Culinary finds in Maui's Upcountry

Mornings in Maui generally demand nothing more strenuous than pulling on a pair of shorts and sandals and heading for the beach. So what am I doing in long pants, hiking shoes and a jacket?

No swimming or snorkeling today. Instead, a dozen of us have signed up for a tour at the O'o Farm in upcountry Maui, 3,500 feet above the ocean on the slopes of Haleakala volcano.

We compose a you-pick salad with snippets of wild anise, garlic chives and mustard greens; sample espresso made from farm-grown coffee beans; and sit down to a farm-to-table feast prepared by a gourmet chef.

Spread out on platters near an outdoor kitchen are chunks of yellow pineapple, bright red strawberries and cherimoya, a melt-in-your mouth fruit as smooth as pudding. And those are just the appetizers.  

For visitors to Maui with time to explore the back roads, culinary discoveries await at out-of-the-way restaurants and boutique farms cultivating everything from wine grapes to exotic herbs.

Click here to learn more from my Seattle Times story about lunch at  the O'o Farm in Kula and other farm and food finds in Maui's Upcountry. 

Cuba Now!

A woman in torn jeans and a ruffled top talks on a cell phone as we get ready to board our Cubana Air flight to Havana from Cancun. The men in line next to us check three flat-screen Samsung TV sets, and bring aboard a stack of Italian panini presses as carry-on luggage. The plane is Soviet-made. The snacks are Canadian. We know we're on our way to Cuba when, once airborne, the flight attendant offers a choice of pineapple juice, orange juice or rum.

An hour later, we land in Havana's modern and efficient airport. An immigration agent checks our passports, but doesn’t stamp them. We pass through metal detectors where a security worker wearing tight white shorts, a black tank top and white sandals wands us down. TSA not.

“Welcome to Cuba,’’ she says with a smile, and we're in.

Read all about our recent trip to Cuba by clicking here.