HELCO’s annual signature event at the Prince Kuhio Plaza. There was entertainment, games and education for the whole family.

A demonstration on how a solar water heater works.

This display shows that compact fluorescent bulbs save energy and money.

“Spin the wheel and win a prize.”

Kids and balloons always go together.

Sue AKimSeu, HELCO’s Education Special Projects Director, being interviewed on camera.

Elements of a temporary pole.

Electrical safety.

Fishing for magnetic fish.

Everybody from HELCO was there, even HELCO president Jay Ignacio.

Governor Lingle calls Art Kimura, below, the godfather of robotics.

The Blue and Red Teams. The robotics team that collects more of their colored cubes wins.

HELCO donated the playing field. Kids that participate in Robotics are eight times more likely to go into engineering than non-participants.

This was a great fun event for the whole family. Fun, education and lots of small giveaways. You can tell HELCO’s workers are proud of their company.

James Takamine and some of his staff at American Savings Bank met with Art Kimura today about possibly sponsoring an exhibit on robotics at the E Malama ‘Aina festival, which is a festival that emphasizes sustainability.

It was an amazing experience listening to Art tell us how robotics help students learn how to cooperate and innovate, and that they become so involved they don’t even realize they are learning engineering concepts. Robotic students are more than eight times more likely to end up in the engineering field than students without a background in robotics.

He talked about how the program depends on dedicated teachers that are willing to accept the challenge. They help the program get off the ground and then invariably fall behind the students as time goes on.

The students enter an international competition with students from China, Japan and other countries. Sometimes the Hawai‘i high school students compete against graduate school students in those countries and hold their own. One group from Waiakea High School won first place in the international competition. Very impressive.

Art told us they are now doing competitions where the students help older people compete. We all know how kids can run circles around us when it comes to electronic gadgets, and Art says it’s the same way with robotics. He says the adults just love being a part of this project where the students are learning and don’t even know it.

How is robotics related to the subject of sustainability? We know that robots are used to assemble and paint cars. Could they be used to help our local agricultural industry?

I’ll bet if we think hard enough about this we may be able to find ways in which robots can help us do our work. I wonder if the students could help us design a banana harvesting machine?

As time passes, the Kino‘ole Farmers Market keeps getting busier. People tell us they like the convenient parking and also that the actual farmers are there at the market.

In addition, there are always talks at 10 a.m., which are about a wide range of subjects;  from Korean natural farming to Ji Gong, jatropha biofuel farming and making sushi.

The place is starting to achieve critical mass. It’s had more than twice the customers it had in early January.

Jenny Perry is a good friend of ours. We’ve known Rusty and Jenny for 25 years or more. They have lettuce, papayas and various orchids at their booth, including nice scented ones.

This next photo is looking from the old Food Fair Market, which is now County offices, toward Kino‘ole Street. There are more vendors and different things every week — from baby catfish to andagi, ‘ohi‘a plants, orchids and poi; from tomatoes, lettuce and cucumbers to melons, summer squash and tropical fruit. One day there were baby goats.

Cyrus Wagastuma has araimo, summer squash, melon, bananas, green onions and many other items:

Desert Rose flowers and orchids on one side, authentic Korean kim chee on the other:

There are all kinds of tropical fruit. You can see this farm from the air when you fly into Hilo. It’s located just above Amau‘ulu Camp.

Aaron and Vionel Sugino and their Blue Kalo line of products. They have sweet potato and taro chips, poi, cookies, banana bread and lots more.

They operate out of the old Fuji Bakery at Wailea. They now have a storefront on the old road that goes down into Kolokole Gulch and up to the highway.

Hilo Andagi. Delicious.

This is a booth that features all kinds of flowers from Green Point Nursery. Makes everyone feel happy.

This booth features a variety of things: Sunrise papayas, flowers, tomatoes, egg plant, ginger, avocado and other items.

This next photo is the Hamakua Springs booth. Kimo’s mom and dad run the booth. On this side, Manoa, green leaf, romaine and swiss chard.

We also have heirloom tomatoes, cocktail and beef tomatoes, cucumbers, sweet potatoes and green onions.

This boy knows what he likes — grape tomatoes.

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.

My friend Duane Kanuha invited Roberta Chu, President of the Kohala Center, Matt Hamabata, its Executive Director, and myself to take an air and ground tour of Surety Corporation lands in Kohala.

I, too, am on the board of the Kohala Center, and we may be working closely with Surety Corporation on stewardship issues.

(left to right: Bill Shontell, Sophia Schweitzer, Roberta Chu and Matt Hamabata.)

The north boundary of the property — the Mahukona pier, where Duane folks are doing a residential development:

Looking down the coast from the southern boundary toward Pololu Valley at the end of the road:

Kohala Ditch is a 22.5 mile irrigation system built by 600 laborers, almost all Japanese, in 1905 and 1906. It has been an important irrigation system for farmers ever since.

The dam that starts the Kohala Ditch is further up this valley:

We were instructed to get out and walk in front of the chopper since there was not enough room to walk around the tail on this postage stamp-sized landing zone:

The origin of the Kohala Ditch. The chopper had to stand back. The pilot did not want to cause any rocks to fall off the cliffs:

We flew in through this gap, and we had to fly back out through it:

Getting ready to do the ground tour:

Duane folks want to fence off and restore this area to its original state. He reminded me that many years ago we did a mountain bike ride through the property. I rode most of the way with my friend John Cross:

This house was built in the 1920’s and is still very functional. The only thing missing was the Bull Durham bag that used to filter water from the faucet.

Now a house costs so much our kids cannot afford to build one.

My tutu lady’s house down Maku’u looked like this, with lauhala mats on the floor: