my host larry picked me up at a coffee shop near the pier and we went to a wonderful potluck. it was high up in the hills above santa barbara, in a community called 'painted caves'. when we arrived there was caroling underway in a gazebo which was up at the highest point of our host's very high up property. it was a spectacular view for sure. the singing circle ended shortly after we got there, to my dissapointment. i met the my second enlightened tennis player of the day and many other wonderful, relatively aware individuals.
the place where larry lives in meiners oaks, near ojai, has quite a nice little garden with several productive fruit trees and pretty nice, loose soil. this garden has been established by the owner, george, over the years. the was they compost is by digging a hole under the blood orange tree, depositing the quart or so of compost, and covering it back up. it works, and has its benefits i suppose. it felt good adding my pee to the soil in the yard as well. the blood oranges were not ripe when i was there, but the meyer lemons and satsuma mandarins were! my family used to buy satsumas every year around the holidays and they were a favorite treat. this year i got to eat them right off the tree! how wonderful! and i've had the pleasure of drinking almost all my water with lemon in it since santa cruz.
on the saturday the 24th was the farmer's market in santa barbara. i make a point of attending the farmer's markets whenever i am able. there was quite a bit of wonderful produce at this one and i spent $30. my last two bucks i spent on chantrelle mushrooms and the guy hooked me up well! i ran into my friend karolina at this market. she is someone i knew in seattle who has now worked with nash's organic produce for some years. it was funny because nash's came up significantly in the conversation i had with the guy i met on the bus from cambria a few days before... karolina and i made tentative plans to meet up on monday to go out to fairview gardens, a place i heard about first at the potluck and intended to visit.
finding the library was closed for the holidays i wandered back towards the farmer's market, thinking if i could find a place to get cash back on a debit transaction i could buy more food. i went in a cafe called our daily bread, but decided not to indulge, then next door at c'est cheese i bought some creminelli wild boar salami. no cash back. so next i stepped into the little used book store. there i ran into one of my fellow Greenstring interns, Richie! i had forgotten he lived in santa barbara and was so surprised and pleased to see him. inquiring with the sharp, old shop owner about whether there were any henry miller books there, she instructed me to look on that wall under 'H'. the first one to catch my eye was his 'BIG SUR and the oranges of heronimous bache', which i ended up purchasing. no cash back here either though. when i got back to the farmer's market they were breaking down anyway. i picked a few broken carrots off the ground at the stand where i had bought carrots. scavenging feels so natural to me. while munching i stopped to check out the crafts of this girl selling knotwork jewelrey by the sidewalk. i had a bracelet in progress pinned to my pants and i shared that with her. it was nice to connect with someone who also does this kind of work.
later in the day saturday i went to a ukulele club meet up outside the maritime museum. they were playing/singing christmas carols on a park bench by the sidewalk. i joined right in and it was really great fun! at times i was off key or said the wrong words, but i just love singing with other people!
a hula hooper woman did some dancing there before i arrived and then i got to meet her towards the end when she was on her way out. i told her i was on a HOOP TOUR and she said she is traveling too. she mentioned the 'sacred hoop' and i felt a mutual recognition in our brief interaction. her website is hooping allure. she is a beautiful dancer!
i did not end up connecting again with karolina, but rode my bike out to fairview gardens on monday anyways. it is a nice bike ride out to goleta from the santa barbara waterfront. there is actually a bike trail that i did not find that would have made the ride even nicer, though a bit longer. i at my lunch contentedly when i arrived at the farm, then went on the self-guided tour, after which i donated the suggested $3. i had hoped they would have some clementines and avocados for sale, but the stand was closed. when i peeked through the covering i saw butternut squash curing on every surface. this farm is doing some very important work. they have made the self-guided tour very informative with several "interpretive panels".
my father had been telling me i must spend some time with larry's sister and her husband, who is director of sustainability at besant hill school, which is near the town of ojai. we rode bikes up there one evening shortly before sundown (beautiful time of day for this ride!) and then i went back a couple days later to see the farm in the daylight and talk more with tod. peter, the manager of the farm there, which is a CSA providing some of the food for the school and wider community, spoke with me for a while and answered some questions about the practices there. some things i liked were the use of mulch, hand cultivation, and cover crops. one of his main goals is to reduce the water usage of the farm dramatically by increasing levels of organic materials in the soil and mulching, among other things.
tod was pruning an apple tree when i rolled up to his place, so i joined in. we conversed while sawing and snipping. we then shared a late lunch and i used the computer to figure out my travel plans for the next day. google maps has been a very helpful tool for me all along the way. after trying to figure out L.A. public transit i decided i would just ride from the train station to my aunts house. the tree pruning was very satisfying work, something i had hoped to do a little of this year, as i have been learning how it is done in the last few years. it was tempting to stay another day and help out more. there are many places on this trip i've felt this way.
on my way back from basant hill i stopped to check out the natural food store in ojai called rainbow bridge. i really didn't need anything, but got some garlic and ginger just in case it was hard to find good stuff in L.A. the woman in front of me at the register let me go ahead, and i bagged her groceries for her. turned out she was an important member of the local sustainability scene! she was involved in pesticide-free ojai and possibly ojai valley green coalition? or something like that. way cool! more mutual recognition with someone supporting important healing work.
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