Jenni's Blog

Mendocino Sea Vegatable!! Okay, so itt's in this tiny bitty town, this old hippie guy and his hippie wife go down to the beach and harvest this stuff on low tide themselves, then dry it and do whatever with it...man...this couple was...the most unquie people who've hosted us yet. To just go ahead an say it..I think they do a little more than seaweed harvesting. They were pretty funny. As we were walking down the path to the ocean, we stopped and the guy talked for a little bit, turned to his wife, who was looking over the cliffs and said "Well, my wife can tell you more about harvesting." and she just sort of turned around, with a surprised laugh like "Hey! I didnt know you were all still here!"

We walked down, he talked for a bit about seaweed, and a few of us decided to just go ahead and go in and harvest some seaweed. It was lots of fun. It was icy cold, but once you got in it was nice, it only hurt when you walkd out.

We got to walk around the beach for a little bit..I went to go rinse off my flops in the water, and saw somethingy shelly and metatlic rainbowy in the water, so before the waves swept it away I grabbed it, and went to go find someone to tell me what it was. Since it was metallicy and rainbowy all the way around, front and back, I thought, for some reason, it was some kinda melted metal. But, it turned out to be a shiny Albalonie (spelt wrong, sorry) and the hippie guy said that if you found it somewhere, you were bound to find more, and the peice you find was meant for you, or some kind of hippie mellow equalivilant. I was excited, it'd make a kick ass necklace. So, of course, I spent the rest of my time looking for more. Which I did, a few slivered fragments to make a pair of earrings or two. 

One of the guys in my class, wanted the big piece I found, but I'd never give it up, But I figured if I found another nice piece, I'd give it to him.

In the last ten minutes, a girl, who wasnt even LOOKING for it, found half a shell..I was jealous, but I liked my stuff better. 

Also in the last ten minutes, the guy who wanted the piece I had, started to look with me, pretty sure we wouldn't find anymore like I had, but I was positive and DETERMINED. So, I turn and walk towards the waves, a shiny thing catching my eye, and I snatch up ANOTHER piece, a bit bigger than mine, with a small hole in it. I was sooo excited and went over to him, slightly satisfied I was right, and also really glad, cause I knew how excited he'd be. And he really was, I was so glad to make his day. He wanted a piece to make a necklace for his girlfriend, and I didnt need another piece anyway. I have enough pretty marbly shell fragments to make two pairs of earings, and two or three single shell necklaces. The professor with us, as well as some students, were all looking together, but everyone said I seemed to find all the best pieces, as in the last minutes i found a lot more tiny pieces, which I gave one to someone, because I really didnt need a lot, and something like that is something to share.

So, we walked up, had some sandwitches, watched  a Noori Frying demo, and climbed back on the bus.

We got to stop for a little bit to walk through a red wood trail, which was awesome. They were HUGE. And everywhere. I got to take a ton of pictures, which is taking forever to load on photobucket, but it's not like Im doing anything else tonight.

So, after THAT, we went to OUR FIRST WINERY! FINALLY! I mean, yeah, I like local farms and learning about sustainability...but this is turning into the Organic, Sustainable Food Semeniar....what happened to the wine!!!!??

So we finally got to the winery....whose name I cant remember but I'll mention it soon....We toured the area, looked at giant wine barrels, looked at vineyards, and tried some wine...just the normal stuff, and a dry muskcat, and some non-alcholic pinot nior juice, which was awesome. I was tempted to buy some, but like ive been telling everyone, if I buy a bottle of wine or something at every winery, Im going to end up with a lot of wine. 

So, that was my day, we go to Santa Rosa Friday morning, and off to a bunch of places. More tomarrow! =)