By Stuart and Julie Atkins
WWOOFing has been an integral part to our evolution here at Plas Y Maes. Our WWOOFing journey began before Covid where we had a mixed experience with our WWOOFers at the time. We had a lot of students, with some not actually wanting to work, so they ended up being more disruptive than helpful. When we rejoined WWOOF UK in 2022 we ensured that we interviewed each candidate over a video call to allow both us and the WWOOFer the opportunity to ask questions etc. This has given us a hugely more positive experience from WWOOFing since we rejoined.
As stewards of the land, we have nurtured its diverse landscapes; a 68-acre canvas that is painted with woodlands, babbling streams, and wildflower meadows. We embrace the principles of permaculture and sustainability, fostering a harmonious relationship between humanity and the land. With this in mind, we have created four zones to monitor and manage the land. Zone 0 being the immediate house and buildings. Zone 1 consists of the immediate gardens and additional living spaces. Zone 2 includes our Polytunnel Field and Fruit & Nut Orchard. Zone 3 is the rest of the land that is being managed to help encourage biodiversity and Zone 4 is an area that is being left to go through its rewilding cycle completely on its own.
Our polytunnel field is our main area where we practice our food production. It consists of a triple polytunnel that is used for seed sowing and propagation, potting up and growing of salads, vegetables, herbs & other plants. It also houses our vines, kiwi’s & tomatoes. We nurture new trees ready for planting out on the land which is done periodically to replace ones that have died and increase our tree population. There is a large fruit cage which houses all our berry fruits. Currently we have blueberries, currants, raspberries and more with the typical yearly yield being around 20kg of each fruit. We have created a mandala garden which is where we are starting to implement and grow our perennial medicinal herbs and plants. We also have a selection of traditional strip beds where we grow all our annual vegetables.
This year our WWOOFers helped us to finish our herb strips. These strips are 20 metres long and now boast healthy sage, thyme, lemon balm, mint, apple mint, rosemary, chives, fennel & strawberries. The future of the polytunnel field will see us learning how to grow and harvest more stable crops like wheat, oats, potatoes etc. Our Apiary has been included into this area this year to help increase the pollination of our plants and in turn, to help increase our yield of produce.
You can see the change that has happened with the before and after images [ see below] within the last 3 – 4 years showing Zone 0 – 2.
Within our fruit and nut orchard we have a large selection of mature apple trees that we harvest each year to produce pure apple juice. (Last year we had 340 bottles). We have also been introducing new fruit and nut trees to the area. These include walnut, hazel, quince, plum, pear, peach, apricot & more.
Bringing biodiversity back to the land that we steward is something that as a family we are all aligned with and passionate about. We have been encouraging a large selection of native plants back to the land, including wildflowers, wild fruits & many more. This in turn has helped to encourage more wildlife and birds back to the area. Over the last 5 years we have seen a 3-400% increase in both wildlife and birds. These include, foxes, badgers, rabbits, hares, hedgehogs, and many more, also witnessing red kites & buzzards share the area in unison. We have heard the tawny owls training their young to fly at night right over our heads. Our proudest moment was when we caught a pine martin on our motion camera a couple of years ago and this year we have spotted baby pine martins. (So Excited!!)
At Plas Y Maes, family values are the cornerstone of everything we do. We believe in creating an environment that embraces community, respects nature, and fosters personal growth. We consider our WWOOFers as part of our family so each weekday evening, we share a meal together and occasionally play a game which is a lot of fun.
The experience our WWOOFers bring has been varied with some who have never had their hands in soil or tended to a real fire to gardeners and professionals with experience which they have shared with us.
Life is not all work here and we encourage our WWOOFers to visit local places of interest as well as joining us on visits to a beach or going hiking when time allows. We also sit around a fire with them on occasion and share stories or make some kind of music together.
As a family we feel that we benefit enormously from having WWOOFers who as well as helping physically are a joy to experience cultural exchange and learn of their lives as well as sharing ours. If you are interested in keeping in the loop on our journey, then please head to our website and sign up to our newsletter where we will be sending out a monthly update on our progress and journey here.
Words from Sarah – currently WWOOFing here at Plas Y Maes
I came to Carmarthenshire, south-west Wales, to join Julia’s family as a WWOOFer near the beginning of June; my fifth WWOOF experience in the UK, and seventh ever. As someone with years of experience working in commercial organic agriculture where I live on the west coast of Canada, currently travelling and thinking about how I’d like to continue on my path of growing food in the future, WWOOF has offered me an invaluable opportunity to broaden and deepen my knowledge and skill set, through experiencing all of the many ways different growers do what they do.
The Atkins are a remarkable family: three generations living on a beautiful plot of land together, sharing a common vision of self-sustainability and ethical land stewardship. They’re big dreamers and doers with many projects on the go, from producing their own food, to seed-saving, to re-wilding the woodlands and meadows on the property, to getting a retreat centre up and running, various building projects, and much more; as I write this, we’re getting ready to check on the new bee colony that arrived a couple of weeks ago. New experiences for me have included learning about how the land is being managed and worked with to restore biodiversity, learning more about medicinal herbs and how to prepare some of them, and a cordial-making session when we had a big summer flush of blackcurrants. In the areas where I’m coming in with experience – mainly in vegetable and fruit growing – as always, it adds to my knowledge base to experience someone else’s unique approach and set-up. Above all, it’s also just been an honour to be part of this project with hosts who are passionate, engaged, driven, and deeply co-operative in what they’re building together.
WWOOFing at Plas Y Maes also ticks all the boxes of a great living situation for volunteers. We eat a communal meal every weeknight, featuring food from the field wherever possible, and enjoy games nights and outings together. And simultaneously, everyone can take a healthy amount of space to themselves: there is a den and kitchen area set aside for WWOOFers where we can relax and cook our own food, and we sleep in our own separate spaces. The opportunities to be alone in nature without even leaving the property, also, are many; walking around on the land has been a pleasure during my time here, as well as exploring Carmarthen and some of the surrounding area. Besides the gathering of new and practical skills, this is the other thing I’ve really treasured about my WWOOFing experience: it’s given me access to a slower, more grounded way to travel, and meaningful time getting to know new people and places.
Big thanks to the WWOOF program for all the enriching opportunities, and diolch yn fawr to the Atkins family for a beautiful and memorable couple of months in Sir Gâr.
We’d like to give a big thank you to Stuart and Julia for sharing so much information about the land they are taking care of and a big thank you to Sarah for giving us an insight into what’s been happening recently at Plas Y Maes.
If you’d like to find out more about Plas Y Maes and the WWOOFing opportunities click here.
All photos: Plas Y Maes
Disclaimer: It should be noted that hosts receive guests solely as part of an immersive learning experience, in line with WWOOF UK’s educational charitable aims. Visitors participate in the host’s lifestyle, in order to learn. There is no formalised or contractual agreement and the residential visitors (WWOOFers) are free to come and go at will, so are not considered workers. WWOOFers are absolutely not a substitute for paid labour. Any mention of the words ‘work’ or ‘exchange’ in reviews, articles and other content created by our membership is language chosen by the author and not sanctioned by WWOOF.
