1 At Senator Fong's Gardens for our weekly hiker hui. Our guide, Patsy, did a great job showing the kids different ways to use native plants, and we even got to sample quite a few fruits right off the tree!
2 She was impressed that they hike - when I called to inquire she asked "Oh, so you all have strollers..." and I said "no, actually, they walk!" She was like "Oooooh?!" But the kids did really great and impressed her with their energy and enthusiasm.
3 Little Sam loves his flag, especially when it blows in the wind.
4 Making a uluhe fern visor.
5 Nice Brenda!
6 And Tamara!
7 And Anjie!
8 This palm is very old. Typically when it seeds and fruits, it dies shortly therafter, but this one has been seeding for over a year!
9 Ben and I working on a new little trick - spinning our octopus tree branch on our finger.
10 Torch ginger.
11 Ben carried this Meyer lemon around the whole time - alternating between smelling it gently and tossing it 20 ft ahead to chase it.
12 Some kind of berry I can't remember, but it is edible.
13 A lychee tree. These require at least 3 days under 59 degrees to fruit. The fruit looks like an eyeball - very squishy and gross inside - but it is quite tasty.
14 And a chocolate tree! Banging the ripe fruit open.
15 Oooh! Weird inside! You can eat the white stuff - we tasted it, slippery and sour.
16 But inside is the seed which, when fermented, becomes chocolate.
17 Lots of leaves to tromp through :)
18 As I mentioned...man on a mission with his lemon.
19 A pomolo - it's on our deck now, waiting to ripen. A drier, sweeter grapefruit...