tierra miguel.

On Monday the weather finally permitted our trip to Tierra Miguel so after shortly after class Lauryn and I rushed to her car and began our journey to the reservation. Thankfully I did not have to drive for this particular trip because it was a long route to an unfamiliar location, tucked away from the city. A long, winding road lead us towards our destination as we passed wild landscape that alternated with booming casino life and back to wild landscape. I wished I would have gotten some coffee before leaving because I was beat! When we got there we were greeted by fellow students, all of us seeming to have felt a sort of accomplishment for at least finding the place, and all of wondering what comes next. I looked around at blank faces and mountain ranges thinking, "Whats Next?" 

The mob of us then looked around trying to see where to go, hoping we did not show up to late. Were we supposed to walk around and take pictures? Are we even in the right place? Around the corner in an old shed we found the rest of the group all sitting down preparing to listen to a powerpoint presentation. As we were being seated the speaker began to tell us about the Tierra Miguel Foundation and what it stood for. I thought it was interesting to learn about the environmental friendliness of the program and their mission to produce local grown foods and distribute it amongst the communities of Southern California. With all of the resources we have here many of our fruits and vegetables are grown and brought in from other countries despite our ability to grow many of the mentioned produce. I admired their dedication for trying to get people edcuated on the region and the things that we can grow here locally. However if you want to buy from their service you have to pay ton of money! $2000 a year, upfront, must be payed in order to get your fruits and vegetables delivered to your doorstep each week. I think I will be sticking with Trader Joes and Ralphs. 

After the presentation we were able to walk about the farm and take pictures of the plant life. I began taking pictures of my classmates with the sky and mountains as a backdrop. Lauryn pointed out a tiny lady bug on a leaf so I crouched down and got a shot of it right before it flew away. To bad I had the flash on and it overexposed the leaves. O well! Not knowing the first thing about plant life I found myself just taking some completely random shots of things I saw growing from the earth.

A guy from the organization lead our group of students and explained what some of the plants were. He even told us to pick some and try and eat it. I got some pictures of Zane and Matt eating what I think was called "Kerabi". I thought it looked kind of gross so I didn't eat any and from the pictures they don't look to enthusiastic about the taste. As the sun began to set I took and few pictures and then put my camera away so that I could just soak up the scenery and enjoy my presence in the great outdoors. Then it was back to CSUSM to round out a llloooonnnngg day of class and homework.

Here are some of the original pictures from the Tierra Miguel site, with more to come as I begin to edit them within photoshop and camera raw.