food!

Food is on my mind! I guess it is that time of year - the garden bounty is starting to boom. Unfortunately, some of the stories are sad...like our bolting kale, mustard greens, and premature broccoli. Such a bummer! I think a combination of not watering during a warm, dry period (we were in Kauai) and then this long stretch of premature summer weather are taking their toll. We will see what we can do to save our spring veggies from checking out too early. In the meantime, we are enjoying eating the fresh leafy greens! Fortunately, we have another round of greens planted a little more recently and they are looking great.

Tonight, I joined the Lindsley clan at the Lane Community College culinary arts spring cuisine dinner. It was a 100 mile theme - the students found local sources of meat, veggies, dairy, and herbs for all their dishes. The food was great! They had the most amazing beet dish with an asparagus cream sauce, oh my! There was a hazelnut sauce to put on the pork shoulder (there was also an apple and a mustard sauce...choices!) that was also absolutely amazing. I had chicken crepes, beef from Deck Farms, sauteed shittakes, strawberry flambe, wilted greens, and a few different deserts. Yum! What a treat...and all from within 100 miles! I am so lucky to live in the Upper Willamette Valley!!

Project for this weekend - brewing a blonde ale. We are going to try another method and pull out the hops earlier. I enjoyed the first beer - the bitter that Cam brewed before coming out to fetch me. I'm not yet sure how I feel about the red ale that we made, but Cameron seems to like it. I hope it goes well. I look forward to having a good summer beer around now that summer seems closer than ever.

p.s. I posted pics for the first Kauai post, but I haven't gotten them for the others yet. Soon though!

just an every day

Well, well, well...just another day! We are having summer in May here in Oregon. I don't think I've seen a drop of rain since we returned from Kauai and I think we'll have to wait until June before we get another drop. I've been watering the garden already, hoping that our lovely little greens don't get the wrong idea and go bolting on us. Cameron mowed for something like 3 days straight and is now making the shift to firewood collection for next year.

Not much else exciting to share...I've been spending hours behind the computer, writing away. Work has been keeping us pretty busy these days. I hope you are all having more exciting days!

kauai - part 3

Well, before I forget the details I should probably let you know the end of Kauai story! After our catamaran trip we had 2 1/2 days left on the Garden Island. One of the things we learned is that weekends are actually a bit quieter than weekdays because a large number of tourists come/go on Saturday. I didn't notice a dip too much at the places we went, but we did notice less cars on the road.

On Sunday we got up early and drove to Waimea Canyon along the Waimea Canyon Drive. What a spectacular road! You drive right up the ridge and get great views of the canyon on the way up. We had grabbed a pre-made veggie wrap from a market in Waimea (not a lot of food options there Sunday a.m.!) and had a little brunch at the Canyon Lookout. The clouds had been rolling in all morning, but we still got some great views of the canyon. It reminded us of the views at our recent stop at the Grand Canyon - only a lot greener.

We continued on up to the Kalalau Lookout, but to our great dismay the clouds had already socked in the viewpoint and we could see nothing. We decided to go on our 8 mile hike anyhow and struck out along the Pihea Trail, past the socked in vista, and continued through the Alaka'i Swamp to the Kilohana Lookout. Of course, also socked in. But, goodness me, I'm leaving out the best part. It started raining after we were about a mile on the trail. Thinking, this will pass, we continued on. Thankfully we brought our rain jackets because it absolutely poured! And poured. And poured. So for seven miles we walked through the warm-ish rain. Boy did we get wet! If it had been colder there might even have been a need for concern, but fortunately it was not too cold. The hike through the boggy swamp was nice - boardwalk most of the way. Parts of the trail were very slippery and parts were simply puddles and streams, but seemed to make it through without much trouble.

After returning to the car and changing into dry clothes, we headed down to the Koke'e Museum. It's a small and somewhat old museum, but absolutely perfect for us science geeks. There was a relief map and info on flora, fauna, and climate. You see, though our Kauai Revealed book is the best kind of guide for visiting the island, there is no info on nifty science stuff. We were feeling starved for some island details. Leaving the museum we knew all sorts of cool things like the fact that you can get a permit to hunt for one pig every day all year round and that red headed bird we see absolutely everywhere is a cardinal from South America. My personal favorite were the 1885 native flora plates painted by a sugar plantation wife. Simply lovely!

We headed back towards Anahola hoping to pick up some din-din along the way. To our great dismay, Sunday is NOT the time to find local food anywhere. Everything was closed but the resort related restaurants. We finally found a little fish shack in the Coconut Marketplace and the lady there hooked us up with Ahi fresh from the boat that morning. Yummy!

Monday was our last full day and we took it easy. The morning was slow and leisurely. We decided to head out around midday to grab some lunch and sit on the beach to eat. Unfortunately, Monday is also not a good day for local food - lots of places were closed. So we grabbed those fresh island ahi tacos from Papaya and found a picnic table at the Kapa'a Beach Park.

After a relaxing lunch we headed into the hills to find a little waterfall trail off of Kapahi Road. Part of the trail was an old dirt road, the rest is such a simple a lovely walk. Very short, very worthwhile! There are two falls on Kealia Stream, both of which you can get right up close to (or in the middle of, depending on streamflow). One of the falls is called Ho'opi'i, but it depends on who you are talking to in order to figure out which one it is. But that doesn't really matter, does it? This was such a relaxing and easy-going walk with so many trails that you can walk along the stream or up through the woods, depending on which you prefer.

After our walk we high-tailed it to Koloa to visit with Cameron's childhood friend, Ashley, her son Kai, and another little girl, Paris. Ashley has found a great location - at the end of the road on 3 acres! It's hard to find space on an island were folks are packed in like sardines. She and her partner in crime (who was gone on a family visit to the mainland with his son) have lots of planting plans and are already hard at work taming the parts of the jungle that were very literally at their back door.

The five of us and three little dogs drove west to Polihale State Park and walked along the longest beach on the island. This is the end of the road (just past the Pacific Missile Range Facility). We glimpsed the western end of the Na Pali Coast (where we took the catamaran ride to) and got great views of the "forbidden" island of Ni'ihau. The adults had plenty of interesting conversation to keep us going until the sun set, while the kids dug giant holes in the sand. It was pretty windy out there, so the poor Chihuaua pup got a bit chilly.

We dropped Ashley and the kids back at home so they could get some rest in before the next school day and headed back towards Anahola. Our 9pm return to the eastern side of the island was a giant strikeout for dinner. Tired and famished, we picked up some provisions at the general store (too tired to cook at home!), filled our bellies and crashed.

That brings us to our final day on the island - Tuesday. We packed and cleaned up relatively quickly and headed out to Anahola Beach for one last beach moment. We sat and watched the crabs dart about on the sand - dashing for their hidey holes every time the surf washed over their little kingdoms. The waves were wild and high, so we enjoyed watching them crash on to shore.

After a little stroll up and down the beach, we returned to home base to pick up our bags and head out for lunch. We stopped by Waipouli Restaurant (finally open!) and had a tasty and very filling brunch. I barely made it in time to eat since I had to stand in the Foodland line for somewhere between 5-10 minutes (to get provisions for the flight back). Foodland's lines are horrible!!! We nearly forgot to gas up our rental before returning, but all worked out fine and our flight home was without trouble.

So here we are, back in Oregon. The weather has cooperated - warm and sunny, meaning the grass grew like mad while we were gone, the weeds took a stronghold, and the choi and spinach have begun to bolt. But there are iris blooming, our columbine galore, as well as other wildflowers, and I even have 4 little figs on my tiny fig tree. Work has piled up for us and there is absolutely tons to do, as is true every spring. But I would do the vacation again in a heartbeat! Kauai was spectacular! And there is still so much to do! We do hope to return some day.

Pictures - we have something like 700+ photos. After we weed through, I'll come back and add pictures to the blogs. Don't worry, I'll let you know when I do that ;-)

kauai - part 2

Another day in Kauai and all of it spent on or in the water. After a leisurely morning, we headed to Tunnels (Makua Beach) for some snorkeling. This was definitely one of the best places on the island (and Cameron thinks it was the best). As nice as the snorkeling was the view from the beach. The North Coast is absolutely breathtaking. The mountains spike up behind the beach and everything is a lush and verdant green. There is no doubt we are in the tropics.

This truly is the Garden Island. There is every color of flower in every size and shape imaginable. There is no end to the number of botanical gardens - apparently there is one in every location that some bored sugar plantation housewife (or other such rich lady so-and-so) felt like setting one up. They all have guided tours and all include bounties of flowery beauties. We simply haven't had the time to go on a tour, but we have seen a plethora of flowers on hikes, along the road and in regular places (such as planted like daffodils along the sidewalk).

Another unique feature of the island are the stilted homes. Many of the homes are built up off the ground. We asked around today and were told three reasons - termites, to get air circulating around the house, and along certain places along the coast and rivers to keep them up out of flooding and tides. We love the super stilted homes in Hanalei. Oh, and in the Puff song, this name in mispronounced - it is lei and is the lei that you hang around your neck.

We heard all sorts of stories and legends on our afternoon catamaran down the Na Pali Coast. What an exceptional landscape! According to a geologist from a past trip, the island used to stretch another mile or two towards the north. Some earthquake thousands of years ago broke off the now missing part of the island. They have found the missing piece about a mile away on the ocean floor. Cooh, eh? Well, that's why the Na Pali coast doesn't have much of a reef and is mostly sand. It is also why there are 4000 foot peaks looming above the ocean.

Well, enough for now. We will have pictures to give you a better idea of our trip. We saw waterfalls (some with water that falls thousands of feet), duns full of ancestors bones, old rock fences (pre-1920's), caves, waterfalls through caves, turtles, dolphins, begging fish, lots of boats, drunk boaters who needed some rescuing, and lots of locations for movies. It's all in the pics.

We returned to Hanalei to visit Bubba's Burgers (island beef!) and our favorite Papaya natural food store. Home again to Hale Kikoo and some relax time. More fun in the south for the next couple of days. The sun always shines there (or very nearly always). We got our first rain last night and today in Hanalei (after our boat trip). Folks here are very happy it is raining - they've had too many days without rain. And starting tomorrow there is supposed to be a swell on the north side of the island so surfers are trying to figure out how to get days off of work. We will see if we can beat the clouds to the viewpoint in Waimea! Wish us luck!

kauai - part 1

In Kauai and finally not too tired to write down an account of all our latest adventures.

We flew into Lihu'e at noon on Tuesday and were so exhausted from our late night/early morning that we had a mellow afternoon. We drove on up to Anahola to find our VRBO rental (Hale Kikoo) and met a maintenance dude who used to live in Eugene. He pointed us in the direction of Papaya - a local natural food store in the town of Kapa'a - which makes the absolutely best fish tacos we have ever had. Every day we try to find a place that makes tacos as good and so far we haven't been able to top it. On our way out of Kapa'a we stopped at the farmer's market for fresh fruit. We love the woman running the fruit stand! Right away she offered us samples of a strawberry papaya. Thankfully, neither of us said, "No thank you, we aren't fans of papaya," because we absolutely LOVED the papaya! Oh my goodness, if only I had a papaya like this in the past! We promptly bought several papaya, along with fresh pineapple, bananas and a couple of not-yet-ripe mangos (they picked them out for us - 3 days in a bag and we should be ready). She also gave us half of some fruit that we didn't quite catch the name of - white fleshy fruit with brown inedible skin - also very sweet and unique. After our fish taco adventure, we also decided we needed fresh fish for dinner. Apparently, the place to go in Kapa'a is Foodland. Go figure. I guess if you live here you know this, because it was quite a little traffic jam at the fish counter. We headed down to Anahola Beach to hang out and relax for a bit - walked in the surf and at the mouth of the Anahola River. We called it an early night and climbed under the mosquito netting (over the bed) to pass out.


Wednesday was the first day of adventures. We woke up before dawn and headed back down to Anahola Beach to catch the sunrise. Beautiful! We came back to Hale Kikoo to eat piles of fruit for breakfast. Before long we were on the road to do some snorkeling along the North Shore. We were going to go to Hideaways Beach (Pali Ke Kua) and Queen's Bath, but enroute got reoriented towards Ke'e Beach. Ke'e is at the end of the road, right at the beginning of the Na Pali Coast. We had some fun snorkeling along the reef and even saw a monk seal quite close up. There were supposed to be turtles close by, but would couldn't catch a glimpse of them even when we swam out of the protected area to search them down. Ah well.


We headed in to Hanalei for a fish taco lunch and some rainbow shave ice (with macademia nut ice cream) and had a chat with a haole (i.e. Caucasian) about the area. After some long debating over weather to do a catamaran trip along the Na Pali Coast (and what day based on what was available), we finally made a decision and planned it based on what the weather may provide. We drove back to Hale Kikoo, switched into hiking gear, then headed into Kapa'a to pick up some more fruit.

After our errands we drove out to take on the Makaleha hike at the end of Kahuna Road. This hike was marked as an "adventure" in the guidebook and that it was. The trail is not easy to find and it is a bit of a mix between bushwaking and trail walking. We were up for the adventure, but time was not on our side...we only had a couple of hours before dark. So we ventured through a bamboo forest and climbed over boulders, scaling our way up and down along the stream. We went as far as we thought reasonable and turned back around in time to walk out before dark. Sometimes it is about the journey and not about the destination. It was a great venture through the Hawaiian rainforest - some incredible trees and all of the adventure it was meant to be (even if we didn't make it to the waterfalls). Cameron did have a little accident with sliding down a rock and into bamboo. The good - the bamboo broke his fall. The bad - bamboo is not soft. Fortunately, this wound, although it does not look so good, is less of a burden than the blister he got from the flippers of the snorkel gear. That wound has been much more troublesome!


We returned home tired, but happy. We made our big fish dinner and slumped into sleep.

Thursday was one long adventure along the Na Pali Coast. We got up a little later, feasted on more fruit, then headed north once again. Destination - the Kalalau Trail that takes you along the Na Pali coastline for a couple of miles. After the beach destination, you need a permit to continue on and it is quite a few miles before you hit another viewpoint so usually you backpack in. It's a rugged 2 miles, but not a bad hike. There were toddlers and teens, barefeet and boots, bikinis and blue jeans...and tons of people! Tons and tons! Hanakapi'ai Beach is a great destination, but the hike to it is really what it is all about. The views of the coastline are amazing. We hiked another 1.8 miles up the Hanakapi'ai Valley to the falls. Along the trail we came across an ancient (?) Hawaiian homestead complete with rock walls and some sort of rock structure (maybe one of their temples to the gods?). There were some newer "ruins" also present, but clearly of the 20th century. As for the falls...spectacular! Wow! If it wasn't a tad chilly up there, we could have swam right under the falls, what a tempting blue pool! The falls were simply splendid and I would highly recommend it for anyone up to the hike.


The eight mile hike (plus photo stops and other such breaks to check out the scenery) took up most of our day and most of our energy. We returned home to make some dinner and with big plans to go and walk along the beach at dusk. We were barely awake enough to finish watching the Kauai visitor's guide before passing out.

Friday became another day of mixed adventures. We got up early and packed our fruit to-go. We headed up the Nounou Mt Trail to catch the view from the top of the Sleeping Giant. And what a view it was! We could see from the mountain side above the Hanalei River to the mountain side above the Hule'ia River south of Lihu'e and all the area inbetween. It was a great way to get your bearings of the eastern half of the island. The walk itself was relatively short (something like the Spencer Butte trail from Fox Hollow for the Eugeneans). There were a lot of locals taking the hike for exercise.


From the trailhead we drove down the Wailua River valley and stopped at an overlook of the river and the 'Opaeka'a Falls (151 feet). A little pig was the toast of the town as a local paraded it around for a few bucks. The poor little piggy was afraid of a yapping little white dog and snuffled along over my feet leaving little muddy noseprints. Funny!


We headed from the east shore south to Koloa and Po'ipu. This is the land of sun and we got a full day of it! We headed to Po'ipu Beach to do a little snorkeling. It was jam packed full of people. My goodness, so many people! We had a good time and caught some views of fish we hadn't seen before. Part of the promotory was roped off due to a visiting monk seal. According to the TV visitor's guide, there are only about 30 or 35 around Kauai, so we've seen two already, that's pretty good!

We left to find fish for lunch (this seems to be the theme, doesn't it?) and hit the Koloa Fish Market in downtown Koloa. It was take-out only so we grabbed our food and went to the grocery store to also grab a couple of beers. At the store we asked the cashier for a suggestion on where to go to eat and got the answer of the baseball field. On our way out the door, the woman who had been in front of us in line stopped us and gave us a better suggestion.

We headed back down Po'ipu Road to the Maha'ulepu Beaches and found ourselves in paradise. It was quiet (very few people), tons of shade, and absolutely gorgeous. We ate lunch in Kawailoa Bay - my goodness, it was tasty fish! Then we relaxed in a shady spot on the beach. I took a little nap while Cameron snapped some shots and "snoozed". After our afternoon break, we walked further down the coast line to two more beaches complete with rocky cliffs, lithfied sandstone, dry blowholes, and incredible views of the coast. The rocks were very sharp, but the walking was easy. And it is completely worth ducking through the fence to see the last beach, trust us.


We took the scenic route back home and drove along the Huleia River. Also totally worth it! What a quiet road, nearly no traffic, and exceptional views of mountains and the river. We stopped back by our favorite daily market - Papaya - for water (we refill the gallon jugs daily) and a few additions. On the way back to Anahola, there were still a few minutes of sunlight so we headed out the Kealia Road to see if we could get back into this plateau of trees we had seen from the top of the Sleeping Giant. Unfortunately, we had to stop at the monument a sugar baron made to himself because the road appeared to end.


We returned to Hale Kikoo to make giant salads complete with fresh island avocado and relax. Long day! Right now it is pouring down rain - the first time since we arrived so I count us as lucky. Cameron was sound asleep until the rain kicked into high gear and is now wondering why I am still on the computer. So off to bed! Sorry, no pictures for now, I think I've done quite enough for the evening. Sorry if there are typos...to tired to go back and check for now. I'll have to update that later ;-)

Tomorrow...if the weather holds we will be on a catamaran up the Na Pali coast and snorkeling offshore. Oh, life is so tough here ;-)

taking in the view

We all need a little time to take in the view. Hope you are having a great weekend!

wildflowers!!

What a beautiful morning! The sun is beaming down, everything is green, the pileated woodpecker is cackling away in the distance. The madrone are in full bloom!

Yesterday, I went on a spectacular spring walk through Mt. Pisgah Arboretum. I just have to say - this is the best time to go! You get a great cross-section of early spring and spring flowers depending on where your feet take you. In the Watergarden we saw larkspur (Delphinium), fringe cup (Tomiea menziesii), maybe Mitella caulescens tucked away in there too!, meadow rue (Thalictrum), wood violets, trillium, Star Solomon's seal (Maianthemum stellatum), buttercups, and a couple of flowers that I didn't recognize. Along the lower end of the South Boundary trail we found the reliable spot for cat's ear (Calochortus), iris, columbine and baby's tears (Nemophilia menziesii var. atomaria). Cruising the Plateau Trail we saw more larkspur, Lithophragma parvaflorum, monkey flower (Mimulus guttatus), and shooting star (Dodecatheon), among many other buttercups and small flowers I don't know the name for. We went on a hunt for Calypso bulbosa (calypso orchid), but didn't hit up the right spots. Through the entire walk we ventured through fields of camas! I love fields of purple, especially when the camas is complimented with some larkspur. There are so few places that still have fields of our native lily, such a shame that it doesn't still fill our valley in the spring! Also along the entire trip we saw the bane - Geranium lucidum. Ugh. It spreads so fast and wipes things out so completely, what a nasty little invasive! It was absolutely everywhere - along the edge of every trail and creeping slowly into the field/wetland/woods. So sad!

Well, I tried not too bore you with too many scientific names, but I figured I needed at least a few to clarify the plants that come with many names. If you are in the Valley, you should make a stop by Pisgah before it is too late! (Oh, and sorry no photos, I was simply too lazy!)

And if you know Deven & Elly, you should see his Sidalcea! I wish that too was blooming like mad in our meadows again!

pizza and flowers

Last night was pizza night at the Gunn's using their woodstove oven. We used the fabulous Artisan Bread in 5 minutes a day recipe to make yummy dough. Piles of toppings were close at hand as we masterfully decorated 7 pizzas of various combinations. We gorged on pizza and a homemade bitter brewed this winter. Yum!!

Of course, my intent was to snap photos in action, but alas, I forgot! Though I was tempted to take pictures of the remaining slices (once I remembered my folly), I thought better of it and decided to leave it up to your imaginations.

The next few days will be packed with exciting events and piles of writing. Yet I must squeeze in a trip to Pisgah before the camas and larkspur stop blooming. Fields of camas...I wish the Willamette Valley was still so!! The Watergarden is also a must see this time of year. I hate when I miss it and have to wait another 365 days!

cinco de mayo

The sun has made an appearance and Miso (who gets a bit stir crazy with the days of rain) is going absolutely non-stop. She begs to go outside, sits at your feet, and as soon as you let her out the door she runs around like she's making up for lost time. Admittedly, I act somewhat similarly. I'm sitting right next to the window, glancing up to see the sun play on the verdant green leaves, and spend most of the time wishing I was out there playing around too.

We've been busy around here. A big chunk of the time has been in contemplation over our plans for the next few years. You gotta just sit down and talk about these things sometimes. It doesn't feel overly productive in the sense of tangible products, but in then end we've got a picture of where we are going and how we'd like to get there. I really can't believe how much brain power goes into contemplation and planning at this scale!!

Of course, we've been busy doing more than thinking. ;-P It's good thing we have a white erase board for all my lists. Every morning I hang around the board writing things down as they pop into my mind. Every day we try to check things off the best we can. But plans go up in the air with unexpected changes - such as this little bout of blue sky...maybe I should just go out to the garden for a bit?

clouds?

The weatherpeople are saying clouds and rain for today, but I am seeing sunshine and warm weather. This means computer work is postponed until the clouds come in and outdoor work is put on the front-burner. I only have a week to make some quick progress before it becomes too late for spring plantings. On the agenda today is clearing out the remaining grass and weeds so I can get the wildflower seeds sown. I can't believe how much headway the grass made this year!

It has also been an unfortunate winter of loss when it comes to flowers and herbs. Several plants died this year, including the large rosemary in front of the house. Bummer! There are some big gaps, but I guess that leaves me some spaces to fill!

As usual, we have several shrubs to find places for that deer won't get to...red-osier and lilacs are in need of good homes in the yard. Fortunately, the veggies are doing well (despite the battle against slugs). I'm getting prepared to bulk up on some of the food stuffs we've only had in smaller quantities in the past - especially basil and spinach. Good for pesto and the freezer!

Cameron and I are still working our way through the cross-country trip photos. We hope to have them posted soon. For now, here's some pics of the home front....


Here are some pics of the lovely work done by our friend Mary Trask who owns Gallery 66. The blue table is our spectacular wedding gift!! The flowery tile was a table top, but we couldn't bring the entire table home in the little blue Honda.


Cameron has been busy with yeasty concoctions. We are enjoying the "Beymer Bitter" now, while waiting for the "Righteous Red" to become drinkable. Both beers are organic. Below is a pick of Cameron's braided loaf, complete with fennel and poppy seed topping.


And as always, we work on wood. Our friend Tom has lent us his wood splitter and Cameron is working his way through the pile of rounds in the driveway (right now, in fact).


That's it for now...Miso patiently awaits play time outside!