we went on a field trip to sumida farms

first we signed in with Kapuna Abby

then we sat still, and some of us tried so hard to sit still, (it's hard for a two year old) in a big circle on the mat and listened as uncle told us about his family farm. his farm that has been up and running for more than 80 years. they grow vibrant green watercress on a bed of fresh mountain spring water that you can drink. He pulled out a "surprise, since we are all sitting in a circle anyways" he brought us some "crayfish" that live in the watery farm. He said that him and his workers like to eat the ones that look like this:

all the kids "oohed and awed", but wouldn't touch the crayfish when he offered, the baby ones that don't know how to pinch yet, for them to hold. so momma held it and kai thought about touching it, but it was just a thought.

then he showed us the bundles of watercress that go to different stores. this one i believe went to Tamura's

Then he took us to the field, kai had a very hard time not jumping in the cool, flowing water on such a sweaty, humid day; while he showed us how they harvest the wacress. that is the water in front of her, although it looks like a road.

they usually just cut the roots right off, but he wanted to show us how long they are. do you know what they do to grow more? they just throw some cut plants back on top of the water, which has gravel underneath it, and the roots grab hold and it grows. his grandparent's were genius to start a farm, on a natural spring, of a plant that plants it self and grows quickly. no cost of water, no exceedingly hard labor and it's only one plant so it doesn't take a lot of knowledge to make it thrive. he said that there is a high demand for this plant in Hawaii, there are six or nine other farms just in pearl city and they are all thriving.

then we got to walk through the field on the cinderblock pathkai stopped a few times and put her feet in. do you notice anything in this picture? (besides the fact that her cute little hand is on my foot)i did NOT even know that i had two different slippers on until i looked down to take this picutre! then we resumed our walkhave you ever seen this tiny hut on your way to pearlridge mall? i think it's just for decoration, but he didn't say and i forgot to askafter our walk we got to go straight to the source, where the water is coming out of the ground and drink. it was NOT good. I was expecting a light , cold refreshing water; but it was heavy and old tasting. but we still had fun and it quenched our thirst and cooled off our hot selfs. i love the smile on her face in this pictureand as we were walking out slipper-less i had to take a picture to document how wet she was!:) we went to this dog cage ten times. she's smiling that sweet smile because victory was her's and we were at the cage again, even though i said we were done.


when we got back to the place where we started we bagged the cut watercress, and got a bag to to take home with us. mine is still in the fridge cause all the recipes he gave us are "local" recipes as he called it, and they negate the fact that there is a vegetable in the recipe at all because it's so unhealthy. i should probably eat it like salad or something. do you know how to eat it or what it is? when kaiya got her bag she went and sat next to these siblings already in a row.

we had the most fun together. she's such a silly, fun field trip companion.