Food from Fiji Farm
Kevin and I just got back from Fiji, and we visited a farm on Mana Island while we were there. It was a fairly small farm, but it supplied a certain portion of the food for the resort where we've been for the past 11 days. The head farmer fed us fresh papaya, just off the tree, and served it on a banana leaf:
Here's the first sunset we had, taken from our balcony
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Fiji Hiking and Exploring
Comments (2)I will get the names for you, Anita. They stayed at 2 hotels on the "big island" and in little huts on 2 different smaller islands. I'm in LOVE with the hut above! Erin said that there were things she liked better about each of the smaller huts. One had a better swimming/snorkeling area right outside the front door, and the other one had better food, maybe...? But you could walk right down the steps and into the ocean at each of them! And get this...at least one of the huts was only $100 a night! I paid that much to stay in a cheap motel by the airport in San Diego!! Both resorts had tour guides to take you kayaking and hiking, if you wanted, etc. It just sounded like so much fun! Now I really want to go! Mark and I have never done anything so exotic as this, and we suddenly thought, if we don't go soon, our window of opportunity will close. Now I'm thinking if I save like crazy, maybe I could really do it in a year or two...say summer after next. It's possible!! I'll let you know the names of the places they went. Erin planned the whole trip online, so I know the resorts have websites. Marcia...See MoreList of GMO-free Foods & allergies and genetically modified food
Comments (33)Thank you, Dr. Henry, for that paper on toxic GM-effects on goats. Corn & soybean & canola & cottonseed are genetically modified, the Republic Magazine stated that other grains are safe: "Other than corn, no GM grains are sold on the market. Look for 100-percent wheat pasta, couscous, rice, quinoa, oats, barley, sorghum, and dried beans (except soybeans). Most GM ingredients are products made from the “Big Four:” corn, soybeans, canola, and cottonseed. Sugar beets and 50% of Hawaii papaya are genetically modified." **** from Straw: That's why I buy sugar-cane products, rather than sugar made from beets. I fed my kid those Pepperidge Farm cookies (made from cottonseed oil) and she broke out in rashes and scratched herself bloody. I ate those cookies and had the worst hayfever: runny nose & sneezing. Went shopping yesterday: They had strawberries for $2.50 versus organic strawberries for $3.45. I sniffed both: the organic strawberries was more fragrant, versus the regular with a slight chemical scent. After sniffing both for several times, my nose was in pain (I stuck my nose too close). I realized that it's the pesticides sprayed on that inflamed my nose. My nose burned for hours afterwards Two years ago I tasted grape at the store, and had a tummy ache. Strawberries is known for the most pesticides I'm very sadden by UK’s Daily Mail report that an estimated 125,000 farmers in India have committed suicide because of crop failure and massive debt since planting GM seeds. Recent Center for Human Rights and Global Justice report: "Indian farmers bought genetically modified Bollgard Bt cotton seeds from the Gates Foundation-backed Monsanto corporation ... 85 percent of cotton grown in India being Monsanto-controlled Bt cotton by 2009. However, the seeds were expensive, and spiralling prices (coupled with planting restrictions from the multinationals selling the seeds) led farmers to hefty loans. Almost 300,000 cotton workers have committed suicide to date, some of them by drinking the same insecticides they were sold by multinationals." From Straw: Years ago I watched a documentary film "Seeds of deception" where Mexican agriculture scientists voiced concern with GM seeds corrupting the bio-diversity of local seeds, which are well-adapted to drought and adverse local conditions. Dr. Frank Lipman, from http://www.drfranklipman.com/basic-questions-on-gmos/ stated, "The major benefit of all commercial GMO’s is that they are bred to either tolerate direct application of herbicides and/or have the ability to produce their own pesticides. They have not been bred to increase yield, become drought tolerant, improve nutrition or to have any other benefit to the consumer. So at present they have no health benefit, their benefits are purely economic." *** From Straw: It's about power, money, and control. Politics and economic factors are factors, besides ill health. The vindictive dirt-throwing, defamation attacks against international scientists, and bullying tactics of big corporations made me more sick than the ill-effects of GM-foods. We are saved from our wheat being genetically-modified, thanks to the farmers voicing concerns that our wheat can't be exported, if genetically modified. More from Dr. Lipman: "In Europe, over 175 regions and over 4500 municipalities have declared themselves GM-free zones. And in 2009, Germany along with France, Hungary, Italy, Greece, Austria, Poland and Romania banned Monsanto’s MON 810 GM corn because of its documented dangers to biodiversity and human health. Additionally, states in Australia, regions in New Zealand and Brazil and the countries like Venezuela, Zambia, Sudan, Angola and others, all want to be GM-free.The balanced reporting of the press in Europe of the dangers of GMO’s made a significant contribution to the decision to reject GMO’s. Below link is a detailed list from Republic Magazine on which foods are GM-tainted: Here is a link that might be useful: List of GM foods vs. non-GM This post was edited by Strawberryhill on Sat, Mar 1, 14 at 15:06...See MoreBack from Italy - a food report
Comments (37)bri29... Are you sure you can't tack on an extra couple of vacation days on those work trips? That's what I used to do when I traveled for work (drove my boss nuts!). I don't know if it would work for your schedule, but, if you haven't already, I'd highly recommend staying overnight in Venice. The evening stroll along the canals, when the large tour groups are gone, is magical. Compumom... You're WAYYYY overdue for a visit. The apartment stays are not as difficult to arrange as you might think. Though some require a week stay, especially in the high season, there are many more apartment owners who will rent for 3 or 4 nights. It does take much more planning time to find the right place though. As for the agriturismos, many of these are run like a small hotel or B&B, so you can stay even one night if that's all you can allow for your schedule, but to really get the experience, again 3-4 nights to me is about minimum. What we do is pick a place based on location that allows us to do day-trips from that spot. It really saves on the wear and tear of packing and unpacking, and too much hotel/restaurant food. Eileen...there's always a 20th anniversary trip?! ;) Barnmom... I think it's a combination of tons of walking and numerous espressos. That might be the true key to the "mediterranean diet" Dlynn... That's one thing I like about Italy; there are plenty of options that are a great alternative to fast food, even if you're not a gourmet eater. Annie... Hand gestures, shrugs, smiles all go a long way toward communication. And people are mre than happy to communicate in whatever language works. Grazie, everyone for the kind words!...See MoreNew hostas from Green Hill Farm
Comments (20)Lemon Snap sure looks nice! Love the reddish coloring on the stems. You referred to a bathtub wall... I am dying to see a wide shot of this wall! I have an idea of what it may look like, but if you have a photo from last year when the plants were all growing strong, I would really like to see a pic of the tub wall!...See More- 8 years agolast modified: 8 years ago
Sol, we do have some videos with sound, but I will have to get those from Kevin. We were there for my birthday, and so they did a tribal birthday serenade for me with a cake (pineapple and coconut). I have not edited any videos yet, and I still have to get Kevin's videos for editing.
Here is another farm photo, showing Kevin in the banana orchard portion
The native people of Fiji were fantastic, and on Mana Island, they were the majority of Fijians. In Fiji about 54% are native Fijians about 37% are Hindi, descended from indentured servants brought by the English to Fiji to work in the sugar plantations on the main island. It seems that most of the Hindi people stayed on the main island, as I did not see any of them on Mana Island, and I had little contact with them until I returned to the main island to leave. Our cab driver from the airport in Nani was Hindi, and he dropped us off in Port Denerau to catch our ferry to Mana.
The native Fijians are the nicest, warmest, friendliest, and most generous people you could want to meet. One of the writers of the Lonely Planet guide book on Fiji said that her favorite thing about Fiji was the native people. Kevin liked them so much that he wants to return to Fiji. Everyone greeted us with huge smiles and warm greetings of "Bula!", their word for hello or welcome. Every native we saw or met greeted us warmly, and it really made our stay there extremely enjoyable. Unfortunately, we arrived on Chinese New Year's Day, and so there were hordes of Chinese revelers who were not so friendly and were quite boisterous. While we were there, about 75% of the tourists were Chinese, but I don't think this is normal all year, as Australians make up the majority of tourists to Fiji, and most people on the island thought we were Australian. Just before we left, film crews and staff for the next Survivor TV episode started arriving, and while it is an American TV show, most of the crew seemed to be Australian. We met a German couple (from Frankfurt) who told us that they did not get American Survivor in Germany but that the did have a German version of the show filmed in Australia.
Here is a photo of a sandbar that we visited
Sandbar from the boat:
This is the sunset view from the boat ride to the sandbar:
Kevin helped the boat driver catch a fish while we were on the boat, but the fish (a large mackerel, we think) got away just as the boat driver was trying to get it into the boat with a large hook. If he had had a net, he might have been successful. I do have a video of this attempt.
This is the lagoon where we went snorkeling and where I took underwater videos:
Sheila, there are a lot of islands in Fiji, many of which are uninhabited, and some of which have only very limited resort facilities and few people. On Fiji Airlines, one of the perks is that you can take a wedding dress as an additional carry-on besides the rest of the carry-on items that are allowed. Our island had special honeymoon bures as well in a separate location. It seemed like a really good place for a honeymoon. - 8 years ago
Here is a photo of one of the farmers taking Kevin and me through the banana orchard:
Here is an underwater video I made on my birthday:
See if you can find any edible fish. I don't think there are any in this video, but I don't know what most of this fish are. On another day I saw an octopus, but I'm not sure I caught it on video. This video was only the second day I used this camera, and so I was still getting used to it. I didn't realize it has the time/date stamp turned on, and I turned that off after I had already made a lot of videos. I also later learned that the camera has a "dive" mode, which takes some of the blue out of the videos, but it really doesn't make a whole lot of difference.
- 8 years agolast modified: 8 years ago
- 8 years ago
I had two birthdays in Fiji - one on Fiji time (above), and the second on L.A. time (since L.A. is one day behind Fiji), starting with lunch at the Backpackers' hostel & restaurant:
You can see the pier in this last photo. We had to walk along the beach from this pier, which went directly to our resort, to get to the backpackers' restaurant, and the restaurant was so close to the water that we had to walk partly in the ocean to get to it. They had a pan of water at the entrance so that you could rinse your feet/sandals, but since this was in full sun, the water was scalding hot. I had a local fish, freshly caught, and I can't remember what Kevin had. He has photos of the food, but I have not gotten them yet.
Then we had my second (L.A. time) birthday dinner at the Pan-Asian restaurant at the resort:
Appetizer was smoked salmon (?!) with prawns wrapped in Vietnamese rice paper and served with a sweet/hot sauce that I liked.
We shared the main course, which was some sort of noodle stir-fried with vegetables and an assortment of seafood, including tiny shrimp, calamari, etc. This was better than the dinner buffet at the resort's main restaurant.
We had this sunset view walking back to our hotel room, and we got a bit lost trying to find our way, as their maps and signs were confusing.
- 8 years agolast modified: 8 years ago
Last day in Fiji, at Port Denerau
Arrival at dock.
Kevin at Fish Bone Restaurant
My dish of sizzling chili garlic prawns
Some kind of fruit tree at the restaurant.
We did quite a bit of shopping at Jack's in Port Denerau - there was very little shopping to do on Mana Island, but we did buy shirts, and I bought some cannibal clubs.
Lars thanked dcarch7 d c f l a s h 7 @ y a h o o . c o m- 8 years ago
- 8 years agolast modified: 8 years ago
Here's a breadfruit tree we saw at the farm we visited
I wonder if this is related. They both also grow in Hawaii. I've heard the breadfruit is supposed to be nutritious, but I had never heard that Noni was that nasty! Breadfruit was not on any menus either.
- 8 years agolast modified: 8 years ago
Stills from snorkeling, for more shades of blue:
Octopus (to keep it food related), photo taken by Kevin.
This last photo is of some sort of anemone, I think. I watched it move around and open and close its feeding tube, at the upper left. At first I thought it was a plant, until I saw it open its mouth. That's also how I identified the octopus - I saw it open its breathing tubes.
Here's a ray I saw as well
It's a bit difficult to see, and it stirred up a bit of sand as it swam away from me.
I don't think most of these fish are for eating, but these looked edible:
There were a few others that looked like food fish, possibly.
I had not thought about Cuba, but I would like to make it to Michigan this summer, however, I have surgery scheduled in May, and I'm not sure if I'll be in condition to travel again that soon.
dcarch7 d c f l a s h 7 @ y a h o o . c o m