There are moments in life where you arrive somewhere and internally ask, ‘where the fuck have I ended up?’ Chandelier Springs, a farm in valley centre California (about 2hrs from San Diego) has certainly provided quite a few of those moments.
When you read the profile of a farm on the woofing website you begin to get some idea of the kind of place it is, and further conversation with the host always helps. But places like chandelier springs are hard to put into words.
I arrived at the farm which is set back from an already remote town, down a dirt track, past abandoned trailers. I knew I'd be meeting someone called spencer and it turned out to be a sandy haired 26 year old recovering addict, devout Christian, music loving, cartoon artist and son of an eccentric farmer. After struggling with the highs and lows of life for a bit his dad has let him take over the running of a diverse organic farm which has ultimately become his recovery and passion. Doug, his dad, who is the host runs a soil business but his organic farm is his real passion which he ultimately hopes to make money from, but for now it's mostly experimenting with crops and creating a sustainable community filled with woofers. Spencer always refers to him as doug rather than dad, which tells you a whole lot about their relationship, and they seem to have pretty different ideas about the direction of the farm, but ultimately they both want to teach woofers and create friendly communities.
It can be a little frustrating when you plan a work day with Spencer in the morning and mid way through Doug arrives (he doesn't live on the farm) and pulls you away to do something different. But all the work is interesting and nothing is rushed so this really makes very little difference. Doug has been teaching me how to build an earth house (building technique involving tyres packed in with dirt) as well as how to look after chickens. Spencer on the other hand has given me responsibility for 3 different gardens, the bank garden where were growing kale, bak choi and chard, the solarium where we're growing tomatoes and the wave garden where were growing squash/courgettes and onions. This on top of all the regular watering, weeding and planting that happens. It's all fun and none of it too tiring or long so I've had plenty of time to read and play music (they have a ton of instruments and recording spaces on the farm).
Despite being a fairly reserved person on the surface, as one might expect from a person who essentially lives on their own in a trailer in the middle of nowhere, Spencer is actually quite sociable. Everything is cooked over wood fires that we together ourselves so meals are a long and relaxed affair, Spencer loves cooking for everyone and sitting around chatting into the wee hours about everything and anything, whether it's religion, food or music he always has a story and he certainly thrives off the stories of the woofers that come and go.
Right now there are two other woofers here, veronica and prince, they're from Stockholm in Sweden and are doing a woofing trip up the west coast. They've not done much before but are super enthusiastic. Prince is a vegan and very into meditation, but also works selling technology so we have very varied conversation. I've enjoyed sitting up late with veronica talking about the nature of God, religion and belief.
We are also about to be joined by Jordan, a woofer from the farm next door called morning star ranch, aka a cult/judeo Christian sect called the 12 tribes of Israel, which leads me to the next where the fuck am I moment, this Friday night as we were invited to ‘shabbat dinner’ at said farm.
From the moment I arrived at chandelier springs I began hearing about morning star, first it was explained to me that the roadside deli just before you turn off the for the farm (the yellow deli) is actually run by the farm next door, cool, an organic farm running it's own deli, how awesome, do they use the products from their farm at the deli?
Oh wait the deli profits go to a boss man/corporate entity that runs the farm, less cool!
Hang on a sec now you're saying this boss man is actually the leader of a judeo Christian cult…?
So this farm is actually a cult?! A Jewish/Christian cult?????
What do you mean they've invited us to a party on Friday night!
My 4th night at the farm a guy called Colin turns up at the farm. Spencer seems to know him, he's a woofer on a local farm, previously he was at morning star. Were all cooking dinner and chatting, everything's normal until someone asks Colin where he's going next. He's off to a bit of land in the middle of California to build an off grid community, apparently the end of days is coming in the form of a new world order - micro chips in everyone's arms etc - and an off grid house in the US and a love of yashua (Jesus) is the only thing that can save you! Who knew!
We are then treated to a whirlwind of conspiracy theories including how the Bible predicted this period of war and corruption as the end of days, that said war and corruption is only a thing in the US and for the last 40 years (gotta love young US conspiracy theorists who think the world revolves around them) and lastly the government is closing down Walmart to build mass concentration camps…
Apparently Colin the prophet (as I have now named him) believes it his purpose in life to spread the word of the end of days, these are the kind of people that live at morning star.
On out afternoon off we head down to the yellow deli for some food and to use their WiFi. I end up chatting to a guy named ravak, who upon hearing my name is yael, gets very excited and tells me his name comes from the word ruach (spirit/wind) and I should come along on Friday for erev shabbat….so thats the party everyone keeps talking about. Ravak also mentions that a woman has recently joined who was also brought up Jewish, she's from new Jersey. He probably thought this would pique my interest in their practice as they're always recruiting. All I thought was, ‘I wonder if we have any mutual friends’.
Queue Friday and we're heading to the ranch for dinner, we've all got kind of smart clothes on and Spencer has warned us not to get too freaked out. Apparently he often takes woofers as it's an interesting experience. We arrive and are immediately welcomed and offered peach matte, ravak immediately finds me to introduce me to haneena (not her original name), said Jewish girl from NJ, she's from cherry hill and had loads of friends that went to the same summer camp as me and we immediately begin to play Jewish geography, all the while I'm thinking, how does a reform Jewish gal from the east coast end up in a Christian cult in California, but more on that later.
So the room were in has a huge hanging banner saying Shabbat shalom and it looks like a challah cloth we used to have. As everyone settles down the focus is music and dancing, songs of worship are sung whilst everyone dances (those of us from CS just sit and observe). The women are all white flowy shirts with colourful skirts and scarves over their heads (they take these of later so they are clearly ceremonial), whilst the men are in jeans and plaid shirts, all with near long hair in a ponytail and a mid length pointy beard. Everyone has on a matching headband.
Once the dancing finishes there is essentially a communal text study where people get up and share texts and thoughts that interested them from the week. Only the men spoke, although one man commented that the women are allowed to speak as well…
We were then welcomed formally and the ceremony finished with the counting of the omer!!!! Although they didn't called it the omer, but they did talk about Shavuot and counting the days from Passover. No one seemed able to explain why though.
Dinner was equally interesting with fresh challah! And much talk of their practice and tradition. I sat with Jordan the woofer who I mentor earlier would be joining us at CS. He turned up to the farm yesterday looking for somewhere new to stay as he had arrived at morning star not realising how much of a crazy cult they were and hated it. On the surface everyone was very friendly and hospitable but knowing what I know from Jordan and Spencer the community is extreme, judgmental and controlling.
So back to haneena, how does a progressive Jew from the east coast end up in a place like. Honestly I still haven't figured it out. We talked best length after dinner, she went to college, worked in advertising and was fairly unfulfilled, not an unordinary story. She became interested in environmentalism and got involved in all sorts of Jewish social justice programs, ones that I have friends involved in. She was planning to move to Portland and join an sustainable Jewish community there. She said she came to the area to woof, met people from morninb star and began asking questions and eventually decided she didn't need to go to Portland this was the place for her. I can see the comfort, familiar dances and music (it's all Israeli folk and klezmer), and sense of meaning and spirituality behind ritual (something I'm aware is fairly lackjing in large parts of the reform community in the US) and a tight knit fairly young community in a beautiful location. But mostly I'm still confused… it's super Christian, I've never really met a Jew who was lost and thought the answer was Jesus, I know it happens, but it's strange to meet someone who is essentially a bit like me, or at least people I know on the east coast who think that way. It also makes me sad because I feel like there is something for everyone in Judaism and if not there is plenty of space to create, especially in the US, so the idea that someone who believed in progressive values didn't believe the Jewish community was for them and that a fairly conservative cult could better serve them, makes me wonder where the Jewish community/this personss community went so wrong.
Anyway I've been invited back to morning star, the food was great but I'm not sure whether I'll go, for all the novelty it's a bit sad to watch. Maybe I need to be more open minded about other people's beliefs but i also think that any community that needs such strict levels of uniformity and control is worrying.
