I got to spend part of this week out at Malakoff Diggins with my son's class.  They are studying California history, and this three day trip was their culminating experience.  If you haven't been to Malakoff, the landscape in the header picture is the result of hydraulic mining.  It has created a unique topography, unlike anything you've ever seen.  You can see more pictures of this local park on the Outside Inn blog here. 

Looking serious in gold rush attire.

We were all dressed in period attire, and the kids had the opportunity to practice gold rush era crafts.  I helped with the tin lantern project.  Each child punched holes in a tin can, to make a patterned candle holder.  Then on Wednesday night they got to use their lanterns on a night hike. 

They also made benches, pioneer dolls, pioneer toys, and got to play pioneer games.  All this in addition to gold panning, touring the town of North Bloomfield, listening to Old Alkali tell stories, square dancing, putting on a readers theatre, and hiking.  It was an amazing trip, one that I'm sure the kids will remember forever.

All the parents who went along kept their energy levels up with fresh roasted Carolines Coffee.  This week our liquid gold comes from around the world, in Kenya.  I actually wrote about this coffee a month ago, here.  It's from a cooperative in the Nyeri district of central Kenya, and processed at Kiamabara. 

Trace roasted this light, and you get distinct citrus flavors in the cup.  It's pleasant to drink with a nice acidity and medium body.  You get an idea of the flavors of the terroir, with the quality of beans grown at high elevation.

--Holly F ike