Catching Up

I have been slacking a bit keeping you all updated on our adventures here, and for that, I apologize. I have been so consumed with curriculum development and working on my other blog, Searching for Sparks, that I've neglected this one. So here are a few random photos to fill you in, I hope you enjoy!

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!

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 :)