Setting up Camp

After only nine days on the farm, I'm feeling adjusted and already in a routine that is both satisfying and challenging. Hawaii is lovely and the family hosting me could not be more darling or welcoming. I do believe that all of my travel in the third world has given me the perspective to really enjoy my jungle shack. In other words, I've already dealt with

cockroaches, rats, bizarre toilet contraptions, black outs, creative sleeping set-ups, etc -- I have never, however, been faced with an opponent whose main interest was eating my underwear. On my first night I experienced proper solitude for probably the first time in my life. I have been in secluded, quiet places before, but never alone, at night, and for an extended period of time. By 8 at night it is completely dark and the only sound is that of the insects -- I find myself at night struggling to read more than a few pages of my novel for I am just too content to lie in peace and drift off to sleep without a care....Until the morning when I find that another personal item of mine has either been tampered with or taken off with all together. There were four days of devastation in which two pairs of underwear were chewed through and a nail file was missing along with my toothbrush -- we deduced that the culprit was a rat, and a kinky one at that.

My lovely jungle shack that I have all to myself!

The view out the front window from 1800 feet down to the ocean

When I envisioned myself living and working on a sustainable, organic farm for a few months, I had images of wearing flowers in my hair while I planted seeds and watched them flourish to harvest under my care. I did not expect to be doing pest control in the form of spearing slugs trying to eat my African Basil and setting up slap traps in the hopes of finding a few pounds of rat meat in it come morning (I've had two big kills and have had a few nights without incident, but am somewhat compelled to string the rats up over my front door to claim the jungle as mine -- that, however, seemed a bit too Lord of the Flies). Alas, this is life on a farm and I really love it.

The farm is owned and operated by a very knowledgeable couple that not only successfully harvests and sells from their own farm, but have a business in collecting from other organic farms on the Big Island and selling their produce through their CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) and directly to restaurants and health food stores on the island. They are committed to creating a balanced agricultural system for Hawaii in which the food grown by Hawaiian farmers is actually eaten by their fellow statesmen, instead of being sent to far off lands as mass exports. I was told that if the barges from the mainland carrying food and other supplies were unable to dock here for whatever reason, Hawaiians would have 7 days before starvation and chaos would take over. On an island where so much can be grown all year, this is a feasible, albeit challenging, task. The farm grows a wide array of specialty produce from Corn Shoots to Micro Red Basil in the greenhouse while the other 7 acres or so is covered in herbs, Macadamia Nut Trees, Avocado Trees, Pomelo Trees....Suffice it to say that this vegetarian is loving the land that provides her with a pound of kale every single day along with other gifts that drop from the trees!

Lovely sunset seen from the main house