Podere Vallari

A WWOOFing Story

By Bri Vos

July 12^th, 2014

What is wwoofing

World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms (WWOOF) is an organization that enables people to live and volunteer on a variety of organic properties. Volunteers (WWOOFers) help on the land and home for 4-6 hours a day and hosts provide the food and accommodation. www.wwoof.net

Podere Vallari

In the spring of 2013, we spent two weeks pruning olive trees and vineyards on Ursula and Sigismund’s Tuscan hillside farm. It was beautiful.

German by birth, Ursula and Sigismund Hadelich spent some years in agricultural research in Africa before arriving in Tuscany in 1981 to take their agricultural education to their own farm. They’ve raised three sons on these hillsides, picked grapes, crushed olives and sold their wine and oil here for decades.

We started our mornings sharing breakfast with them while we learned our daily tasks. Then, before the sun got too high, we would climb through the fields gathering and burning olive branch clippings or pruning slearing away dead vines to make room for the fresh spring growth. In the olive grove, in the clear morning air, you could look out to the coast and see the islands of Corsica and Elba stretching out over the Ligurian sea.

After a shared lunch, we’d spend the afternoon reading in the shade, hiking through the hills to the village of Riparbella or coasting down on borrowed bikes to the beach at Cecina. We’d be home in time for a precise 7:00pm supper with Ursula and Sigismund where we’d talk history, politics and philosophy over a bottle of wine.

Write your story here. (Optional)

We were so generously and warmly invited to this lifestyle and we left a little bit of our hearts here.

You too can visit Podere Vallari, Sigismund is particularly gifted when it comes to construction and has built a few beautiful apartments/houses on their property for vacation rental. check out the details here: www.hadelich.de/en/