if you could smell me now

a slice of a portrait of the day :

I hope my clothes (and only towel) will soon be dry. The only remaining garments I have I am wearing: swim trunks and a beautiful nepali shirt, both of which have been spattered by an effective microorganism (EM) mix that I just foliar sprayed on hundreds of plants, especially the mango orchards, citrus orchards of lime, orange, tangerine, grapefruit and pomelo, also various other plants and bushes including breadfruit, dragonfruit (a twisting cactus) and the nitrogen fixing trees (leucania, gliricidia) that they are being trained to trellis up, surinam and acerola cherry, guavas, coconut palms, mulberries, kukui nuts, pigeon pea, cassava, hibiscus... the wind is supposedly 90% from the east, but I discovered that it likes to go in all directions this afternoon. the mix is a lactobacilis starter culture mixed with water, molasses, fish emulsion and kelp meal, allowed to ferment anaerobically for several days. great for the plants to take in through their leaves, supplementing their diet of co2 and sunshine, and I'm sure my epidermis is glowing.

...in the twilight. the sunset was orange through purple, the sky thick with fluffy clouds, the winds perpetual. a good day for clothes to dry, though I just got them on the line an hour and a half before dark.. . still I shouldn't count out the potential for rapid clothes drying in the sub tropics, even in late march, at the tail end of the rainy season.

...and this morning it drizzled and cold air rippled through the tents of the waimea farmers market, where I hung out with the uluwehi farmers and friends selling citrus (that I harvested
on thursday), carrots, beets, salad, basil, avocadoes... I got a ride from a fellow who makes kombucha, fills up beer kegs with it and sells it by the jar (today the flavor is jamaican liliqoi).
I spoke to, in little segments, between the rushing waves of her familiar by name enthusiastic customers, a woman who, with her partner, practices a form of no-till farming , using only a subsoil plow to cut narrow trenches within a cover cropped bed, just big enough to drop in seed. at least thats what I picture. she sold me 3 daikon radishes, each 2-3 feet long, the diameter of my ankles and weighing several pounds... she also sells lots of cabbage and has never made kim chee or sauerkraut. ...

which I've started to go at again. I made a great batch of dinosaur kale, garlic and coriander that was well appreicated my many mouths and bellies. and now there's a red cabbage/onion/ginger/garlic mix bubbling up (the first foamy escapees got on my fancy skirt that was the only available cloth at the time to throw over the top of the fermenting jar... the odor now blends with the EM spray the wind (and my own hand) brought upon me, to remind me that if I try to bike to a party some fellow interns are dj ing at that I hope my towel and clothes are dry so that I can stand under the outdoor solar-heated shower, and uncover some more socially acceptable odors hiding out underneath the dressings.) I hope to arrange a visit this mid week and bring some kim chee to these farmers which they will like and offer to supply me with veggies if I ferment them and split the earnings of the sales a/o hire me to work at their no-till farm.

I try to meditate this weekend, at a mostly empty farm (the interns have all split or are away until monday). it was great to zig zag a path between all the trees, spraying them insidciminant of size or type with invisible microbes that insist, 'thrive, thou, thrive'. I discovered some cherry tomatoes growing around a couple young guava trees. what a treat ( and a good idea to interplant viney goodies amongst trees in your orchard.) it was peaceful to just walk around with a simple gift, observing so many living greenies doing their thing.
I fed the remaining pregnant goat, Cedar, a bouquet of haole koa, pigeon pea and moringa. she was into it...

I meditate on what am I doing next. I begin to transition out of this uluwehi place, just as I begin to feel I know it a little. I seek out paying work gigs, I try to understand if it's my place around here in the north/north west region of the island or if I take off for Puna. .. or if my exploration here is done and its time to return home and apply what I've learned, to return stronger and reborn to the evolution of my work in the northwest, still in progress, dormant, yet able to wake and any moment and be hungry for guidance. ....

I day dream about designing homesteads on acreage and urban lots, of growing daikon and fava beans and siberian pea shrubs, oats, blueberries, and mulberries. of michorhyzzials, bokashi balls (EM) and nettle tea. treehouses, and well insulated greenhouses. ...

the mosquitoes sneak into this little computer/library building and get my knees and root-tops (the parts peeking out from my soil-feet)
I've got some leftover miso soup and quinoa and hopefully some dry clean clothes to change into.