Bike tour

On Sunday it was worth getting up early because I had registered for a 35miles bike trip organized by the UCSC recreation center. My flatmate Carena was so kind to lend me her racing bike for the day. I cycled through the morning fog to the starting point on campus where I met the other students. In total we were 7 persons. The group leader is an agriculture student because the tour went to the farms and gardens in and around Santa Cruz.


















First, we went to 2 community gardens in town where private people can grow their own vegetables - as a gardening hobby or in a neighbourhood of poorer citizens in fact meant as an oppurtunity for a cheap and healthy nutrition. These gardens are however not like German allotments ("Kleingartenkolonien"), but everyone has only one or few square meters. It's October and there are still so beautiful flowers:

The next place was the "Homeless Garden Project" where homeless people work 20h per week for organic agriculture. Of course, they also get healthy food there. The farmer/ manager showed us everything including the composts...
At the end, I asked if I could buy some fresh basil. So he harvested purple basil and lemon basil for me and even digged a whole plant out which is growing now in a pot on our window sill. He did not want to sell it for money, but he accepted a few dollars as a donation for the project which is to 70% based on donations. But they also regularly serve 4-course dinners with fresh organic vegetables as a fund-raising campaign.

Afterwards we biked quite a bit along highway one (the famous coastal highway) until we reached another small farm. The farmer told us about all challenges, e.g. how difficult it is to get certified organic and to enter the farmers' markets of Santa Cruz with regulations like there must not be more than xy strawberry vendors. Particular about this farm is that they deliver all goods by bicycle! Another striking detail is the hippie couple (or now even family with a baby) that lives directly at the fields in a little self-made hut. In return, they sell the vegetables on some markets. The baby in his mother's arm wore just a t-shirt but nothing else. This is the hippie life of Santa Cruz ;-)

The most important issue and also expense factor here is clearly the water supply especially in the dry summer months. On the other hand, I was amazed to learn that agriculture is in general possible here throughout the year (apart from some species)!
Now it's pumpkin time:

At our final destination, Swanton berry farm, I ate a huge piece of pumpkin pie - delicious :-)

Finally, cycling back was mainly downhill and relaxed. I got to talk longer to the second group leader, who is absolutely enthusiastic about biking and dreams of travelling to Europe which is famous for bike lanes and good networks of public transport.

In total, I spent a very pleasant day with nice people, a lot of biking and I learned a lot about the region here!