California

It might be halfway between Los Angeles and San Francisco, but central California's San Luis Obispo county is a world away from the fast buzz of the city. In this slow-paced, rural region, artisan communities are connected both to each other and the natural world, working against backdrops of olive groves, cool valleys and a coastline blanketed in early-morning mist

- Words & Photographs by Yulia Denisyuk

Sorry your file was not uploaded. It may be the wrong filetype. We only allow JPG filetypes.

“Perhaps it’s the slower pace of life, but people here haven’t lost their connection to the land. Everybody I know forages,” muses Spencer Marley, founder of Marley Family Seaweeds, which runs foraging tours. Spencer has spent nearly two decades earning a living from the San Luis Obispo coast, first as a foreman at the Morro Bay Oyster Company, then as a commercial wild salmon fisherman.

His latest marine operation focuses on procuring the best edible marine algae. In the early-morning tide pools of the Estero Bluffs State Park, Spencer delights in seaweeds most of us wouldn’t look twice at — laminaria, fucus, sea lettuce, wakame, nori and kombu — harvesting the fronds with painstaking care. He believes marine algae should play a bigger role in the push for a more sustainable living. His fun, immersive tours aim to benefit this cause.

A short drive inland from the coast, up a narrow country road in the oak-dotted hills of Cambria, lies a ranch with no wi-fi or phone signal — but plenty of goats. This is the home of Jack and Michelle Rudolph, who quit their lives in Silicon Valley in 2012 to start Stepladder Ranch & Creamery, teaching themselves the basics of dairy farming online.