Sunday morning was spent in the University of California, Santa Cruz, in their organic garden. Two of the hippies staying here, part of a self-declared "Farmy Army", are enormous fans or organic gardening and farming, and so we went to check out the garden project. This is no small affair, a team of 38 live-in hippies manage the UCSC garden, and do a fine job of it. It was a little oasis of colour and peace on the side of a hill with an ocean view, complete with hhhhhhhherb garden (yes, H-erb garden, with an H), orchards, beehives, and ruler-straight rows of veggies. The management team even have their own kitchen and common room where they all live; very much like the Hostel in the Forest in Georgia. It was nice to just chill out for an hour or two watching the bees buzz and trying to ignore the girls discussing "the soil, man, where we all, like, come from."
After that I left the others and headed to the beach, where I did some wine-tasting on the wharf. All the wines were very nice, but overpriced, local SC produce. I enjoyed reading the sommelier`s tasting notes, as they were the most pretentious I`ve ever seen. It wasn`t just waves hollyhocks waiting to whoosh up my nose, but apparently dusty roads, wet straw, and star anise. I could detect none of these. But wait! The recommended pairings were even more daft. It wasn`t just "onions", rather "Walla-Walla onion crepes with crème fraîche"; it wasn`t just "Sirloin" but "medium-rare Sirloin with pear compote in a Syrah reduction"; it wasn`t recommended to be enjoyed with "prawns", but "sauteed tiger prawns" no less. Heaven forbid that one would drink the wine with fried king prawns.
My dinner was totally free, utilising the hostel`s free food policy. Some kind of charity donates leftover foodstuffs to the travellers; day old croissants, veggies, fruits, etc. After bitching so badly about the vegan restaurant, my dinner was one egg away from being totally vegan. I emptied the fridge of all its vegetables and made a stir-fry (broccoli, onion, mushrooms, etc) followed by fresh fruit (melon, strawberries, avocado and pineapple), all for free.