adventuring in california!
note: wifi is spotty here and i can only get it at one location, the farmhouse, so i wrote this post on tuesday and i'm now posting it on thursday.
so! blog time! here's a little update on what i've been up to. i have been adventuring for two full weeks now. left CT last tuesday morning for california - san francisco specifically. visited ms. genevieve, who was a wonderful hostess. picked my travel buddy and partner-in-crime vikki and myself up from the airport, and proceeded to take us on a lovely hike in merin county, not before stopping in at a sausalito diner where vikki and i devoured pancakes (banana, blueberry, and raspberry) and a turkey avocado sandwich because californians love their avocado. then, as mentioned, we hiked and had a beautiful view of the bay area and got to test out some real mountains, not hills of new england. while in san francisco vikki and i also wandered from the ferry building to golden gate park, found the full house park, had tea in the japanese tea garden, ate delicious venezuelan food at cha cha cha, tried habenero-infused tequila, had the best croissants ever at tartine, and paid the san francisco "sin tax" on unhealthy food. it exists. and our churros cost extra because of it. oh yea! we also went to the "elbo room" to hear the afrobeats of afrolicious and took pictures in an old school photo booth. pretty much we ate a lot of food, walked a lot and lounged in parks a lot. and admired public transportation trollies that were modeled after trollies of other cities world-wide and had some lovely ferry rides. seeing genevieve and visiting san francisco was a good time. we left friday morning on a bus to fresno to begin part II of our adventure: WWOOFing.
sunrise at JFK international airport, NYC.
WWOOFing stands for World Wide Opportunities in Organic Farming, or Willing Workers on Organic Farms, I've heard both. it's a network of farmers worldwide that offer folks the chance to learn about organic farming, providing room and board in exchange for roughly five hours of work 5 days a week. the farm i am on is located in north fork, california, in madera county, and is absolutely wonderful. it's the kern family farm, run by hansel kern and his wife sue, and their son and daughter. the farm is 80 acres and encompasses several greenhouses which mostly grow salad greens, several fruit trees (several varieties of apples and cherries which are just about ready for picking), strawberries, grapes, and tons of veggies such as potatoes, onions, garlic, squash, cucumber, etc. they also have goats for milk and cheese, chickens for fresh eggs, and some very cute and fluffy great perenese dogs. located up a winding mountain road, in the sierra national forest, in the foothills of yosemite. absolutely spectacular place. which also runs on mostly solar and wind power, i think 90%. i really can't gush enough about this place, surrounded by natural beauty and peacefulness. i don't get any cell reception or 3g here, and that's a good thing.
the view from the amazing studio on the farm of the sierra national forest, at sunset.
every morning fellow WWOOFers and i meet at 8am by the farm shed to get our daily tasks - today was "gleaning" strawberries and planting spinach and radishes in the lower greenhouse. gleaning consisted of taking all the over-ripe and rotten strawberries off the plants so they can use their energy on producing newer, better strawberries and not put energy into the non-edible pretty rotten ones anymore. we must have spent almost four hours picking, and then another hour planting spinach plants and seeds. it was fun though, and not too difficult. last week we were loading the truck up with firewood and harvesting onions and garlic, a little bit more strenuous of tasks. but they are always very interesting and full of learning experiences for sure. and the best part is, after our working mornings, we come together in the main house for a large family-style lunch prepared by two people from the WWOOF crew, all made from whatever is on hand. today we had a bunch of mixed veggies that went into a stir fry, a pot of lentils and rice, salad greens with a homemade peanut sauce, and then two chickens that got the ax last night were turned into a fantastic chicken salad with apples and raisins. there was also green kale and collard smoothies for extra vitamins. lunch has been amazing everyday and is definitely needed and appreciated after the morning's tasks. and we all get to sit around a big table and enjoy it together. right now there are roughly 10 WWOOFers here... several have been here for a few months, and one WWOOFer over a year now.
then in the afternoon vikki, another WWOOFer cameron and i went to robert's, a beekeeper, to extract honey. this encompasses taking "frames" of honeycomb, "uncapping" the wax combs with a hot knife so the honey can drip out, and then loading up the extractor centrifuge with 30 frames so it can spin around the honey can get flung out, and drain into a strainer (to catch extra wax and dead bees) into buckets. it's a pretty enjoyable task, with unlimited honey to snack on, except for the constant buzz of the bees around and trying to avoid them. lucky for me i haven't been stung, but the other two weren't quite as lucky today. update: today, thursday, i got stung in all places on the farm, on the ear. no bueno.
frames after they've been uncapped and loaded into the extractor.
fun fact - as i am typing this right now there is a pack of coyotes howling in the distance. kind of crazy.
this experience has been fantastic so far, and it is sad to say that my two weeks here is going to be over thursday. i have learned a ton about farming, especially running a small farm, and i am going to be sad to go. sunday evening vikki and i will be making our way to long beach, washington, for our second farm on WWOOF tour USA 2012. but this place is going to be hard to leave. especially since there are KITTENS here.
