October garden update

The amaranth that Russell planted earlier in the summer has really taken off. It is a little over 5 foot tall now and a beautiful reddish color.











We are planning on harvesting the grain, or "seeds" from the flowers soon. You can also eat the leaves, but they aren't very tender once the plants get this big!













Cherry tomatoes are beginning to fruit. I ate the first red one two days ago!









Volunteer watermelon that is about softball size now. Thanks Sam!










Daikon radish!









And the yard long beans! They just keep coming. Yard long beans on our pizza, in our black-eyed-pea stew, in salads and on the side with garlic and lemon. We even put a bunch in the freezer for later.













Her family did call her the "Green Bean Queen" when she was a child. . .

Poli Poli Springs

Recently we went on a hike that was unlike any other we have found here on the tropical island of Maui. With the scent of warm pine needles floating through the air, we walked along on the soft ground past giant Redwoods enjoying the thought of being someplace very different.


Poli Poli Springs is a part of the Kula Forest Preserve, at about 6,000 ft. elevation. It is filled with many kinds of non-native trees. It is just below Haleakala National Park. You can actually hike from the summit in the National Park, down a trail on state land and end up down in Poli Poli.






It was wonderful to be surrounded by such a different habitat, even just for the day. This hike was good medicine for what they call "island fever".








But it also seemed unusual to find young Eucalyptus trees growing alongside mature conifers.




























There was a cave on a short spur trail. As I looked out from the cave, Russell was captured in the beaming light at the mouth of the cave.

















By early afternoon, the clouds started to roll in. It made us both feel like we truly were somplace in the Pacific-Northwest, or Northern California. . . not Maui!?




Lots of fallen branches and trunks covered in bright green lichens and the most beautiful snag, quite dramatic in the clouded light.