Hard farming in the high country

Seemingly solid rock seems to yield to the plow.

I escaped the Kathmandu valley this weekend and set out for Pokhara – renowned for quaint mountain valley lake, mountain top temples, and the gateway to Himalayan trekking.  As the bus takes off on the winding mountain highway toward the north, we begin to leave behind the city haze, and I finally get to see the country side of Nepal!  The mountains are striking, the mountain life is astounding.  We curve and careen up and up through rocky mountain passes, looking over the precipitous edge of the highway, the valleys are filled with towns, the hillsides dotted with red clay brick farm houses, and entire mountain sides terraced for farming.  It’s hard to imagine the person power involved in forming and farming terraced gardens around 5,000+ ft elevation, on slopes reaching 60 degree angles!  And some of the valleys are so dry you have to wonder what reward is reaped for all that work anyway?!

Greener valleys.
Photo credit – NOT ME – thanks E.P.!

Ancient religions rise out of the thin air of Kathmandu

Ask a Nepali whether he/she is Hindu or Buddhist, and the answer you are likely to get is simply “yes”.

Yum Luquillo

It’s easy to eat like a tourist at the Latin fusion gastro pubs of Old San Juan.  It’s fun to eat like a local at the kiskos in Luquillo.

Walk up from the beach or pull off the highway into this little strip of garage door-fronted food kiosks.  Each a unique blend of colors and decor – from trendy Caribbean chic with beach glass and thatched umbrella tables, to plywood booths swollen by sea air and walls decked with random plastic cartoon idles.

Kiskos of Luquillo

Saps Making Syrup

As the cold Midwestern winter gives way to crisp spring chill, the sap starts flowing and the saps make for the maple forest.  Maple syrup season is a fleeting spring fling!  Too cold, the sluggish sap won’t flow.  Too warm, bacteria grow and stimulate the tree to start heeling its wounds and close up the sap taps.  So in just a few short weeks between afternoon highs reaching the 40s and climbing to the 60s, the maple farmers have to make the most of their sweet time.  This year is warming up fast!  And the beautifully balmy spring days are cutting the sap season short!

I got a brief chance to spend a short weekend in the woods helping my family harvest sap from my uncle’s Ohio tree farm.  (Ironically, the “Pancake” tree farm was named for the nearby road years before the idea for a family-run maple business ever occurred to the Berg family.)

It’s a family affair!  The Berg family takes to the woods as a trio (or more when they can convince friends and family to help).

The serious sappers:

The Winter that Never Was…

This is what we expect of winter in Wisconsin…

The WI State Capitol and Monona Terrace viewed across the frozen lake.

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…picturesque views across fresh snow on the frozen lake…

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One good 2011 snow storm buries us!

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Place of refuge – for villagers and dolphins

First I hear the squeaking.  Surely my ears are playing tricks on me.  Maybe its my teeth rubbing the plastic of my snorkel.  But then I see a shadow move across the glints of sunlight filtering through the deep blue.  The shadows move closer.  The dolphins are surfacing.  Surfacing, playing, almost dancing, sometimes pooping – and all right around me.

Chicken chokin’

[This story is also available in audio form!  Click here for an audio postcard originally aired on the “In Our Backyard” news program on WORT 89.9 fm in Madison]

These days more an more people are increasingly conscious about where food comes from – how it’s raised, what it’s fed, how it’s treated, what it’s treated with.  The surest way to have all those answers is, of course, to raise your own food.  Sure gardens are easy – but what about meat?  Animals take space . . . and  work . . . and killing!