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Published: November 4th 2008
Halloween 2008!
Photo: Manda PendletonHello everyone, I guess it's been awhile.
I just celebrated Halloween festivities here on island last weekend and friday night which included much dancing to the celebrated music of Kurt Shindler, a favorite local artist who just plays some good island dance jams. I dressed up as a Taino (indigenous people from island) woman complete with plant leaves coming out of my hair, although I was also mistaken for Pocahontas and Jungle Queen. Photos attached.
Also a new development for the past week and a half is that I finally got on the insurance here so am now able to drive!!! On the left side of the road, mind you. Actually it's been an incredibly easy transition and I didn't have to think twice about it after the first trip out. I also get to drive huge janky farm trucks over the worst maintained roads I've ever driven on (jungle and farm roads)...there is seriously a major pothole about every 20 feet at least.
Last weekend I used my driving privileges to drive myself and Manda to the opposite side of the island where I had never been before and besides being at the "official easternmost point of
Halloween vibrations
sendin some good OM waves through the body before a night out
Photo: Manda Pendleton the United States" we did some hiking in hills around beaches, caught some rays, saw a bunch of sea turtle nests, and picked up trash on the beach. We did some snorkeling too but there wasn't much to see. Apparantely in 2004 the ocean water temperature was abnormally high here and killed 60% of the coral which is way unfortunate.
This weekend was fantastic. Friday was the halloween party mentioned above. Saturday Manda and I caught the end of the farmer's market and met the lovely local growers and bought something from almost everyone because if you buy something, the lady next door says "Hey! You bought something from her, why don't you buy something from me?!" But it was all good because we wanted to support all of them anyways. Our farm used to have a spot at the market but right now we haven't got much to sell. After that we trespassed on private property on the north side to do some nudie sunbathing, trash pickup, and old sugar mill ruin exploration. Then headed to Plaza Extra (the huge supermarket) for some groceries, stopped on the way home to talk to the guy who's put all the
Hurricane damage in C-sted
80 boats destroyed or damaged
Photo: Manda Pendleton trash he ever had in his front yard as a garden, then headed home to do some cooking. Sunday a bunch of us went to World Food Day at UVI (Univ. of the Virgin Islands) and sampled some GOOD caribbean cooking, and went to a presentation on sorrel (local plant similar to cranberry hibiscus) where thereafter we sampled sorrel juice, sorrel sorbet, and sorrel jam with cornbread. Then we got wind of a jazz concert going on so went up the hill to a church to catch the end of some melodious tunes combined with Crucian women's voices. GREAT WEEKEND!!
Besides island adventures, farm work is alright. Ben has been gone to Italy for the International Slow Food Conference and we've been here still doing hurricane cleanup (almost done). A lot of farm management issues have come up too (because this is definitely NOT the most ideally run organic farm out there) but it's hard to address a lot of these issues simply from lack of people here when there are other things that need to get done. We're all working here together the best we can - oh, and we have two new farm interns here from New
Beer-drinking pig at Norma's
they're world famous
Photo: Manda Pendleton York (a couple: massage therapist and the other a cook...not a bad combo) so it's been fun getting to know them more.
In other new, I'm not vegan anymore. Over the past few weeks I've been influenced by this cookbook called Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon which is incredibly well researched about different cultures around the world who have kept their traditional diet without modern influence. Weston Price, a dentist back in the day who did this research found that all these cultures had impeccable teeth, bone, and bodily health. He also found that every single one of these cultures incorporates animals. More scientific research is also included in the cookbook about why these modern diets don't work, how fat and cholesterol is really good for us, why wheat and sugar are so bad (unless the wheat is fermented), and awesome informational quotes on the sides of the recipes from various sources about the foods in the recipe.
I'm still a vegetarian. I figured out that part of the reason I didn't just pick up a leg of pork that's in the fridge is because I'm not going to eat anything if I can't bring myself to kill
Beer pig
I guess animal rights activists made it so that you can only five them non-alcoholic beer
Photo: Manda Pendleton it. And I'm not going all out and eating cheese and milk, because my body can't handle the lactose. But I'm eating the delicious eggs here from the chickens (if the mongooses don't eat them first) and fermenting all my dishes containing wheat overnight with a little yogurt to break down the phytates in the wheat, making it more digestible. In a sense I've gone on a fermenting craze, with ofter 4 or 5 things sitting overnight, fermenting and bubbling. I feel like a witch brewing all sorts of concoctions. I feel so much better eating this food where a lot of the digestion process has already happened from the microorganisms, and I feel like I'm embracing this lost practice of having a relationship with death - with the microorganisms that feed on dead matter and convert it to something else. But in the end, it's REALLY fun and the food tastes way better, no joke. Last weekend made a chocolate-coconut-banana-whisky cake for dan's birthday that had fermented first, then baked, then fermented another day with this yogurt-whisky-raw honey-lime sauce to add back enzymes and make it really moist. I think that was the best cake I ever made (and
it got better with time because it was still fermenting...totally the opposite of getting stale like normal cakes do). Anyways, I could talk a lot about food and the body, as I consider it a religion, but I think it's best left for live discussions.
Notas -I chowed down on my last ripe mango the other night. mango season is officially over 😞 but we've got plenty of bananas and some papayas 😊
-A mouse managed to get in some sourdough started I had going, and drowned. there are some questionable things we do here in the kitchen...but I decided that this situation was too unsanitary and had to throw out the starter 😞 but there's always next time!
-The green flash exists!! I've been looking out but have yet to really see it....
-I'm considering going to herb school in the future.
-I'm hungry
Feel free to update me on your lives by emailing me! Lots of love from Santa Cruz (St. Croix in Spanish). Peace, love, and OBAMA!
Mon
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