AMA with AMA - Answering YOUR questions!

Seeing a Kula in the Wild... Uncontrollable Laughter... and Kula's Culinary Prowess.

Dear Kula Diaries,

Welcome to my weekly AMA (Ask me Anything) column! I hope that all of you are having a beautiful week so far. I’ve been having a really fun week that included a lot of relaxing and napping over this past weekend… plus, working on a fun craft project that Aaron and I had an idea for a few weeks ago (I’ll share a photo soon!).

Today, I’m looking forward to the following things: eating my breakfast sandwich, doing a long meditation, writing some things that feel good to me, spending time with my cats, and practicing my violin for my upcoming concert at Benaroya Hall. I would love to hear some of the things that you are looking forward to! Every single morning I speak out loud about the things that I am looking forward to, and it gives me such a burst of satisfied energy — try it, and let me know how it makes you feel!

As always, thank you so much for being here and for submitting questions and for reading my answers — it’s such a joy to write these columns every single week, and I appreciate the opportunity to be able to share with all of you.

Ok, without further adieu, let’s get to the questions…

Dear AMA,

How does it feel to see a Kula Cloth strapped to someone’s backpack (either in a photo or on the trail)? Is the feeling different now compared to when you were starting out?

I still remember the very first time that I saw a Kula Cloth attached to somebody’s backpack — it was on April 28, 2019. How do I know? Because I was on a backpacking trip to Ancient Lakes (in Eastern WA) with my mom and my husband. We were hiking on the trail, and as we passed by a large, prominent boulder… I saw a person who was taking a break and looking for something in their pack. Suddenly, a familiar piece of blue fabric caught my eye — it was a NICE AXE Kula Cloth! To say that I freaked out is an understatement. I instantly turned into a blubbering fan girl and I spewed out some devolved ramblings about the Kula Cloth. Eventually, I was able to explain my excitement, and the woman told me how much she loved her Kula Cloth. I was beyond excited and the feeling of excitement lasted for days — I couldn’t believe that I had found somebody that I didn’t know who had a Kula Cloth!

Here’s an absolutely ridiculous video that I forced my mom to make with me while on that backpacking trip. We’re holding the very first Kula artist series designs!

What’s really ironic is that most of my more recent hiking adventures are scrambles or off trail routes in obscure locations — so I rarely come across people with a Kula Cloth (because I rarely come across people at all). My friends tell me all the time, “There are Kulas EVERYWHERE!!”… and I believe them… but I don’t often see them, because I don’t typically hike on well-populated trails.

That being said — I do still occasionally run into people with a Kula… and when I do, I’m happy to say, that it is still just as exciting. Anytime I hike (or go anywhere for that matter), I always bring extra Kulas with me. If I spot somebody on the trail with a Kula, I will usually chase them down (not in a creepy way) to give them a sticker or a Kula and to thank them for their support. I’ve seen people with Kulas in the Artist Point (Mt. Baker) parking lot… while hiking in the Alpine Lakes Wilderness… and in the parking lot at Barlow Pass (Mountain Loop Highway). I am somewhat awkward — and so, I’ll usually approach them in an overly enthusiastic manner… which is probably relatively startling. Afterall — it’s not necessarily normal to have some random woman excitedly approaching you about your pee cloth.

Me, posing with our first Artist Series Kula Cloth on the backpacking trip in 2019 where I spotted the first ‘Kula in the Wild’. This Kula is still one of my favorite designs — an original watercolor called ‘Indigo Peaks’ by Claire Giordano.

The most exciting thing for me is when somebody has absolutely no clue who I am or why I’m so excited about the product. When I first launched Kula, most of my first customers were my friends and/or family… so, obviously, they all knew who I was. As a company grows, it becomes more and more detached from the story of how it got started… because it takes on a life and an energy of its own. A year or two ago, one of my friends told me that he was on a photo shoot with a woman who had a Kula on her pack and he said, “Oh, a Kula Cloth! I’m friends with Anastasia!”… to which she replied… “Who is that?”. It made me so happy to hear and know that Kula is growing beyond its association with me.

Forcing my mom to pose with our second Artist Series Print — another original watercolor by Nikki Frumkin.

Knowing that people are out there using the product on their adventures makes me so unbelievably happy. I’m deeply grateful for people’s support and enthusiasm, but more than anything… I want folks to have a better outdoor experience because the Kula Cloth exists. On my first backpacking trip, I forgot toilet paper (because I didn’t know I needed to bring it), and I spent most of the time worrying about my hygiene situation. I hope that Kula Cloth allows people to easily handle their hygiene so that they can focus on being more connected to the experience of the wilderness around them — more present, and more engaged.

The most exciting photo that I’ve ever seen of a Kula Cloth was this one…

Yep, that’s the REI front page of their website… featuring Jenny Bruso from Unlikely Hikers and the Arctic Pine Kula Cloth. Every single month, I receive the REI member catalog in the mail.. and every single month I page anxiously through the magazine… wondering if Kula Cloth will be featured. For the record, I also look through every single gear catalog that I receive… wondering if I will spot a Kula on a backpack. I look forward to paging through these magazines every month… not with any specific expectation… except that it’s a fun little dream of mine — and I’m pretty excited for the day when it pops out and surprises me.

Earlier this week, I received an unexpected and unbelievably kind message from a well known fixture in the Washington State hiking community. I’m paraphrasing his words, but he basically implied that he has noticed far less toilet paper on the trails since the introduction of Kula Cloth as a ‘mainstream’ pee cloth option. This entire journey for me started because I walked around a larch tree at Robin Lakes in the Alpine Lakes Wilderness and saw a giant pile of toilet paper and thought to myself, “There has to be another way!”. My husband looked at me when I read him the message and he said, “Look what you did! There’s less toilet paper in the wilderness because of you.” It made me feel really warm and fuzzy inside for a little while — and while I’m not shy about feeling proud of Kula… I also added, “But it’s really everybody else too.” So… that’s why it means so much to me when I see people carrying a Kula. Every single person who uses one or carries one becomes an instant steward — a way in which we can gently empower and teach each other about how to care for our planet in a kinder, more loving way.

I hope I can run across more Kulas on the trail very soon. If you do see me — I can’t promise I won’t become an awkward fan girl of you… but just remember, I’ll come bearing gifts.

Dear AMA,

Describe a moment that made you laugh uncontrollably.

I’m going to tell two stories — because laughter is wonderful.

The first story is about a time that my husband made me laugh (although, admittedly, he makes me laugh a lot). When you’ve been married to somebody for several years, you (wrongly) assume that you know everything about that person. Aaron and I started dating in 2012, and at some point during 2019… we were standing in our kitchen… in the midst of a completely normal, unremarkable conversation. To the best of my recollection, Aaron was picking up a few of our cat’s toys off the ground. I was mid-sentence talking about something entirely benign when, completely out of the blue, Aaron started juggling the cat toys.

Now, this might not seem like that extraordinary of an event — except that I had no idea that Aaron knew how to juggle. In the nearly 7 years we had been together at that point, this seemingly important talent had never been revealed. My mind quickly struggled to make sense of the situation. As I realized that he had known to juggle for much longer than I had known him… but that somehow I had no clue… I dissolved into hysterical laughter that was uncontrollable and joyous. Although he hadn’t intended to hide it from me — it felt like he had been waiting for 7 years… for this perfect, seemingly disinteresting moment to suddenly ‘reveal’ this magical skill. Isn’t it remarkable that you can think that you know somebody so well… and yet, they can still manage to surprise you in astounding ways?

Here we are on a backpacking trip where we carried our instruments:

Aaron and I have been together now for 12 years — we will be celebrating our 9th anniversary this year, and he continues to surprise me… and we continue to laugh together. He never ceases to amaze me with both his sense of humor and his devotion and unconditional love. To have a partner that will dress in a sasquatch costume… inspect Kula Cloths all day… and then go for a motorcycle ride to eat a burrito in the evening… well, I indeed feel pretty lucky to have him and I’m looking forward to many more years and many more opportunities to laugh together.

And now for the second story…

As I pondered this question… one other situation came to mind… the ‘oyster incident’ form my time as a park ranger. I was the park ranger at Twanoh State Park on the Hood Canal in Union, Washington … and the Hood Canal is known for its relatively warm-ish water (at least by Puget Sound standards) and abundant shellfish harvest. Visitors to the State Park are lawfully allowed to harvest oysters and clams — providing that they follow the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife Regulations. For oysters, you must have a license to harvest them and the limit per person, per day is 18 oysters. In addition, the oysters must be shucked (opened) on the beach at the tide level where they were found. Or, put more simply: you can’t take the oysters off the beach in the shell. The baby oysters actually grow on the shells of the adult oysters — so this prevents the unnecessary degradation of the population by recreational harvesters (commercial harvesters are allowed to remove the oysters in the shell). Sadly, poachers were very frequent at Twanoh State Park — and I spent many days catching folks in the act of attempting to haul hundreds of oysters off the beach — sometimes sneaking into the park in the middle of the night, or even hiding the oysters in trash bags underneath the floor compartment in a vehicle.

My sister Mare posing with some oysters I rescued from poachers! They had used the garbage bag to hide them in the back of their car.

On one summer day at the park, I was wandering through our Day Use area and I saw a bucket with a small rag over it sitting in the creek. I walked over to the bucket… lifted the rag… and discovered that the bucket was completely full of oysters. It was obvious to me that somebody had poached these oysters off the beach and that they were most likely trying to keep them cool and hide them until they left the park. “Nice try!”, I whispered to the mystery poachers, “I’m not letting you get away with this!”.

I covertly took up a concealed location in a nearby picnic shelter, and I decided that I would wait to see who came back to claim the bucket. After sitting for a period of time, I started to get antsy — nobody was coming back to the bucket, which was relatively odd for poachers. In my experience, poachers were very quick to load up a bucket or a bag of oysters so that they could leave the park with their shellfish haul. This person, however, appeared to be a confident and brazen poacher… with little care for how long their criminal activity was on display for the public.

Me on boat patrol on the Hood Canal.

Eventually, feeling a little defeated and frustrated, I gave up my post in the picnic shelter. The park had simply become too crowded on the beautiful summer day and I needed to get back to my routine patrols. Since the oysters had been harvested illegally (in the shell), I decided that I’d give up the ‘chase’ of catching the poachers… and I’d do the right thing and just toss them back out onto the beach. I collected the bucket… walked down to the oyster beds (which are exposed on a low tide), and dumped out the bucket of oysters.

Towards the end of the day, my job shifted from crowd wrangling and dealing with minor catastrophes… to trying to get the park visitors out of the park before dusk. I was patrolling one of the larger day use parking areas when I noticed a middle aged man frantically flagging me down. I pulled over to the side of the road and hopped out of my patrol vehicle, “Can I help you?”, I said with concern.

“Somebody stole our oysters!”, he exclaimed, “We left them in the creek and now they are gone!”

I smirked on the inside and whispered silently to myself, GOTCHA!! As I puffed out my chest a little bit, I spoke authoritatively, “Well, actually… I took your oysters. I dumped them back into the Hood Canal. You poached them off the beach in the shell and that’s a misdemeanor. You’re lucky I didn’t catch you with them, because it’s a really spendy ticket!”

The man, to my surprise, shook his head in disbelief, “Oh no… we didn’t poach those oysters. We bought them at Albertson’s. Here’s the receipt.” He held out a paper receipt in his hand for me to examine. In that moment — a whirlwind of clarity swirled into my consciousness… including, but not limited to, the fact that I was now recalling how clean the oysters were. Most oysters that you pull directly off a beach are sandy and covered in random bits of sea plants and barnacles. And yet, this bucket of oysters that I had dumped back into the Hood Canal… I realized in horror, they were pristine. He wasn’t lying. I had dumped an entire bucket of legally purchased oysters back into the water. It had been hours since I dumped them back, and the tide had long since covered them in its watery blanket.

I looked up at the man with big eyes and shook my head, “I’m so sorry,” I said, “I’ll buy you more of them… I am so sorry!” The man looked at me — this deflated park ranger who had just made the dumbest mistake of her law enforcement career — and the biggest smile I’ve ever seen spread across his face, “Those were some very lucky oysters,” he said.

Standing there at dusk in the park, this man and I dissolved into belly rolling laughter that I can only describe as the type of laughter that feels like it might come around, if you’re lucky, once in a lifetime. We laughed until the duty belt on my uniform was uncomfortable because my abs were so sore. The man’s family started walking over to our location to see what the commotion was all about, and as we recounted the story over and over… more family members joined in, until there were probably a dozen of us laughing and crying all at once. Each time the man told the story, it became increasingly hilarious until full grown adults were doubled over in laughter and children, who may or may not have even known what they were laughing about, were rolling around in the grass in hysterics. It was, without a doubt, one of the funniest and happiest moments of my time as a park ranger — and also one of the stupidest mistakes I’ve ever made. It taught me to be more humble and it taught me not to take myself so seriously. It also taught me that grace is a gift that we can each give to each other — and that when you give a gift like grace… it multiplies.

I did end up giving them money for their oysters — but not because they wanted me to. In fact, they didn’t want me to, because they said that the laughter was worth far more than the oysters were. I, however, felt that it was right thing to do. It was, to this day, the only time in my life I have ever purchased oysters for any reason — and none of them were ever eaten.

Me and my dog (named ‘Twanoh’ after my park!) on trail patrol.

Dear AMA, What’s your take on ChatGPT’s culinary representation of Kula Cloth?

Ok, so the recipe below arrived concurrently with the above question… and I decided that this week, in order to accurately answer this question, I’d have to make and bake these cookies… and compare them to my Kula Cloth Chocolate Chip cookies. If you want to bake along, here’s the recipe:

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From ChatGPT:

As of my last update in January 2022, there isn't a specific cookie recipe associated with Kula Cloth. Kula Cloth is a company that creates antimicrobial, reusable, and eco-friendly "pee cloths" for outdoor enthusiasts, particularly for hiking and camping. While they may occasionally share recipes or collaborate with other brands, there isn't a standard "Kula Cloth cookie recipe."

However, if you're interested in making cookies inspired by the ethos of Kula Cloth (eco-friendly, outdoor-focused), you could create a recipe using sustainable and wholesome ingredients. Here's a simple recipe for oatmeal cookies, which aligns with the outdoor and eco-friendly themes:

Eco-Friendly Oatmeal Cookies Recipe: **Ingredients:** - 1 cup rolled oats - 3/4 cup whole wheat flour - 1/2 teaspoon baking soda - 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon - 1/4 teaspoon salt - 1/4 cup coconut oil, melted - 1/4 cup maple syrup or honey - 1 large egg - 1 teaspoon vanilla extract - 1/2 cup raisins or chopped nuts (optional)

1. Preheat your oven to 350°F (175°C). Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. 
2. In a large mixing bowl, combine the rolled oats, whole wheat flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt. 
3. In a separate bowl, whisk together the melted coconut oil, maple syrup or honey, egg, and vanilla extract until well combined. 
4. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix until everything is evenly combined. 
5. If using, fold in the raisins or chopped nuts. 
6. Scoop tablespoon-sized portions of the dough onto the prepared baking sheet, spacing them about 2 inches apart. 
7. Flatten each cookie slightly with the back of a spoon or your fingers. 
8. Bake in the preheated oven for 10-12 minutes, or until the edges are golden brown. 9. Remove from the oven and let the cookies cool on the baking sheet for a few minutes before transferring them to a wire rack to cool completely. 

These oatmeal cookies are not only delicious but also incorporate eco-friendly ingredients like whole wheat flour and coconut oil. Enjoy your outdoor adventures with a sustainable and tasty treat!

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Here’s the dough prior to baking!

So, how were they? Honestly, they were very easy to make and I ate a bunch of the raw dough (don’t judge), which was also delicious. After baking them, my husband and I each ate one with our desert and they were… ‘healthy’ tasting. They weren’t bad per se, but they also were not terribly exciting. Were they the type of cookie that I would look forward to every single week? Probably not. Would I eat them again? Yes, because I don’t want to waste the extra dough that I froze. Is whole wheat flour and coconut oil eco friendly? I have no idea. If I were to make them again… I’d probably add chocolate chips and possibly substitute the ‘normal’ oatmeal for Picky Oats Trail Mix Fix (which is really great in cookies!). Do they even remotely compare to the Kula Cloth Chocolate Chip Cookie? Absolutely not. Because the Kula Cloth Chocolate Chip Cookies are decadent and unduplicatable.

The finished product (plus our nightly chocolate bon bon!).

Here’s a fact about my Kula Cloth Chocolate Chip Cookies: I have one baking pan that cooks them properly. It’s a Faberware pan that is tiny in size (compared to a normal baking sheet)… but it’s the only pan that bakes the cookies perfectly. A few years ago, I made 25 of my Kula Cookies to bring on a white water rafting trip that we hosted… and it took me hours to bake them all, because I had to do them two at a time on my tiny pan.

This week’s cookies on the tiny baking sheet that I use to cook them.

Have you ever noticed that there are certain recipes that are never as good when you try to duplicate somebody else’s specialty? I think about that with some of my favorite meals: my grandmother’s lasagna or spaghetti sauce… or my mom’s braised beef… or my grandpa’s blue cheese dressing. Nothing ever tastes as good as the original — and maybe that’s because there is a lot more to a recipe than just ingredients. Maybe the miniature pan is important because it’s always the pan I grab right after I grab the pan for the pizza that we’re also making the same evening. I lay a piece of parchment paper on the pizza, and Aaron flours our counter so that he can start rolling out the dough. I pull my frozen cookie dough blobs out of the fridge and then I slice off slivers of my secret oatmeal chocolate chip cookie dough to add to the top of the cookie. Most importantly, I cut off an extra few slivers of frozen dough for us to eat… every. single. time. Then, I prepare my pizza toppings and slip the giant Kula Cookies into the oven while I’m slathering our pizzas with sauce and veggies and cheese. We eat the pizza while the cookies cool, and then… after our evening walk… we sit down together with our cats and our giant chocolate chip cookies. With my tiny knife, I slice off little pieces of my chocolate chip cookie and I savor each and every bite. As it turns out, the most important ingredients in anything you make will never be anything you can buy at the store in the baking aisle.

Friends, thank you all so much for being here — I’m so truly grateful for you! Make some cookies this week and enjoy exactly where you are. I am wishing all of you infinite peace, ease, wellness and love.

If you have a question you’d like to submit for a future AMA, you you can do that right here. You are loved, friends!