A Mixed Bag

If I were a blueberry, I would be the one with the frilly bits, and fall off the bush into the pickers bucket with the glance of an eye. If I were a plum, I would probably be a fortune plum, caught between fuchsia and pink and too ripe to be eaten in the car. If I were a wwoofer, who sought the warmth of a home while I was so far away from mine, you could send me to Windsong Orchard, an organic fruit orchard stocked with tree-ripened characters, full of everything good in life.

This has been our home for the better part of January,
parked somewhere between the blueberry patch and the kiwi fruit trees.

As I pick my way through the blueberry orchard, my bare feet pushing into the cool grass, I have had time to contemplate my experiences as a wwoofer ("willing workers on organic farms") in New Zealand. I've come to know my wwoof hosts as agri-warriors, leading a quiet revolution to put the culture back into agri-culture, fostering new attitudes towards food and in turn, life. Unlike the majority of fruit produced in New Zealand, fruit picked here is not bound for international travel. It's grown and sold right here, usually by the hands that picked it for you.

Windsong Orchard stands out in NZ's Marlborough region, not only because people can consume the fruit they produce (unlike the dozens of neighbouring vineyards), but because they personify what it means to create good food. Tree-ripened, hand-picked, never-been-sprayed, Bio-Gro certified, locally grown, "other catchy market terms," fruit. Whatever you may choose to call the quiet food revolution taking place here, it all ends up in the compost bin. Windsong Orchard reminds you there a multitude of simple pleasures in life; like the beauty of living life on the open sea, or sharing meals with a never-ending supply of new friends, or tasting the flavours of all those plums, from tart to sweet.

Above all, Windsong Orchard has taught me that we not only consume food, we create it.

If I were a blueberry I would ask to be baked into a beautiful muffin, served with Earl Grey tea. If I were a plum you could take me to the farmers market and sell me along with all the other plums (like elephant heart, santa rosa, black amber, and billington) in a mixed bag. A mixed bag of delectable plums, grown for you by those lovely Crum's.

Mariana (the sweet soul),
Bob (ripe with critical knowledge & wit),
Jennie (an inspiration on so many levels),
Me (quick-picking fingers) and
Bry (full of blueberries).