When I was little, my best friend Katie and I had code names: she was Kabi Habada. And I was Kiwi Keebo. At the time, I associated 'kiwi' with the fruit, and when I traveled to New Zealand, I was familiarized with kiwis in entirely new ways: both as birds and as inhabitants of New Zealand. It wasn't until much later that I learned that the fruit should be called the 'kiwifruit,' and that 'kiwi' refers only to the bird or a human New Zealander.

The kiwifruit orginiated in China and is also called the Chinese gooseberry. In the 1960's, New Zealand farmers decided to sell their fruit overseas, but to avoid the negative references to mainland China (tension between China and the West was thick at the time), they gave the fruit the name 'kiwifruit' for its resemblance to the fuzzy national bird.

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I've always held a special place in my heart for kiwifruits, and this weekend I got to know the green-fleshed fuzzballs even better. About 35 miles south of Half Moon Bay off the Cabrillo Highway (Highway One) which runs, literally, along the Pacific, is a rather unadvertised turnoff called Coastways Ranch. My girls and I pulled onto the muddy, unpaved road and drove through lush greenery to a tiny parking lot where a single dilapadated wooden shed stood. A young man welcomed us and after telling him that we were interested in picking kiwis, he cheerfully led us to a few piles of plastic buckets and a row of Radio Flyer wagons. "Take some buckets, take a wagon and follow the path around the ranch until you see the kiwis; you can't miss them and there are plenty to pick!"

We gathered our supplies and headed off toward the fruits. The land was breathtaking. Barely damp and under a sky of grey clouds accentuated by patches of blue sky, the plants and trees hung heavy with life in myriad shades of green. Mud squished under our feet as we pulled our wagon past newly-pruned vines and toward the drooping, overgrown richness of the kiwi orchards.

I'd never seen kiwi vines before! And before me were rows and rows of them full of furry brown fruits. There was simple trellacing with lines of thick wire parallel to the lines of vines. The vines wrapped around the wire in the most beautiful ways. We picked and picked until we'd filled half of a bucket.

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On our way back to the shed, we did some foraging, gathering pine cones, dead spirals of kiwifruit vine, and vagrant branches of fir lying on the ground. We emptied our kiwis onto the scale: $12.00 for eight pounds (60 kiwis) and an invigorating experience in nature! That's a deal :)

Afterwards we headed south to Santa Cruz for vegan comfort food at the Saturn Cafe and some thrift-store browsing. After a few hours, it started to get really chilly and rainy, so we packed back into my car and headed north along the windy coastal highway back up to Oakland. It was a great day.

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After sleeping in little on Sunday, I headed over to Alicia's to help her and her fellow teachers out with a food, clothing and toy drive that they were holding for the kids at her school. Alicia had mapped out at least twenty different locations from San Leandro to Walnut Creek to San Pablo and down through Berkeley and Oakland of people who were willing and ready to donate. We thought we were going to have more help, but it ended up being just the two of us. We drove around for six and a half hours knocking on doors, schlepping bags off porches, and stuffing boxes into my trunk and back seat. We had to make *three* trips back to Alicia's place to drop car loads off, and by the end of the day, her apartment was filled to the brim with donations. It was quite overwhelming! On one hand, it was heartwarming to see that people were willing to donate items, but on the other, it was unsettling to see some of the things they donated. Old, used underwear? A broken tricycle? A stained glass coffee pot with no coffee maker? Baby shoes with holes in the soles? No, thanks. Fortunately, we did get some rather new toys and some really cute clothes that will make some kids very happy. I'm grateful to all the folks that donated...it was worth the effort :)