Tasmania: Day 4 - "Here: Loonagana"

THEME SONGS FOR THE DAY:

1. "Society", by Eddie Vedder, from the Into The Wild soundtrack
2. "Indifference", by Ben Harper and Eddie Vedder

PETER BEDFORD:
THE MYTH, THE MAN, THE BLOODY LEGEND

Urgh. After 10 hours on the road yesterday I'm not sure it was a good idea to stay up until 5am drinking wine with our Couchsurfing host and new friend, Peter Bedford... but geeeez his wine is good!

Home-made from blueberries, raspberries, and loganberries grown organically in the garden patches right outside the main house, there are jugs of new batches bubbling away in the kitchen. We made a pretty good dent in their supply getting to know each other last night...

Surprisingly, I'm not hungover, just tired from being on the road and then staying awake for so long. Guess that's what happens when you drink wine that is made from organic fruits, with no preservatives or additives - the wines taste clean, crisp, and fresh, like we are nuzzling from the bosom of the earth.

Aside from sharing our stories and drinking copious amounts of wine, last night - or rather, this morning - we learnt how to find due south by lining up the stars of the Southern Cross with the Pointer Sisters [with Peter's bright green laser pointer which seemed to touch the stars], and were given a tour of the place in near-total darkness. When I finally rise at around 10am, I jump out of bed eager to explore the place in the daylight.

FROST ON THE GROUND IN THE MORNING

The sun has cleared the mountains and the temperature hovers near 4 degrees C, only one degree warmer than last night. I walk down to the dam to get a better look at the "luxury camping" compound that Peter has built for his family over the years. A builder by trade, the building have all been constructed of materials reclaimed from old tear-down houses in the area, or timber milled on-site from the few trees they felled to create the clearing in which the houses sit.

BEDFORD LUXURY CAMPGROUNDS

For the first 18 months or so, the Bedfords would hike in from the main entrance and camp around the fire pit seen in the middle of the photo. The fire's embers were kept glowing 24 hours/day to give the family warmth and cooking capacity until a double wood-fired oven, barbeque grill, and covered dining table were all added later to finish out the heart of the compound. The original structure, which can be seen to the right, was built; then the family moved their tents into this shelter.

THE ORIGINAL HOUSE

This structure was later expanded into what it is today: carpets cover the original earth floors on one side, and a wood-fired stove sitting on carpet-covered brick floors warms the cottage from the other. It feels like a writer's cabin in the woods, complete with a corner desk that overlooks the dam and is bathed in sunlight each morning.

INSIDE THE BATHOUSE

The bath-house can be seen to the left of the photo above: inspired by the bathtub cauldrons used to skin slaughtered
pigs, Peter has built a wood-fired hot-tub out of brick and a reclaimed cast-iron bathtub. Fresh dam water is used, the color of weak herbal tea from being seeped with eucaplytus tannins. A chimney pipes out all the smoke from the fire, and a very high-tech system of pulling the plug to drain water while turning the tap to let in more cold water is used by the bather to regulate the temperature and prevent themselves from becoming boiled soup.

The veggie gardens sit above this area, well fenced to keep out unwelcome guests. The growbeds are raised, sitting on the north-facing aspect of the gentle slope everything is built on, and are a combination of worm castings and compost that has been cultivated on-site over the years. Most of the veggies have been harvested, though a few heads of lettuce and other yummy munchies can be seen growing; the seasons are shifting and the winter veggies will be grown in the two hothouses that have been built.

Peter uses what he calls "organic worms", which live in worm baths that sit in the shadows of a grove of eucalyptus at the edge of the compound. These worms are happiest munching on a combination of kitchen scraps and horse manure, and differ from regular earthworms in the quality of worm casting they produce. Buckets sit at the bottom ends of the worm baths collecting "worm tea", which is a nutrient-rich liquid fertilizer that is used throughout the gardens.

THE KIDS' HOUSE

The "main house" that we pulled up to last night is the most recently built structure on the premises: also built almost entirely from reclaimed building materials and timbers milled on-site, it features heated floors. A concrete slab was poured with copper pipes laid throughout that connect to a modified wood-fired stove in the middle of the house. Water fills a chamber surrounding the fire chamber, and a small pump helps circulate the water to keep the house warm in the cold winter nights.

The north-facing wall is almost entirely glass, bought for $100 from windows reclaimed from another tear-down house in the area. Growbeds line this wall, about three 1/2 feet off the ground so that tomatos and other veggies can be grown inside the house throughout winter. It's also a handy feature to be able to throw your dry scraps right onto the garden to be composted. Originallly intended to be the "kid's house", this structure has become the main living area, with a large kitchen bench to hang out around, and plenty of room to hang out wet gear.

A flat screen TV and impressive collection of dvds and video games look like any other suburban kid's living room, though these kids are hardly what you'd call any other suburban kid. Wilbur is 23 years old and is currently in Norway leading whitewater kyaking expeditions, while 16-year old Oscar is away with Mum whitewater kyaking somewhere near the Walls of Jerusalem national park in the middle of Tasmania.

We strike out towards the waterfall that can be heard in the background, and follow a large trek leading away from the ompound. The stream at the top of the waterfall is narrow enough to jump across, and seems harldy capable of producing the roar of falling water humming in our chests. There are a couple eucalyptus trees here that would take four men holding hands to span its circumference, and soar majestically 30 stories above the forest floor.

At the bottom of the falls, we are humbled by the sight which greets us. Only a handful of humans have ever born witness to this place, Peter tells us later that the locals didn't even know it existed until he moved in and discovered it himself.

We are standing at the bottom of a small canyon, whitewater falling in slow motion over glistening black boulders that are almost perfect squares, tempting me to climb this beautiful natural staircase. Massive tree ferns lining the canyon walls create perfect acoustics for the water to gently echo around this room, and we stand in silence for quite some time in awe and gratitude of this discovery. It feels wrong to cheapen the moment by snapping photos, so we quietly say our thanks and move on back up to the house.

Electricity for the entire compound is generated from one turbine at the base of the falls, and is pumped into a converter and battery store room where power levels can be easily monitored. Sitting around under one light bulb in the middle of the night no longer seems creepy once we've walked down to the turbine and followed the power cables all the way back up to the house.

They don’t get many visitors this far out into the bush, as Peter explains, “those who are meant to find us, eventually do…” This afternoon he is picking up 18-year old Aoba [pronounced “Oh-bah”], whose Couchsurfing sister has arranged for a two-week stay to get her out of the city and broaden her horizons.

She barely speaks English, and I am lounging naked in the hot-tub when she arrives late in the afternoon and is given the tour. “Can I take photo?” she says, and I nod vaguely through the clouds of eucalyptus steam.

Who woulda thought that I would be snapped nude by a Japanese tourist out in the wilderness of Tasmania?

# # #

"KIDS' HOUSE"
AND VEGGIE GARDENS


STORAGE SHED, CUBBY HOUSE AND FLYING FOX


MAXIMUS PLAYING AROUND THE DAM


WOOD-FIRED OVEN


OUTDOOR DINING TABLE


BUNKHOUSE




# # #

Green Worms

WORM POOP ANYONE?

When I first met Glen Martinez at the IHS Rooftop Aquaponics Garden meeting on Friday, I liked him immediately.  He was wearing a funny paper-boy/golfer's cap, offering me chocolate-caramel cookies, and he was constantly being "reigned in" by the meeting's moderator each time he launched into a passionate description of an aspect of their green roof project, his blue eyes twinkling brightly.  

My brother James and I have had Glen's name come up in several unrelated, seemingly random conversations over the last few months, so meeting him so unexpectedly was a pleasantly karmic surprise.

James is an architecture student at UH-Manoa, with a passion for urban garden and permaculture initiatives.  He is finishing his studies soon, and is planning to conduct his thesis on "resource positive" buildings - buildings which go beyond producing their own energy.  The grin that creeps on his face as he pulls up (fashionably late, in true Lynch-style) says it all: "I'm home."

Now that we've spent 4 hours touring Olomana Gardens, in Glen's words: "an informal, old-style, Hawaiian, tropical garden that is a model for modern, sustainable agriculture", I like him even more. 

Most tourists pass right through Waimanalo in the blink of an eye on their way to Bellows Beach camping Grounds, Makapu'u Beach, or Sea Life Park, and never guess that they are passing through Hawaiian Homestead and agricultural lands.

Glen is only the 4th landowner of record; the parcel under his stewardship is a kuleana lot that has been passed along directly from the Hawaiian Royal Throne.  The property is nestled in the back of Waimanalo Valley, so close to the foot of the Ko'olau mountain range that the sun was disappearing behind the towering peaks as I drove up at 4 o'clock in the afternoon.

Fed by the Waikupanaha spring, the valley used to be filled with breadfruit, mountain apples, kukuinut and coconut trees, sweet potato, sugar cane, and taro patches with banks covered in ti and wauke plants.  Today, the valley is home to Native Hawaiian Homesteaders, military folk living off-base, a handful of small family farm and nursery operations, and the only horse polo field on the Winward Side of the island.  

Olomana Gardens is "a production and demonstration, organic market garden including organic, biointensively-produced vegetables, and selected fruits, herbs and ornamental plants; exotic chickens, geese, turkeys and ducks, naturally-raised eggs (no antibiotics, no hormones)" [from their website].  

Papaya and calamungai trees (makes the best chicken soup ever - just ask any Filipino!), ti leaf, sweet potatoes, taro, lettuce, a variety of herbs, we even spotted a cacao (chocolate) tree....all of it doesn't grow in the topsoil, instead they are happily and healthily growing in worm castings (aka worm poop).  This is created by thousands of composting worms which munch their way through organic greenwaste and animal manures to produce a natural, nutrient-rich fertilizer that looks like topsoil, tastes like topsoil....but ain't topsoil!  

Despite the recent heavy rains, the "soil" the plants grew in was still quite loamy, soft, and easy to break apart.  Glen keeps diving into patches of dirt with both hands to eagerly give us a sniff and feel of the stuff - it smells like sweet mother earth, with notes of rain and a hint of fresh mountain air, the stuff that life is made of. 

We walk into the horse stables and were invited to sniff the air - guess what?  No smell!  The worms were doing their thing in here too, breaking down the horse's wastes into loamy-sweet plant food.  Same thing in the chicken pens, and where the ducks roost.  Amazing...I'm starting to really like these little wriggly guys.

...and boy does Glen love his worms - the Indian Blue Worms and Alabama Jumpers get all the credit for munching through all that poop, though there are countless other millipedes, bugs, and other critters that help them break down all that waste material.  He shows us one of his "secret weapons" hiding in a bucket behind his converted classic 70s-model diesel Mercedes [which he is currently running on turky fryer oil - runs great except the a/c don't work]...the 6 - 12 inch Brazillian Bulldozer, a elusive, non-composting beast of a worm that nobody has figured out how to breed effectively in captivity.  These monsters can till their way through hard-packed adobe clay and riddle it so full of wormholes that it looks and feels like an adobe clay version of volcanic pumice.

Glen is most excited about the aquaponics system being installed.  A recent blackout caused filters to failand wiped out over 2,500 fish at a neighbor's fishfarm...they had to use a tractor to bury them all....and with fertilizer costs steadily increasing, using aquaponics to minimize costs and maximize efficiency takes Olomama Gardens a step closer to creating a completelly self-sustaining ecosystem on the farm.  

In an aquaponics system, the fish eat the worms and black soldier fly larvae that are munching through the green and organic waste created by the farm, and then poop in the water.  The water is recirculated through cinder growbeds, where the plants grow very quickly by drawing the rich nutrients (fish poop) out of the water, thereby filtering the water so that it can be recirculated back to the fish as clean, healthy water for them to eat and poop in.  

The Aussies are the world leaders in developing these systems, and so Glen is heading off this week to visit Brisbane, Australia; spending thousands of dollars to attend "aquaponics bootcamp" with the world's foremost expert on the matter, Dr James Rakocy.

We meet some of the interns who live and work on the farm, in exchange for the learning opporunity - there is a landscaping contractor, a master's student, and a full-time dolphin instructor hanging out and drinking hot tea under the tents of the communal kitchen....an ecclectic, and very intelligent group of people.

As introductions are made and short bios given, it dawns on me that this sustainability thing is no longer the realm of leftover hippies and crazed tree-hugging environmentalists.  There are some very smart, forward-thinking, highly conscious, outward-focussed individuals that are really embracing this philosophy....and the striking genius of it all lies in its simplicity.  Fish poops, dirties its water.  Plant eats the poop, cleans the water.  And the cycle starts again.  Simple.  Beautiful.

At what point did we in the western world decide that life had to be so complicated, so layered in its intricacies?  Did we inadvertently seduce ourselves into complacency through our indulgence in the creature comforts of progress?  Farmers throughout the world have been farming the same plots of land for thousands of years, and in two generations the western world has poisoned and leeched many of our farmlands in the mindless pursuit of profit.

Thankfully, ventures such as Olomana Gardens show us that we are poised on the brink of a new level of collective consciousness.  The pain that lies ahead for so many of us as we weather the global downturn that shall be upon us for the next few years will no doubt prove to the masses that unconscious capitalism simply does not work.  Conscious capitalism, in which a "triple bottom line" of profitability encompasses social, environmental, and economic sustainability will be the way for businesses and organizations to innovate and prosper.  Imagine a big business where the more money it makes, the more our environment and societies benefit - does such an animal even exist?

My brother James and I are so impressed with Glen's passion and knowledge, and with the tranquil setting of Waimanalo Valley, that we stay and chat with this man until well after dark.  We have long been interested in creating a sustainable development of our own and used to sit out on our patio in Kailua, the next neighborhood over, and dream about what ours would look like: kalo (taro) patches, organic vegies and herbs, courtyards in the main house, a horse stable for our old roomate, yurt or hale [pronounced hah-lei] structures where healing arts could be practised, a workshed to build stuff with our Dad, high-performance technology center for communications with global projects ... the list goes on....  Think feudal-era-rural-Japanese-farming-compund-meets-James-Bond-villan-lair and you get the general idea.

When we learn that there will be a vacany opening up at Olomana Gardens soon, we catch each other's eyes across the tent and reach an unspoken agreement: "We'll be moving in soon."

WAIKUPANAHA STREAM

HAPPY KOI

KALO PATCH

ABOUT OLOMANA GARDENS:  Olomana Gardens is dedicated to serving the local community as an informal, old-style, Hawaiian, tropical garden that is a model for modern, sustainable agriculture.  Organic fruits and vegetables, composting and tiller worms, worm compost, organic plants, and organic pallet gardens are available for purchase.  Agriculture workshops and tours are a regular feature.  Learn more at:http://www.olomanagardens.com.