Belgium: Land of Beer

Hello folks! We are in Belgium and are having a good time. We are at Uilenbos with a very nice family. Uilenbos means "owl forest," but in Dutch, you can also use "forest" to mean "patch of carrots" which is why the owl in the logo is sitting on a carrot. C'mon, it's cute! The farm is about 15 acres (if I've done my hectare to acre conversion correctly) and supplies fresh veggies and fruit to about 150 families in the area. It's one of the bigger farms we've been on--though not the largest by a fair number of acres--and I'm quite glad that we are here in the winter and not the high summer season. Mostly we do a lot of weeding and preparing the fields for the coming crops. The weather has been quite pleasant, with temps in the high 50s. I think it's perfect for outdoor manual labor.

Tomorrow we will be putting together the vegetable boxes for delivery on Friday. Since this is basically a one family operation, our host spends Fridays delivering the boxes. This means that we will have three day weekends to run around guzzling delicious Belgium beers. Plans so far include making a 2 hour train trip out to Westvleteren to drink what is quite possibly the best beer in the world, Westvleteren 12. According to our inside source (*cough* Matt Chimielewski *cough*), there is also a neat bar in Antwerp called Kulminator which has been cellaring beer since the 70s. Besides this, it is hard to throw a stone in this country and not hit either a brewery or a bar showcasing local specialties. Our host runs a small store attached to the house and even he sells a number of delicious beers. This is truly my kind of place and I promise to make the most of our precious time here! Updates will surely follow...