For about 5 weeks, from late June until the end of July I worked at Modir Jord, a large organic farm located in Egilsstadir, on the East coast of Iceland. I knew that this farm was essentially a one-man operation run by Eymundur, so I had expected no more than a few hectares of cultivation when I arrived. I was very wrong. The farm is situated on 50 acres of land, about 10 0f which could be deemed farmland and the rest of which are either grassland or forest. When I say forest, I mean small trees which will soon be a forest - Eymundur has planted a million of them since arriving on the farm in the 1970s. The two major crops here are barley and potatoes, though Eymundur also grows parsley, kale, beet root, lettuce, kohlrabi, and cabbage. Because the farm is so large, the work varies not only by the season but by the week as well. For instance, there was a period of 10 days or so when our efforts were focused on weeding and covering the potato fields. Because there were many potato fields and each of them very long, this task took a while and for a couple wwoofers, this was about all they did during their time spent there. For this reason, I recommend spending at least 3 weeks working here, so that one may actually become acquainted with the farm itself, rather than with a limited number of tasks and fields.
(Barley barn where all the processing and packaging of Modir Jord barley occurs, five huge potatoes fields, four of which are covered with a white acrylic cover. )
Additionally, one should know that Eymundur had no paid employees other than himself, and as such the success of the farm depended much on the work of wwoofers. While I and most other wwoofers saw this as a positive thing, for each task we performed was endowed with significance, other wwoofers experienced this as a negative because it meant actually having to put in a full day's work 6 days a week. This doesn't mean that one needs extensive farm experience and a super work ethic to wwoof here, each wwoofer may work at their own pace to the extent of their abilities and that is sufficient.
The daily schedule went something like this: wake up/breakfast at 8am. Each morning we could look forward to a wonderful concoction called Gabriel's Breakfast, a combination of Barley mixed with apples, dates, raisins, and cinnamon. Accompanying it was a loaf of Eymundur's homemade Barley bread, one of the best breads I've ever eaten. After a leisurely breakfast we would head to the fields around 9 am and work for two hours until a heavenly thing called coffee break. Though there was coffee, "Coffee Break" is a misnomer, it should be called cookie break. Each morning there was a nice variety of different cookies to inhale, usually along with an apple or two and coffee or tea. This lasted until 12 and then we'd work again until lunch. Lunch was usually between 2:30 and 3, and consisted of more barley bread, great homemade guacamole called 'green slime', and soup. I need only say that Eymundur has made thousands of soups in his life, and let you figure out the rest. After lunch, there was usually about 45 minutes of downtime and we'd head to fields once more around 4 to work until 6 or 6:30. A different wwoofer cooked dinner each night, so as expected, some dinners were stellar and others fell flat. About once every 2 weeks or so Eymundur prepared his homemade veggie burgers for dinner.
(Eymundur, the kitchen master)
Because Iceland only has 3 wwoof hosts, and only 2 of them are actual farms that will host more than one person at a time, there is much wwoof traffic running in and out of Eymundur's farm. This is by and large a great thing, since although a wwoofer may not 'get out much', the steady stream of new faces gives one the benefits of traveling and meeting new people without having to experience the stress and declining bank account associated with it. To sum things up: though there was much hard work involved, staying at Modir Jord was a largely worthwhile experience and I highly recommend it to anyone interested in farming or working outdoors. If one is just looking for a low-key wwoof host to work a couple hours and then hang out the rest of the day, this is not the place. Though much hard work was involved, Eymundur truly appreciated our efforts and we all experienced much satisfaction at the end of the day as we sat around the dining room table, eating dinner and enjoying each other's company.
Last but not least, I highly recommend traveling to Seydisfjordur, a small village nestled the Atlantic ocean and picturesque and waterfall-ridden hills. It is about a half hour drive from Modir Jord and well worth the gas money that it takes to get there and back. The banner picture for this website was taken there, and here is another picture to wet your taste buds:
Note: Though I wwoofed on only 2 of 3 wwoof farms in Iceland, I met a number of people who worked on the sheep and rhubarb farm near Selffoss. Though I do not have the authority to truly speak to the nature of the farm since I myself have never been there, the wwoofers I've talked with seem to have not enjoyed their experience there as much as at Modir Jord. Much of this, I infer, has to do with the fact that this summer was the first time that this farm was in full swing and had wwoofers, and as such the farmers were stressed out trying to balance their day jobs with farming and handling wwoofers. I imagine that come next summer, they will be in a much better position. Additionally, since the farm largely focuses on producing and packaging rhubarb, wwoofers said that there was much repetition involved and didn't recommend staying many weeks there. With that said, the woofers did think the hosts were quite nice and overall enjoyed the time they spent there. If one is interested in wwoofing there, I suggest emailing the hosts and asking for a reference or two so that one may have a first hand account of their experience on the farm.
(From our 4th of July party in Iceland)
