Would you like a carrot for every day?

Would you like a carrot for every day? - Sales pitch from a four year old boy with glasses holding three bundles of carrots. Sorry dude... in this house we are not lacking for produce.

For the time being Nelson and I are wwoofing. This week we stayed with Matthew and Sylvia King in Hamilton. They are lovely people who are extremely generous and also happen to be raw food eaters and urban foragers. You can read more about that on The Emperor’s New SUV. The nice thing about wwoofing is that if you are an able-bodied person you can travel all over the world and work 2-5 hours a day in return for room and board. The able-bodied part is what is currently missing out of my equation.

Its worth noting that the winter in this part of NZ is much like February or November in the north east in the states. Every day since I have arrived it has been cold, rainy, and miserable. There are bits of sunlight that come through now and then that are keeping me hoping that other forms of weather actually exist on this island.

In the rainy weather Nelson and I have been helping Matthew and Sylvia with their tree-crops business. We have gone to two farmers markets:
And dove into an ocean of kiwi fruit at a local orchard:

Room and board at Matthew and Sylvia's consists of living in their camper van with full use of their house with internet and hot water, and joining them in their raw food ways. Since I generally still have the eating habits of a five-year-old, I assumed that I wouldn't enjoy this part of the experience. But, I've tried everything offered, and although we are rebelling a bit and cooking dinner in the evenings, I have to admit that the green juice isn't as scary as it looks. And the huge amounts of fresh fruit have been awesome (although Nelson nearly killed us in the camper van the other night with the byproduct).

Anyhow, all of this running around in the rain, combined with 3 days of travel has left me with a nasty head cold. So today, while Matthew, Sylvia, and Nelson headed out to an orchard for pruning, I stayed home with a list of housework to tackle. Chore #1 - Juice these mandarins: