by Claire Doyle

My road to Emerson and beyond had romantic beginnings in the Alpujarra - a longtime bohemian enclave - in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada in southern Spain. On a garden on the outskirts of the scruffy little town of Orgiva, my wwoof host had invited the local goatherd to bring his flock of goats to eat the grass. The goatherd had been voted the most handsome man in Orgiva and I waited with anticipation ...

Don Juan, I wondered?

In the late afternoon sun, an old peasant boy with the skin of a well-tanned wallet descended with a haggle-toothed smile and his beautiful, russet coloured, goatshaped mayhem. My wwoof host practised permaculture principles and resisted the purchase of a lawn mower. We watched the goats tear their way through the overgrowth. He had found the ideal solution, free of charge.

Most of my wwoof experiences were taken in Andalucia and southern Portugal on a winter-time escape from the UK. I would like to say that it was because I had always wanted to be a farmer but nothing could have been further from the truth. In fact, I was desperate for a way to leave a London life behind permanently and, through a 'chance' meeting with a permaculture gardener whilst on holiday, I gave up my 'wait' problem and sallied forth in a fit of quixotic madness. I worked on the olive harvest on a remote, previously abandoned peasant farm, high on an Alpujarra mountain in December. The olives here were removed traditionally and laboriously by striking them with long sticks and clambering up the trees. It was here that I enjoyed the comforts of the best located compost toilet ever.

 Perched high over a valley on an abandoned olive terrace, this loo had no doors and I only had the overhead hang gliders and birds of prey to disturb.

In January, I stayed at an ecovillage-in-the-making in Portugal where I learnt taipa building (a type of rammed earth) and where a tarot reader told me I would leave London 'in partnership' and that 'it could be an inheritance' to help.

It was here also that I fell in love with a donkey called Romeo, another creature whose purpose in life was to eat grass for it's owners and, on occasion, to drive us wwoofers on the back of it's cart to the local Lidl.

I would like to say that such methods are the mainstay at Emerson but, sadly, they are not. Tractors, welding, cattle, pigs and chickens are the order of the day as they represent the farming industry in the UK. Fortunately, the brutal industrial world is partnered with a degree of otherworldliness here more suitable to the romantic at heart in the form of animal and plant phenomenology, painting, eurythmy and, yes, nature spirits or elemental beings (come out, wherever you are!)

WWOOF originally stood for Working Weekends on Organic Farms and began in England in 1971 at Emerson's Tablehurst Farm which was then a part of the college. A successful weekend of volunteering by four Londoners led to the creation of a worldwide organisation that has now over 6,000 hosts in over 100 countries.

Back to my trip and I found myself on an abandoned Portuguese farm in the northern Algarve near the Atlantic Ocean. Two Portuguese college-educated farmers were working to reclaim the sand - sorry, soil - and I helped plant a mixed fruit orchard using compost and sheepwool to revivify the earth. On another stay, a Canadian gardener gave me an intense one-day compost building workshop where I collected fresh manure and straw from a neighbouring horse field. After six months studying biodynamics at Emerson, now I know we needed some compost preps!

My winter excursion was mostly over when I received the distressing news of illness in the family and I made my way back to Scotland. My mother handed me my grandmother's wedding ring: She said, 'I'd like you to have it.'

In the following fairly miserable months, I knew that the next time I left London, it would be for good.

I discovered Emerson and the biodynamics course by accident on a group email from a wwoof host. I made an idle enquiry - there were places left! I knew this was my opportunity and, in a matter of weeks, I left London permanently and gave up my flat. As the tarot reader had predicted all those months ago, I joined the college'in partnership' with the help from 'an inheritance,' and with the ring of an Irish farmer's wife.

Roxana Reichel: first year student

In March 2008 finally:

after 13 years in the Steiner

Waldorf School

I had my A-levels lying right in front of me. And now? I never had a dream profession, and all my ideas for university studies had turned out rather shortlived until then. One positive result from a visit to the Open Day at the University of Zurich: the firm knowledge that I for one wouldn't be spending the next 5 years of my life as yet another anonymous face among several hundred other ones in vast university auditoriums!!

So, time for a gap year, to travel, learn a few languages and discover some new corners of the world. An affordable way to combine art, travelling and learning languages is WWOOFing - World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms. From January 2009 I started travelling through France, working on various organic and biodynamic farms in exchange for a room and meals.

After a few months working between vegetable fields, cows, sheep, cheeses, greenhouses and fruit trees it slowly dawned upon me: biodynamic farming...

that's what I want to study!

On the 22nd February and the 15th March 2010 we organise free sit-in days, where prospective students can experience for a whole day how exciting and fun studying at Emerson College can be! The day consists of classes in cereal production and vegetable growing, followed by a free lunch. In the afternoon you can choose between different practical classes such as tractor driving, welding and fruit tree grafting. In the late afternoon there will be a presentation by Arjen Huese, the course leader for the Biodynamic Horticulture Training and throughout the day students and teachers will be available for questions and private conversations.

Click on the link and book your free tickets for this day. If you want to you can

also book a room and meals at no cost at all for two nights. Book early because