I fondly recall little flutters of joy whenever we were called in for breaks or to finish up our tasks for the day. When we weren't working, we would be sitting in the kitchen flipping through Louisa's cookbooks, playing with the animals, jumping on the outdoor trampoline (to compensate for our trampoline-deprived childhoods) or taking strolls through the nearby plains.
The small town life was very idyllic - and also very quiet. The closest thing we had to shopping was the Monday market held at the town centre a long drive away. The area is rather inaccessible without a car, so we hired the "village taxi". It was basically a school bus going around different estates and picking up passengers who had called in advanced. It was the cutest thing, seeing these little old french ladies with their dainty purses and straw hats getting onto the bus to do their weekly grocery shopping - obviously quite bewildered to see two young Asian girls in the back row.
The market was surprisingly well-stocked and also much larger than we had anticipated. What I loved was that everything was home-grown - the vendors were literally selling their produce. Everything was also so fresh. Also did I mention the croissants? Containing myself was very, very hard.
But back to the home-grown stuff - I had a newfound appreciation of fully knowing where my food came from. You grow it with your own hands so you know there aren't any pesticides, chemicals etc - but there's also the pleasure of seeing your efforts come to fruition (literally haha). I mean I wasn't there long enough to plant a tomato seedling and then eat it's fully-grown tomato but there's something about plucking something from your own garden.
The first time Louisa asked: "Cheryl, could you grab some salad?", I went: "Sure? Where is it?" Louisa then looked at me almost with a look of surprise and said: "From the backyard!"
I felt like a fool hahaha this is the girl who always assumed the lettuce would be in the fridge, wrapped in plastic. The meals Louisa cooked were always delicious. Every meal came complete with baguette slices, butter, cheese, olive oil and balsamic vinegar - and those were just the sides. My favourite was the ratatouille! So delicious and wholesome.
These were the cherries we picked. Cherry trees are surprisingly thorny. Also, among many other things, I learnt that chickens are very dumb animals. I wondered how we were getting so many eggs everyday. Wouldn't the chickens have learnt by now to choose better hiding spots? Apparently not.
You just need to leave one fake egg (try to spot it in the picture) in the bucket. Chickens don't go thinking, "Oh damn I lost 11 eggs today." They think: "Well I still have one egg left so it's still aight probably still safe" LOL.
The farm had 7 dogs and one cat (Kevin). They were the sweetest animals ever. All too soon, our time at the farm was done and saying goodbye to the animals was one of the hardest things (overly-attached human haha). Overall, I learnt so much from Louisa and Stuart - their story was really inspiring and it was so cool to see this completely different way of life. They were city folk turned farmers who bought a house with 40 cats and pigs in it - terror-inducing by any standard. But they went against the grain of what an "ideal lifestyle" meant and I think that's really admirable. I love that they built new lives for themselves from scratch and it's interesting to see how different people have a million things to teach you. Again this is just a little intro to everything I felt/ experienced and if you ever see me, feel free to start a conversation about this! :p