Another Week Gone By

Look how cute and tiny!

So, I have been procrastinating writing a post for this week because well, nothing particularly interesting has happened. It was hot. It rained a bit. We got woken up in the middle of the night by a giant moth trying to get into our cabin. I saw my first centipede and it had bright blue legs. We started playing Cribbage to entertain ourselves since all we brought aside from our computers, books, and writing/drawing materials was a deck of cards. Oh, and I made friends with a little baby gecko who lives in our cabin. I love the baby gecko and Dylan is constantly poking fun at me for this. Every night I wonder aloud, “where are you Baby Gecko?” and then get overly excited when she comes in for the night to hug a bulb on our string of Christmas lights to keep warm, I assume.

We have fallen into a pretty regular routine here and haven’t done much of anything that I haven’t already told you about. We made another batch of hot sauce this week and canned it so we can bring some home. We made another batch of tomatillo gazpacho to use up the little green and purple orbs that are taking over the garden. Now the jars of cold green soup are taking over our mini-fridge. But it is okay because we broke down and bought a giant bag of corn chips to eat with it so I think we’ll manage. We also made our first batch of guacamole as we came into a wealth of avocados that all happened to ripen at the exact same time. After three whole weeks of basically zero snacking, the chips and guac seriously hit the spot.

Mid-building lunch break=Dylan's introduction to the burger.

Last weekend, Dylan and the other men on the farm put together an epic play-set for little K. It took them all weekend but Dylan seemed to enjoy the male bonding while building and drinking beer part of it, that and our hosts rewarded everyone with what Dylan described as “the best burger I have ever had in my life, ever.” There is this little snack shack type of thing at the end of our driveway, which is really the closest thing to a restaurant for miles. It’s hardly ever open, really just for lunch and we never thought much of it, though our hosts rave about it and have a regular burger date each Friday.

Even though it’s local beef, completely free-range, hormone-free, all-natural, etc., the kind of thing that might tempt me to try out some red meat finally, I didn’t try it. Dylan, however, can’t stop thinking about it. They mix kimchi into the patty which when it cooks leaks out this sweet tangy flavor that is unlike any other burger. At least that’s what they all tell me. Perhaps beef will make it’s debut into my diet by way of a Kolamas burger but, right now I’m still more interested in trying their Mahi burger I’m also told is absolutely amazing. I’ll let you know what happens with the beef, I’m sure Dylan’s craving will get the better of him before too long and we’ll end up going down there for a second taste in the next few weeks. We have been good though, this was the only non-farm meal since our arrival and it was a gift from our hosts.

This is Kalama's, a few hundred feet down the hill from the farm and our landmark for first remember how to get home.

Anyway, enough about the burger that I can’t even vouch for. K and I spent our week playing on her new play set, which she could not be more excited about. We’ve had a great time bonding on the swing set. She asks me for help getting up on the swing and says “Auntie, push please!” (they call all adult women “Auntie” here). She is still pretty small for this thing, but that does not stop this girl, she is fearless and determined to explore the whole thing, no matter how small she might be. She has already conquered the rock wall after only a few days of practice. I am super impressed with her methodical technique too, it was as if she actually mapped out her path before climbing up, figuring out exactly which holds she needed to take in order to avoid getting stuck on the side. It is really fun to watch this not-even-two year old climb a rock-wall; she looks impossibly small, yet so powerful at the same time, it is quite amazing.

Today, I went to a baby shower for one of the women who often joins us for the weekly farm potluck. These people have such a beautiful, kind, and supportive community, it’s no wonder they all planted their roots here and will probably never leave. I can’t wait to have that again back in New Enland. It was fun to socialize for a bit since we mostly keep to ourselves. The passion fruit mimosas made the bits of awkwardness totally worth the effort. I don’t really know everyone and I was feeling weird about going, especially because I found out last minute and didn’t have time to craft a nice baby-shower type gift (being on financial hibernation means buying one wasn’t in the budget). So instead we came up with the idea of making a big batch of orange marmalade since on a drive the previous day we had collected five oranges from a basket on the side of the road marked “free fruit!” The marmalade is really delicious and was super easy to make, although Dylan should really speak to that because he made it, I just watched and told everyone how easy it was, like I usually do.

Getting ready for the shower, that's my mimosa in front of the Bird of Paradise flower, we also gather here for our potlucks.

Anyway, the marmalade was a big success, she loved the gift and it made a big enough batch that we have one jar in the fridge and one canned and added to our “to be shipped home” collection of goods we’ve made while here, along with our hot sauce and pickled fennel. We just opened the pickled fennel today and it is so tangy and delicious! I am usually not a fan of fennel, but I will eat just about anything pickled and I have quickly fallen for this licorice-flavored plant. Dylan added tangerine slices to mellow the fennel flavor a bit and it worked beautifully. We already plan to start another batch in the next few days so we can share with everyone on the farm and send more of it home. There is tons of fennel in the garden and no one else seems to use it very much, which means lots and lots of pickles and a very happy Josephine.

On the menu tonight is an Asian style vermicelli rice noodle dish with bok choy, broccoli, basil, mushrooms, and some Hawaiian red peppers, the same kind we use for the hot sauce. And probably another rum smoothie. This week we were introduced to Rollinia, a big creamy yellowish fruit covered in spikes that turn black as it ripens. It tastes very much like custard, or maybe pudding pie. It is banana/vanilla-like in flavor, but more mild and very tasty. The texture is quite unique. Dylan didn’t love it but I cannot wait to get my hands on some more of these wonderfully strange things. Dylan decided to blend ours up with a mango and a bunch of rum and it was delicious, as usual. We drank a huge jar of it over a game of Cribbage, which I won. Dylan says I have a knack for strategy games because I always over-analyze and excessively plan everything, which comes in quite handy when it comes to strategy games—and finding us jobs and places to live, I like to remind him. I have already begun scoping out the apartment rentals in Portland, just to get an idea of what to expect a few months from now...like he said, I tend to over-prepare just a bit :)