Whole Foods Buyers Jeff Biddle and Claire Sullivan visited us yesterday, and we spent more time talking about our interaction with the community than about business. We talked about Chef Alan and the Keaukaha School sixth graders, the Andrade Camp water line project, our Tomato Recipe Contest, the farm’s “hanai”-ing Nawahiokalaniopu‘u School, and our plan to grow more products that make up a balanced diet in order to benefit our community. And, oh yes, our hydroelectric project.

It’s not just about our farm—it’s about the community. It’s all of us. You know how sometimes it’s just not appropriate to discuss these kinds of things? With Jeff and Claire, they were the most comfortable things in the world to talk about. We all need to take care of each other, and from my conversation with them I got the impression that Whole Foods feels that way, too.

Although we did do the business thing—Whole Foods knows we are all about good quality, dependability, food safety, etc.—the more important, and most satisfying, thing today was talking about how we interact with our community.

Then in the afternoon it was on to a meeting with the staff of Kalaniana‘ole School, where I volunteered to coordinate the Hamakua Coast farmers who will set up booths at their fundraising bazaar.

I stepped out of that meeting to participate in a phone conference that Dwight Takamine arranged with the USDA, Board of Water Supply, officers of the Andrade Camp Community Association, Senator Inouye’s liaison and a consultant to the Board of Water Supply. We discussed the final steps that will occur before construction begins to replace the old, plantation-era water system of the tiny former sugar plantation camp next to the farm with a new, county water system.

It’s been an amazing process that started a couple of years ago, and with everyone’s cooperation we have been able to make it work. At our next meeting we will be planning the groundbreaking ceremony.

I stepped back into the Kalaniana‘ole School meeting, and then home to see Keaukaha Elementary School on the PBS program “E Ola Pono.”

It all makes work fun, and it sure made for a “good feeling” kind of a day.