About Me

I'm in no way an expert. I'm a newbie tropical homesteader. My partner and I moved to a rural part of Hawai'i in October 2010 from San Francisco. We were seeking a slower and more sustainable life. I was also looking forward to learning about gardening and plants, and there certainly has been a lot of that! I had never kept a garden before, although I have always loved plants and even had a research fellowship at the plant sciences department at Cornell, briefly.

I have a PhD in molecular biophysics & biochemistry, and I generally approach new projects with a researcher's eye. I've also been trained as a science writer and have been earning my living as a sort of an artist and creative science communicator for the last six years or so.

When I have a question, my first approach is to look it up on the Internet. However, I've found the 'net lacking in some topics related to gardening and homesteading in the tropics. There are some great blogs out there, but many are written by experts who may not address the types of questions raised by newbies such as myself.

In this blog I record what interests me, and I hope that others approaching a similar transition will find some inspiration in my experiences. And if you have any helpful tidbits of information, please send them my way!