All posts by Leslie Lang

Community

Go FISH! 2

Remember when Richard went on a field trip with a 5th grade class from Kaumana School recently?

Karyl Ah Hee is the 5th grade teacher who invited Richard to ride along. She knew of Richard through his daughter-in-law Kris, who until recently also taught at Kaumana Elementary.

“Kris had told me to check out her father-in-law’s blog about Keaukaha Elementary School,” says Karyl. “The first thing I noticed was the title of the blog, Ha Ha Ha!, referring to three generations of the Ha family, and I thought, ‘He cracks me up!’

“Then I read what he’s doing for Keaukaha Elementary and I thought that was the coolest thing. I told Kris I thought he’d love this tour and that he should join us, that he seems to like things like this—doing good for the community and having children learn to do good. We wanted him to see that he was not alone; that children are striving for a better Hilo, too, just like he’s doing.”

Karyl Ah Hee’s 10- and 11-year-olds practice the FISH! Philosophy, adapted from Pike’s Place Fish Market in Seattle. There it’s a business philosophy, but Karyl has adapted it for classroom use. The FISH! Philosophy is based on four components:

• Choose Your Attitude
• Be Present
• Play
• Make Someone’s Day

She teaches her students about the FISH! Philosophy at the beginning of the year, and points out that she has no classroom rules. None of the “don’t do this,” “don’t do that.”

“We just live by the FISH! Philosophy components,” she says. “It’s a wonderful thing because it’s very positive. If I need to, I ask, ‘Are you choosing your attitude?’ At times I don’t even need to say it. Their peers remind them, ‘You’re not choosing your attitude.’”

“I’ve been tracking it and discipline problems, referrals, have gone way down. They look out for themselves, their team members. They understand it so well that they go home and teach their families. I’ve had a number of families that have come back and asked me more about it.”

It was as part of their FISH! Philosophy that her class raised money for an excursion and then recently took it on the road. “It all started out with, Well, if you are a real FISH! philosopher, prove it. They came up with: ‘Then we need to go out and Make People’s Day.’”

Their bus made 12 stops that day, to places like Hospice of Hilo, the fire and police departments, Air Aviation, the Air Guard and the Army Guard. “We went out to say thanks to the community who serve us so well all the time,” she explains.

They spoke about their FISH! Philosophy and handed out Hershey’s kisses in special packaging they put together, which included a small brochure with the philosophy explained.

One stop was at the Yukio Okutsu Veteran’s Center. “There were only a handful of veterans there, and they were more on the serious side. But as the children starting talking and laughing, and they sang a simple Christmas song for them, one veteran shared that it just made their day. They ate together, they talked story together.

“Mr. Ing, the photographer from the newspaper, had come but they didn’t want to be in the newspaper, they said. The kids said, ‘That’s okay, Mrs. Ah Hee has a camera,’ and they explained the pictures would be just for us. I asked them later what we should do with those pictures and they said we need to take them back.”

So during the holidays, Karyl and her sons put them in frames, one for each veteran, and her sons—also FISH! Philosophers—helped deliver them.

“The people there were so happy,” she says. “They were saying, where are the kids, where’s that girl, I want to talk to her again. Because they want to see us again, I arranged with their P.R. person and we’re going to invite our veterans to our school for our May Day program.”

On the brochure they handed out (they gave out more than 1500 of them that day) they challenged the people of Hilo: “We challenge you, Hilo! After learning about the FISH! Philosophy, Go out and make someone’s Day! ‘We’re striving for a better Hilo, one heart at a time.’ If YOU made someone’s day, we’d love to hear about it.”

Karyl explains that it doesn’t take a lot. “You could hold open a door, a simple smile, a wave, or a ‘hi’ or ‘good morning’ can do the trick. Help someone in need. The feeling inside is wonderful!”

The students still want to hear from anyone who has an example of doing this, at this address: Kaumana Elementary School, Attn: Mrs. Karyl Ah Hee, 1710 Kaumana Dr., Hilo HI 96720. Feel free to drop them a note with a concrete example.

“We are hoping for a big response,” says Karyl, “because it would show the students something tangible to cement the philosophy within. We’d love to hear about it.”

After the excursion, Richard spoke to the kids briefly to thank them and tell them he was proud of them.

Karyl Ah Hee talks about how the way of life impacts her students in other ways, too. She says reading is not a big priority to many of her 5th graders at the start of the year. But by the end, she says, they are self-governing.

“They tell me how much they need to read, how many books, and set their own goals. This past quarter every single one of my students met their reading goals. And I don’t remind them every day. They remind themselves. There was a situation where a great majority had finished their reading goals very early. A handful more was struggling to get there, and the ones who already made it constantly offered encouragement: Go get ‘em, let’s go. The students feel good that their peers are really supported.

“I think it has a lot to do with the FISH! Philosophy and the attitudes they bring to class. When we choose our attitude, we can make a difference in our lives, and in other people’s lives, too. I’m hopeful they will take it with them their whole lives.”

She says she knows she leave “fingerprints” on her students, and always hopes they will be positive ones.

“When we did this tour last year, I asked the students, ‘Is this something you’ll remember for a day? A week? A month?’ One student said, “This is something I’ll remember for a lifetime.’”

Mauna Kea, Where We Live

First Snow

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The first big snow of the season is always kind of exciting. There was a huge storm on Mauna Kea this past week—and down here, too—and it left our 13,00-plus-foot mountain wearing a beautiful, white snowy cape.

When it snows here in Hawai‘i, people sometimes drive up the mountain and come back with a pickup truck full of snow. You see snowmen popping up in the oddest places: outside the veterinarian’s office, or on a street corner downtown. Of course, Hilo itself is an odd place to see a snowman.

Sustainability

Modern Ahupua‘a

Richard and I stumbled upon this website by the non-profit group Pacific Worlds. The extensive site provides a thought-provoking look at many topics, including the idea of a modern ahupua’a, which Richard too has talked about.

From its site:

Pacific Worlds serves two roles: first, it is a vehicle for cultural preservation and the perpetuation of indigenous traditions in the Pacific. In this role, it presents Pacific Islands—from Pacific-Islander perspectives—to the entire world. Whether you are a tourist or a scholar, this site will transform your understanding of Pacific cultures and environments. Second and more specifically, Pacific Worlds comprises an indigenous-geography education project serving Hawai‘i-Pacific Schools.

Here’s a snippet of what they write about ahupua‘a:

“Ahupua‘a is holistic,” Stephen Kubota says, elaborating the vision of the Ahupua‘a Action Alliance: “In Hawaiian culture, you had kahuna who knew the forests, knew the trees, knew the geology. The chiefs could draw upon the collective wisdom of the kahuna to help determine what was an appropriate construction project. Today, I see a modern ahupua‘a. It means using the knowledge and tools we have today.

“Some argue that using an ahupua‘a system today poses challenges simply because our society is not organized around subsistence, which was the whole premise of the ahupua‘a system. Others have said, how can you use an ahupua‘a system in modern Hawai‘i when we import 70% of our food? Moreover, the people within the ahupua‘a shared common resources, but today so many of these are now either degraded or sequestered in private lands.

“But if we look at the underlying values, principles, and practices, those have not changed. Certain accepted features are retained, even in Western law: water as a public trust resource, public access rights to forest, to hiking, to gathering. Those are acknowledged even in modern Western laws, especially in the State of Hawai‘i.

We both also liked this, from the same document:

“When I say ahupua‘a today, I’m talking about a holistic relationship, a kinship with all the living creatures that occupy the place where you live–including the spirits of the ancestors. There’s no Western term for this concept. There’s a phrase that I’m comfortable with for now, it’s ecosystem restoration, and those two words together carry the meaning. Ecosystem includes humans and all the non-human factors. Restoration is a really important concept because it has become a science, it becomes a policy. And in restoration policy, you are admitting that there was something damaged.

“The toolkit for restoration is very clear: you can’t restore if you don’t know what was there before. You have to use historic photographs, oral histories, and research. It’s kind of like the doctor-patient relationship: before I prescribe this, I’d better do a patient history to see if you’re tolerant to these drugs. Is it a genetic disorder, or a bacterial infection? We require some very high standards before a doctor prescribes medicine.

“I think ecosystem restoration is beginning to impose those kinds of standards on how we manage the environment. You may find that this area was once a taro patch, but because of all the changes, today it’s a reservoir. It may be best to leave it as a reservoir.”

There is so much more at this impressive and well-researched site. Regarding this island, they look in depth at Kawaihae. Links on the Kawaihae page send you to sections labeled arrival, native places, the sea, the land, footprints, visitors, memories, onwards. There are also sections on people, ahupua’a, community, re-planting, sacred sites, pau and language – and much more. It’s fascinating to look around and see all the significant people, cultural information and resources they have drawn together.

Richard points out that, regarding the modern ahupua‘a, they write “some people call it ‘back to the future.’”

He asks: “Isn’t that a lot like ‘moving forward by looking backward?’”

Adopt-a-Class, Community

Adopted Class Excursion!

A beautiful packet of thank you letters just arrived from Keaukaha Elementary School. Its kindergarten students went on their first excursion sponsored by our Adopt-A-Class program — more specifically, sponsored by John and Linda Tolmie, who generously “adopted” the kindergarten students for the first semester of this school year.

“Mr. Ha and Mr. & Mrs. Tolmie,” wrote teacher Wendi Kimura and the kindergarteners in B1. “Words cannot express how thankful I am to have such special people like you in our lives. We would have NEVER been able to take our keiki on a field trip like this. This is a field trip that will not be forgotten. For myself, living in Hilo all my life, I have never pulled a carrot out of the ground or picked my own pumpkin from a patch. It was so heartwarming to see eyes light up with delight. I thank you for providing our keiki with these awesome experiences!”

Kindergarten teacher Sarah Uchida wrote, “Mr & Mrs. Tolmie and Richard Ha, Thank you so much for giving us this opportunity to visit Kahua Ranch. We had so much fun picking carrots, picking our very own pumpkin, and getting dirty. Your generosity is very appreciated.”

They and kindergarten teacher Ruth Jarneski took their students to Kahua Ranch in Kohala. “They learned about farming and were able to pick their own carrots and pumpkins, which was a big thrill,” says Principal Lehua Veincent. “Even as rainy as it was that day, the children learned and had fun.”

We are thrilled to see our Adopt-A-Class program in action!

Articles

The Kohala Center Newsletter

Linda Copman interviewed Richard recently and then wrote Moving Forward by Looking Backward for The Kohala Center’s newsletter.

The Kohala Center is a non-profit organization that “identifies, welcomes, and supports high quality teaching and research programs in the following academic areas: global medicine, ocean sciences, environmental studies, and alternative energy. From the Island point of view, these programs should contribute to the healing of the human community, the human spirit, and the natural environment.”

They do some really interesting work, including sponsoring the Food Summit that Richard spoke at recently.

Have a look at the article about Hamakua Springs Country Farms. It’s really quite a good overview, encompassing:

• the farm’s start
• food security
• rising fuel prices and how that affects farming
• making the switch to alternate energy sources
• Hawai’i Island residents’ nutritional needs and how we can meet them here
• the importance of buying locally produced foods
• legislation to help farmers with farm loans for alternative energy projects, and more.

I got tired just reading about all that Richard is thinking and doing! She did a great job of capturing the big picture.

Contest

Contest Announcement!

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Start thinking about what delicious dishes you make with tomatoes—or creating some new recipes—because our second annual Tomato Recipe Contest is coming up in March.

Last year’s contest was a huge success, and a lot of fun.

We’re still firming up the details for this year’s contest, but we know that our judges from last year enjoyed it thoroughly and all of them are participating again:

• Hawai‘i Community College Chancellor Rockne Freitas
• UH Board of Regents Member Marlene Hapai
• Food Writer Sonia Martinez
• Food Writer Joan Namkoong
• HCC School of Continuing Education Program Director Randy Nunokawa, and
• Hawai‘i Tribune-Herald Food Columnist Audrey Wilson.

 

In addition, Wanda Adams, Food Editor of the Honolulu Advertiser, will be judging this year.

And we are waiting for confirmation that Chef Alan Wong will be able to participate this time.

For now we can tell you that it will be the first week of March, there will be good prizes, and that we’d love to have you participate. Again, students from the Hawai’i Community College Food Service program will prepare the top-ranking dishes for our judges to sample.

Last year’s overall Grand Prize winner was Candace Ames of Hilo. Her Hamakua Style Tomato Pie was beautiful, delicious and a huge favorite of the judges.

Roland Joseph Torres, of the television program Kama‘aina Backroads, taped the contest judging last year and it aired on OC16.

We can’t wait to see what you all have for us this year!

“It’s going to be good fun,” says Richard. “We can’t wait.”

Biofuel, Community, Eating Locally, Farm Stand, Peak Oil, Sustainability

Tour de Farm

I tagged along Saturday morning while Richard gave a really interesting farm tour to some University of Hawai‘i at Hilo students. They listened and asked questions and seemed very engaged.

Asisstant Professor Jon Price brought 12 of his Introduction to Environmental Studies students, and Assistant Professor Kathryn Besio brought a similar number from her Food and Societies course, which is offered through the university’s geography department. In addition, there were a couple students present from the Keaholoa STEM program.

Jon Price told his Environmental Studies students that they have covered agriculture, energy and biodiversity in class, and that during the tour he wanted them to think about how those subjects relate to each other, and come to some conclusions. I think Richard gave them a lot to work with.

He took them around the tomato packing house, the banana operation where Williams bananas were hanging in neat rows and to see the banana fields and some of the greenhouses.

“Everything you’re looking at now,” he told the students, motioning to the farm, “was planned five years ago. You’re not looking at today. You’re looking at yesterday.” He told them that he plans for five years out—or 10, or 20.

Yesterday, he explained—five years ago—oil was $30/barrel. Today it’s almost $100/barrel. He talked about how five years ago he was already thinking about sustainability and getting away from oil dependence.

He talked about how industrial agricultural—the big operations on the mainland—largely rely on oil for their refrigeration, packing, etc., which keeps up the prices of food that is imported to Hawai‘i. “Eventually,” he said, “as oil prices continue getting more expensive, and imported food prices keep increasing, local farmers will be in a better position.”

These days at the farm, he explained, they are working on “tomorrow.” He talked about the hydroelectric plant that’s in the works at Hamakua Springs, which will use the farm’s abundant spring and stream water to generate enough power to run 15 refrigerated containers around the clock.

And about biodiesel. Banana waste, supplemented with oil, can be turned into biodiesel fuel, he said.

He talked about working with the farm’s local community and having family units growing different produce at the farm. The farm will help, in terms of pest control and food safety, and if the produce is up to standards the neighbor farmers can market it at the upcoming Hamakua Springs farm stand.

He talked about the farm stand he’s opening soon, so farmers who work with Hamakua Springs will have an outlet for their products and so people from the community won’t have to drive into town as often.

He talked about the importance of knowing your neighbors, and trading, say, the ‘ulu you grow for whatever it is they have. He talked about how, in a future where gasoline prices are exorbitant, we might change our driving habits and our entertainment habits too, and entertain more at home by cooking big meals for family and friends.

Charlotte Romo, the farm’s hydroponics specialist, spoke a little about her background as a crewmember in the Biosphere, where they produced enough food on 1/3 of an acre to support 7-10 people.

She talked about the hydroponic system at the farm and how intensive it is. For instance, the farm uses 450 acres to produce four million pounds of bananas per year, as opposed to its 2 million pounds of tomatoes, which grow on only 15 acres.

Richard told them that before it was about making money; but now it’s about “How are we going to feed the people? We have 1.5 million people on this island. If we use hydroelectric and grow more food, we may be able to feed more people.”

“This is about common sense,” he said. “Look at the problem, and don’t get stuck on what others say.” He summed it up on an optimistic note: “It sounds grim, but the harder things are, the more opportunities come up.”

Hawai‘i is fortunate, Richard told the students, because we have sun energy all year long. “I recently attended a conference in Houston,” he said, “on peak oil, and when I left I didn’t have the nerve to tell the people there that we have energy from the sun all year long.”

Richard told the students he is confident that we can start educating people and making changes now to cope with an oil crisis that will gradually affect most aspects of our lives. “From what I see,” he said, “I feel the future is bright because of people from your generation.”

History

The Old Days

Richard said something the other day about how people used to live—they knew their neighbors; they often planted ‘ulu trees so they always had delicious breadfruit; they shared their mangos with someone who, in return, shared some of their fish.

He wrote about plumbing a house so the wastewater runs into the vegetable garden, and that made me think about the Kona Coffee Living History Farm. From their website:

D. Uchida Farm – A 5.5 acre historic coffee farm first homesteaded in 1900

The Kona Coffee Living History Farm brings the coffee pioneer’s story to life by depicting the daily lives of early Japanese immigrants during the period of 1920-1945. Visitors are guided through the coffee and macadamia orchards, the many historic structures, and are greeted by costumed interpreters along the way.

It’s fascinating to walk through this family’s restored coffee farm—and especially, for me, its farmhouse, maintained as though it’s the early part of the 1900s, complete with costumed interpreters working in the house.

One thing I noticed when I toured the farmhouse was the “filter” (an old tobacco filter) at the kitchen sink. It let the water flow, but not food bits—and the water flowed out a pipe and right into the garden just outside the kitchen.

How smart is that? Our grandparents, and their grandparents, knew what they were doing. Yet many of us have gotten so far away from that these days.

Macario and I live on the Hamakua Coast land where my family has lived for several generations. It’s still rural here, but as opposed to when my great-grandmother lived here, Hilo-town is now just an easy 15 or 20-minute drive away.

Back in my great-grandmother’s day, even though she lived here in this very same place, town was far away. Once a month she would get dressed up and ride the train to Hilo, where she would get the family’s supplies for the entire month. Her daughters would beg to be allowed to go along, because it was a big exciting day to go to town.

I think about that when I occasionally find myself having to zip into town more than once in a single day, and I feel sheepish and wasteful. Our lifestyles are so different now.

I know a lot about what went on in this house in 1939. That’s when my great-grandmother left here bound for Columbia University in New York, where she earned a master’s degree. While she was gone that year, her 28-year-old daughter (my grandmother), who had a 7-year-old son at the time (my dad), sent her long, interesting letters about what was going on.

My great-grandmother apparently brought those letters back home with her, because I found them tucked away in this house one winter day 50-some years later, when my then-elderly grandmother—formerly the 28-year-old—was still around. It was wonderful to read them aloud together in front of the fireplace, a few each night. It took us several days to get through them all, because we’d stop as she remembered what she’d written about so long before and filled in details.

From those 1939 letters about life here at this place I learned that they used to have chickens and that my grandmother sold eggs in town at Kwong See Wo store. That my grandmother made mango chutney when she had a lot of mangoes (but I already knew that). And that my grandfather poked holes in a Crisco can to water the strawberries once when it was particularly dry.

They grew kalo (taro) then. They planted ‘ulu trees, which we still eat from, and ate ‘ulu as well as ho‘i‘o, tomatoes, oranges, tangerines, mangos, bananas and vegetables from their garden.

In one letter my grandmother wrote about friends coming over—they all rolled up their pants and went up the stream to catch ‘opae. Sometimes my grandparents would go stay with family and friends at the beach house for an extended, relaxing time of play. They would fish for their meals.

It was interesting to read how often good friends came by to visit. They’d show up with coolers full of fish and Chinese food and their backseat full of fruit from their trees. It was a long journey out here to the country, so they’d stay for four days or maybe a week. Everybody pitched in to cook, etc., while they were here and it was a party the entire time. Pictures show that they played music and some danced hula. Always in those photos there is good food everywhere and kids are playing together and everyone is smiling.

I think about those letters and that lifestyle. Though I realize that my grandmother was writing about the fun times, and not the day-to-day stuff, it still seems like life was a little bit simpler then, and pretty nice. They planted and grew food, and ate well. They had friends over a lot—dear friends that my grandmother remained close to for her entire life—and lots of times they made their own music. It’s a lifestyle I admire.

We grow some of our food these days, and we too have good friends, though we don’t get together as often as they did. We should.

One year we had family and friends here for Thanksgiving dinner, and later in the evening my brother said it reminded him of one of my grandmother’s parties back when we were kids. “Every room I walk into,” he said, “there are little groups of people talking and laughing.” He even pointed to two little boys who were playing a little rambunctiously and said, “That would have been [our cousin] David and me, getting into trouble.”

I liked that. I also like the occasional reminder that we need to have good food around us, some of it we grew outside, and have our friends over more often, and remember to live our lives well while we’re here.

Eating Locally, Sustainability

Edible Hawaiian Islands

There’s a new magazine out there—Edible Hawaiian Islands. Have you seen it?

Here’s a description:

“Filled with engaging stories, enticing photography and art, our mission is to celebrate family farmers, bakers, fisherman, ranchers, poultry farmers, local chefs and the rest of the community for their dedication to producing the highest quality fresh and seasonal foods. We want to highlight those efforts towards a more sustainable and safe food system in The Hawaiian Islands.“

Sound familiar? The magazine has already featured Hamakua Springs, and writes about many others who practice the same sorts of things we preach.

Check it out. And if you’re interested, subscription information is here.

History

A Peek Backwards and a Peck

There’s an interesting timeline of the history of agriculture in Hawai‘i on the Hawai‘i Department of Agriculture’s website. See it here.

Did you know:

• That the orange is thought to have first arrived in these islands in 1792?

• That coffee and pineapples were brought to Hawai‘i by the Spaniard Don Marin in 1813?

• How much money 15,000 pecks of pineapple brought in, when they were exported from Hawai‘i in 1897?

Do you even know what a “peck” is? As in, “a peck of pickled peppers Peter Piper picked?”

That’s beyond the scope of the History of Agriculture in Hawai‘i page. But here you go.