(World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms) Follow our journey as my friend Danielle and I WWOOF out at Bobcat Ridge Avocados Farm (http://www.bobcatridgeavocados.com/) in Watsonville, CA!
You may be a little startled/intrigued by the title of this blog post…. but read on, it’s quite an interesting one!
So, today was our off day in Santa Cruz! We got dropped off at the metro station in Watsonville and took a (verrrry long) bus ride into Santa Cruz. The great thing about the bus ride was that we got to see more of the area than we already had around the farm.
The area is quite gorgeous. If there is one thing you should know about this area, you should know that it’s economy runs on agriculture. You can’t travel more than a mile or two without seeing another farm… there are vineyards, apple orchards, strawberry fields etc. Due to the climate of the area, it’s quite easy for everyone to have a garden, or most likely fruit trees on their property (the most common fruit trees being citrus or persimmon).
The houses we’ve seen are usually beautiful ranch style houses (of a modest size, not too many unnecessarily large ones) with a hint of Spanish flare. In fact, the Hispanic population is fairly prevalent around here. Ken works at a bilingual school where children are taught throughout their time there (K-8) both English and Spanish. Rosie attends this charter school and let me tell you; her Spanish accent is ten times better than mine will ever be.
We finally got into the Santa Cruz metro station, and we were off! We got in at around 8:45AM, so not much was open, but that was perfect for us because we itching to get over to a coffee shop.
After a quick stop at CVS (we were running low on toothpaste), we headed over to a store that I was dying to stop in… Bookshop Santa Cruz. Used book shopping is my (not so) secret obsession. This was probably one of my favorite bookstores that I’ve been in (yet their used book prices were a bit too high, couldn’t beat Rainbow back in Newark).
Yay! (S)anta Cruz!
After our bookshop adventure, we stopped in all the best local shops we walked by (we looked super touristy with our backpacks and all). My personal favorite was the Sockshop & Shoe Company. Danielle and I will admit; socks are one of our favorite clothing items, so we were a bit overwhelmed by the vast selection of the coolest socks you could possibly imagine. The patterns were insane, they had the most unique socks you could have ever imagined, and we just so happened to find the perfect pair for a souvenir from our WWOOFing experience out here in California.
Fitting.
Avocado socks!!!!
After our grand purchase we continued along Pacific Avenue in search of gifts for some important folk back home (you know who you are, get ready, we got some pretty cool gifts). Afterwards, we stumbled upon the cutest restaurant for lunch. Chocolate! With their immense hot chocolate selection and vegetarian/vegan friendly dishes. Danielle and I sat at a cute little table outside and went halfsies on two AMAZING vegetarian sandwiches on this delicious ciabatta bread.
You know a place is going to be great when they have great bread!
Nifty!
NOMZ.
After nomming hard, we decided to stop into Santa Cruz’s local natural food store the New Leaf Community Market. Danielle and I had just enough time to stock up on trail mix and a few other snack foods before Nancy was to pick us up on the way back from some avocado drop-offs.
Overall, Santa Cruz was pretty awesome. We had an amazing day, but it wasn’t long enough!
That night, we experienced a once in a lifetime opportunity. Here’s where the title of this post comes in… we huffed herbs with our host family. Before you jump to any conclusions, let me give a back story.
At this point during our trip, Rosie had been terribly sick with a nasty cold for about 3 or 4 days (Danielle and I were taking major precautions, popping vitamin C’s and being sure to eat our fresh mandarins at snack time), and she was struggling with all the worst symptoms: a horrid cough, stuffy/runny nose, and a sore throat.
Ken decided that it was time for a chamomile tent. What’s a chamomile tent? It’s not even Google-able. Danielle and I were wondering the same thing when Ken asked us if we wanted to join them after dinner. This tent was meant to help clear the airways, smooth skin, as well as (according to an article Ken read), help with asthma symptoms.
Here’s how it goes. You boil up some water in a large pot, steep some loose leaf chamomile tea, place the pot in an area where you can all huddle around it, and take a big thick sheet and enclose yourselves in it (kind of like the parachute activity we used to love in elementary school gym class). While under the ‘tent’ it gets pretty steamy, you take turns stirring the pot and holding your head over it. It was quite relaxing and quite the experience. Danielle and I couldn’t help but giggle as we were all an inch away from each other’s faces and enclosed in our own little world.
There are a few aspects about our WWOOFing experience so far that I’ve left out. One major aspect is the amazing food. Danielle and I both can admit that this is probably the healthiest diet we have ever eaten (and Danielle and I are already eat a pretty healthy vegetarian diet on a regular basis).
For breakfast each day we have steel cut oatmeal, amaranth, or quinoa, with all the possible toppings you could imagine: hemp protein, hemp hearts, rice protein, wheat germ, nutritional yeast, chia seeds, flax seeds, nuts, dried fruit (often hoshigaki), raw cow milk, peanut butter, almond butter, rice milk, raw agave, raw honey… you name it, it’s on the table, and of course, it’s all organic.
SO many toppings!
Nomz.
Lunches and dinners are all cooked by Nancy (or Ken when Nancy is away at crazy environmental conferences combating global warming). Nancy and Ken have been vegetarians their entire lives (Ken’s family has been vegetarian for several generations now), so they have mastered the art of vegetarian cooking. Each meal is made with fresh ingredients from the farm. The only processed foods that we’ve had so far are pastas and cheeses every once in a while (all from Trader Joes, of course). This is basically the cleanest eating you can get! The food has been creatively delicious, and Danielle and I are often asking Nancy for the recipes.
Not only are the meals tasty and fresh, but Nancy also loves to dip into the art of foreign cuisines. Both Nancy and Ken are bilingual in Spanish, and so far we have had a few great dishes with some Spanish flare to them! We have also been having a lot of neat dishes that Nancy’s learned from past WWOOFers from all over the place. A few of the recipes that have come from other WWOOFers include, dosas (an Indian staple, fermented pancakes made from rice and black lentils) and mojo sauce (a spicy sauce that originated in the Canary Islands made from canola oil, cumin, paprika, and apple cider vinegar).
We also have homemade yogurt on a fairly daily basis and let me tell you, it is darn good yogurt. Another perk about working out on the farm is for snack time; Danielle and I simply walk over to the mandarin orange trees and consume at least 2-6 per oranges per day. It’s fantastic!
Another aspect of this experience is the family’s sustainability and environmental consciousness. Not only do they have a Prius and a Nissan Leaf (zero-emission electric car), but also they are sustainable with everything in their house. They reuse all glass jars (and a large collection of mason jars is present, it’s quite wonderful), compost, and don’t use tissues (bandanas and handkerchiefs all the way). With the farm’s gray water system, the water that comes from the house is never wasted (besides the bit that goes through the septic tank). The house is small and tree-house-like. There is no central heating (not that they would really need it in Cali anyways), they have a wood-burning stove for those chilly nights up in the Santa Cruz Mountains.
We have been learning a lot about organic farming, cooking, and sustainable practices that we are excited to take back home with us. A few fun facts that have jumped out at us have been pretty astonishing…
As a PSA, I’d like to inform you that YOU HAVE BEEN LIED TO. The grocery stores have been lying to us all our lives. Limes are not green when ripe; they’re yellow, as yellow as a lemon. Stores sell limes before they are ripe to create distinctions between lemons and limes. I have had a fair share of yellow limes out here and let me tell you, they are a lot better than the green lies we’ve been eating from the store!
Go ahead, take a guess… are these both lemons? A lemon and a lime? Or two limes?
The one on the left is a lime, and the one on the right is a lemon. Notice the difference in color on the inside? I feel as though I’ve been cheated out on good limes my entire life.
Another silly little thing that we’ve learned out here is that the acorns are very different than the typical acorns back on the east coast. Danielle and I asked the silly question of “Nancy, what is that nut under the trees by the gray water system?” With a puzzled look on her face, she replied, “Those? Those are acorns…”
California acorns.
Another thing that Danielle and I have been getting a kick out of is that cauliflowers (the actual vegetable part that we eat) do not like to receive too much sun. In fact, Nancy and Ken have realized over the years that they grow better when the flower is not exposed to too much sunlight. And to solve this, Danielle and I have been doing cauliflower hairdos for the past couple days.
Gettin’ their hair did.
Girl, you lookin’ fine.
One more important fact… stinging nettle does indeed sting through somewhat thin clothing. While working on some fencing for the orchard, I may or may not have squat my buttocks atop a nettle plant and yes; I was feeling the overwhelming stinging effects through my yoga pants for a few hours. Watch out for that nettle!!
For the past two days, Danielle and I have been running around the farm performing a bunch of little tasks here and there. Here’s a few of the more interesting things that we’ve been up to!
One thing that we have been struggling with is an ongoing battle with some pesky aphids that have been munching on kale, cauliflower, and broccoli in the garden. Being an organic farm, your options with pest control are limited; especially with these types of aphids… they are tiny, gray little specks that basically turn into dust when you touch them! Our best bet with the aphids has been power washing them off the plants (it’s quite satisfying), and then using a spray bottle with a mixture of biodegradable dish soap and water. The solution is fine for the plants, but it’s intended to eliminate those pesky bugs that are eating away at your precious produce.
Cauliflower
Kale
Turtle lurkin’.
Along with the aphid battle, Danielle and I got to see our farm’s gray water system in action yesterday. The gray water system allows for all water the used in the house (from sinks, bathtubs, and yes, toilets (after going through a septic system)) to be used for a hose in the orchard. The water travels from the house to a bed of layers of mulch, gravel, and sand to filter out any unnecessary contaminants (although the water was still a bit smelly…). We were able to water about a fourth of the orchard off of the gray water system. Yay water reuse!
This morning we also washed off some of the tubers that we stumbled upon the other day while we were planting onion sprouts!
Clean tubers!
The colors!
During some weeding in the garden we got to turn an edible (slightly pesky) weed into a magnificent salad for dinner. Miner’s lettuce!
Freshly picked
Ready for a salad!
Danielle and I also have a new buddy. His name is Marley. His hobbies include lounging out on the couch in the sun, purring extremely loud, and refusing to catch the mice that have been in the potato cellar. He also enjoys cuddling up on a chilly night up here in the Santa Cruz Mountains.
Today was a very eventful day. Sundays are the weekly Farm and Garden Market in Corralitos. For the market, we were selling a bunch of different things from the farm: avocados (of course, of all different varieties), hoshigaki (dried persimmons using a special Japanese drying method by peeling, hanging, and massaging the fruit for weeks and weeks. The finished product is a lot tastier and juicer than dehydrated persimmons.), calla lilies, lemons and limes, soap root and raspberry plants, and two special items…. Kale chips and the mother load of GUAC.
The morning was spent collecting ripe avocados from the orchard, baking kale, and using 35 pounds of avocados for an enormous amount of guacamole. The kitchen table was FILLED with avocado halves. My mouth was watering the entire time, and let me tell you, the finished product was the BEST guacamole that I have ever tasted.
Once we were done packing the guac into little containers and the kale chips were in their bags, we were off to the market. It was a cute and intimate farmers market at the art center in Corralitos.
We’re ready Corralitos!
After dropping off our produce, it was off to the Scion Exchange at the horticulture center at Cabrillo College. What’s a ‘scion’? No, it’s not some crazy Syfy human-cyborg term… it’s a twig from a tree with two or more buds that is used for grafting! Yay plants!
When we first got there, we walked into a room FULL of people searching through hundreds and hundreds of Ziploc bags of a billion different scions organized by tree type. Nuts, pomegranates, apricots, peaches, apples… you name it, they had it! They also had this amazing fruit display for people to taste a few of the produce that they could possibly graft for.
Pitaya! Also known as ‘dragon fruit,’ comes from a cactus that takes 7 years to produce fruit!
The LARGEST pear we’ve ever seen.
We got to watch demonstrations on the best grafting techniques. It was so interesting to see how this process actually works. I remember talking about it during one of my botany courses a few semesters ago, but I never really got to see first hand how it works. We learned how to cut your scion down so that it can fit perfectly into a rootstalk or into any tree that you’re growing. We learned that the most important thing is to remember cambial contact. Cambium (as in the growth layer) needs to match up on at least one side of both the tree and the scion to actually start growing correctly. There were some really passionate and knowledgeable people presenting and you could tell that they have truly mastered the process.
After a lot of grafting and a lot of jicama and dip, Danielle and I headed outside to soak up some sun and enjoy the view.
Cheers to our first scion exchange! I can definitely say that I am really excited to know how the process works so that in the future if I ever wanted to grow more than 20 different fruits from one tree (yes, one guy was telling us about his magical 20 fruit tree) I have the knowledge to do so!
Today was a big day. In the morning, the task was planting a whole lot of new onion sprouts, and in the afternoon, we were off to the annual Fungus Fair in Santa Cruz!
In the morning we were tending to 3 different beds in the garden. We first turned the soil to ensure best conditions for the new sprouts. Along the way we stumbled upon some tubers that were left behind from their last harvest. It was undoubtedly difficult to avoid slicing some of the potatoes in half as we tried to mend the soil.
Orphaned tubers.
After the soil was turned once, we then layered on eggshells (for calcium, other nutrients, and slug/snail prevention), granite dust (to remineralize the soil, as well as protect from slugs/snails), and of course some manure from the horses at a neighboring farm.
After turning the soil again to mix in all the substances that we sprinkled on, we worked to plant 9 different types of over 1,000 onion sprouts! It was crazy how many there were. Tucking them into the soil and giving them a nice shower made for a simple and satisfying morning.
Ready to grow!
After our planting success in the garden, it was off to the 40th Annual Fungus Fair in Santa Cruz. This event has always been hosted by the Fungus Federation of Santa Cruz, whose motto is….”When it rains it spores!” The first thing that we noticed (besides the abundance of fungi) was the people. The place was bumping with the most interesting group of human beings you could ever imagine at a fungus fair.
As Danielle put it, we were among an extremely diverse group of happy mycophiles (mushroom lovers). Included in the throng was a woman with an unfortunate tuft of chin hair (which she seemed to embrace), a gauge-sporting grandpa, a barefooted free spirit, and a glass blower who will most likely never come down from his trip.
The first thing we did was sit in on a cooking demo of this delicious mushroom lasagna, mushroom & quinoa soup, and candy cap mushroom cookies…it was all SO TASTY. I would have never guessed that a mushroom was in the candy cap cookies. We later learned that the candy cap is this wonderful little mushroom that smells and gives off a flavor like maple syrup! How crazy, right? At the end of the demo, the head of the Fungus Federation made a quick announcement, and ended with a corny dad joke about mushrooms… “There’s a lot of fun-guys out there, but there should be more fun-gals!” We were in for quite the fungus fair.
There was a room FILLED with all the different types of mushrooms you could possibly imagine. They all had labels showing whether or not they were edible, what they can be used for, where they can be found etc. It was so neat!
Jumbo Gym!
Artist’s conk… the mushroom you can draw on!
We also had the chance to try their famous candy cap ice cream, and let me tell you, it was pretty delicious!
Candy cap ice cream! Woo hoo!
After walking around learning more about mushrooms than I could possibly pack in during the course of an hour, Rosie decided that she wanted to play on the playground. It was here that Danielle and I became lesbian couple at the playground as Ken spoke on the phone with someone while on a spiny stool (It was quite the sight to see this soft-spoken 3rd grade teacher/farmer/extreme environmentalist spin and spin while on the phone. Even Rosie laughed and pointed at the spectacle… “Ha ha ha, look at Daddy!)”At one point while I went to the bathroom, the woman who was pushing her children next to us leaned over to Danielle and stated, “She’s so cute! How old is she?” Slightly overwhelmed by the situation, we were saved by the need to get home in time for dinner.
We came back to the lovely farm welcomed with a hearty meal (all organic, and free of processed foods). To a wonderful day and our first fungus fair, thank you Fungus Federation of Santa Cruz!
Today was undeniably exciting. It was our first workday! The task of the day was watering the dry avocado trees, weeding their mounds, as well as gathering ripe avocados for harvest. With moisture meters in hand, Danielle and I headed out to the orchard. The orchard contains over 20 varieties of avocado ranging from your typical haas, ettinger, reed, etc. The list goes on and on. Coming from a background of your typical haas avocado that you get from the grocery store back east, Danielle and I were blown away by all the different types of avocados. The different shades, shapes, and sizes were amazing.
We learned a lot about best practices with avocado trees that day. Here’s the process that we went through/ things we saw/learned along the way!
Step 1: Search the base of the tree for any fallen avocados. You may find a few with an ant colony hollowing out through the top, or ones with bite marks (skunks and birds love avocados). If you find these damaged avocados, place them in the compost bucket (we do not want to entice the animals with fallen fruit left out). Place the good avocados in the harvest basket!
Step 2: Measure the moisture of the soil around the avocado tree. Take 4-7ish readings for every tree in different places around the base. If there are 3 or more dry readings, the tree is thirsty.
Step 3: Water your thirsty avocado tree of course! Avocado trees like to take showers; they like to get their leaves and fruit wet for best growing conditions. An avocado tree shower song was created, of course… singing helps to make those diva trees happy!
Step 4. Appreciate the vineyard at the farm a little ways down the mountain!
Step 5. Repeat for the other 199 avocado trees in the orchard (Yes, 199).
Step 7. Bring your harvest up to the house!
After all 200 avocado trees, Danielle and I moved onto the tropical/citrus fruit trees. We stumbled upon a plethora of wonderful fruits we had never heard of, and some ones that looked very familiar (but weren’t processed and put into syrups).
Citrus trees!
Mandarin oranges!
As we worked, we got to nom away on the tastiest mandarin oranges we ever had. They had the perfect sweet, yet slightly tart taste. They were so tiny, we ended up eating 4 or 5 of them…
Nom.
Our work slowed as we stumbled upon fruit, after fruit that we had never seen before or even heard of.
Cherimoya!
After eventually getting through the rest of the trees on the property, and seeing some pretty amazing fruits and views, Danielle and I headed inside to bake some black bean chocolate chip cookies (with black beans, chocolate chips, agave, vanilla, chia seeds, cocoa powder, and dried cherries… topped with sea salt, and a few also sprinkled with cayenne pepper for a kick)!
If you weren’t told that they were made with black beans… you would have never guessed. They were delicious!… although I had a minor incident after dinner while we were tasting them. The first cookie I tasted was one without cayenne pepper (playing it safe), but after my first one, I went out on a limb to try the cookies with a kick. They sure were tasty until I swallowed some of the cookie down the wrong pipe, had a coughing attack at the table, and had to excuse myself to the bathroom. The cookie entered and exited places in my body that it shouldn’t have….. my nose was burning for a few hours afterwards.
Despite the cayenne pepper incident, we had a spectacular first day and went to bed excited for what the next day would bring!
Good morning Santa Cruz! This morning we were lucky enough to go for a hike through the amazing California vegetation that was ever so unfamiliar. We hiked through Pogonip Park to get to a glorious view of the area.
After we said our goodbyes to the beautiful view, Tracy dropped us off in downtown Santa Cruz. With time to spare before our farm host was to pick us up, Danielle and I got to explore Santa Cruz (looking slightly homeless with our backpacks and bags).
Danielle and I were on the hunt for some cheap and filling grub… and man did we find it. We took Tracy’s advice and went to Taqueria Vallarta to take on the challenge of the largest vegetarian burritos we have ever seen. Although I do not have a picture, I will tell you that they were bigger than the burritos you get a Chipotle… actual bricks.
After defeating the burrito challenge, it was time to really explore downtown. We walked down some of the loveliest streets with beautiful houses of slightly Spanish flare, to get to Pacific Avenue: downtown’s main street. The first shop Danielle and I see right across the street is a little hole in the wall called Eco Goods. Their sign read “Eco Goods: Good for you, good for the environment”… and to that, Danielle and I turn to each other in unison stating, “good for us!” We sprinted across the street.
This store was made for outdoor/environment enthusiasts. Everything was recycled/upcycled, biodegradable, and organic. It was heaven.
We had to.
After our eco-high, it was off to Trader Joes to meet with our farm host. After a few purchases of trail mix and such, it was off the back parking lot to meet with Nancy (Fitting right? An almost stranger was to pick us up in a back parking lot). As Danielle and I contemplated the answers to questions that would be answered within the next hour, Nancy rolled up in her zero-emission Nissan Leaf (She literally rolled up, silently. This electric car is the quietest car we have ever heard).
Nancy emerges from the Leaf, beaming the biggest and warmest smile we both have seen in a while. She instantaneously makes us feel welcomed and offers to answer all of our questions right off the bat. While sitting in the back seat, I realized how hard it was to hear what Nancy was saying. She is this ever so petite, warm, extremely soft spoken woman, and although I was unable to hear everything she was saying from the back seat, I know that we are in for an amazing experience with an amazing host. One detail that I heard for sure, was about Nancy’s daughter, Rosemary. Nancy warned us that it might take her a while to warm up to us, how we shouldn’t be too forward with her, and how when there are two WWOOFers, Rosemary usually picks one of that she really likes to play with (keep this in mind….).
After a few stops here and there (including the pick up of Nancy’s daughter, Rosemary), we are on our way to the farm about 30 minutes from downtown, tucked away in the Santa Cruz Mountains.
On the way up, we drive through our first glimpse of redwoods. I immediately fall into an almost meditative state as I gaze into the never-ending forest of these majestic trees. I have wanted to see redwoods for such a long time now (it’s on the bucket list), and they are even more majestic than Nat Geo pictures portray. I am instantly excited to think about our first off day when we get to explore a nature preserve down the road and to get up close and personal with the redwoods.
We pull up to the farm, and once again; Danielle and I look to each other in disbelief. The property is unreal. A lush south facing slope of over 200 avocado trees, citrus trees, and overflowing rows of various vegetables are right before us. After the awe inspiring first impression, I come back to reality with Rosemary asking if I can play with her. It happened. I was chosen. After Nancy declines the play time, she shows us where we’d be staying. Our cottage is quaint and cozy (ten times nicer than the last place that I WWOOFed at).
The wall of past WWOOFers.
After we unpack a little, we meet Nancy on the back porch. While nomming on some fresh persimmons (bright orange, apple-fused-nectarine-like fruit that’s SO DELICIOUS) we get the tour of where we are going to live and work for the next 3 weeks. Here’s a few of the pictures everything so far!
The view from the driveway
The back yard view!
There will be more to come in the next few days! If you wanted to explore more about the farm that we’re staying at here’s the link!
Here we are again! Although this time I won’t be interviewing people about happiness… hopefully some new adventures will be a sufficient read!
As my friends and family asked me what I would be doing for my long winter session this year, I received some mixed reviews. Yet again, I got a lot of the “WWOOFIng?? As in dogs? What’s that?…” Yet for some of my closer friends, the response was more like “Only you Cass… only you.”
So what exactly am I doing this winter session?… My friend Danielle and I are volunteering on an avocado Farm in California (for those of you who are still wondering about the whole “WWOOF” bit, WWOOF stands for World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms). The farm has over 200 avocados trees, including about 100 other tropical/exotic fruit trees. But before I get into too many wonderful details about our experience on the farm so far, lets get into how we got here.
January 8th, I woke up at 3 AM for a 4 AM pick up to get dropped off at the airport (my parents couldn’t take off from work, and probably just didn’t want to get up that early to drive me all the way over to JFK). My driver’s name was Rich, a jolly and round middle aged man, with two sons around my age. We talked pretty much the entire ride over to the airport; he was quite chatty, and I didn’t mind, I loved swapping of stories.
After getting through security and finding my gate, I popped in the headphones and patiently awaited Danielle’s arrival. 6:45 rolls around and our flight starts to board… I was starting to worry. Danielle finally informed me that she arrived at the back of the line for security (which was entirely too long to be able to board our flight that takes off in 20 minutes). Danielle was then allowed to cut in front of the entire line as she frantically panicked at the thought of missing our flight. Thankfully we made it in time and got on the plane ready for a 6.5 hour flight…. until we find out that we have to wait for plane’s water tanks to defrost (in the 5-degree weather). All Danielle and I could imagine was a group of American Airline employees huddled around these water tanks with hair dryers.
After a lot of Led Zeppelin, Phish, and Dave Matthews (as well as a nap here and there), we land at LAX with 30 minutes to spare (30 less than we anticipated for our layover). We find out that we came out to terminal 4 and we had to get to terminal 7. With no shuttle, we sprinted what seemed to be a mile. Profusely in our flannels and this unfamiliar 65-degree muggy weather, we reached long line to get through security and an old Italian man working for United Airlines. After being shuffled to the back of the line with only 15 minutes to spare before our flight took off, the Italian man came back and moved us ahead of everyone.
Danielle and I board the plane and find our seats, texting each other about how terrible our stench must be offending the poor souls sitting next to us. After an hour and a half flight, we finally come into San Francisco eager for another deoderant application. Waiting outside of curbside pick-up, we wait for Danielle’s family friends to stumble upon us. Off to Santa Cruz we go!
Tracy and Pete moved to Santa Cruz a year ago and have been soaking up everything the California has to offer. As we get the inside scoop about everything there is to know about the area, we come into Santa Cruz. This hippie surfer town has kept it’s roots, but over the years has taken on some outdoorsy-college-town flare with UCSC right around the corner. Coffee shops, specialty shops, and all the bikes and dogs you could possibly imagine fill the streets. We finally get to the coast and travel along one of the prettiest roads I have ever seen. The ocean is magnificent with ice plants (a beautiful (invasive) succulent) flowing down the cliff sides. We come out to Natural Bridges State Beach, and I am blown away. The sun was setting as the waves gently crashed down on the last standing natural bridge (there were originally 3 of them until 1980 (cause was unknown) and 1989 (the Loma Prierta Earthquake) when the outermost bridges came down. The middle bridge still stands in all its glory.
After the awe-inspiring welcome to Santa Cruz, we come to Tracy and Pete’s humble abode. The cutest little cabana-like home with many cacti and homey touches here and there. Stuart and Mia (a big old black lab that actually takes on Eeyore in dog form and a little jack russell – pug that can howl “I love you”) greeted us at the door. After getting settled in, we were lucky enough to nom on some of the local grub, Pizzaria Avanti, made with all local and organic ingredients! After dinner we learned a new card game called Dutch Blitz. With some Trader Joes salted caramel dark chocolate on the table, the competition was on. To my dismay, I was barely any competition. Unable to get out of the negatives throughout the entire game, yet in the last round, I managed to come out with 1 point (Danielle came in first with a score of 73 (first person wins at 70)).
Danielle and I ended the night in a classic bunk bed chattering about the excitement of finally getting to the farm the next day.
Charles. What kind of person comes to mind when you hear the name “Charles?” “Hmm… yes” you say, while stroking your thumb and pointer finger against your chin. Probably some ritzy-fritzy, slightly pompous, well dressed, spiffy looking man… right? (Terribly sorry to all you guys out there named Charles that are the complete opposite of that assumptive description, but y’all aren’t alone!)
I think it’s funny how names can occasionally predetermine the look of a person. You know… when you’re out in public somewhere doing some people watching, and you come across someone of interest. Maybe it’s someone you think is attractive, or someone who’s little mannerisms and quirks are just making you think, making you want to pick that person’s brain! You’ll turn to your friends and curiously inquire, “What do you think that guy’s (or girl’s) name is?” And then, let the debating begin!
You’ll argue “No, no, no! Are you kidding me? Steve!? Look at what he’s wearing… he can’t be a Steve!” Maybe certain characteristics or actions of that person remind you of someone you know, so you’ll say “Well, he looks a lot like David… but I doubt he’s a ‘David’ maybe he’s a….” And the contemplating goes on and on until someone figures it out, or the opportunity to figure it out disappears. Mystery man forever.
I’m reading a book called Consequential Strangers by Melinda Blau and Karen Fingerman, so this whole kind of situation, or ones similar to it, really makes me think. Check out the book’s website! http://www.consequentialstrangers.com/about/ The book makes you envisage the less intimate relationships you may have with the people you interact with on a day-to-day (or maybe even less than that) basis. You may not even know their name, but this book delves into the verity about those relationships, the fact that they are indeed ‘consequential’ and make a big difference to how your life plays out.
Getting back to this whole “mystery name game,” some think that names are quite considerable to peoples’ personalities and who they really are. My grandma was the lucky one to name me when I was born (saving me from a few names my parents were suggesting, ones that my Nonny didn’t take a fancy to.) She always asks me “You know Cassie, what if I named you something else? Like Hazel, or Gertrude, or Bertha? I think that you would be a completely different person!” This question is always a follow-up to her most recent story of her fortuitous conversations in our local Shoprite (I think a love for talking to random strangers might run in the family…)
Every time she’s picking up some groceries she loves flagging down random shoppers to tell them about what I’m up to (and to be honest… she’s quite possibly the cutest grandma you’ve ever seen… always in her white Keds, and preppy little outfits, so I think that it’s hard for people to turn her down. Maybe I’m slightly biased, but she’s one of the most genuine, intelligent, and easy to talk to people I know.) She always starts out those conversations the same way, “You know what my granddaughter is doing right now? Did you know she goes to the University of Delaware? Did you know that she does this?… Works for?… Is involved with?…” Yada yada yada. You know grandparents…
I think she’s pretty darn cute.
The story of how I was named goes a little something like this… One night after having dinner with my parents, my mom (apparently ready to pop like a balloon, she was so pregnant!) and grandma were in the kitchen doing the dishes. My grandma always tells me, “The Mamas & the Papas were on the radio… and I always loved Cass Elliot’s voice, raspy and uniquely different. So I thought to myself… ‘Hmm… Cass… Cassie…Cassandra!’” And the rest is history. I always thank her for not naming me Hazel, or Gertrude, or Bertha, and I do indeed think about if I would be different if I had a different name.
I also would like to think that my voice came from this spontaneous naming. Both of my parents can’t keep a tune (although, that never stops my dad from singing along to The Who in the car with me… it’s quite hilarious to be honest), but somehow I was blessed with some singing ability. Thank you Mama Cass!
So enough with the family stories, and back to my latest interview with Charles, the proud father, who’s a computer consultant, and nothing like the speculative description of “Charles” previously stated.
“So what makes you happy?” He laughed for a moment, a good hardy laugh, and I caught a glimpse of some notably deep dimples in his cheeks. They made me smile; I wasn’t expecting them to be so pronounced. They reminded me of one of the little kids I babysat back at home. He was a funny kid, always wanting to play with the bugs in the sandbox out in the backyard (which I particularly loved since I grew up with my little bug box almost always in hand.) He would always look at my kidney-shaped beauty mark on my inner right calf, point to it, and exclaim “CASSIE! BUG! LOOK! GET IT OFF!” Oh, Regis. (Yes, one of the five year olds I used to babysit was named Regis… What if he had a different name? I wonder…)
“Well, that’s a difficult question to answer… but I really enjoy time with the family. I have two kids. And I also really like to work with computers.” Hmm, two very contrastingly different activities to mention. And man, the many electronics on his table made sense now. “My two girls are ages two and five, and let me tell you… they are definitely more of a handful than boys.”
To that statement all I thought was “Oh… don’t I know it… well at least to an extent.” Working at a summer camp for three years, practically babysitting since I was twelve, and my first taste in student-teaching this past year… allowed me to learn that little girls are indeed tough to handle, to say the least. Which is why a while ago I came to the conclusion that when I have kids, I would like to simply have a lot of boys (and maybe… just one girl) … my friends all agree that they can clearly see me being the soccer/football/boy scout mom who’s always keeping track of a lot of muddy boys.
But let me tell you, this man really cared about his girls (despite their somewhat difficult manner.) A great young father who’s already forming worry-lines appeared as he spoke of the two bundles of joy in his life… those lines that will inevitably deepen, as those two girls grow up. My dad’s worry-filled response to anything I do that’s remotely risky is, “Cass, you just wait. You’ll understand when you have kids.” The typical “parent” response, which personally, I think is said a lot more often to daughters than to sons.
I asked my next question, and this time there was absolutely no hesitation in his response. “A moment or event in my life when I was beyond happy? When both of my daughters were born. By far, the happiest moments of my life.” He spoke with a definitive, great-hearted tone, beaming as the words came out of his mouth. Nothing but a fulfilled smile on his face appeared as he reminisced on those meaningful milestones that brought upon endless amounts of joy, the joy of parenthood!
When I brought up my next question/statement, he had a pretty significant amount to say…
What can a person do to become happier? Say they’re in a rut, what’s the best thing for them to do to escape it? … To get to a happier place?
“Ah ha. Well see, that’s a tough one because most of the time, I’m not a very happy person. I’m not exactly ‘happy’ with the job that I have right now.” Charles, as I previously indicated, is a computer consultant, and he claims, “I really enjoy what I do, just not who I do it for. The job will basically always be here for me, but I can’t grow a career here, if you know what I mean.”
I asked if there would be an opportunity to change his scenery, and he stated, “Well, yes. I’m actually from New Jersey. (At this statement I wondered ‘Wow. What are the chances that I ran into someone from home out here?’) He took a quick apprehensive glance around the bookstore to make sure that no one was within hearing distance, “ To be honest, I really don’t like the education system here… Don’t get me wrong, it’s a wonderful place to start raising my children, but I think we might end up moving back to NJ soon. My mom recently mentioned that the only reason why I grew in NJ was because of the great education system. And I really want to be able to offer my kids what’s best for them.”
Well, I couldn’t agree more with all of the statements he had been saying. Albeit, I’ve only been out here for a few weeks, but I have noticed that it’s very… desolate. Charles mentioned, “Being a twenty-something year old father, living here isn’t quite how I imagined my first few years of fatherhood to be like… All of my friends are either in California or New Jersey and well, there’s not a lot to do in this area. ”
Like I said…Desolate. If you want to do something around here, you go hiking, fishing, kayaking/canoeing, or well… see that’s pretty much it, it’s a very outdoorsy type area tucked away in the mountains, and isn’t exactly very close to any big cities. So as a concerned father, and twenty-something year old man, I could see where these statements were coming from.
“So if someone wants to get to a happier state, two things need to happen: 1. For the long-term, you’ve gotta find something that you really enjoy doing, especially pertaining to work. (He was obviously experiencing the opposite of this one first hand.) 2. In the short-term, you need to get out! Go outside! No, not to a bar where everyone is going to try to escape his or her problems, but see the sun!” For this volunteer project I’m located in an area where you can see lots of sun, specifically the setting or rising in a magnificent landscape, so I could see that he probably used the latter suggestion quiet often.
When asked if he had any other statements to add to his interview, Charles surprised me. Usually most of my interviewees don’t exactly have much more to say to sum up their interviews, but Charles took note of a flagrant error in our society.
“Well, a lot of people don’t realize what they have… including me,” he gave a jolly chuckle as he opened up his final few remarks. “I have a Russian coworker, and let me tell you, if you think that you have a negative view on life… talk to someone from (the land previously called…) the Soviet Union, and you’ll realize how great our freedoms are, and how you should take note of them everyday. A lot of people take life for granted, and I really think that we need to learn to be grateful. When you start to realize that life is about cherishing what you have, you stop expressing negative or unhappy thoughts about what you want or desire.”
And so, I was reminded of many things throughout my brief conversation with Charles.
1. Kids are absolutely wonderful. It’s no wonder why I want to be a teacher, and to spend mass amounts of time with the little ones who bring so much joy to the many parents out there. I was reminded of a quote by one of my favorite authors, Paulo Coelho…
“A child can teach an adult three things: to be happy for no reason, to always be busy with something, and to know how to demand with all his might that which he desires.”
2. Not only is it important to surround yourself by people who bring contentment to your life, but it’s also equally imperative to immerse yourself in an environment that makes you blithe on a day-to-day basis.
3. Your workplace is inescapably connected to your level of happiness. A majority of your day is spent in that atmosphere, so if it is not a place that you’re happy with, be sure to recognize that, and plan accordingly. Know that you should do something about it if you desire to be in a happier setting.
4. Cherish what you have every single day of your life! I read a book last week called “Secrets to Happiness” by Sarah Dunn… (A definite ‘chick lit,’ if you will… not usually something that’s on my reading list, but I do enjoy the occasional Nicolas Sparks-like books here and there, to take a breather from my usual choice in literature.) At one point in the novel, one of the side characters goes through a crisis, and the main character is a bit austere while dealing with said “crisis,” and addresses it by mentioning….
“Imagine putting your problems into a matchbox… Then you go put the matchbox in a big huge pile with everybody else’s problems. And then you have to go take a matchbox out of the pile, and those are your new problems. The question is, do you take back your own matchbox, or do you take someone else’s?”
It’s all about taking a step back and looking at the situation. During the somewhat difficult times throughout my life my dad always likes to say “Cass, just think about it. Place the situation on a scale from one to ten. One being a minor injury, like a busted up knee or something, ten being a death in the family or someone you really care about.” Yes, sometimes it’s hard to look at a rather difficult quandary in hindsight and/or with an outsider’s perspective, but sometimes it’s one of the only things that you can do to move on from a tough time in your life. It’s all about analyzing, realizing, and accepting.
5. Get out there and see the sun! Or the rain! Just be out in nature. Get away from the stresses of life for a little bit and soak up the simple things that this world has to offer! And if that’s not enough of a reason for you to take a step outside, read my previous blog post. You might just find some inspiration in some alone time out there in nature.
P.S. I recently rediscovered a joy-filled marvel that could possibly be your dose of calming medicine for the day. Watching the robins prance around in an open field after a rainstorm… ever so eager to come across a few worms that have recently emerged from their hidden and earthy humble abode to soak up some of freshly fallen rain. Simple, yet pleasantly entertaining.
So here I am tucked away in the Allegheny Mountains of Pennsylvania on this quaint and glorious farm isolated from civilization (the nearest town with wifi and good phone service is about 15-20 minutes out). This detachment from society… a society that thrives on steadfast motion, activity to activity, has brought upon a bit of reverie and above all, clarity. To stipulate a constant bustle on a day-to-day basis was my norm, so this leisurely abundance of “free time” (after work) left me in a daze-like muddle for the first few days.
In reality, people (Americans especially) need to allot time to spend alone, time to break away from the habitual “Go Go Go!” mindset. Remaining in this mindset for too long allows you to lose sight of your roots… who you are deep down, and impetuses that truly promote happiness in your life.
When you take the time to step back from the life that “keeps you on track”… you actually might realize that maybe… just maybe… you weren’t really on the right track. Equipped with a pair of fresh eyes, you come to unexpected discoveries and you expose certain qualities/desires/strengths and weaknesses that might have been buried underneath “the right track.”
Essentially, happiness starts from within. Some people inadvertently (maybe even willfully) surrender to the thought that happiness can come from external factors. Now don’t get me wrong… things that you do in your life can make you happy… but where does that all start? It starts when you decide upon the things that make you happy! It starts when you know who you are and what brings contentment to your existence. Not what makes your friends, family members, or coworkers happy… but YOU… you and only you!
Bringing up the topic of external factors makes me think… “At the end of the day, what’s really ‘ours?’” The human race has gone through this sort of convergent evolution with the idea that we “own” these things in our lives that we buy with this money that we constantly worry about.
This past spring break, I was chosen to participate in my university’s Alternative Spring Break Program. Instead of soaking up some rays on the beach at some touristy destination (like most college students) or sitting at home wishing to participate in the latter activity, I was out in Soddy Daisy, Tennessee, and building hiking trails with the Cumberland Trails Conference. (http://www.cumberlandtrail.org/) It was a life changing experience to say the least… and I could probably write pages and pages about the trip, but I will avoid the lengthy (albeit, totally worth it…) tangent and skip ahead to the point that I was attempting to get across.
The people on my trip are some of the most amazing people that I have ever met, people who have changed my life and will continue to change my life as time goes on. When on the trail one day, we came across a Cercopia moth (I was taking an Entomology class at the time, so this find provided gold for my final project… not to mention I love insects anyways… always have.) Immediately after this grand discovery someone in our group exclaimed, in an explosion of excitement, “We have to name it!” Names started flowing though my mind, and I didn’t really think twice about this statement until our “guide” volunteer, Beau, brought up a thought provoking comment.
Good ole no-name.
Beau is an individual who some would call a “free bird…” A“free bird” in a negative sense simply because he chose to stray away from our society’s view of “normalcy.” The path that most young adults tend to take and is viewed as the “right” thing to do with their lives. But in my eyes he’s just an intelligent and confident human being who realized that it was okay for him to go against the grain… it was okay to travel the untamed path….
Frost came to this realization as well…
“Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.”
Upon the “let’s name that moth!” suggestion, Beau gave a simple, very humble chuckle and declared, “You guys (the Alternative Spring Break volunteers… consisting of eager college students) always say that we have to ‘name’ any critter we find out here. People (humanity in general) are funny. Somehow it’s okay to think that anything we find out here can be “ours.” That moth is a moth. It’s not “our” moth. Anything that we find out here isn’t “ours,” it belongs in nature, and not to one person. Why does it always have to be about what we possess?”
This sparked a pretty long philosophical conversation on the fact that when it comes down to it… what do we own? We “own” our homes, cars, bikes, dogs (some of them really own us by the way they take us for a walk), watches, books… etc. the list goes on and on… but at the end of the day all you truly own is your own personal being. You own the right to live your life the way you want to live your life. You have the freedom to do with it what you please.
You control your happiness! So take some time today, or tomorrow, or whenever you get a chance in your hectic day-to-day bustle, to give some time to yourself. Some time to your thoughts and ideas that may have been hidden in the cloud of clutter that becomes so customary. Who knows what you’ll discover! Happy thinking!
Workin’ hard on the trails!
Some of the most awe-inspiring people that I have ever met :)
WWOOF California 2014 