All posts by Leslie Lang

Articles, Bananas

Richard Featured in Inc. magazine

Feel free to click on over to the national business magazine Inc.com if you’d like, which is featuring Richard in an article called He Thought it Was Time to Shut Down, Until His Workers Cooked Up a Scheme. Subtitled: “Has this farmer gone bananas?”

Here’s how Alex Salkever’s article starts:

Richard Ha tends not to take himself too seriously. The founder of Hamakua Springs Country Farms, a 600-acre banana and vegetable farm on Hawaii’s Big Island, once showed up wearing shorts to receive an award from the state’s governor. He calls his eco-farming blog Ha Ha Ha! But earlier this year, Ha was not smiling. He had decided to shut down his banana-growing operation, a move that would leave 400 acres fallow. His costs — for fertilizer, energy, and health care coverage for his workers — had been soaring. And because banana prices were flat, there seemed to be no end in sight.

On the first Friday in April, Ha delivered the bad news to his nine full-time banana pickers. But when Monday morning rolled around, Ha was surprised to find that seven of the workers had shown up to plead their case for keeping the farm going…. (Click for more)

Adopt-a-Class, Community

Keaukaha Comes to the Farm

Lehua Veincent, principal of Keaukaha Elementary School, brought his teachers and staff to the farm on Friday.

They arrived in a big yellow school bus, and then everybody gathered outside the office in a loose circle while Kumu Lehua (in the orange shirt) chanted.

And then the tour started. Richard spoke a little, telling how they decided to move the farm to Pepe‘ekeo and talking about the significance of the resources here in helping them decide.

He led a tour of the tomato houses, and explained that they look very simple “but a lot of thought went into that simple design.” He spoke a bit about how they operate.

 

Someone asked about organics, and Richard said something I found interesting. He explained: “Our objective is to feed as many people as we can, the best we can. Like the ahupua‘a system the Hawaiians used to have – what works, works. We try to use the best technology available in the smartest way possible.”

Charlotte Romo, the farm’s greenhouse expert, elaborated, saying the farm “doesn’t want to get stuck in a label of ‘organic.’” She pointed out that when they have to spray, they use the same products organic growers use. And that she scouts each of the more than 100 tomato houses every single week to check not only what insects are present, but at what stage of development. She pointed out that what kills larvae isn’t what works on an older insect, and that they spray only for what is present. “We don’t want to just spray all houses the same,” she said.

 

While we toured the packing house and the banana operation, I had a chance to talk a bit with Kumu Lehua.

Keaukaha Elementary  School

 

I learned that Keaukaha Elementary is the only school on this island to have moved out of the federal “No Child Left Behind” restructuring.

Kumu Lehua told me, “Our school learns differently. Without the trips (provided by community members through Adopt-a-Class), I don’t think the academics would have gone up. For us it’s about getting them out. Before, there was a moratorium, you couldn’t take the kids out,” he said. “But that’s how our kids learn.”

Just before they brought out the lunches they’d brought for all of us, Kumu Lehua spoke. He explained what the school’s connection with Hamakua Springs has meant.

“Three years ago,” he said, “when Richard called me, it was because of Mauna Kea. I was fortunate to talk story with him. When I came to Keaukaha School, that connection became important to the children.

“I want to mahalo Richard and June,” he said. “They’ve meant a lot to the school, though a lot of people outside the school don’t know it. If it wasn’t for last year, there are things we wouldn’t have been able to experience, especially the excursions.”

He explained that before they came to the farm that morning, they had had three community kupuna (elders) come in and speak to them. He motioned to his staff. “You heard our kupuna say, ‘At one time Keaukaha School was not one to be recognized.’”

“Mahalo to Richard and June for being there,” he said.

Adopt-a-Class

Mahalo from the Second Graders

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More young visitors and more sweet thank yous! Second graders from Keaukaha Elementary School and the Adopt-a-Class program came to visit the farm recently, and then big packets of thank you notes arrived.

The students each wrote individual thank you notes. Several of them, like Tiani, below, commented on the “man who chopped the banana tree fast.”

I wasn’t present and I don’t know who demonstated chopping down the bananas, but he made quite an impression. Look at Caleb’s great illustration!

Makena

Kaimana picked up something about the importance of “sustainability.” Excellent!

Sustaining_self_2

And check out what Makena learned! (I circled the part I’m referring to.) Richard’s message got through.

It’s the message he talks about everywhere he goes, to every student he speaks to. When I hear him, I think, “If even just one of these kids really hears that and internalizes it and remembers it, what a difference it could make to their entire life.” It looks like Makena heard it.

Makena2_3

They also sent a collage of photos. Here’s Richard and his daughter Tracy with the kids.

Photos

And the students.

Kids

Sustainability

Coming Soon!

We are in the process of putting together a series of posts showing how we can all become more food self-sufficient. We’ll run one or two of these posts here each month.

Whether you live on the Big Island and have some land to put in a small (or large) garden, or live on O‘ahu in a condo without one inch of dirt to your name – or if you live somewhere else entirely – we are going to show you how to get some food growing.

Our mission is to:

• draw from both old ways and new ones

• keep it simple, with materials that are cheap (or free) and easy to find

• show you how to garden with minimal fertilizers or pesticides.

Some of the posts, complete with short video, will feature Macario, this blog’s photographer (and my husband) who comes from a long line of farmers. He will use our yard to demonstrate how to start, and maintain, plant foods traditional to this area that are also nutritionally useful and tasty.

Richard’s episodes will demonstrate how to grow plants when you don’t have any ground to put them in.

We might bring in some guest experts, too.

Mostly we hope that our mini-lessons will be accessible – easy to follow and useful for anybody, with or without gardening experience

The idea came about after Richard watched this YouTube video, entitled “Urban Food Growing in Havana, Cuba.”

It describes how Cubans were forced to suddenly become self-sufficient, starting in 1991 during what they call the Special Period.

From Wikipedia:

The Special Period “was defined primarily by the severe shortages of hydrocarbon energy resources in the form of gasoline, diesel, and other oil derivatives that occurred upon the implosion of economic agreements between the oil-rich Soviet Union and Cuba. The period radically transformed Cuban society and the economy, as it necessitated the successful introduction of sustainable agriculture, decreased use of automobiles, and overhauled industry, health, and diet countrywide.”

It was, of course, a very difficult time in Cuba. Many Cubans left the country, and, according to the above, those who stayed lost an average of 20 lbs. as lifestyles changed drastically and food became scarce.

It is interesting to watch that video and see a little bit about how they adapted and especially how they returned to sustainable agriculture. We can all start doing some of that now, pre-crisis. That’s what our new series of occasional posts is designed for.

Stay tuned for our first episode: How to get your compost going. After all, you’re going to have to feed all those plants.

Adopt-a-Class, Community

Ripples for Education

It’s a cliché, but it’s true that you really never know what will happen when you drop a tiny pebble into a pond.

Since Richard first heard that Keaukaha Elementary School didn’t have enough money to take its students on field trips, and set up the Adopt-a-Class program to send the students to Hilo’s ‘Imiloa Astronomy Center, the ripples have been getting bigger and bigger.

The community stepped up to that call, and paid for buses and admission fees so that Keaukaha kids got to take some amazing field trips this school year.

Ka‘iu Kimura, Assistant Director of ‘Imiloa, says that the Adopt-a-Class program has taken off beyond just Keaukaha now. “Some of our members at  ‘Imiloa have adopted other classes now,” she says. “It’s the coconut wireless. People have called and asked, ‘How can we sponsor Pa‘auilo School,’ for instance. It’s infectious.”

And then Gordon and Betty Moore got involved. Gordon was co-founder of Intel Corporation, and he and his wife now divide their time between the San Francisco Bay Area and the Big Island.

Kimura says they’d visited ‘Imiloa (“under the radar; they don’t like recognition”) and liked what they saw. One of their people contacted ‘Imiloa and heard about Richard Ha and the Adopt-a-Class program.

He invited ‘Imiloa to submit a proposal to the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation to expand the program so that 50 percent of all school students on the Big Island could visit ‘Imiloa.

They did. It was accepted.

And then, ripple ripple, Kimura says that when ‘Imiloa sought bids for buses to transport the students – the biggest expense – they found that “bus companies are so willing to work with us that we think we’re going to be able to expand it from 50 to 100 percent of the students on the Big Island.”

That’s every Big Island student in public, charter and private school having the opportunity to learn about science and astronomy and native Hawaiian culture at ‘Imiloa. All because some people felt bad that students in Keaukaha didn’t have money for field trips and did something about it.

“Basically it means that for the next two years,” explains Kimura, “we will service 15,000 Big Island students in grades K through 12.”

The Moore Foundation grant has a matching requirement for the second year, so ‘Imiloa will be launching a campaign to help fund the second year soon. And ‘Imiloa is bringing in an outside evaluator in hopes of finding a way to expand the school visits beyond the two years, so it can offer them on a perpetual basis.

The Moore Foundation’s grant technician told her they are now considering having the Moore Foundation start funding kids in the San Francisco Bay Area to go to science centers near them, too.

“I just want to mahalo that core group that put together that Keaukaha opportunity,” says Kimura. “Not only the Moore Foundation, but also the local community people who really liked that idea and were willing to support schools in their own area.”

“It’s resonated out from Keaukaha to the whole island to the Bay Area,” she says. “It’s been an exciting thing to see it grow.”

Food and Drink

The 11 Best Foods…

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Tara Parker-Pope, who writes the New York Times health blog Well, recently posted an article called The 11 Best Foods You Aren’t Eating.

Here’s a peek at the beginning of her post and the first four foods on the list:

Nutritionist and author Jonny Bowden has created several lists of healthful foods people should be eating but aren’t. But some of his favorites, like purslane, guava and goji berries, aren’t always available at regular grocery stores. I asked Dr. Bowden, author of “The 150 Healthiest Foods on Earth,” to update his list with some favorite foods that are easy to find but don’t always find their way into our shopping carts. Here’s his advice.

Beets: Think of beets as red spinach, Dr. Bowden said, because they are a rich source of folate as well as natural red pigments that may be cancer fighters.
How to eat: Fresh, raw and grated to make a salad. Heating decreases the antioxidant power.

Cabbage: Loaded with nutrients like sulforaphane, a chemical said to boost cancer-fighting enzymes.
How to eat: Asian-style slaw or as a crunchy topping on burgers and sandwiches.

Swiss chard: A leafy green vegetable packed with carotenoids that protect aging eyes.
How to eat it: Chop and saute in olive oil.

Cinnamon: May help control blood sugar and cholesterol.
How to eat it: Sprinkle on coffee or oatmeal.

Read the rest here.

Did you catch the “bonus” healthful food there in her second sentence? Guava.

I like articles like this for the reminders about other delicious foods, not in my regular rotation, that are good for my health. And apparently many others did, too, because by Thursday night there were 764 comments, some with interesting preparation ideas.

After reading through the whole list, I counted that I have seven of these foods in my house right now. A couple more (beets, swiss chard) intrigued me and went on my shopping list. Or even better, maybe we can grow them.

How about you?

Hamakua Coast, History, The New Ahupua‘a

Ahupua‘a, Old & New

The farm recently received information about a Farm Conservation Plan grant. It’s a grant that is awarded by the Natural Resource Defense Council just every eight years, and Richard says it was completely unexpected when they were asked to apply.

“It’s rewarded based on past practices,” explains Richard. “They’re trying to reward people who’ve been doing it right, in terms of avoiding erosion and employing best environmental practices. This grant comes around every eight years, and it came out of the blue because the Hilo watershed had not participated in this program before.”

The farm also recently applied for financial assistance through the Environmental Quality Incentives Program 2009, which falls under the federal Wildlife Habitat Management program. This program promotes agricultural production and environment quality as compatible goals. Some of the identified natural resource concerns are: at-risk species habitat, sedimentation and accelerated erosion and ground and surface water conservation.

“This grant is to bring the streams back,” says Richard, “to reforest them. Basically they want you to bring it back up to where it was. We have all these non-native plants, and we’re going to take them out and replant with the appropriate, native ones. We’re going to clean up the area and take it back to where it was originally.”

It’s an extensive project, and an exciting one.

Part of this process has been a “Cultural Resources Review,” which was done by the local Natural Resource Defense Council. It starts out with some interesting historical and cultural information we didn’t know:

The proposed project area is 579 acres within three ahupua‘a: Kaupakuea, Kahua and Makahanaloa (north to south) in South Hilo.

Richard is excited to know these details about the traditional land divisions, or ahupua‘a. Me, too. Here he’s been talking about creating The New Ahupua‘a, and we find we actually have some information about the old ahupua’a!

From the report:

Kaupakuea is the northernmost ahupua‘a. Its southern boundary is Makea Stream…It extends from the coast up to the above Kaupakuea Homesteads at about 1400/1500 foot elevation…. Evidence of previous plantation use of the area can be seen in the unpaved roadways, and a west-east flume in parcel 01. The project is also within what was once Grant 872.

Kaupakuea is the side of the farm that has all the greenhouses, the packing house and all the structures.

Kahua is a very narrow ahupua‘a, extending only between Makea Stream to the north to Alia Stream to the south, approximately 600 feet wide although it extends from the coast to about Makea Spring, which is at about the 980 foot elevation, upslope of the project area….

Kahua seems to be a natural place to plant assorted fruit trees. The sloping terrain lends itself to a cropping system that doesn’t require constant tractor cultivation.

Richard says this land between the two streams has always been his favorite part of the property. “How often do you get two streams so close together,” he says, “just naturally? There’s a big hill in between them. It’s not suitable for flat-land farming. It’s hard to figure out why it’s there. You just have a feeling that it’s special.”

Kahonu received 52.20 acres as LCA 5663 in the northern mauka half of Kahua in the project area….Kahonu was an ali‘i, a chief, a descendant through both the ‘I and Mahi lines, who was in charge of the Fort at Punchbowl ca. 1833-34 (Barrere 1994:139). After his death in 1851, Abner Paki, a relative, held the lands [in Kahua] “under a verbal will from Kahonu” (Barrere 1994:138). At Paki’s death in 1855, “these lands were now listed as Bishop Estate lands” (Barrere 1994:515). Abner Paki and Konia were the parents of Bernice Pauahi and hanai parents of [Queen Lydia] Liliuokalani (Barrere 1994:515).

Kahua and Kaupakuea were listed as government lands (Indices 1929:30, 32). Government lands were lands Kamehameha III gave “to the chiefs and people” (Chinen 1958:26). By surrendering a large portion of his reserved lands to the government, Kamehameha III disposed of the question of his payment of commutation to the government (Chinen 1958:27). “From time to time portions of the Government Lands were sold as a means of obtaining revenue to meet the increasing costs of the Government. Purchasers of these lands were issued documents called ‘Grants’ or ‘Royal Patent Grants…” (Chinen 1958:27).

Makahanaloa ahupua‘a extends from the coast all the way up to about the 6600 foot elevation, a distance of about 3.4 miles….7600 acres of Makahanaloa and Pepekeo (sic) ahupua‘a were awarded to William Charles Lunalilo as LCA 8559-B: 17 &b 18 in the Great Mahele of 1848….Within Makahanaloa was “an ancient leaping place for souls. A sacred bamboo grove called Homaika‘ohe was planted here by the god Kane; bamboo knives used for circumcision came from his grove” (Pukui et al 1981:139). Locations of these sites are unknown.

The review also provides some history of the sugar plantations in the area of what is now Hamakua Springs Country Farms.

1857 – Theophilus Metcalf started Metcalf Plantation.
1874 – Afong and Achuck purchased Metcalf Plantation and changed the name to Pepe‘ekeo Sugar Company.
1879 – Afong and Achuck acquired Makahaula Plantation, adding 7600 acres to the south.
1882 – These were combined as Pepe‘ekeo Sugar Mill & Plantation.
1889 – Afong returned to China and left the plantations in the hands of his friend Samuel M. Damon.

The overview continues with changes of hands as the plantation land passed through Hackfeld & Company, Alexander Young and, in 1904, C. Brewer and Co. It gives some history through the closing of what had become Mauna Kea Agribusiness Co. in 1994.

Richard says this newly acquired information about the ahupua‘a come down to it being a framework. “A couple years ago we started feeling we needed to get closer to the culture,” he says. “We ended up working with, for example, the TMT, Keaukaha School, and it became a real thing. We started calling it the ‘New Ahupua‘a,’ and it was kind of neat. We had this kind of flat land over here, and that kind of hilly land over there.

“But all of the sudden now there are names!” he says. “Everything’s starting to become clear. It’s kind of exciting. It’s a framework to work in. Now we’re going to take action.”

“It’s still all about feeding people, basically. That’s what we’re up to.”

Food Safety Certification, Tomatoes

The Tomato Pickle

My uncle in California reads this blog, and he sent over a link to a newsweek.com article with this tagline: As the salmonella-tainted tomato outbreak continues to spread, small and local farm advocates say their produce is a safer bet. But experts aren’t so sure.

The gist of the article is that with the recent salmonella and tomatoes scare on the mainland (but not here in Hawai‘i), people are confused. They don’t know which tomatoes are safe.

Some think smaller farms, and local farms, are safer, and consequently sales at farmers markets are skyrocketing, but is produce from small and local farms actually safer? In the article, experts weigh in saying that mistakes and contamination issues can happen at any farm of any size.

“The real key,” says a microbiologist at the University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences – who is also a safety adviser to the Florida Tomato Growers Exchange and the Center for Produce Safety at the University of California – “is for everyone to follow good safety practices.”

My uncle wrote, “This article sounds like it is based on what I have read on the Ha Ha Ha blog over the last year or two!”

It really does.

Richard agreed: “Your uncle is right. It’s not rocket science. People want to know who grew the product and if it’s safe.”

“Everything under the Hamakua Springs label is grown by us and is food safety certified,” he said.

“It’s not complicated at all.”

Tomatoes

More “Fan Mail”

Richard received this note the other day. It is so nice to get unsolicited letters like this one; it lets you know you’re really on the right track.

Dear Hamakua Springs,

I just bought some of your grape tomatoes from Times and they are the best-tasting tomatoes I’ve had in 23 years on Oahu! Firm, sweet and delicious. Thank you so much!

I have been trying to grow my own but with little success. Yours will definitely fill my “tomato gap.” Thanks again for a great product and keep up the good work.

Aloha,
Jan Pappas

P.S. My family and I appreciate the de-emphasis on pesticide use.

Tomatoes

Satisfied Customer

Richard recently heard from a “satisfied customer.”

Sandra Reed, who lives in Tennessee, wrote:

Aloha! My husband and I are visiting here from Tennessee. Tennessee prides itself on its great produce, and with good reason. Nevertheless, I have experienced your cocktail tomatoes and they are unequaled! What a taste! Sooooo good!

She closed by writing:

Y’all come see us some time!

Sandra and her husband were on O‘ahu visiting their son Derek and his wife Lorri, who is a major in the Air Force, when they had Hamakua Springs tomatoes.

It was their fourth visit, and she says they had gotten their sightseeing out of the way the first couple times (like Pearl Harbor, which they found very moving, and Don Ho’s show, which Sandra most recently took in shortly before he passed away).

On their more recent visits, she says, “Derek and Lorri scout out places for us to eat, and we pretty much gorge our way across the Island!”

She says her son brought home some Hamakua Springs cocktail tomatoes from the commissary as a snack food. “Little did he know that I was going to eat three cartons of them while I was there. I ate them straight out of the container with a touch of salt. My mouth waters just thinking about them.”

She says she and her husband always used to have a garden in the summer, but don’t these days. “We try to buy fresh produce when it is available. If the people here ever got a taste of your tomatoes, they would throw rocks at the farmers who sell tomatoes here!”

She and her husband hope to return to Hawai‘i for a family vacation in the next few years. In the meantime, she says she wishes there had been a way to bring home some of Richard’s cocktail tomatoes.

“That was a taste I will savor in my mind for a very long time!” she said.

Thank you, Sandra, for taking the time to be in touch. We loved hearing from you!