News... and Piglets!

Our beautiful "Protein Field" of leafy trees & shrubs: moringa, cassava, & mulberry. Also, you may note hibiscus at the front of some rows - because flowers are food for the soul.

I am still recovering from that car crash that happened at the beginning of September.  This whole episode has really thrown me for a loop.  But finally, finally, I feel like some progress is being made and I'm able to do a few of the everyday things that I simply couldn't for so long.  Things like making dinner now and then, or putting up a batch of marmalade, or visiting with friends for a couple hours.  Believe me, it makes a huge difference to feel like part of the world again.

On the other hand, I've gotten a lot of reading done during these past two months, which has been nice.  I've read a book about North Korean defectors, a love story told through letters, a cute ghost story-mystery, a marvelously well-done sci-fi told through a 12-year-old's eyes, and a revealing take on young widowhood.  In between each book, I'm taking a pause with a chapter from Isabella Bird's Six Months in the Sandwich Islands.  And I managed to get my own book into a .pdf format for those who prefer reading on their e-gadgets, as well as for the international customers who have requested it that way (easier than shipping an actual book through customs sometimes).  [See the sidebar on the left for a link if you're interested.]

 

What else?  Oh yes, there was a documentary film crew here at our farm a couple weeks ago, conducting interviews, getting information, gathering footage.  It was a fun time!  If/when anything comes of it, I will be sure to let you know.  Kerry also posted about it on her photo-blog: exploretheshiningstars

Everything's growing really well: piggies and plants.  We've been harvesting an abundance of kabocha, papaya, sweet potatoes, sugarcane, guava, and cassava... and have traded with friends and neighbors for avocados, tangerines, and breadfruit (our 'ulu is not yet producing - soon though!).  With the rains comes transplanting season, and it is a real pain to not be able to get some of the potted plants into the ground, but it would be, quite literally, even more of a pain if I tried at this point.

Meanwhile, Mike is harvesting, cleaning, and pressing sugarcane into juice on a twice-weekly basis.  We have several customers, including an all-organic restaurant, who are buying the cane juice, and of course, we enjoy this super healthful drink too, fresh from our own fields.  The cane in the bucket below is for planting - too small for juice - and the kabocha shown is only a small portion of what we've harvested so far this autumn. 

Egg production has slowed only a little with the shorter daylight hours.  The oldest hens have given up entirely, hence sealing their fate: the stewpot.  But the youngest flock is just starting to lay - we got the first egg yesterday! - so we will soon be able to resume regular deliveries to the local "localvore" store in Pahoa.  These lovely eggs are just about flying off the shelves as word gets around that there are local non-gmo-verified eggs to be had at a reasonable cost.  Supply and demand would dictate that we should raise our prices, but we're going to hold off on that for the time being and ride out this slow time and see how it goes when the young'uns come into full production.

Instead of rewriting the post I just did on the farm blog, I'm going to cheat and link it here.  So go on over to Hubbell's Hog Heaven and read all about the newest litter of piglets.
Oh, okay, here's a sneak preview:

Cute, aren't they?  Only one day old in this photo. Spot's litter is due next week, and with the six being raised for meat, we have quite a barn-full!