Did you see the special Agriculture & Energy Expo insert in the
Tribune-Herald recently? They used this photo of Richard and family on the cover.

Richard, his mother Florence Ha, June, Kimo and Tracy (photo by Macario)

Tracy said that they were surprised to see that picture on the cover. “I was talking to Rob at the Hawai‘i Island Chamber of Commerce and he said they thought it was a nice presentation of agriculture,” she told me, “being that we had three generations.”

She and Kimo handed out samples of the farm’s heirloom tomatoes at the Expo. “People kept saying they didn’t know there were tomatoes that looked like that,” she said. “The different colors, the different shapes; and they were surprised that each individual variety of heirlooms has a different flavor.”

“A lot of people there knew our tomatoes already,” she said, “either from our donating cocktail tomatoes to the schools or they already buy them at the grocery stores. People were wanting to see our new products.”

Some of the tomatoes they offered as samples included Green Zebras, which are small, green crunchy tomatoes; the Purple Cherokees, which she describes as a dark, almost black tomato; and the bigger, bright yellow Striped Germans, which are very sweet and have a yellow and pink flesh.

“I only took a case of the heirlooms to sell,” she said, “because I didn’t know how people would react to them, but they sold out.” The heirloom tomatoes are starting to be available in one-lb. “clamshell” containers at local supermarkets.

Tracy and Kimo also sold Hamakua Springs lettuce, green onions and cucumbers at the Expo.

“I love doing the Expos,” said Tracy. “I like setting up the displays, and I’m a people person. When people stop by you get to talk story with them.”