Richard and June’s daughter Tracy Pa, now 36, told me she grew up on the family farm.

“When we had our banana farm in Kapoho, when I was 11 or 12, we would go to work on the farm in the summer,” she says. “We used to pack bananas, or pluck the flowers off of each banana. It was fun.”

When she was 13 the family started its farm in Kea‘au, where they planted each banana tree by hand. “On the weekends the whole family would carry five-gallon buckets and fertilize each plant by hand,” she says. “We used to ride dirt bikes then, and Dad made us a track around Kea‘au Farm. That was a lot of fun.”

In her senior year of high school she started working in the farm’s office, and she has worked at the farm ever since. Besides working in the office, she has packed bananas, loaded containers with a forklift and worked in the tissue culture lab.

“We’re all-around people,” she says. “We do what we have to do. Wherever we are needed, that’s where we go.”

These days, she works in the office doing promotions and marketing, making displays and doing some of the accounting. She is in charge of the farm’s extensive food safety program. She gives visitors tours of the farm. Just Wednesday she gave a tour to Chef Alan Wong and his staff from the Hualalai Grille on the Kohala coast.

“Alan likes his staff to know where things come from,” she says, “so it was an educational thing for them. The focus was on the quality we produce in our product, and our food safety certification.”

She likes taking elementary school students around the farm. “They get all excited when they get here. The boys, in general, when they see the four-wheelers, they say, ‘I want to work at the banana farm.’ It’s a lot of fun. Being that young, some of them don’t realize where bananas come from. They are so amazed to see the bunches hanging from the line.”

[Editor’s note: How can children growing up in Hilo not know where bananas come from? There are bananas growing from practically every tree! Parents of young children, turn off that television!]

What’s it like to work with your parents? “It’s good,” she said. “We understand. We know what has to be done, and we will work together to get there.”

Richard says Tracy is versatile, and can do many things at the same time. “She is very aggressive and energetic, and everything she does she does well,” he says. “I rely on her a lot.”

He says she’s been very determined, and very sure of what she wants, since she was a teenager.

“In 1993,” he says, “we were scheduled to be presented the ECO-O.K. award at the Ritz Carlton Hotel, by Kate Heaton, an executive of the Rainforest Alliance from New York City. It was the biggest thing that had happened to our farm to date, so June and I wanted to make sure our farm displays were done just so. And we were going to do it ourselves.

“But it was apparent to us that Tracy had everything planned out in her mind and was determined to get it done her way. So we decided to let her do it and we went to find a cup of coffee. It turned out just perfect. That day she earned the title of “Person-in-Charge of Special Projects.”

I asked Tracy if she thinks her son Kapono, 17 years old, or daughter Kimberly, 14, will be generation number four of the family to work at the farm.

“It would be nice. I’m not sure. Kapono is still thinking about college right now, and is looking to go into business. Kimberly likes cooking.”

Speaking of cooking, just Monday, Roland Torres from the television program Kama‘aina Backroads came out and videotaped Tracy cooking with tomatoes for the show.

“I made three different kinds of pupus,” she says. “Lomilomi salmon stuffed in cocktail tomatoes. I mixed tuna and mayonnaise and Tabasco, and stuffed that in cocktail tomatoes. Kimo said that was the best. Then I took little cubes of mozzarella cheese, stuffed it in a cocktail and put that in the microwave to melt the cheese a little and put in balsamic vinegar and olive oil.”

Just imagine—In the same week, Tracy’s job had her cooking for a television program and giving a tour to a highly-acclaimed chef. What a job! —posted by Leslie Lang