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.

Summer garden

Over the course of the past several months we have been able to have a number of beautiful garden fresh salads. Thanks to plentiful and delicious carrots and green onions we always had something fresh from the garden to go with pesto (made from basil we grew and locally grown mac nuts) or homemade veggie pizza! This was the last best pizza we made, early in the summer.














We recently (finally) harvested the last of our carrots. We had left them in the ground far to long. They lost their wonderful crisp sweet taste and grew all kinds of strange twisted appendages! They are still good to use in soups or stews, or even grated; just can't have them alone, otherwise they have a very sharp flavor. . similar to a parsnip. There was one carrot that looked amazingly animated like some sort of strange creature of the garden. . .


















We also finally planted our collection of pineapple tops. They had been accumulating for several months and one of our friends gave us a hard time about not planting them, so. . . here you go Kelly!









This is our turmeric plant in the gray pot. We planted some sprouted turmeric root and sprouted ginger root that we purchased at the store and they both have leafed out quite well, but the turmeric, wow! It is over 2 feet tall now and has another new shoot of leaves.










When we returned from our trip to the east coast back in late May, we were very happy to discover that the Lychee tree fruit were ready for picking and eating! We tried a variety of ways to pick them and never got a good idea of how to reach the ones at the very top. But the tree was loaded and all the fruit were so delicious and juicy and tart-sweet!



























Also upon returning we found that our pest-resistant mustard greens had a white mold on their leaves and also had grown tall yellow flowers. Amazing what can happen in only 10 days time! We let the birds eat the seeds for a few days and then we decided to cut them down and use the space for something new.




















We had many excellent green bean harvests throughout the summer. Despite the way the leaves had been totally devoured and made into skeletons by some mysterious creature, we continued to get lots of delicious beans.
Also, we continue to get lots of hot peppers.

BIG Island trip continued. . .

Here is an image from the lava viewing area that we went to while visiting the Big Island. This is the place where the lava flows into the ocean, after a long journey down across the landscape. It was mostly a lot of orange colored smoke but there was also intermittent sparks and flames which delivered lots of "ooo's and ahhh's" from the gathered crowd. After the sun had set and the stars began to show themselves it was pretty incredible. Here is a link to a video. right at the end you can catch some sparks and flames: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ak17QRlg61I


After Sam and Russell and I arrived on the Big Island, we went into Hilo town for lunch and some camping supplies. We happened upon the weekly Farmer's Market which was a wonderful array of tropical fruits, delicious fresh-made Vietnamese foods, fresh made sweets and breads and more. We bought Jackfruit, egg fruit (Canastel), brown-sugar fruit, as well as avocado, papaya and mountain apple. Our camping meals for the weekend were very tropical!

Hilo town was a cool place because it was really walk-able and near the coast and, well, it had the great Farmer's Market! A lot of the architecture in the downtown area was pretty old, but cared for so that made it more interesting to explore by foot. They even had a "Kress" building, like the ones in downtown Tampa and Sarasota.





After we set up camp at Hawaii Volcanoes N.P. we headed over to check out the park before sundown. The Kilaeua-iki trail and overlook were super foggy. But when we returned the following day, the view was quite clear and you could see the see all of the steam vents.



We also went to walk through the Thurston Lava Tube. There were lots of delicate ferns growing around the entrance to the tube.

























It was pretty dark and damp inside, just like being inside of a cave. The lighting was fun to take photos with. Here is one of Sam and Russell walking through the tube and also some ferns growing out of the light.

BIG Island trip

In June, we went over to the the "Big Island", Hawaii, with our friends who were visiting from Florida. We camped at Hawaii Volcanoes National Park for a couple of nights (in a beautiful, but windy Eucalyptus grove) and went on a great day hike through an old lava field. There were active steam vents (see photo below) in some parts of the hike, but much of it was old lava rock. The landscape was incredibly barren and exposed. Lots of wind, and also some rain on the return hike. We saw some tree molds, made by the streams of lava, as it flowed around tree trunks. You can see Sam looking down into a cave-like hole; that's a tree mold. Our friend Kelly also found a lava chair to sit and relax on.



































































































Check out this amazing Banyan tree. It is the biggest one I have seen outside of Florida. It reaches over fifty feet in multiple directions. The branches were so thick that it looked like sinew. This was at Rainbow Falls Park in Hilo.