It has been crazy out here. #1, I am sorry for not keeping in touch lately, but it's hard out here! We start work at 6:30 and work til around 5 or 6 at night. Then we eat dinner with the other interns and before you know it, it's 9 and time for bed! One of my 2 days off, I work at another internship in Point Reyes (for Marin Organic). So in short, my life is a little insane right now, but I LOVE IT!!
Whats new at the farm? Well, summer crops are starting to come in! We have been bombarded my summer squash for a couple of weeks now and the cucumbers are starting to go crazy too!!!Our lettuces, broccoli and basil are all doing great. Our 10,000 tomato plants have been stacked and now have blossoms. They should be ripe in September. We got our first eggplants and peppers coming on in one of the farm hoop houses!! The strawberries have slowed down a little due to the heat, but they still taste way better than anything you could get at a store. The corn I planted 2 months ago is about 10 feet tall but has no flowers yet. We have started sowing some winter crops already: winter squash and pumpkins.
Brian and I are starting work on a greenhouse that will be 17x60 feet. We hope to finish it soon so we can start some of our winter crops in there before it's to late. We started drilling the holes for it yesterday which reminded me a lot of my old line of work :). I am sorry to say, but I don't really miss the work (just the people). I think this is generally how Brian and I both feel! We are both looking forward to having our own farm some day in the future (and are a little scared too). We really enjoy our jobs and feel like we completed something at the end of the day. It makes for a lot of hard work, but it's so rewarding.
We are still learning a lot out here about tractor driving, sales, plant varieties and learning to deal with what nature gives you! We have been trying to get into town a little more lately. We have been dancing with the crew, went to a baseball game with almost everyone from the farm, had a fiesta at the farm, and are enjoying local microbreweries! We have started brewing out second batch of beer,a porter and are looking forward to drinking it. Hopefully it will be ready to go before we go up to Oregon in 2 weeks!! We are really looking forward to this trip home and we also hope to go visit some farms along with some friends!!
Anyway, hope you are all doing well. We will get some pictures up some century :)
Sunday, July 26, 2009
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
Wow, here we are at 2 months.
As you can probably tell, we have been getting in to the busy season here. A month has gone by and we have seen massive change on El Rancho. Lettuce heads from seeds planted 4 weeks ago are approaching harvest time. Strawberry plants have gone from having 1 barely ripe fruit on each one, to flourishing with 6-8 ripe fruits at a time. Today the last transplants of our 10,000 plant tomato field went in the ground. The days are getting long both in terms of sunlight and work, but it is an exciting time in our world of produce.
We are still 100% thrilled we are following our dream to eventually start our own farm, and this is a perfect first step. More interns are joining the staff which will provide us with more time to learn at greater depth. Most days, the washing and packaging of all the produce being picked has taken up most of our time. We have, however, found plenty of time for side projects like building and filling 2 large planter beds with local native flora, planting and maintaining long beds of herbs and an experimental garden. We are learning tons about farming every day, as well as improving our Spanish speaking since we are in close communication with the crew.
All the hard work hasn't prevented us from having lots of fun doing our own things. In the past couple weeks we have made our own soap (Mary's 2nd time), made homemade mozzarella cheese (1st time!), and brewed our first batch of beer which will be ready to drink very soon! When we had some extra strawberries lying around, Mary made 2 batches of strawberry jam which were really simple to cook up, but sooo delicious. Today while Mary was at work, I caught 2 good-sized bass out of our pond which we'll have for dinner tomorrow night. Now that the weather is getting significantly better, we will probably be out on our bikes more frequently, too.
Working with the earth every day is incredibly enriching and rewarding, in ways we have not appreciated before. Learning the ways of many different species of plants, adjusting to the constant changing of the weather here, interacting with innumerable animals from gopher snakes to red-winged blackbirds to angus cows, and immersing ourselves in farming and the natural world has been a transforming experience. We are both looking forward to the summer months, anticipating an extremely busy and prosperous season for the farm. I think we are equally anxiously anticipating the summer crops just for our own consumption.
Our prime crops for the next few months will be our various lettuces which comprise about 1/3rd of our cultivation and sales, Arugula/Rucola, Strawberries, Tomatoes, Peppers, Squash, Basil, Sweet Pea flowers, Broccoli and Spinach. Other secondary crops will be various bitter greens for salads and cooking, herbs, fava beans, several cresses, and root vegetables such as onions, beets, radishes and turnips. Additionally on the property we have tons of blackberries -- YUM!!! I think I am gaining weight just thinking of all the delicious dishes and treats we will be concocting from our multitude of fruits and veggies.
We hope to not to take so long for our next post, but like the weather here, you just never know!!
We are still 100% thrilled we are following our dream to eventually start our own farm, and this is a perfect first step. More interns are joining the staff which will provide us with more time to learn at greater depth. Most days, the washing and packaging of all the produce being picked has taken up most of our time. We have, however, found plenty of time for side projects like building and filling 2 large planter beds with local native flora, planting and maintaining long beds of herbs and an experimental garden. We are learning tons about farming every day, as well as improving our Spanish speaking since we are in close communication with the crew.
All the hard work hasn't prevented us from having lots of fun doing our own things. In the past couple weeks we have made our own soap (Mary's 2nd time), made homemade mozzarella cheese (1st time!), and brewed our first batch of beer which will be ready to drink very soon! When we had some extra strawberries lying around, Mary made 2 batches of strawberry jam which were really simple to cook up, but sooo delicious. Today while Mary was at work, I caught 2 good-sized bass out of our pond which we'll have for dinner tomorrow night. Now that the weather is getting significantly better, we will probably be out on our bikes more frequently, too.
Working with the earth every day is incredibly enriching and rewarding, in ways we have not appreciated before. Learning the ways of many different species of plants, adjusting to the constant changing of the weather here, interacting with innumerable animals from gopher snakes to red-winged blackbirds to angus cows, and immersing ourselves in farming and the natural world has been a transforming experience. We are both looking forward to the summer months, anticipating an extremely busy and prosperous season for the farm. I think we are equally anxiously anticipating the summer crops just for our own consumption.
Our prime crops for the next few months will be our various lettuces which comprise about 1/3rd of our cultivation and sales, Arugula/Rucola, Strawberries, Tomatoes, Peppers, Squash, Basil, Sweet Pea flowers, Broccoli and Spinach. Other secondary crops will be various bitter greens for salads and cooking, herbs, fava beans, several cresses, and root vegetables such as onions, beets, radishes and turnips. Additionally on the property we have tons of blackberries -- YUM!!! I think I am gaining weight just thinking of all the delicious dishes and treats we will be concocting from our multitude of fruits and veggies.
We hope to not to take so long for our next post, but like the weather here, you just never know!!
Friday, May 1, 2009
One Month
Well, today we have been on the farm for a month! We still love it. It has been crazy lately here on "el rancho" (starting to get into planting summer crops). Last week, we had a little heat wave; it was 93 degrees for a couple days! Things grew like crazy. Lately, we have been working on the herb garden, planting sage, thyme, rosemary and other experimental varieties. We have to dig up the herb garden by hand, so its a lot of hard work. There has also been a ton of planting of going on in the field lately. It seems that half of the 28 acres has been planted since we arrived. We just seeded basil in the field last night, along with some more lettuce. Lots of vegetables are grown on the farm, but lettuce is the main crop. There are at least 10 different varieties!
We went with the farmer to get some seeders for the tractors in Salinas this week from a large scale organic farmer friend of his (he had just planted 60 acres of summer squash). It was very interesting to drive through Salinas, since this is the heart of large scale farming in California. The seeders will go on the back of a tractor to seed "beds". The beds on our farm are 60", but it seems like on the larger scale farms the beds are 80". We plant generally 5 rows to a bed, but sometimes less. We will plant only two rows of squash in the 60" bed. In the large lettuce fields in Salinas, they plant 12 rows to an 80" bed! They pick it by essentially mowing it with a large picking machine. That is pretty much the opposite of how we do it here at our farm. Yet, it was very interesting to see how things are done on an even larger scale! Most of the farms in Salinas that we saw while driving did not appear organic (no weeds kind of gives it away).
Looking back, this last month, we have really discovered how different a farm is from a garden in your back yard. In a garden, you weed everything and it all looks so nice and organized. You manage your pests (hopefully organically) and pick almost anything that is ripe. Things are different here, on the "small" 28 acre farm we live on, considering that the average farm size is around 450 acres. Small farms, however, account for only a very small share of total farmland. Farms with fewer than 50 acres operated less than 2 percent of all farmland in 2002, while farms with more than 1,000 acres operated two-thirds of all farmland (http://www.ers.usda.gov/AmberWaves/November07/DataFeature/). When a crop gets hit by pests, we usually will just mow it down. The limited amount of weeding that we do is done by a tractor that gently plows between the rows of young plants. Since we have several different crops, if one is lost to some bug, it is not a huge deal. There are also several beds of each crop planted at different times on the farm (successions). Therefore, if one crop gets hit, in a week or two, another bed of it will be ready elsewhere on the farm. Also, not everything always gets picked. Some crops towards the end, will just get mowed and disced into the soil and will increase the organic content of the soil.
We are learning lots every day and looking forward to applying what we've learned on our own farm sometime soon.
We went with the farmer to get some seeders for the tractors in Salinas this week from a large scale organic farmer friend of his (he had just planted 60 acres of summer squash). It was very interesting to drive through Salinas, since this is the heart of large scale farming in California. The seeders will go on the back of a tractor to seed "beds". The beds on our farm are 60", but it seems like on the larger scale farms the beds are 80". We plant generally 5 rows to a bed, but sometimes less. We will plant only two rows of squash in the 60" bed. In the large lettuce fields in Salinas, they plant 12 rows to an 80" bed! They pick it by essentially mowing it with a large picking machine. That is pretty much the opposite of how we do it here at our farm. Yet, it was very interesting to see how things are done on an even larger scale! Most of the farms in Salinas that we saw while driving did not appear organic (no weeds kind of gives it away).
Looking back, this last month, we have really discovered how different a farm is from a garden in your back yard. In a garden, you weed everything and it all looks so nice and organized. You manage your pests (hopefully organically) and pick almost anything that is ripe. Things are different here, on the "small" 28 acre farm we live on, considering that the average farm size is around 450 acres. Small farms, however, account for only a very small share of total farmland. Farms with fewer than 50 acres operated less than 2 percent of all farmland in 2002, while farms with more than 1,000 acres operated two-thirds of all farmland (http://www.ers.usda.gov/AmberWaves/November07/DataFeature/). When a crop gets hit by pests, we usually will just mow it down. The limited amount of weeding that we do is done by a tractor that gently plows between the rows of young plants. Since we have several different crops, if one is lost to some bug, it is not a huge deal. There are also several beds of each crop planted at different times on the farm (successions). Therefore, if one crop gets hit, in a week or two, another bed of it will be ready elsewhere on the farm. Also, not everything always gets picked. Some crops towards the end, will just get mowed and disced into the soil and will increase the organic content of the soil.
We are learning lots every day and looking forward to applying what we've learned on our own farm sometime soon.
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
Farming Lessons #1
We are loving life out here on the farm -- even though yesterday we had gale-force winds which demolished one of our "hoop houses." (A hoop house is a type of simple greenhouse which is constructed with semi-circular "hoops" made of PVC pipe covered in plastic) This past week we took part in harvesting a couple days, went to our usual farmers markets and called some restaurants to gather orders. It is a transitional period on the farm right now, with the winter crops on their way out and the spring crops just beginning to come in. We were picking garlic in the farthest field and felt obliged to check on the young strawberry plants. We managed to find a couple dozen of the first ripe strawberries which we figured should be tested for quality control. They passed the test with flying colors :)
I want everyone to learn along with Brian and I about farming. I plan to try and occasionally post some important lessons we have learned here. This week: why organic food costs so much.
On this smaller scale organic farm, EVERYTHING is harvested by hand. What is growing out here you ask? Lettuce, chicories (a bitter Italian green - think Radicchio), onions, garlic, several bitter greens, arugula, several varieties of kale, chard, herbs, several varieties of cress, radishes, beets, turnips, and more. We will have tomatoes and strawberries in the summer (so excited!). This farm sells to several restaurants, restaurant distributors, and at farmers markets. That adds up to a lot of picking. There are laborers on the farm 7 days a week! Some crops are easier than others to pick, but some are very time consuming. Take arugula for example. What we sell is very small ("baby" arugula), with the leaves being no bigger than 1 inch. The arugula does not grow in a head, like lettuce, but grows like grass, in single blades. The arugula will be "mowed" by hand with a pair of scissors; a pound takes us about an hour to pick (the professional laborers take maybe half that time). There are also lots of weeds to sort out since no sprays are used on this organic farm. Now, you take an hour of labor for one pound, add the price of seed, and the price to prepare the ground for seeding (tractor fuel and labor), the cost of irrigation (water and pipes), the cost of the piece of land (this farm is leased), boxes to package it and fuel to take it to market -- that pound of arugula gets pretty costly. This is why I get annoyed at farmers' markets when people complain about paying $8 a pound for the arugula. It costs more than that just to pick it!!! Plus, a full pound goes a long way on the table. Your average green salad may weigh 1/4 pound..
Of course, before I got out here, this was not something I really thought about, which is why I consider it a lesson. I never really thought about how much time goes into that basket of strawberries or that head of lettuce. Now, I have a better idea. Organic farming is much more labor intensive, at least when it comes to picking, than conventional farming.
We have yet to download our yurt pictures, but we will try and get them up this week!
I want everyone to learn along with Brian and I about farming. I plan to try and occasionally post some important lessons we have learned here. This week: why organic food costs so much.
On this smaller scale organic farm, EVERYTHING is harvested by hand. What is growing out here you ask? Lettuce, chicories (a bitter Italian green - think Radicchio), onions, garlic, several bitter greens, arugula, several varieties of kale, chard, herbs, several varieties of cress, radishes, beets, turnips, and more. We will have tomatoes and strawberries in the summer (so excited!). This farm sells to several restaurants, restaurant distributors, and at farmers markets. That adds up to a lot of picking. There are laborers on the farm 7 days a week! Some crops are easier than others to pick, but some are very time consuming. Take arugula for example. What we sell is very small ("baby" arugula), with the leaves being no bigger than 1 inch. The arugula does not grow in a head, like lettuce, but grows like grass, in single blades. The arugula will be "mowed" by hand with a pair of scissors; a pound takes us about an hour to pick (the professional laborers take maybe half that time). There are also lots of weeds to sort out since no sprays are used on this organic farm. Now, you take an hour of labor for one pound, add the price of seed, and the price to prepare the ground for seeding (tractor fuel and labor), the cost of irrigation (water and pipes), the cost of the piece of land (this farm is leased), boxes to package it and fuel to take it to market -- that pound of arugula gets pretty costly. This is why I get annoyed at farmers' markets when people complain about paying $8 a pound for the arugula. It costs more than that just to pick it!!! Plus, a full pound goes a long way on the table. Your average green salad may weigh 1/4 pound..
Of course, before I got out here, this was not something I really thought about, which is why I consider it a lesson. I never really thought about how much time goes into that basket of strawberries or that head of lettuce. Now, I have a better idea. Organic farming is much more labor intensive, at least when it comes to picking, than conventional farming.
We have yet to download our yurt pictures, but we will try and get them up this week!
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
First week on the farm
We moved in to the yurt last Wednesday, and so far our time on the farm has been great. While small, we are able to accommodate pretty much all of our essentials within the 12-foot diameter living space. Never thought that would be possible. Our 6 x 8 x 10 foot (off-site) storage unit is packed to the gills, however.
In our first week we became familiar with the layout of the fields, and on a 27-acre farm that means a lot of walking! Several days we took part harvesting with the crew, most of whom are from Oaxaca, Mexico, and are all very genuine, kind people. Brian rode along with the delivery truck one morning and made 17 stops to various restaurants and distributors. We sold our goods at several farmers markets and generally began to learn the daily and weekly flow of the farm. We are heading towards the very busiest time of the year, where we will be growing tons of lettuces, strawberries and tomatoes - the most popular items by far. Weekly, the farm will sell at 8 farmers markets in the bay area in addition to the regular sales to restaurants and wholesalers.
There is a huge amount for us to learn but everyone seems to be quite helpful and we are eager to experience as much as we can in the next 10 months. The lifestyle adjustment has been very pleasurable so far but we know that there is much work to be done, particularly once we get in to Summer! Some mornings we are up well before the sun, but the rewards of having zero commute time and the beautiful surroundings are immense.
Pictures coming soon!
In our first week we became familiar with the layout of the fields, and on a 27-acre farm that means a lot of walking! Several days we took part harvesting with the crew, most of whom are from Oaxaca, Mexico, and are all very genuine, kind people. Brian rode along with the delivery truck one morning and made 17 stops to various restaurants and distributors. We sold our goods at several farmers markets and generally began to learn the daily and weekly flow of the farm. We are heading towards the very busiest time of the year, where we will be growing tons of lettuces, strawberries and tomatoes - the most popular items by far. Weekly, the farm will sell at 8 farmers markets in the bay area in addition to the regular sales to restaurants and wholesalers.
There is a huge amount for us to learn but everyone seems to be quite helpful and we are eager to experience as much as we can in the next 10 months. The lifestyle adjustment has been very pleasurable so far but we know that there is much work to be done, particularly once we get in to Summer! Some mornings we are up well before the sun, but the rewards of having zero commute time and the beautiful surroundings are immense.
Pictures coming soon!
Back from Mexico!
See the photos! http://picasaweb.google.com/marybrian2
We made it back from Mexico unscathed! We braved the food, water, insane drivers and managed to not get sick and didn't run in to any troubles on the road (either literally or figuratively speaking). What a grand time we had!
It took us over four full days to drive from Oakland to Manzanillo, where we stayed for 9 days. On the way down we stopped in several coastal towns, including Mazatlan and our favorite, Puerto Vallarta. Our main purpose in Manzanillo was to attend our friends' wedding, and Brian performed the ceremony for them - he's an ordained minister, didn't you know?! They had a beautiful wedding right beside the ocean, and everyone had a great time. Our other activities in the area included fishing, snorkeling, driving ATVs around the beach and hills, riding a zip-line about 1500 feet and just general sightseeing.
From Manzanillo, we headed northward for our return leg and stopped in Guadalajara (Mexico's 2nd largest city) for 3 nights. We stayed just outside the city in an area called Tonala, where the majority of all the great manufactured artisinal goods are produced. There are all kinds of workshops within about a 10 x 10 block area, which produce pottery, glassware, metalwork, textiles and jewelry and all sorts of art. We went in to the Guadalajara city center and spent time in a massive marketplace which spanned about 4 whole city blocks - just about anything you can imagine is for sale there, and shopping is the sole reason why many people travel to Guadalajara. It was a bit overwhelming, particularly because "gringos" aka "gueros" are vigorously targeted by all the shopkeepers since they see light-skinned people as great targets for sales. We were savvy shoppers however and came away with some great bargains, and saw many beautiful areas of the downtown area as well.
Continuing northward, we went through the town of Tequila in Jalisco where mezcal or tequila production began. We toured an amazing old factory which still produces tequila in the traditional method after almost 150 years in production. We stayed in San Blas, where we took a boat ride through mangrove forests and saw many crocodiles and majestic herons, egrits and other waterfowl. We revisited Mazatlan on the way back up and were left less than impressed by that city overall, mainly because of the scale that "Americanization" has occurred. Our final night in Mexico was spent in a "resort" hotel in San Carlos which was falling in to a state of disrepair. We were able to book an oceanfront room for $60USD and were 2 of probably a dozen guests in total who stayed that night -- the once 4-star resort had over 200 rooms but was obviously struggling to bring in business. San Carlos is a beautiful sleepy coastal town and seems to understandably be a popular retirement spot for Americans and Canadians. Unfortunately, our digital camera broke that night so we made use of our 35mm film camera the rest of the way.
After 18 days in Mexico, we crossed back over the heavily fortified border in Nogales, AZ and headed to Death Valley for a couple days of re-acclimitization of sorts. We stayed in Phoenix for a night and found a great little authentic Italian restaurant where we ordered a pizza which was about 6 square feet worth of pizza. We were expecting leftovers when we ordered the "metro" size, but we didnt expect to be eating pizza for 4 meals straight. It was really darn good though, and we felt like we were in college again waking up and eating nothing but leftover pizza for a whole day.
Death Valley is a special place to us and we were fortunate to be passing through during a better-than-average year for wildflowers. During our one whole day there, we drove from -196 feet sea level up to 6800 feet to the Charcoal Kilns which were built around 1870. From there we hiked up past 9000 feet to Wildrose Summit where we had panoramic views of the valley and even Mount Whitney. We were both feeling the effects of the altitude by the time we reached the summit so we made a brief stop and descended. After two nights in the valley we made the long 500 mile drive back to Oakland. Our Subaru was quite happy to have completed the 5200 mile trip, and we were all grateful to have made it back the same shape we left in!
While in Mexico, we ate all kinds of wonderful food, the best of which was generally $10 or less for the two of us to eat a full meal. We most enjoyed all the different types of salsas/moles and the seafood was excellent. The vast majority of people were extremely nice and went out of their way to help us find our way or to supply us with whatever we required. We saw little to no signs of the drug war that we have heard so much about in the press, but we certainly heard plenty on the news about the conflicts going on in the bad areas. We came away from this trip with a much greater appreciation of all the dynamic relationships that "Americans" have with Mexicans, and also an immense desire to learn more about their vast country.
We made it back from Mexico unscathed! We braved the food, water, insane drivers and managed to not get sick and didn't run in to any troubles on the road (either literally or figuratively speaking). What a grand time we had!
It took us over four full days to drive from Oakland to Manzanillo, where we stayed for 9 days. On the way down we stopped in several coastal towns, including Mazatlan and our favorite, Puerto Vallarta. Our main purpose in Manzanillo was to attend our friends' wedding, and Brian performed the ceremony for them - he's an ordained minister, didn't you know?! They had a beautiful wedding right beside the ocean, and everyone had a great time. Our other activities in the area included fishing, snorkeling, driving ATVs around the beach and hills, riding a zip-line about 1500 feet and just general sightseeing.
From Manzanillo, we headed northward for our return leg and stopped in Guadalajara (Mexico's 2nd largest city) for 3 nights. We stayed just outside the city in an area called Tonala, where the majority of all the great manufactured artisinal goods are produced. There are all kinds of workshops within about a 10 x 10 block area, which produce pottery, glassware, metalwork, textiles and jewelry and all sorts of art. We went in to the Guadalajara city center and spent time in a massive marketplace which spanned about 4 whole city blocks - just about anything you can imagine is for sale there, and shopping is the sole reason why many people travel to Guadalajara. It was a bit overwhelming, particularly because "gringos" aka "gueros" are vigorously targeted by all the shopkeepers since they see light-skinned people as great targets for sales. We were savvy shoppers however and came away with some great bargains, and saw many beautiful areas of the downtown area as well.
Continuing northward, we went through the town of Tequila in Jalisco where mezcal or tequila production began. We toured an amazing old factory which still produces tequila in the traditional method after almost 150 years in production. We stayed in San Blas, where we took a boat ride through mangrove forests and saw many crocodiles and majestic herons, egrits and other waterfowl. We revisited Mazatlan on the way back up and were left less than impressed by that city overall, mainly because of the scale that "Americanization" has occurred. Our final night in Mexico was spent in a "resort" hotel in San Carlos which was falling in to a state of disrepair. We were able to book an oceanfront room for $60USD and were 2 of probably a dozen guests in total who stayed that night -- the once 4-star resort had over 200 rooms but was obviously struggling to bring in business. San Carlos is a beautiful sleepy coastal town and seems to understandably be a popular retirement spot for Americans and Canadians. Unfortunately, our digital camera broke that night so we made use of our 35mm film camera the rest of the way.
After 18 days in Mexico, we crossed back over the heavily fortified border in Nogales, AZ and headed to Death Valley for a couple days of re-acclimitization of sorts. We stayed in Phoenix for a night and found a great little authentic Italian restaurant where we ordered a pizza which was about 6 square feet worth of pizza. We were expecting leftovers when we ordered the "metro" size, but we didnt expect to be eating pizza for 4 meals straight. It was really darn good though, and we felt like we were in college again waking up and eating nothing but leftover pizza for a whole day.
Death Valley is a special place to us and we were fortunate to be passing through during a better-than-average year for wildflowers. During our one whole day there, we drove from -196 feet sea level up to 6800 feet to the Charcoal Kilns which were built around 1870. From there we hiked up past 9000 feet to Wildrose Summit where we had panoramic views of the valley and even Mount Whitney. We were both feeling the effects of the altitude by the time we reached the summit so we made a brief stop and descended. After two nights in the valley we made the long 500 mile drive back to Oakland. Our Subaru was quite happy to have completed the 5200 mile trip, and we were all grateful to have made it back the same shape we left in!
While in Mexico, we ate all kinds of wonderful food, the best of which was generally $10 or less for the two of us to eat a full meal. We most enjoyed all the different types of salsas/moles and the seafood was excellent. The vast majority of people were extremely nice and went out of their way to help us find our way or to supply us with whatever we required. We saw little to no signs of the drug war that we have heard so much about in the press, but we certainly heard plenty on the news about the conflicts going on in the bad areas. We came away from this trip with a much greater appreciation of all the dynamic relationships that "Americans" have with Mexicans, and also an immense desire to learn more about their vast country.
Thursday, March 5, 2009
The beginning
Before we start our farm life, we are going to spend three weeks on vacation in Mexico. Some very good friends of ours our getting married in Manzanillo next week. We are making an adventure of it and driving down from Oakland. We plan on spending about 6 days driving down and then hang out for a week in Manzanillo. We will then head to Guadalajara then back up the coast, back into the US. I hope to have LOTS of pictures to share with everyone once we get back.
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