On Wednesday we were treated to lunch at the Pineapple Room by Jenai Walls, President of Foodland, as well as Abel Porter, Foodland’s Chief Operating Officer and John Schilf, who is its Director of Produce and Frozen Foods.

We talked about our plans for the future:

• We are working on a hydroelectric plant, which will cut our $15,000/month electricity costs in half and hold them steady for the next 30 years.

• We plan to lower our shipping costs by working with other local farmers to fill containers, thereby lowering each other’s freight costs.

• Due to our soon-to-be-lower cost of electricity, we don’t mind serving as a place where other farmers can cool their products, thereby extending the freshness—something they cannot afford to do themselves.

We talked about our efforts to convert banana waste into fertilizer. The idea is that we will feed our banana waste to tilapia fish, which are vegetarians. Then we will run the ammonia fish waste through a biofilter and convert it into nitrogen fertilizer for use on lettuce plants downstream.

Jenai and Abel visited our farm a couple of years ago and Abel has visited another time since then. I recently wrote about John’s visit to the farmers market, where I introduced him to many small farmers.

John talked about working with us to plan in advance so we can coordinate production and delivery. John and Kimo will be working very closely to our mutual benefit.

I am happy that Kimo and Tracy, the next generation at Hamakua Springs, could be there at the Pineapple Room with us to touch bases and strengthen the relationship we have with Foodland Supermarkets. We have had a business relationship with Foodland for more than 20 years.

It is good when the people at the supermarket’s highest level find time to talk to their farmer partners. Foodland is determined to increase its share of locally grown produce and this is very encouraging.