Enjoying native plants during the holidays

The bike tour is over, the crew has said their goodbyes, and we're all headed our separate ways for the winter season. However, we still have great pictures and ideas to share from beyond the road...

Bike Tour 2014 Crew

Eating Local

The holidays are synonymous with the beginning of winter here in the northern hemisphere. Regardless of whether you enjoy this season in the warm southern sun or under a white layer of snow, there are sure to be holiday feasts featuring dishes of crops that have origins here in the Americas. The following winter crops are not only easier to find at farmers markets this time of year, but also were cultivated and domesticated from their wild cousins thousands of years ago in North and South America.

Potatoes

No matter how you enjoy them--mashed, fried, baked--these deliciously filling and versatile tubers are a popular side on many plates. 

Potatoes got their start as a domestic crop in the highlands of the Andes. The diversity, high amount of starch, and durability of this crop made it a staple in people's diet there centuries before potatoes were brought to Ireland. Today, thousands of varieties exist throughout the world, though it is believed the highest diversity is still in the terraced farms of the Andes. However, potato biodiversity is plummeting worldwide as monoculture production of just a few species becomes the norm: look for unique heirloom varieties when you shop!
Our final meal at Travis's house in Highland Park featured potatoes in a root vegetable medley that was seasoned to perfection, all donated to us by New Frontiers Market in San Luis Obispo.

http://grist.org/food/gmo-potatoes-is-the-biodiversity-shortcut-worth-it/

Squash

Starting around Halloween and well into winter, squashes -- pumpkin, acorn, butternut, you name it-- take pride of place in many homes. Each kind offers a unique range of colors and flavors, and can be turned into anything from delicious pie to savory soup contained within the gourd itself. Their current range is testament to the large geographical footprint where squashes were domesticated. Some, such as pumpkins, were originally cultivated in northern Mexico and the southern United States, while others like the fig leaf gourd began their relationship with humans as far south as Argentina. Try a new recipe this holiday season with one that's local to your area!

http://www.realsimple.com/food-recipes/recipe-collections-favorites/popular-ingredients/squash-recipes/butternut-squash-salad

Maize/Corn

This is perhaps one of the most famous American domestics, and is featured prominently in many stories and historical accounts of interactions between Native Americans and European settlers. While in many places the harvest for this crop is earlier in the year, its ability to be stored whole or in flour or meal form has made this crop what it is today. The ancestor to this crop, according to archeologists, was located in Central Mexico and from there was traded across North and South America. Now we use everything from sweetcorn, corn meal, feed corn, and corn syrup in our diets.

So however you spend your holidays, take some time to enjoy these native food crops by finding a local provider near you and supporting local farmers and agriculture:

http://www.localharvest.org/

Source of information about crop domestication:
1491 (Second Edition): New Revelations of the Americas.
Charles C. Mann

--Ann

El Nino Strikes!

We're safe and sound in rainy Los Angeles, ending the bike tour as it began: wet. Our last school visit at Crane Country Day was amazing as our hosts fed and housed us in the cozy library on their beautiful campus in Montecito.

Ceed crashes after 65 miles of cycling

The team celebrates Josh's birthday on the Santa Barbara beach

The warm welcome was followed by a couple of hours Monday morning working in the school garden and presenting at their morning assembly. Thanks to the Crane librarian, Traci Cope, for providing us such a lovely dinner, breakfast and hot showers.

Working with the 6th grade class who came to CELP in their garden at Crane

We built another stone pathway, which became our specialty this bike tour

Keeping spirits high during the last project

We rode as far as Ventura before realizing that a landslide along Highway 1 was going to deter our final stretch of riding.

Final bike tour lunch in Ventura, before the rains

We schlepped all the gear to LA in various vehicles and the faithful bus, just in time to enjoy some heavy downpours on the streets of southern California. With all the drought-ridden towns we've visited on the tour, it's nice to finally see some precipitation. A few inches of rain certainly won't bring the southwest out of the crisis, but two inches is better than nothing.

http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-california-rain-drought-monitor-20141204-story.html

Ending the ride in Ventura, here is the route that we cycled this year, totaling 425 miles--and not all of it was paved.

The final route

Pacific Coast Plants!

 We've ridden over 300 miles of our coastal tour! The terrain covered has been vast and varied, from the cool mountains of coastal redwoods to the warm and exposed slopes of coastal sage scrublands.. Every ecosystem, town and landscape that we pass is full of important and unique plant communities.

We parked the bus near a family circle of redwoods.
One older tree falls and a group of younger trunks sprout up.

A hidden beach along Highway One.
Each slope is a new color of plant communities.

 After riding out of our farm stay at the beautiful Avila Family Barn, we stayed with Noey and Glen at the "Garden of...", located deeper inland in the rolling valleys of Los Olivos. We were entering an intentional world of cultivated plants. We worked with them to amend an apple tree orchard with compost and remove a few rows of water thirsty grapes to replace them with native plants like milkweed and white sage.

We rode through seas of grape vines

Fields of strawberries and greens

Ranches with sheep and cattle

And enjoyed the beauty of permaculture.

Converting rows of grapes into a border for native plants.

The greenhouse is full of different stages of plants.

This large bush mallow is an important host for beneficial insects inside the greenhouse.

Noey keeps some plants in different life stages to simulate natural systems and promote growth.

 The farm was incorporating aspects of nature at every turn, plants for pollinators, companion planting, composting and cover crops. It was beautiful to see these guided natural processes and help while we were there. A huge thanks to Noey and Glen! Now we're on our way toward Santa Barbara to visit students of Crane school.

-Turtle