Jen and Aaron Pattap

On October 18th, 2009, we became husband and wife. Two months later, we quit our NYC jobs, gave up our fabulous Brooklyn apartment, leased a Honda Civic, and hit the road. Over the course of the next nine months, we spent an unconventional honeymoon traversing across North America volunteering at 20 organic farms. Inspired by our love of food and our concern over the environmental impacts of the modern Western diet, we became WWOOFers (World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms). Instead of idling on the beach for a week, during the course of our honeymoon we learned to build chicken coops and greenhouses, plant and prune fruit orchards, sow seeds, transplant starts, cultivate and harvest crops, milk cows and goats, forage for wild edibles, make jams, preserves, cheeses, sauces, and desserts. Having both grown up in the comfortable suburbs of north Jersey, sometimes our rustic accommodations were drastically different from what we were accustomed to. We took a crash course lesson in survival when some of our "cabins" lacked electricity, running water, or heat in the middle of winter blizzards. Neither Poison Ivy outbreaks nor wasp stings nor empty gas tanks nor doe deaths nor trouble from the US/Canada customs border officials could rain on our parade. Relive our magical honeymoon experience and learn about permaculture and biodynamics, southern comfort food and hospitality, the treasures of US National Parks system, and the bond of two young lovers by checking out wwoofingpattaps.blogspot.com.