Off The Menu

King grass, aka "a royal pain"

halibut with sour cream dill sauce and roasted rustica veggies
*
weathervane scallops piccata with organic home grown broccolini
*
cheese tortellini with home made organic pesto, vegan sausage, arugula salad
***

I stumbled across this partial-week menu recently and just started laughing.

This is decidedly not what we're dining on here at Singing Whale Farm.

Near-instant access to fresh seafood (and an array of other fresh ingredients) is easy when you're living in Seattle. Here? Not quite so easy.

Not complaining, mind you. Just observing the differences that always come with living someplace new. Apparently it's the things we took for granted that surprise us most when they're no longer there.

We will adapt.

***

In the meantime, we're still very much in pre-farm mode. We've planted some things (pineapples and palm trees and finger limes, oh my!) and done some much needed hacking of king grass (which can grow up to 15 feet high if you let it). 

But the fact is we're not even moved in yet. Half our stuff is still in Seattle and there's another shipping container in our future. Where all *that* stuff is gonna go is anybody's guess. 

The dogs are getting used to the idea that this is where they live now, so that's a win. The cats are another story. 

See, the Seattle cats and the Hawaii cats aren't getting along—at all. Please envision four cats loudly hissing and growling and shrieking and swatting and shredding a perfectly good sliding-screen door—that's how things are going with them.

The good news: we live in Hawaii!! 

The additional good news: we now own a 42" riding lawnmower! And a power washer! And a couple of portable bluetooth speakers!

We can now mow the king grass and power wash the cats and listen to music whilst whistling a happy tune!

Yay, Home Depot delivery!

Also, yes I really am celebrating a lawnmower and a power washer! And using lots of exclamation points! Who even am I any more??

***

Back to the menu.

There may not be any halibut, but there's plenty of ahi and mahi mahi and opah and ono at the markets in Hilo and Kona. They're all delicious and (near as we can determine) sustainably and locally fished.

I've found no scallops, but even if I had, I wouldn't buy them. They'd be frozen and shipped in from thousands of miles away, and there's no way to prepare food with that kind of carbon footprint that doesn't end up tasting like petrochemicals.

Tortellini and fresh pesto and vegan sausage and ridiculously fresh, local greens? We can have that! All of it! And we have! Booya!

To sum up, there's no point living someplace new if you're gonna insist on living and eating and consuming the same ways you did before. Serious colonization vibe, thanks, no thanks.

***

The young man who delivered the mower, et al, kindly gave me some safety guidance on mowing the rolling terrain around our house. That was *very* welcome, but better still was that he described the hills and swales as "hoop-de-doos".

I love it here.