Brooke Hoehne

Barbara was a professional cellist for most of her adult life. She played in the LA Philharmonic and with musicians like Frank Sinatra and Elvis Presley. She was in the orchestra recordings for movies like Forest Gump and E.T. and now she plays with a local orchestra…ya know just for fun. 20 years ago she married Bill and moved to a farm to spend her days gardening.

“You just need to be able to read plants and know how to water them”, apparently that’s all it takes to be a good farmer. Such a simple statement for someone like her, but so much more complex for a brown thumb like me – she tells me I'm a natural with the plants…I’m not convinced. Here’s my one tip, when you water your plants don’t be a afraid to spray the leaves directly so they get rustled up a little, it mimics the wind and will get your plants stronger more quickly. Other than that, I have nothing for you in the way of farming advice. I’m sorry to say I didn’t ask a lot of detailed questions because most of the information wouldn’t pertain to my real life so instead I asked them questions about their lives and I made some new friends and gained a lot more than a farming experience, I gained some peace.

I’m home now in my concrete world full of the people I love, my cats, a fabulously full schedule, my warm bed, the persistent buzz of a city full of activity & lights and a few new herb plants that I’m trying desperately to keep alive. The reality is I can’t live in a golden valley surrounded by nothing but hills and oak trees and earth, but I think I can find a way to integrate some of the serenity that I’ve found into my wildly active life. I can thrust my nose into the soil of my tiny plants for hours on end and bring myself back to my peaceful hours in the greenhouse, Trever might leave me, but at least I’d have my plants. I can wake up early and drink my coffee gazing at the serene train station while listening to the peaceful sounds of train whistles and grinding metal wheels. I can enjoy nature by looking directly up in the sky as that is the only unobstructed space around me, but boy is that blue blue.

But really, the truth is I love living in a city. I like the hustle and bustle, and people and things to do. But in the middle of it, I can make a choice to allow myself off the hook sometimes. I can let myself sit and relax and be unproductive for a few moments, to make time to be outside finding hiking trails and spaces for peace. And then in a few months I can go back to the farm and love it all over again.

In August or September they have their tomato harvest dinner and they bring in chefs to the farm to cook a fabulous meal at twilight. You eat under the open sky and sleep in a glamping tent in the orchards and maybe do a little wine tasting in the area the next day. They have a similar dinner on August 1st to celebrate garlic. I will be at BOTH. Obviously.

I have a challenge for you: Go outside and climb a mountain.

For those of us that live in urban or suburban settings I think that one of the most therapeutic and life giving things we can do is get outside and enjoy nature. Find some trails local to your area, convince a friend that is interesting and not a complainer to join, grab a small backpack with water and sunscreen and get out there. Take deep breathes. Look around. Let your body do what it was designed to do, work hard.

I have some friends I’m in a unofficial hiking club with (it used to be a cooking club, now it’s the antithesis of a cooking club) and it basically consists of hiking together as often as we can. Sometimes I like to do sunset hikes and the mountains I'm so used to seeing suddenly become soaked in yellow, and they seem new again. I think it matters that we embrace this beautiful world around us. I think we’re made to enjoy it.

I'm reading a book about the life of Van Gogh...I promise this will connect. Van Gogh was a huge fan of Rembrandt who, as you might know, did a lot of realistic religious paintings of the future in heaven. Van Gogh was extremely religious himself, and though you wouldn't know it, his paintings had a lot of religious significance to him. There was a popular preacher at the time who would do these sermons about the divineness of nature and Christ as inseparable from it's beauty. They proposed nature was one of the best ways of knowing God. So in that way, Van Gogh's art was religious, not because they were realist images of heaven, but because he was painting nature and God was a very real part of that. Van Gogh was a pretty crazy guy, but I think it's a good point. To me there is something religious about being outside, something that reminds me I am such a small piece in view of the vastness of nature. It's humbling, and energizing, and sort of a relief.

Ok so enough of the rant, here are my recommendations for hiking if you live in the LA or Orange County areas:

Mustard Road in Foothill Ranch. Park at this Ralphs and you’ll see the trail start. Take Borrego > Mustard Road > Vista Lookout Road (you’re gonna want to die for a minute, but then you’ll love it, I swear!)

Peter’s Canyon in Orange. My favorite is the East Ridge loop

El Moro Canyon in Laguna Beach. No Dogs > Poles > E. Cut Across > Moro Ridge. The view will make you want to weep. Save this one for a clear day.

Valido in Laguna Beach. Take Valido to this lookout point then to this one.

Quigley Canyon in Santa Clarita. Take the Coyote loop that brings you to the top of the falls. It's harder but better.

Solstice Canyon in Malibu. At the end of the loop there is a burned down mansion from the 20's. Take Rising Sun trail to Solstice Canyon Trail.

Runyon Canyon in LA is pretty easy and has really beautiful views on a smog-free day.

Griffith's Observatory in LA. Lots of trails, I've only done a few of them but loved them all.

PS: if your husband's idea of exercise is walking around a mall, don't take him on a really big hike for the first time out, otherwise he'll fall asleep at 6pm and struggle to walk the next day. err...whoops.