn about sustainable farming so that they can share what they learned with others when they return. Thus, I am looking forward to teaching what I learned to my friends and family at home in order to encourage others to support sustainable farming, or try it out in their own gardens.