Dylan made eggplant parm, it was beautiful. Recently, Dylan has had the opportunity to make food as part of his work-trade to help stock the farm freezer. In addition to the parm, he jarred a few batches of radish relish with the last of the crop along with some beet and pepper pickles.
I went to an essential oils workshop at the most beautiful farm overlooking the ocean and Kealakekua Bay. I finally learned a bit about the many uses of essential oils, which ones are good for what, and when/where their use is most effective. I have been curious about this stuff for a while so it was great to listen to someone who is knowledgeable and well practiced with the use of oils for health purposes. Once we lift ourselves from self-imposed financial hibernation I am investing in these five oils from DoTerra. This stuff is super amazing, I would definitely recommend doing a little research about what oils can do.
Check out the sunset we caught after trying out a perfect blend of peppermint and orange oils...
The Plumeria trees came into bloom and they are so beautiful and smell amazing, apparently their sap is pretty poisonus though and can make you go blind? I'm not quite sure of the details. I still love them though, and I am glad I they are part of my everyday life, for the next week anyway...
Recently, I discovered a flower that smells like a chocolate-vanilla twisted soft-serve. I have made a point to have a vase of of them on the table at all times. I wish they were edible, they smell so good.
I made friends with a baby gecko who enjoys eating the mosquitoes that keep trying to bite me as I work at my computer. I love the geckos, they are so fun to watch and they keep the bug population down. I wish I could bring one back to Vermont with us but alas, they would not enjoy the cold.
A lizard-gecko showdown happened on the fence enclosing our outdoor shower and I was lucky enough to watch the drama unfold. This particular gecko is a good friend of ours named Scar-face gecko because of a little scar above his eye. When Dylan and Daniel were putting up the new roof on the cabin after our last one ripped during a particularly windy evening, Scar-face gecko got spooked when Dylan lay the roofing down next to him and he shed his tail and ran. That's what geckos do when they fear for their lives, leave their tails wiggling behind them and run away to start growing their new one. It takes at least a month for the tail to fully grow back and we have dubbed them "stumpy" when they are in the process of regeneration. Geckos are seriously cool little reptiles.
I have successfully gotten myself in the habit of making a weekly batch of sandwich wraps. I have always wanted to incorporate regular bread-making into my routine but have always had excuses for not doing it. All it took was a little creativity and motivation and even without the use of an oven I managed to organically sneak these bread-like sandwich features into our lives. This batch helped us get rid of a jar of arugula pesto that was a bit too bitter on it's own but made for perfect, tasty wraps.
The Chinese cabbages all reached their peak at the very same moment, which led to a massive production of Kimchi, 3 gallons in total. We have been eating this fermented, and super-healthy condiment with fried rice, scrambled eggs, and our Hawaiian twist on our favorite Asian soup, Pho.
All that Kimchi led us to select Bibimbap as the theme for one of our recent and delicious Wednesday farm potluck dinner. We filled our plates and bellies with a selection of goodies including, fried farm eggs, Kimchi, Bulgogi style beef strips, leek coleslaw (Dylan's creation), brown rice, bean sprouts, matchstick carrots, sauteed shitakes, zucchini strips, and chili-soy date sauce (also Dylan's creation, and so, so good). It was so savory, with a perfect of sweet tanginess.
We've been trying to get ourselves to the beach as much as possible in our final days here and a week or two ago we were introduced to a great spot for diving into the ocean. The water is perfect and we had so much fun diving off the rocks into the enclosed pool of water tucked away among the lava rock ledges. I will never get over the captivatingly blue color of the ocean here...
This is the backdrop we enjoyed as we took turns jumping and diving off the rocks with the local kids until the sun dropped too low to keep swimming, showering us with a beautiful sunset to make peace:
Hawaii is such a beautiful place. I still can't believe this is the place we've been calling "home" these past few months. It will be hard to say goodbye to this place next week. At the same time though, it's really exciting to think that in just a week we will get to hug so many friends and family again and that makes leaving a whole lot easier... stay tuned for photos and stories of our trip to see Volcano National Park which I plan on posting as soon as I narrow it down to the best pictures of the bunch!
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