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Green news! This week, I started writing for the San Francisco Examiner as one of their green parenting specialists. Check out my Examiner page here. My first article covered sustainable fish sticks, a topic I had no idea depleted the oceans until now. In the next few weeks, I intend to concentrate on holiday topics so if you want to share green parenting tips, classes, or events, I'm all ears!

In the future, I'll love hearing about green schools efforts, teachers who make a difference or simple tips that can improve our carbon footprint. If you want to keep abreast of green news in the Bay Area, get on my page, subscribe to my article feed and it'll come by email pretty smoothly.

Back later for Frog Mom postings, covering a Bay Area family's traditions.

Potrero Nuevo Farm

Potrero Nuevo Farm is a newcomer in Half Moon Bay's agricultural landscape. Not even two years old, it has already accomplished a lot and promises lots more in the field of sustainable farming and living. An offspring of the Potrero Nuevo Fund, a foundation that supports community based organizations, the farm is a slice of heaven.

Set in Half Moon Bay amidst rolling hills on Tunitas Creek Road, a winding paved road popular with bicycle riders, the farm could be a model farm. Thanks to GreenMoms.com, we joined a private tour by coowner Bill Laven, Vida Verde co-founder Shawn Sears and Suzie who works on the farm. While GreenMoms events always have an (obvious) environmental slant, this one was exceptional both in choice and inspiration.

Bill set the tone with a description of the barn/kitchen where we were sitting. "The walls are insulated with blue jeans," he said, "and the roof with soy products. The roof is also covered with solar panels that SolarCity installed. In addition, the farm is hoping to set up a gutter and storage tank system that will make it possible to collect rainwater to irrigate the fields." Right at the outset, we were impressed. Bill is a former teacher and took the time to learn the children's names before asking them questions - a nice plus for a family-friendly organization. Out of the barn, we crossed the road and headed up the hill to milk a goat.

Shawn led the way. He leads Viva Verde trips, environmental education programs for Bay Area 4th to 6th graders. Kids come, one class at a time for three days, and do stuff they don't do at home - such as sleep in teepees, milk goats, make fresh cheese, work on the farm or hike in coastal redwoods.

Our group got to pet the goats, learn how to make a teat with our fingers (to practice) and then milk a goat aptly named Squirt. Once we (more or less) understood how to make the A-OK sign with thumb and pointer to squeeze it down, we volunteered, children first, to fill the pail with warm goat milk. Slightly anxious in front of so many strangers, Squirt was eating a bucket of her favorite cereal. Each child took a turn, at first timidly and then with authority, while Squirt patiently withstood our milking trials. Adults followed, either intrigued or plain eager to see how it felt. Shawn caught us off guard when he asked around if anybody wanted a quick taste .... right off the tits! Giggles in the audience as Shawn began his targeting exercise, aiming directly at the drinkers' wide-open mouths. This was no easy task but clearly, he'd done it before. I tried and enjoyed the warm milk. It didn't have that strong goaty flavor but rather was mild and creamy.

We left the animal world to explore the vegetable world, led by Bill and Susan. We stopped first in front of three neat piles of compost. I'd always wanted to compost at home but never really knew how. As Bill and Susan explained the ins and outs, composting became very concrete. The key words are: greens to bring nitrogen (carrots, greens, peas...), brown to bring carbon (hay, wood shavings...), water and air. Arrange in layers, let it sit and turn over every other week, making sure the stack remains moist. If you have a farm or stables nearby, you can ask for horse manure to mix to the compost pile. When piles are active, they reach an impressive 140 to 160 degrees F. The children gathered around Susan who was scooping out two handfuls of compost from the middle of the pile to show how warm it was. "Are there any worms in there?" asked a little girl, hopeful. Unfortunately, the worms were busy at work - way down below. However the handfuls were warm and smelled like ... dirt - a pleasant surprise for everybody.

Our next stop was the alpacas and the chicken coop. Susan let the children lift the wooden doors of the chicken coop and browse through the straw to find warm eggs laid in the morning. How glorious the children looked with each a fresh egg in their hands, holding their prized possessions like they'd never seen an egg before. Meanwhile, the alpacas (recently shaven therefore looking like awkward fluffy pets) paced around. Still holding their egg, the childen each grabbed a handful of chicken feed and threw it on the floor. You'd think these chickens had been starved a week. They flocked to the feed spots, avidly pecking whatever they could eat. Out of seven chickens, there were four different varieties: Japanese Bantam, Cochin, Araucana and Brahma. One of them produces an egg with light blue hues, a true beauty.

We moved to the "production field," the vegetable garden where 26 different crops grow year round. Susan pointed to early girl tomato plants. "We're trying dry farming on those," she said. Dry farming combines water savings with sustainable agriculture. By drastically reducing irrigation, you encourage the plant roots to go very deep to get to the water table. "Not all types of soil are appropriate for this," added Bill, "you need a soil that retains moisture such as clay." If you live on stony soils, they might allow too much drainage for this type of farming but the idea to force plants to become self-sufficient for their water needs is fascinating.

"We need a few children to help harvest the lettuce plants!" said Susan, holding a cardboard box. Young volunteers eagerly followed her steps and with some grown-up guidance, neatly cut greens to put in the box. Meanwhile, I asked Bill what they did with all these vegeables. Surely, they sold them at the farmers market? Actually, they just started attending the Half Moon Bay Farmers Market three weeks ago but they only sell a portion there. The rest is donated to the Catholic Worker House for their soup kitchen, so that low-income families can enjoy farm fresh produce in their meals.

There are two last items that are noteworthy when you go to Potrero Nuevo Farm. The first one you see from the road and it's called The Bike Hut. It's a bright red former-garage-turned-small-barn where bicycle riders can stop to make a hot drink and rest. It's open 24/7 and relies on an honor system. There's a suggested donation for tea and coffee, plus picnic tables outside and the opportunity to refill your water bottle.

The second item is much more intriguing. It's an outhouse; not a regular outhouse though, a humanure toilet. In line with the farm's philosophy, it makes "humanure" out of you guessed what. Go on, don't be shy. Step inside and try it out. The inside has a gorgeous round window with a view on the hills, as well as a marble-like cement platform made with sea shells collected on the beach. Once you're done, scoop out a cup of wood chips, drop in toilet, close lid and take a whiff. Smell anything? No, there's nothing unpleasant here. It's actually surprisingly odor-free. The outhouse has two sides that are used every other year. After a year of sitting dry, you get humanure and believe it or not, it's safe to use as fertilizer in California farming. Not that it will be done at Potrero Nuevo Farm (Bill told me they wouldn't use it on vegetable beds not to gross out customers), but hey, it's a great dinner topic regardless. If you want to try a humanure toilet at home, check out this milk crate version. People will always remember you.

As for Potrero Nuevo Farm, you can meet these great folks by going to the Half Moon Bay Farmers Market, calling to farm to arrange a tour, or by keeping an eye on the website or Facebook page as a CSA might be in the plans. You can also join GreenMoms and participate in similar events by signing up here.

Urbia: A Nature Hike with an Urban Flair

Last week, my good friend Susan Silber from Safe Routes to School Transform introduced me by email to Damien Raffa. Together with Barbara Corff, Damien co-founded Urbia Adventure League, an outdoor treasure hunt that rolled out last weekend.

On Saturday June 13, at the foot of the 16th avenue & Moraga mosaic stairs, Damien and his Urbia partners handed out more than 50 adventure packets entitled Islands in the Sky to San Francisco families. "At our adventure starting station," he says, "families warmed up their senses by smelling yerba buena (and tasting some homemade yerba buena tea), the tiny native mint that San Francisco was originally named after."

In a nutshell, Urbia is a way to discover San Francisco through a nature lens - and most likely neighborhoods you knew nothing about before. Urbia is based on the concept of questing - also called letterboxing in England - a variation on outdoors treasure hunts. Thirteen years ago, Damien took a workshop on this form of community involvement, particularly popular in New England.

People received by mail instructions for an outdoors activity including solving riddles, orienting yourself and finding clues. At the end of the itinerary, there might have been a box with a stamp that people used to stamp their booklet.

Says Damien, if you want to connect San Franciscans with nature, you have to make it a fun game. Currently naturalist at the Presidio Trust, Damien knows a thing or two about nature. Urbia was born.

I particularly like the idea of receiving an enveloppe with a mystery to solve in the mail, as my mailbox now only shelters invoices, publications and unwanted ads. It's the tragedy of the digital age, says Damien.

Intrigued by the idea, I asked him if I could "test run" the hike with four little girls from 4 to 6 years of age last Thursday. Obliging, he met me at the bottom of the stairs with a booklet for each little girl and short Urbia pencils with erasers. Off to a great start.

We opened the booklets and began by taking some notes for the exploration: date, starting time, weather, visibility (a must in San Francisco...), air temperature, team members and team name. On our route, we searched for sea stars made out of tiles, a red lfire alarm box, San Francisco's highest dune and rocky outcrops looking like layers of cake.

The girls' attention was piqued when we stopped to identify coast buckwheat, beach strawberry (not in bloom so trickier to tell) and yellow tree lupines - three plants that attract pollinators such as butterflies and bees.

This planted dune is part of the Green Hairstreak Corridor, a project to bring back a butterfly called the green hairstreak the size of a nickel. Expert at camouflaging itself amongst green plants, the green hairstreak has lost most of its habitat to land development. Hence the idea of re-planting San Francisco's hillsides with the appropriate vegetation.

On the green hairstreak note, we have a fun anecdote. In the booklet you're supposed to ask people you encounter if they've ever seen a green butterfly in their neighborhood. All four people we asked had been living in that neighborhood for a long time. None had ever seen that sneaky butterfly! Oh dear.

On with the hike. At the bottom of the booklet's page 8 are four words that made the entire hike worth the effort for the children: "Find the tree swing." What a swing! Part of Golden Gate Heights Park, the swing hangs from a tall cedar (?) tree and can comfortably accomodate two or three young children. Because of the heighth from which it is suspended, the pendulum effect is quite impressive and the experience exhilarating. Now, try to tear away four little girls from that tree swing... It takes a lot of persuasion.

The last part of the hike took us on a view of San Francisco I never dreamed existed. Since my camera does not shoot panoramic pictures, this is only one slice of it with the long green stretch of the Golden Gate Park and the Golden Gate Bridge and Marin in the distance. To my right was the Bay Bridge hiding behind Treasure Island. If not for a powerful wind, I would have stayed there longer. Alas, all good things have an end.

We closed the loop and got back in the car, already excited about Urbia's next adventure. As a Russian Hill mother said last Saturday to Damien, "we often try to have an outdoor experience with guidebooks and they are too adult-oriented. This is perfect for our kids." True - and older children will appreciate the full flavor of snipets of local geology and environmental education.

Another Urbia event will be planned in the same neighborhood on June 27, 2009 from 10am to noon. Look for it here.

Cherry Picking In Brentwood

In case you haven't heard, the season for cherries is now. Bing cherries, Rainier cherries, Brooks cherries; there are more cherries than you ever dreamed of just 60 miles east of San Francisco. Hundreds of trees literally loaded with jewel-like shiny plump and juicy ruby fruits.

The Brentwood farmers are well organized and their great website references all the surrounding farms growing cherries (amongst 45 products) with description of the farm settings and "u-pick" options.

Based on recommendations, we took the 1.5 hour drive through golden hills already burned by the sun, fields of wind farms and silver ribbon of winding roads to get to Brentwood. Once there, it's like an oasis in the desert. Somewhere you can't help marveling at the wonders of irrigation. Green orchards all around, and more "Cherries" signs on the roadside than anywhere else I've been.

I fancied Rainier cherries (the whitish variety) so we headed to Pomeroy Farm. Much in the fashion of Half Moon Bay's pumpkin patches, Brentwoods orchards are close to one another and all grow the same fruit (more or less) so there's a lot of choice for families.

At the entrance, we signed a paper promising not to let the kids climb on ladders and to pay for a mimimum of five lbs of cherries ($2/lb) when exiting. We picked a galvanized metal bucket (with handy hook to hang from your picking branch) but our girls preferred to drag along the wicker baskets we brought from home. I bet they felt like the little red riding cherry-picking hood.

Since there were so many cars parked outside, I thought we would need to walk miles before finding a half-eaten fruit on the trees but lo and behold, we found some right in the second row. Sweet. The nice part, for people like us with little (read "short") children, is that most of the trees have low-hanging branches that make for scandalously easy picking at junior level.

Part of the fun is also getting to the highest branches for the "right" cherries and for this, we proceeded with a little imagination and a great team effort. We said kids wouldn't climb on ladders - yes - but we didn't countersign that they wouldn't climb on their parents' shoulders! One on my shoulders, the other one holding the basket, they thought it was great.

Before we brought our girls to the cherry farm, it's fair to say they were not cherry enthusiasts. They wouldn't try one if we bought a pound at our local market. However when in the orchard, I encouraged them to taste one cherry from each tree to find just the right flavor. That was genius, man. They got totally hooked and soon were reviewing sweetness, acidity and texture of the different fruits tasted, hurrying from one tree to the next and offering us better halves.

In less than an hour, we gathered 8 lbs of cherries. Ironically, the Rainier cherries, the very reason I chose Pomeroy Farm, were not quite ready yet. So we ended up bringing back home only red cherries. Plus, the Pomeroy Farm is a former walnut orchard and they still sell walnuts grown on the farm. They were simply delicious and I'm glad we brought back two bags.

Now. What do you do with 8 lbs of cherries? As my father always poetically says, eating too many cherries will have quick effects on your digestive tract. Thanks Papa for the reminder, but let's not forget cherries are loaded with all sorts of antioxydants.

The real answer to my question is a cherry clafoutis. In France there's only one recipe that rhymes with cherries as sure as wine rhymes with cheese, it's cherry clafoutis. Think of it as a thick pancake with cherries baked in the oven and dusted with icing sugar.

I won't post a link to the two cherry clafoutis recipes on epicurian.com because one offers to eat it with vanilla ice cream and the other one includes cinnamon in the recipe, which are both borderline criminal.

I took my recipe from Les Douceurs de l'Enfance, a lip-smacking book with artistic photos of French childhood favorites. However since not everybody reads French, the next best recipe was this one (with metric weight measures) or this one as a strawberry variation that Clotilde Dusoulier from the Chocolate & Zucchini food blog wrote for NPR's Kitchen Window. Enjoy!

As for me, I know I'll be driving on the same road this summer to pick some nectarines, apricots and peaches. Can't wait, apricots were already starting to blush!

Fremont Peak State Park

Fremont Peak officially kicked off our camping season. As each Memorial Day weekend for the past four years, we went camping with a group of friends. So far we've experimented with various group sizes, weather and locations such as Shaver Lake (it snowed on the pine forest), Lake Isabella (we baked on the lake's muddy shores but enjoyed beautiful starry nights), Malakoff Diggins (we withstood three days of rain in a superb landscape), and now Fremont Peak.

A small park (there are exactly 25 camp sites), Fremont Peak offers a very particular climate feature: it (usually) overlooks a sea of fog and the fog is not even fifty yards below. This photo shows a sunset on a thick blanket of fog, not on the ocean.

As we drove up, we could not believe how overcast the area was until suddenly, we emerged out of the fog in the sun. An experience that could be compared to having a window seat on an airplane that flies through the clouds into the sun. That's what I call a micro-climate.

Fremont Peak State Park is, as described by the almighty Tom Stienstra, "often overlooked" by people who travel to Monterey. And yet, less than two hours from the Bay Area, it qualifies as a camping hot spot. Why?

Two words: primitive campground. Fremont Peak has a lot of "no's" when it comes to facilities: no sinks, no showers, no recycling (or I couldn't find it), no vault toilets (think pit with smell attached), and no room for two cars (although campsites can accomodate 8 people...). We were lucky to get the best view, our own faucet and a lot of space with number 25, but our friends at number 19 were literally in their neighbors' close backyard.

The park's huge pluses though? The view is really hard to beat. The hills are pine and California oak woodlands covered with tall grasses swaying in the wind (of which there is a lot, since it's a peak). And .... there is an astronomical observatory with a 30-inch telescope on the peak.

A state park where you can take a walk in the dark from your campground to the local observatory ten minutes away and look through the lens of a dozen of serious star enthusiasts' telescopes before you get in line to see Saturn with its rings through the big telescope? Now top that!

The night sky is so pure at Fremont Peak State Park that astronomy is actually what draws campers. Across from us at the campground was Bob Black, the membership chair of the Fremont Peak Observatory Association, a fervent education advocate for the city of San Carlos and astronomy teacher for middle grade kids. Bob is that passionate that he comes once a month to pitch his tent at Fremont Peak. He arrives way early in the day to get the only non-reservable campsite because it's such a prime star gazing spot. Ominous number 14. Then he sets up his telescope (one of six) and wraps it up in thick NASA-type silver foil until night sets in and the stars of stargazing align.

So yes, astronomy is huge at Fremont Peak. When we admired Saturn through the telescope, I was dumbfounded. I had never really seen Saturn before I guess. It was so perfectly round and so black-and-white bright that it looked, as my friend Sue put it, "like a sticker on the lens." A postcard perfect Saturn.

That was a big hit with the children, although slightly conceptual for the youngest. Yes munchkin, the celestial object that looked the size of a distant apple is actually 762,700,000 miles away. Sure, let's walk back in the dark. Ah, the forgotten charm of walking in the dark without flash lights because it disturbs star viewing.

The next evening we had a different weather experience as the fog rose up to our level at sun down and crept through the trees with its chill. The children were playing in the woods when word spread like firecrackers: there's a tarantula on the parking lot! Legs rushing, loud voices, more legs. They all ran downhill to see the "monster" which looked in fact quite scared.

The lonely tarantula was one of many wildlife specimens that crossed our path on Fremont Peak: skunk, grasshoppers, roly-polys, hairy itchy caterpillars, black beetles and more. For once, our bug box got a lot of mileage.

However for my five-year-old, the highlight of the weekend was a tooth fairy incident. As a result of a pillow fight in the tent, she lost her first tooth and guess what? The tooth fairy also delivers at campgrounds. Fortunately, San Juan Bautista State Historic Park is only 11 miles away and the gift store sells nice shiny copper coins with the Mission's backdrop. Now that could have been a close call...

GreensMoms Celebration Launch at Half Moon Bay's Farmers Market

Curiosity killed the cat - despite its nine lives. Will mainstream kill the green movement despite global warming? Everywhere you turn nowadays, it's green this and green that.

It's like we're talking Smurf or something. "I was on my way to green my daily commute when I was road greened by that awful greenling agent. Can you green that?" Green has become such a staple of our daily media brainwashing and consumerist grocery errands that we tend to forget that green starts at home and it starts yesterday. That's where grassroots movements like GreenMoms.com can make a difference - you can join online, choose a local group, act on a local level and at your own pace.

The cynical will say that it's just another green website trying to sell you stuff. Websites trigger reactions like that, it's the flip side of being available online 24/7. It lacks that warm hand shake and eye contact that seal a deal.

However, GreenMoms.com is as real as it gets. I should know - I met them. The brainchild of Janice Solimeno and Melinda MacNaughton, GreenMoms.com was launched at the Half Moon Bay Farmers' Market last week.

I was there, registering people on a laptop while a friend made recycled calendar bags with my girls at the GreenMoms.com craft table. For the launch, GreenMoms.com partenered with the popular psychedelic kids' rock band The Sippy Cups and Sippy Doug was present at the market, juggling and entertaining a crowd of fascinated families. Earlier in the month, GreenMoms.com had a table at a Sippy Cups concert at Bimbo's.

The Sippy Cups are part of a growing number of bands who take the environment so seriously that they even have a Green page on their website.

Now, what is GreenMoms.com? It's a website to help green-thinking moms (and non-moms) live a greener life. Pretty simple statement. Don't you get the wrong idea and think green moms will dance in white robes under the redwoods for the summer solstice. No, no.

GreenMoms is practical and down to earth. A lot of topics get exchanged over online forums. Want a recipe for vinegar-based house cleaner? You got it. Want to know the closest organic produce stand? You got it too. Organic fair trade chocolate? Just check the blog.

With enough community presence, GreenMoms.com could become sort of the social parental arm of the Environmental Working Group or the Natural Resources Defense Council. So why wait? Register here. It's free. What can I say? Nowadays, free is worth a click.

Bang Krachao: Biking through Bangkok's Green Lungs

Bang Krachao peninsula, known as Bangkok's green lungs, is a welcome breathing escape from Bangkok only a 10-minute boat ride from the bustling Klong Toey dock area. Think 11,810 rai of protected mangroves and orchards in Samut Prakan province just across the river.

How come the area is so pristine and undeveloped? Totally out of the way, Bang Krachao is tedious to access by car (count an hour's drive) and infrastructures are minimal. Very few roads, no tourist office, no detailed maps. Most people go there on organized bike tours but going solo is what we did.

Although the peninsula counts the 200-rai Si Nakhon Keun Kan park locally known as Suan Klang Central park, the area's most interesting parts consist of privately planted coconut tree orchards accessible only by foot, bicycle or motorcycle. Between (i) a man-made groomed landscaped garden with fountains, pedal boats and paved paths and (ii) a maze of elevated pathways going through a thick tropical forest, I go for the latter.

After I found more details on how to get there in the newly published Bangkok Guide for Kids by Kids in the "Biking" section, I organized the trip. The day before, we called a number to reserve bikes but we didn't find the same people on the other side so we improvised. Fortunately, we had our Thai friend Sim with us because it's non-English speaking land.

At Klong Toey Pier 7 next to Wat Klong Toey Noi, we boarded a long tail boat whose benches advertised ABC Amazing Bangkok Cyclist (B100 return trip). On the other side, there was a "Bike for rent" sign at the pier and we rented five bikes (B100 each) for adults. We had my two girls with us but since there were no child bike seats, two thick towels were strapped onto back racks for them to sit on and that was just fine.

Khun Piak, the rental guy, started the bike business a year ago. During the week he's a docker but at weekends, he rents bikes. He asked us where we wanted to go and we returned the question. Since we didn't know the area and there were no maps, that was an odd question. Thank God Khun Piak volunteered to guide us and led the way.

At first, he planned to take us to the floating market and started on the main road but then I asked if he could take us to the green areas. Sure he could. He veered left and asked how comfortable we felt following him. The only way to explore the forest is to bike on narrow pathways roughly 2 to 3 meters off the ground. No side protections, no railings, possibly human or motorcycle crossings. Any fall would end up in the mangrove.

I consulted with my group. While we were hesitant, we decided to give it a go and boy, were we rewarded. It was simply gorgeous. At first, we rode our bikes very cautiously. I was right behind Khun Piak and expected to hear a loud wet thump any time behind me. One of us had not ridden a bike for 20 years! Lo and behold, we held our ground.

Focusing on staying on track, we entered the mangrove. Coconut trees planted on terraced islands alternated with milky canals. Lush ferns loomed over us with areca nut trees, mango trees and banana trees. It was as green as green can be and we loved every minute of it.

Ideally we need to come back on foot to enjoy the landscape more peacefully. The "staying in the middle of the path" part was a bit stressful.

After many turns and unmarked intersections (don't go there without a guide), we reached the Bang Nam Phueng floating market. Had we not seen the back roads, this would have been the highlight of our expedition.

Bang Nam Phueng Talad (Honey Market) is a lovely low-key weekend and holiday market where traditional Thai confections and foods elbow natural herbs, plant-based cosmetics and fresh produce. I brought back mulberry green tea, dried roselle hibiscus flowers, safflower tea, dried nuts and blue flowers that can be used as tea too, as well as a jar of honey with a chunk of beehive in it and roasted coconut flakes.

Citronella and ginger liquid soaps were enticing but I already had too much weight in my suitcase. I also got sticky rice with mung beans and bananas steamed in banana leaves to satisfy a hunger craving, as well as a fresh coconut to drink. I was impressed by how neat and clean the market was. Judging by the looks we got, I'd say not too many foreigners venture out here.

Along the canal, wooden boats can be rented for B20 and some food vendors arrive by boat to set up small restaurants on the boardwalk. By the temple, a man sat behind five plastic basins with different fishes and turles. "If you release a fish in the water, it will take away your sins," explained Sim. For the fun of it, we scooped out four fishes and my girls kneeled by the klong to release them in the canal.

It was time to head out and Khun Piak took us back a different way, snaking through the Si Nakhon Keun Kan park back to the pier. As I said, I'm not a huge fan of man-groomed nature when there are alternatives around but it's a nice place for a family outing and I can see a Sunday picnic on the grassy lawns by the lake. Rental boats include pedal boats as well as kayaks. A few minutes later, our trip ended by the pier. It's right next to the park.

We were delighted by this green escape minutes from Bangkok's urban concrete inferno. Who would have known.... Let's hope Bang Prachao resists the real estate pressure. We saw quite a few new houses being built.

If you go there, do your part and be respectful of nature. It would be a shame to lose such a beautiful outing to capitalistic greed. Bangkok does not have that many green spaces to spare. This one should be protected and preserved.

Sarika Keo: Country Life in Cambodia

Curious to know how and where things grew next to Phnom Penh in Cambodia, I went with my girls and my dad to the rural village of Kadai Kanda, subdistrict of Sarika Keo on the Mekong River.

April is in full dry season and the fields we visited are usually under water in November. We were lucky to be there when field ploughing is in full swing and rice barely sprouts over flooded paddy fields. As we arrived by boat to Sarika Keo, the river was milky brown and murky. We promptly jumped on the shore and got to a little shack with a blacksmith forge overlooking the "pier". The guy makes axes all day long with a makeshift oven and a hammer. My dad bought him an axe head last year but still hasn't made the handle so it hasn't seen much use.

We proceeded on the main street that runs parallel to the river. The village's landmarks were right there: the school next to the wat (temple) and a buzzing street market on both sides of the dirt road. We saw small mussel-type shells drying in the sun on bamboo mats, chickens with their feet tied lying in the dirt next to their plucked unlucky friends, fishes being scaled with hard grates. I ordered a sugar cane juice for my girls as they've never tasted one before. Through a press the sugar cane went and the juice was squeezed out, while half a dozen wasps were zipping and zapping above the sugary leftovers.

"This is yummy!" I heard, to my satisfaction - and then "This is too sweet!" Sigh. Two blocks down the road, we made a right to go inland and get to the fields alongside a small river. The banks were pretty high and the water low, and the bottom was fish net to fish net all the way.

In the village, we had already passed several banana trees with banana hands hanging down - banana flower cut, the Khmers love eating them- dozens of mango trees and coconut trees ready for harvest. On the way, I was peeking into the houses over the bamboo fences when I saw something I hadn't seen in a long time: cooking on wood-fired clay ovens in an open air kitchen. I asked to take a picture.

The woman was preparing lunch. In one pot, a soup was bubbling with chopped green stalks, two silver fishes whole and mushrooms. The other pot was chock full of steamed rice. I explained to my girls that this house did not have electricity and that lunch was cooked over a wood fire. They looked on but they probably didn't get the "no electricity" part.

It's very outlandish for them. A few houses down, a huge rattan mat was covered with rice grains drying in the sun, the husks still on. On we walked, til we came across a bare field with two oxens ploughing the soil.

We left the road to lollop in their direction, the uneven terrain peppered with cut plants, lumps of muddy soil and low brushes. The farmer was preparing his land to plant corn.

Right behind were other farmers engaged in the same activity as well as paddy fields and irrigation ponds. As I looked at the cityscape, I admired the beauty of the Khmer countryside with sugar palm trees fanning their wide green leaves and mango trees ladden with ripening green fruit. Of course if you come here during the rainy season, you'll have to watch out as these fields are ridden with snakes of all kinds. Fortunately the only wildlife we encountered were big dark butterflies with hairy bodies looking like humming birds hybrids and big red lizards.

Back on the road, I kept analyzing the flora around us to know what was edible and what was not. I saw some vines with yellow round sorts of wild passionfruit (passiflora foetida) and remembered eating them in New Caledonia in my childhood. I confirmed with our Khmer guides and popped one open. Its sweet fleshy seeds were just as I remembered. Apparently, birds love those too.

Every here and there, orchards of banana trees alternated with fields of mango trees. Clearly, they are the main staples of local agriculture.

Curiously, papaya trees have fallen out of grace after last year's abundent harvest literally flooded the market and prices dropped. After this bitter episode, farmers chopped down many papaya trees and we actually had to look for them which is strange in a country where papayas have always been part of edible gardens.

We could have walked on and on and seen countless fields. There was nobody but us on the dirt road and the sun was shining pretty bad. My girls started whining because it was "hot and dirty" and they wanted to go home. What about the poetry of fields my sweets?! Nope. All they wanted was to get back. We turned around and got on our way.

Our Khmer-Thai guide asked me a question. My spoken Thai is not nearly good enough and I thought I understood oh-so-perfectly so I said yes. When in doubt, I always say yes. He got on the phone. Ten minutes later, we heard the racing sound of motorbikes coming our way. "Oh," I thought, "What are they doing here and why are they looking at us?" Ahem.

I had actually agreed to get back to the pier on moto taxis. There goes the confidence in my Thai verbal skills! My misunderstanding was in fact not such a bad idea because walking back would have taken at least 40 minutes and the little girls were getting tired and whimpy. I loaded them with my dad on the back of a bike and off they left at super slow speed on the pot-holed road.

I hopped on another one and soon enough, we re-entered the streets of the village. We zoomed by beauty salons, tailor shops in private houses with big hands of bananas lying by the entrance door, and bicycles. At last on the boat, we compared the color of our feet. I was by far the dirtiest, having walked quite a bit in the fields to get good shots of plants.

If anything, my girls learned where bananas come from. That's already something. If on top of it they remember field ploughing or cooking on a clay stove, I'm happy.

Kanchanaburi: The Bridge on The River Kwai and Erawan National Park

Only three hours west of Bangkok, the city of Kanchaburi is a gateway to no less than five national parks and numerous waterfalls set in surrounding mountains.

However the city draws its reputation overseas from much darker episodes with the Death Railway, the War Cemetery and the bridge over the River Kwai. The Japanese camps of World War II led 16,000 prisoners of war and 100,000 Asian workers to cruel deaths under the scorching sun of Kanchanaburi province to build a railway between Thailand and Burma so that the Japanese could invade Burma and defeat the British Allied Forces.

Today a thriving backpacker scene visits the riverside sites, eagerly crossing the black iron bridge, stepping on each other's toes and reluctantly giving right of way to others. And for a good reason.

I was amazed at the total lack of safety despite the bridge's popularity. Walking across the bridge means mainly making your way on of two parallel wooden posts separated by a steel-plated walkway in the middle. Both sides are blatantly open, hiding nothing of the river some forty feet below and crossing is not recommended to people suffering from vertigo or small children. I knew nothing of the "small children" part and led my girls with my father, holding hands tight and avoiding to look below.

Once on the other side, we stepped down the bridge to feed bananas to an elephant below. "Look maman, a train!" said my oldest one pointing towards the bridge. I was floored. On the tracks we were walking on just ten minutes before chugged a tourist train on its way for a short ride. That was not expected. Since we were supposed to picnic by the Erawan waterfalls 65 km north and it was already past 11 am, we hurried back the same way and got in the car.

On the way, we drove past the Xen Hideaway Resort whose entrance looked swanky with manicured lawns, but our fate was to swim in cool waters that day. Erawan National Park hosts limestone cliffs and caves as well as the seven-tier Erawan waterfall, one of two famous waterfalls in the region - the other one being Sai Yok Noi.

By then, lunch time was definitely on and we feasted on sticky rice and barbecued chicken, pomelo and baby bananas, right by the first level of the waterfall. All around us, large and small groups mingled and splashed around in the water. Of course, my girls wanted to join the fun too. Alas for them, I had hiking on my mind! We changed in swim suits and started walking up the trail to see the other levels of the waterfall.

Through a series of bridges we got to the level 2 with wider views and shorter falls, and as at level 1, clouds of butterflies fluttering in the trees. It was gorgeous. The higher we climbed, the less people crossed our way. My girls suffered from the heat, desperately wanted to wade in the water, and got thirsty. Each step up was more difficult for them but fortunately we kept on.

Fortunately because at level 3, we had the pleasant surprise to see groups of young men teasing each other about sliding down big curvy rocks. It was hilarious to see chicks in wet tee-shirts giggling around the boys but not taking part in the sliding revelry. One of the boys, in particular, had to be literally pushed down his perch where he steadily sat. Three seconds and a splash later, all the audience erupted in cheers and claps. That episode brought a smile to our girls and somewhat motivated them to keep going until level 4 and even level 5.

There, unfortunately, it was the end of their hiking endeavors and we dropped our bags by a banyan tree. The water was oddly cool, much cooler than what I expected. It was also weird to sink in the clay bottom. To be perfectly frank, my girls freaked out. First, they're used to sandy bottoms. Second, the water was clear and schools of small and not so small fish tickled (or rather sucked on) my feet. The fish part got my girls in tears. They were afraid that I was going to get eaten alive. Ah, little children's vivid imagination!

Obviously I survived the bath and took along my whiny offspring to cool off as they were as red as lobsters. Getting out of the water, they were startled to have to walk back to our bags on big fallen leaves. They never walk on leaves! Real urbanites. For me, it was a very pleasant feeling.

As the afternoon made its way, we decided to get back to the car. It was a compensation national holiday for Chakri Day, the day that celebrates Thailand's reigning dynasty. Holidays can mean a lot of traffic in Bangkok.

Down by Level 1, we were amazed by the white butterflies that swarmed in the air. "It looks like it's snowing," said my oldest one. She was right. In some places, the butterfly concentration was so dense that there were solid white spots on the ground. No wonder butterfly watching is becoming a popular activity in Thailand. It was a gorgeous day trip from Bangkok.

Next time, I'll spend the night on the river on floating jungle rafts, as many people do.