settling in N. kohala through spring

I am on the biggest mountain of an archaepelago in the middle of the pacific ocean (measured from the ocean floor the largest mt. on the planet). Being transplanted so quickly, it has taken me a while to feel somewhat grounded here. Now, 11 days after coasting in on jet fuel, I'm in North Kohala (the Northwest corner of the big island) beginning a 6-week internship at Uluwehi farm and nursery, a homestead with orchards, gardens and nurseries, near the town of Hawi (pronounced Hah-VEE), and nearer to windy ocean cliffs of black basalt, all gnarly and full of cavities. The ocean spray makes rainbows. It's been very windy here: fiercely blustery, and the rains may come very suddenly and furiously, mostly falling in the evening and night.

It's sub-tropical, and an island, yet it is still clearly the united states of america.

~~ I stayed the first few days with a fellow named Rob who propagates and cares for native plants at his place called 'dancing cloud sanctuary' near Pa'auilo, NE part of the island. He introduced me to several native species such as Ohia and acacia Koa trees, I worked with him a bit at his place, and I accompanied him as he captured some 'koki' frogs that are dangerous to native bugs and plants. I also spent the day in Hilo at a festival in honor of Bob Marley, and later, swam and body-surfed in the turqoise ocean on the Kona side at Hapuna beach. I've been doing well at fending off sun-burn thus far.~~

Then I stayed and worked for a few days at Uluwehi farms 2nd site, called Niulii, that grows vegetables and fruits for Uluwehi's CSA. This is a very magical place to the east of here (on the same peninsula), with a soft blue view of the ocean, and river running through it. I stayed in a yurt that, amidst the nighttime rainstorms, endured rippling walls and slamming door. The rain came in a bit (sideways) through the half-mesh walls, and except for the resolute stillness of the earth itself, I could have been in the gulley of a ship out at sea. I am, I must remember, on a relatively small chain of islands in the middle of the biggest ocean on earth.

The place I'm at is really cool. They propagate and save seed for many, many kinds of plants. There's lots of chickens and ducks, a few geese, a few sheep, 2 goats. There's also a community preschool-kindergarten here on the land that creates a waldorf & montessori inspired learning environment. I've gotten to climb around in some citrus trees, using all four limbs and a makeshift sarong front pouch to harvest limes, oranges and grapefruit; feed goats cuttings off of NFTs (nitrogen fixing trees, mostly legumes and acacias, I think); mulch some glorious little durian trees, with slender green and goldish leaves (they say, "thank you. just wait and see what I've got in store for you."); the usual making garden beds, weeding and forking around mulch...

New fruits to me (there's a poster here of probably something like 100 'exotic tropical fruits of Hawai'i (exotic meaning non-native)') include atemoya (an indescribable combination of cherimoya and "mountain apple" (still unknown to me), jamaican lilikoi (very refreshing, otherwise known as passion fruit, growing all over, vining up trees and fences), jackfruit (juicy fruit gum really does taste like it... I ate some of one that the harvester had watched ripen for 6 months until the winds brought it down..the weight of a bowling ball and twice as big), Champedak (really awesome breadfruit relative, gooey, almost like a durian avocado combo), White sapote, sweet and custardy, rambutan, native to east/se asia, similar to lychee w/ a showy tentacled red party suit.... more are on their way to my mouth I'm sure. Plus I've had plenty of guava, papaya, bananas, coconut and citrus and the mangoes are beginning to ripen.

The farmers/homesteaders I'm worktrading with are part of a growing movement to make Hawai'i food independant. It seems kind of strange since almost anything can be grown here (though there is a list I'm slowly accumulating of things that don't necessarily do so well: it so far includes garlic, apples, pears, stone fruit and blueberries; but it's still pretty speculative... despite the year round heat, there's a row of shelling peas at Niulii. ) and the growing season never ends. But the vast majority of the food eaten on these islands comes in on barges from the west coast. Of course this place, like I said, feels very much like the us, whose people have predominantly forgotten the ways of food-sustainability. In the PNW, coast salish people lived for hundreds of years on an abundance of salmon, clams, seals, whales, salal, thimbleberries, camas, etc. So what we see now does not prove what is possible when it comes to healthy relationship to the land and to earth. Currently, we are barely scratching the surface of what we can do to co-create locally sourced abundance and it's one of the most crucial things we can now be doing.

I'll add some more stories and pictures (if my camera and this computer are able to fit together peacefully).

I send out my love to the 'mainland'. Aloha and mahalo.