Hello everyone!

I've taken my sweet time getting back to this blog since returning to the island over a month ago.  I spent a month on the mainland, enjoying time with my family at my brother's wedding and much needed adventures with my friends in California.  

Somehow, magically and wonderfully, I've a sense of relaxation and ease since returning.  The blog began as a way to reinforce daily farm lessons, yet because I've felt less of a need to prove myself there, I haven't been written lately.  I mean, lots of people think I'm various forms of crazy for spending a year of my life learning to farm, and I'd taken on the pressure of proving its importance to my wider community.  I'm glad that feeling has subsided.  

Now I'd still like to present some farming concepts here, but with the more pure intentions of sharing what's happening in my life and showing a bit of how commercial organic farming works.

For now, please enjoy the photos and the bountiful harvests of fall, wherever you may be.

Love and Respect,

molly

An old surfboard reborn...On the table are seedling trays: every week we plant 55 trays that hold 200 seeds each which means we plant over 10,000 lettuce plants cada semana.  Whew.
Here I am drinking water in the barren prairie landscape heading to Green Sand Beach on the south side of the island.  The sand really is greenish and the steep narrow cove there encourages powerful pounding surf.

We have lots of fun too.  Here's the crew heading to a masquerade ball.  We were definitely the best dressed.  That is my leg wearing the platform denim boots, which lasted approximately 3 minutes once the music started.
Molly y Manu a la playa.  

Reviving the Veggie Garden

Today we finished up our normal Friday activities--planting the beds we harvested yesterday, and seeding all the lettuce seeds for the whole week (~10,000!!)--and everyone headed up to the Upper Garden.

It's a wonderful mess up there, a constant effort to reclaim weedy areas and keep up with the faster growth rates that we find here in Hawaii. I've been managing it more closely in the past few months, with amazing results...Really, with 6 folks up there for two hours, it's like 1 person working for two days straight!

Today Matthew tackled the giant overgrown sugarcane. He macheted it all down to the ground and passed around sweet watery sugarcane sections, a kickback to his recent time in Costa Rica. Max is awesome at flamethrowing, so he torched the weeds encroaching at the edges of the garden. Cristina joined Kate to take out some old flowering Jamaican Amaranth (Kalaloo)--a prolific leafy plant, growing to about 5 feet tall, with killer roots. There was lots of grunting and hoe-hacking involved in this job. Rachel has a broken foot, so she stayed put organizing seeds and making garden signs. Ken hand-weeded the ginger patch (yea! it's finally coming up, so beautifully!) and added rich compost soil around some baby plants. And I weeded, weeded, weeded--using the Hori Hori knife (a supremely useful Japanese dagger-like tool) for handweeding, the hula hoe for within beds, and the hefty wheel hoe for the aisle ways.

I'm so pleased with the improvements up there...it provides the farm community with a lot of nutritious food, which will only grow as it becomes more organized and better cared for.

Here's a list of what is currently growing up there:
Kale (Dino, Red Russian, and Curly varieties)
Rainbow Chard
Collards
Green beans
Carrots
Beets (Chioggia and Red)
Bunching Onions
Cilantro
Parsley
Basil
Jamaican Sorrel
Jamaican Amaranth
Green Cabbage
Asparagus
Arugula
Celery
Plus, there is a row of papaya trees lining one edge and white pineapples flanking two corners.

The garden is an important and sacred place for me. When doing lettuce and coffee work I feel useful, part of a team, like I am learning so much and growing as an apprentice and a leader. The garden provides me with a different sort of space, one where I can experiment with new plants, styles of growing. It's a place that allows for an essential creativity, where it's okay if I mess up occasionally. Plus, it's the best spot on the farm from which to watch the sunset, a true blessing.

~Molly, feeling very dirty, sweaty, and satisfied.