I wanted to share the wealth about sharing the wealth. GET ON TOP OF THESE!
WWOOF: Worldwide Opportunities on Organic Farms.Work in exchange for food and lodging and support organic agricultural practices!
Couchsurfing: connect to the network and find people to stay with in cities all over the world, and host other travelers in return. I've done this every time I've traveled in France (and will do it again in Belgium and Luxembourg!), and have consistently met really excellent people. With things like this, you tend to fall into rather liberal, often vegetarian, socially-conscious young people... :-)
Covoiturage: an online carpool system. French, obviously, but this kind of thing surely exists in America. Look up commutes (as a passenger or driver) and find a match. I haven't actually used this, since Gerardmer isn't really on anyone's radar out here, but it is recommended to me often.
Local Harvest: pay a local farmer for a "share" of his or her crop, and go pick up your goods every week. Often organic or "natural" (whatever that means... without pesticides, sometimes, which is all right). Another one I haven't tried myself, but I'll certainly be in touch with Viv this summer to see how it goes...
If anyone knows of more exchange systems like these, let me know!
3 comments:
Digging this post.
Philly has zipcar, which isn't quite the same as the carpool thing, but still pretty smart.
www.zipcar.com
Is WWOOF just something for young people? I think my mom would love to do something like that in a couple of years.
oh yeah! i forgot about that one. there's one in france, too, called aut'autrement, but it's only in the major cities and i haven't tried it out yet.
and anyone can do wwoofing, it's just all about the agreement between you and the farmer. i mean, you probably have to be fit enough to do manual labor all day...
Yeah, my mom would prob enjoy being the host (if she had a farm) more than the WWOOFer.
Post a Comment