29 Nov Thanksgiving

We had a potluck style thanksgiving with our fellow volunteer, Kristin and our hosts Jiva and Myrica. Myrica made a traditional stuffing, subbing breadfruit for bread, a seed bread-loaf, which was sort of like meatloaf with lots of savory flavors and topped with a tangy sauce.  She also made roselle non-cranberry sauce which was delicious. Jiva made super buttery mashed potatoes and vegetarian gravy. I made sautéed greens (farm kale + collards) with sweet & spicey cashews for a topping. I sautéed the greens with a lot of garlic, and a couple Hawaiian chilis in coconut oil and apple cider vinagar topped with a heavy sprinkling of chives. The cashews were roasted, then quickly heated up in coconut oil with Hawaiian chilis, and tossed with cinnamon, sugar, and salt. Aaron made two pitchers of beverages: Lemongrass-Basil-Tangelo juice and Roselle-Cinnamon-Ginger.  Kristin made a raw sweet potato pie for dessert with a walnut-date crust. We all ate until we were stuffed with vegetarian goodness!

Conversation flowed as we sat on the lenai of the house, all while soaking up the gorgeous view overlooking the ocean. We learned a lot about our hosts families – like that Jiva’s son Colin is a serious adventure athlete (check out his lengthy wikipedia page) and Myrica’s daughter was a student, now teacher & member of the commune of the American Eurythmy School. We also learned a little bit more about the history of the farm and their early days on Kaua’i. Another post on that coming soon! Moose, the neighbor’s dog, joined us for the entire meal, snoozing on the deck or making the rounds for pets.

All in all it was a really lovely and relaxing evening!