The Santa Cruz Diaries: The Sweetness of Plums

The Goal:

Right now I am at the University of Santa Cruz attending a course in Agroecology, which I am hoping will give me some guidance for my future path in life. I don't expect to just magically figure it all out, but I'm hoping to gather some ideas. 

I have decided to write daily blog posts during my time here in Santa Cruz in order and share my excitement and track my progression of learning throughout the course. I did not bring my computer so that I could be a bit disconnected, so unfortunately I have no pictures to share right now but I will go back later and add photos from each day. 

Day 1:

Today we just had an introduction to agroecology and a tour of the gardening and farming endeavors here at the university, but it was an especially exciting first day. Everyone here is incredibly diverse and equally inspiring. We have a soil biologist from India, a farmer from South Africa, an agrochemist from China, and tons of other exciting people from all across the globe. 

As of now I still have no idea what I want to pursue, but I'm loving being surrounded by a community of like-minded people. I also love that the emphasis of a student program here on campus as well as my program is the importance of big, delicious, picked-from-the-garden meals enjoyed in the presence of tons of people. In other words the transformative power of food. 

What struck me the most today was the beauty and tranquility of the garden and farm spaces, the amazing payoffs of persistent hard work in landscape transformation, and the sweetness of a warm plum plucked straight from the branches of a tree. 

Bunnies enjoy plums too.

An enormous poppy outside my building.

The CASFS farm at UC Santa Cruz.

Chard and what seems to be poppies and squash. 

Happy Fourth of July!

July 4th is possibly one of my favorite holidays.  Right up there with Thanksgiving, but in the summer.  Why?  Because you get to eat tons of wonderful, summer food, hang out with friends and family, play fun summer games like croquet, bocce ball, swim, have watermelon seed spitting contests, watch the fireworks, play with sparklers...oh the possibilities are endless!  

I love dreaming about all the delicious, uniquely American summer foods you could serve.  This year we'll have pulled pork, peach ice cream, and Pimm's Cups (perhaps a bit British), and I was dreaming about making fried green tomato and pimento cheese sandwiches, peach cobbler, and some good ol' boiled peanuts.

Lava

Stratification.

Lava is so insanely cool (hot?), you can't even comprehend it until you see it first hand.  Lava takes charge, it does what it wants to do.  Nothing will stand in the way of lava.  

Oozing over the road.

Curtains.

Wave.

Braids.

The Hawaiian Spirit

"In Hawai'i we greet friends, loved ones, and strangers with Aloha, which means with love.  Aloha is the key word to the universal spirit of real hospitality, which makes Hawai'i renowned as the world's center of understanding and fellowship. 

Try meeting or leaving people with Aloha.  You'll be surprised by their reaction.  I believe it and it is my creed.

Aloha to you."

-Duke Paoa Kahanamoku

The Sea

The sea holds such an immense power with it's crashing waves, it fearsome predators, and its abundance of life.  Perhaps because I grew up on the water, and always vacationed at the beach, I am completely head over heels in love with the sea.  Here is my tribute to the ocean here in Hawaii.  

The sea.

Sea arch.

Sea turtle at the black sand beach.

Algae covered rock at the black sand beach.

Perhaps not the most photographic picture, but I felt that none of the others of this beach were able to capture just how black the sand really was.

Water rushing back out to sea at the Ka Lea, the southern most point in the United States.

The clear blue sea at Ka Lea.  I love how the horizon is curved in this picture, one of those rare reminders that we do, in fact, live on a globe.  

The incredibly alien landscape of the green sand beach.  Doesn't this look like something out of Star Wars?

The beautiful turquoise sea at the green sand beach.

Volcanoes National Park

Steam rising from the crater of Mount Kilauea.  

The landscape at Volcanoes National Park was one of the most primeval, uncompromising landscapes that I have ever seen.  It was truly incredible to see how the earth was formed, and an incredible lesson in the vibrancy and sheer determination of life.  Once a lava flow has hardened to rock, sediment and nutrients gather in the cracks and plants like the fern below take up residency, their roots slowly cracking the rock, creating an environment for other plants.  

We took an early morning hike through the mist down the ridge of a crater, and then straight through the middle of the lava field.  Being the only people on the trail made the landscape seem even more desolate, and it really made me wonder why the early Hawaiians decided to make this place their home, when just the other side of the island is a lush, tropical rainforest.  But our homes mean more to us than the sum of the productivity of the land - we adjust, we adapt, we slave over the land to make it livable simply because it's our home, and where else would we want to live but home? 

The desolate landscape.

Ferns.

Plants eke out a living in cracks on a lava field.

Steam vents.

Path through the lava field.  

Tropical Paradise

I don't quite know how to accurately explain what it's like to fly into a tropical paradise.  June 1st, I flew to Hawaii to visit my cousin, and to take possibly one of the best vacations of my life.  Even after a 9 and 1/2 hour flight, I was wide awake as soon as I hit the open-air airport, and drove across the island to this wonderful view from my cousin's porch.

The very next day, we flew to the Big Island (Hawaii) for a week long stay.  On our first spin out of the airport we stumbled upon a scenic route.  (Never, ever pass up the scenic route.)  Then on our way to Volcanoes National Park, we drove to Akaka Falls, a wondrous 442 foot waterfall.  The whole day was probably the best introduction to the tropics that I could possibly ask for.  Here are some black and white photos from that first day on Hawaii.

A grove of palms.

Beautiful trees.

A coconut on a beach - how much more tropical can you get?!

I adore these trees with their fabulous roots.  

More roots.  A tree at Akaka falls.  

Akaka falls.