Day 11 and 12: Cali Coast is Where We Now Dwell

 

Hello, everybody, Casey on the ones and twos and ... all the way to twenty-six (letters that is).

So we returned to Santa Barbara.  I am mostly from Alaska, but my Freudian years (age 1-6) were spent in this cornucopia of sunshine, as well as later teenage years attending Santa Barbara City College.  It was a treat to re-kindle that flame that I have with the ocean.  There is just something so... lovely about the beach, playing in the tide pools and feeling the massaging effects of the gentle sand.  I’ll get sappy about that another time.  She is amazing.

We actually went to SBCC to harvest some fruits from their ‘public’ garden.  Despite our findings that most things are not quite ripe or that we just missed their harvest, we did run into an old friend, Daniel, who has been working with soil and compost teas for the past few years.  He, along with other faculty, reduced water consumption by 70% on the campus lawns by implementing compost tea.  Compost (teas, extracts, raw food) is a critical element in restoration, maintenance, and development of land for agricultural purposes.  You, me, all humans would be dead shells if it wasn’t for probiotics.  The microbiology of the soil acts the same on the earth body and compost is how you grow them.

The night was topped off up atop Gibraltar Rock (say that aloud four times fast) in the foothills of Santa Barbara.  Our host guide for the day was the thoughtful Hannah who found a mild hike for us to stare over the ocean into the sunset.  Oh, Santa Barbara, you are too perfect.

Day 12 had us on our way to LA.  Los Angeles is a land of everything, and we were excited to hear there was a gardening movement beginning as well.  We first met up with the Bus Collective (all you FoCollians might know about them) at a garden dig-in being put on by LA Green Grounds.  They are connecting an eager-to-garden populace with yard spaces eager to be planted.  This emulates what our backyard mom n pop The Growing Project is doing in Fort Collins.  The home we arrived at had a front yard about 10 by 20ft that was being turned from a weed patch into a sweet garden space.  The new movement of gardening has inspired so many people down here that at least 30 people were in attendance for this pond of a garden.  So, it was time to put plan B in effect.

After limited contact, we got ahold of Ron Finley.  The star of his very own TED Talk and an inspiration for many in the local community.  When I got in touch with him on the phone it went,

“Hey this is Casey with Colton, we are on our permaculture road trip just seeing if you needed any help as we just got to LA.”

“Yeah, I’m at the colis... (something I can’t understand).”

“Um..... do you need two sets of hands for anything?”

“Yeah, we can find something for you to do.”

“Ok, where you at? What’s the address?”

“ I’m at the coliseum. I dunno the address. Figueroa and something... It’s the coliseum.”

“Okay, we’ll see you soon.”

That was the whole conversation.  So, we have no idea what any of that really means, but we’re on our way to the place the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, where the 1984 Olympics were held, to do something with a Ron Finley.

We arrive (again with no clue) to find a festival happening. Okay. Then, we realize the festival is called the Mindful Living Fest. Okay, that is cool, but where is this Ron guy and does he have anything to do with this fest?  Finally, we get word that he IS a part of the event and he is over near a main stage and we don’t have to pay for parking since we’re a part of the Ron Finley crew. Okay, starting to sound pretty good.

We get over to his area to find five gardens beds and a bunch of volunteers.  We’re pretty excited as we’re told our “job” is to teach kids how plant veggies and to tutor adults on how to build gardens!!  Like whaaat? To add to it, we were just about the only volunteers who have any experience so we were the resident experts teaching everyone.  What!!  To top it off, the coliseum is in south central LA, so this area needs this kind of education ASAP.  Wow, what a blessing and opportunity to teach, hands-on, about the magic of growing your own food.  We connected with many of the other volunteers as we later found out pretty much no one knew anyone else so we fit right in.  There was much appreciation by the community, Ron, and the other volunteers for our efforts.  It was truly beyond what we were hoping for.  We send gratitude and blessings to those involved with the project and inspiration to those hundreds that we were able to send off with a plant.

Afterward we met up with the bus collective (thebuscollective.com), which you can read their blog to see what their game plan entails, to stay the night.  We got some feelers out to make these last few days a continuation of the adventure.  Stay tight.

C is for Carbon