This is our second post about Pitt Farm. You can view the first one here. 

Being welcomed into a family--as a complete stranger--is always great, but with the Bensons, it's Awesome like the Grand Canyon. ALTGC is a phrase coined by the Bensons, as they have collectively decided that 'awesome' by itself is too boring a descriptor. And just like their lexicon, life with the Bensons is truly never dull. Especially when everyone's playing a round of Birdie Bingo or Balderdash, or maybe singing an impromptu acapella rendition of Les Misérables. Rachel and I quickly found that this house is pretty much always filled with laughter, shouting, and singing.

Every family has its own traditions, and the Bensons are no exception. Each birthday in the Benson family is celebrated with the same ritual: a huge pancake breakfast in the morning. The celebrated gets a handmade paper crown and also sits in a decorated throne. This past week was Harry's birthday (the dad), and Rachel and I were invited to join in on the celebrations and present-opening. Johnny, the youngest, made the crown, and his older brother Charlie made the throne. It was clearly a very intimate family event, which Rachel and I were immensely glad to be part of. The pancakes, of course, were delicious as well.

By our second week at Pitt Farm, Rachel and I had already become so accustomed to Kate's fabulous food that we had forgotten about something we planned to do much earlier: cook for our hosts! We were reminded when Walker and Julia (the two other WWOOFers at Pitt) told us about how they made tacos for everyone, and how they all enjoyed it. So with that, Rachel and I decided to cook a Korean-Chinese feast for the Bensons. We asked Kate if that would be okay, and she was absolutely ecstatic. We agreed that Sunday would be a good day to do it, since Rachel and I wanted to visit Wiveliscombe on Saturday, and Kate would have more time to gather the more difficult ingredients.

On Saturday, we set out for a day in the town. Wiveliscombe is a small and quiet town. The previous times we went, we barely saw anybody on the streets. Since the Farmer's Market was on, however, we did witness some people walking by, typically carrying bags full of their purchases.

Despite its size, Wivey definitely has its treasures. There's the Carousel Pig, a small shop which sells a variety of trinkets, accessories, and furniture. Rachel bought a scarf with lambs on it, which we thought was a fitting souvenir to remind us of the area. There's also the Crafty Shepherd, an Arts & Crafts store that specializes in crafts made from sheep and alpaca wool. The woman who runs the Crafty Shepherd offers classes for those interested in learning how to fashion wool dolls. From her, I bought a handmade grey wool decoration with a fox design on it.

And of course, there's the Farmer's Market, which takes place every Saturday morning and typically features 4 to 5 stalls in total. The day Rachel and I went, we saw a man selling fresh seafood out the back of his van, an elderly couple selling apple juice, a stand covered in fresh-baked goods, and Conrad's Kitchen, which sold prepared meals such as beef stew or curry. I remember most distinctly Conrad's Kitchen, because after chatting with him (Conrad) for a little and mentioning that we were WWOOFers, he offered to give us a package of smoked pigeon breast, which he had shot and smoked himself, for free! Such a pleasant surprise. It made our day that much better.

For lunch, we ate at the Bear Inn. I got a Bison Burger, and Rachel got a salad with a grilled wheel of goat cheese on it. And then we sat and drank three (yes three) pots of tea.

After a full day in Wivey, we headed home and started to prepare for the next day's Asian feast extravaganza. On the menu: Seafood Pancake, Kimchi Fried Rice, Daikon Water Kimchi, Egg & Tomato stir fry, Eggplant stir fry, Tofu in Black Bean Sauce, and Pork & Chive Dumplings. Plus a Korean honey-cinnamon pancake for dessert. The original plan was to feed 12 people, but only 10 ended up actually arriving for the meal. Lucky thing, too, because there were barely any leftovers!

We began by making the Daikon Kimchi--which tastes better the longer it sits--and the pork filling for the dumplings. The rest of the night we spent consulting our moms for tips and recipes. The next morning, we woke up at 8am to prepare. We gathered the eggplant, peppers, tomatoes, eggs, spring onion, and chives all from the farm. We then quickly made the Korean honey pancake batter, since the yeast needed to work for at least 4 hours. Afterwards, while Rachel worked on the seafood pancake batter (which involved preparing squid and shrimp), I started wrapping dumplings. At some point, Kate joined us to help wrap dumplings, and I got to tell her about how dumpling-wrapping was often a family activity that took place on Chinese holidays. We ended up making about 50 dumplings from the filling.

Once the vegetables had all been chopped, we were ready to stir fry! That was the quick part. Rachel and I cooked side by side; she made the Kimchi Fried Rice and Seafood Pancakes while I made the Egg & Tomato, the Eggplant, and the Tofu.

Yes, it was a butt-ton of work, as is probably evident from our greasy faces. But the result was successful beyond our own expectations, and totally worth it. The Bensons and their guests loved it, and we were so glad to be able to share a part of our cultures with them. Kate was so happy to be cooked for, and it certainly feels great to have a chef complement your cooking! Everyone barely had room for the Cinnamon Pancakes, which also turned out really well (although according to Rachel, not exactly right). All in all, great way to spend the weekend.

For our second week of farmwork, we were given a list of tasks to complete. This included de-crowding the strawberry plants, cleaning and oiling the gardening tools, scooping horse poo into the compost, splitting a pile of logs and branches into firewood, and, of course, weeding. We're pretty much professional weeders now. It actually feels like a therapeutic activity, and it's incredibly satisfying to dig 'em all up. The best part, however, is at the end of a full day of weeding, when we have to wheelbarrow all the weeds into a pile at the corner of the pasture. All of the lambs come running toward us because they love munching on the leaves! It's become a kind of buffet that we deliver to them everyday.

De-crowding the strawberry plants was interesting. Apparently, strawberries do this thing where they send off roots to other locations to propagate new plants, which are called 'runners.' Kate wanted us to rip out all the runners, since they would overcrowd the strawberry bed and lead to all the plants producing smaller berries in the spring. Under her instructions, we committed the cold-blooded strawberry massacre, leaving only the strongest plants behind.

Probably the biggest job was washing and oiling all the tools in the gardening shed. Each of the tools needed to be rinsed, scrubbed clean of rust, dried, and then oiled. Some of them, such as the spades or the clippers needed to be sharpened as well. For sharpening, we used a whetstone, which is like this brick that feels like sandpaper on the outside. Whetstones typically have a coarse side and a fine side. You pick which side to use based on how sharp you want your blade. I had no idea which side we were using, but it worked fine. The whole task was a full day's worth of work, although we later found out from Sizzle (the 4th oldest Benson) that we could have used Coca-Cola to wipe away the rust more easily. I thanked her for the timely advice.

On the penultimate night of our stay at Pitt Farm, Harry took us and the kids to see the new James Bond movie, Spectre. I gotta say, seeing James Bond in the UK is way more exciting than seeing it in the States. There was so much more anticipation and energy in the theater. I won't spoil anything, but I will mention that I personally enjoyed Skyfall a lot, and I don't think Spectre outdid it. But it was still a great action film. For Rachel, this was her first James Bond, and she wasn't a huge fan--but where better to watch your first Bond movie than in the UK?

Leaving Pitt Farm was way more difficult than I thought it would be. On Saturday, we packed our things and got ready to take the train to our next farm... in Frome! Even though we had only been at Pitt for what felt like a really short time, we had grown close to the family, the farm, and the lambs, the turkeys, and the dogs. Kate wrote us a lovely email thanking us for our help, and told us to return anytime. We left a message in their visitor book, letting them know that they were always welcome to see us in the States, Korea, or China. This visit to Pitt Farm has been nothing short of phenomenal, and I have a feeling that it won't be our last.