Category Archives: Community

To Market To Market

February 25, 2008 Richard Ha 1 Comment

The weather was beautiful Saturday morning, slightly breezy, no rain, and it was a nice day at the Kino‘ole Street Farmer’s Market.

Rocky Freitas came by. Since our first annual Hamakua Springs tomato recipe contest last year, when he was a judge, HCC Chancellor Rockne Freitas has been a big fan of heirloom tomatoes. He told me he didn’t eat tomatoes before that. At the Farmer’s Market he’s always first in line and our biggest customer.There was a talk on jatropha this week—its use for biodiesel, and its place as part of the solution to importing oil for transportation. We were told about a company working on cloning a high-yielding jatropha plant that is uniform in stature, so it lends itself to mechanical harvesting. They have plans to grow millions of jatropha plants. The speaker said Kamehameha Schools is planting 2,500 acres of jatropha plants in Ka’u. He said there are 130,000 acres of land on the Big Island suitable for jatropha cultivation.

I asked how much farmers would make, and he said that there are many steps along the way where farmers could be compensated. I offered this simple analysis to help him:

If oil is selling for $100 per barrel and there are 42 gallons in a barrel of oil, then a gallon is worth $2.38. There are approximately 8 pounds in a gallon, and therefore each pound of oil is worth 30 cents. If it takes three pounds of jatropha to make one pound of oil, the maximum a farmer can earn for the jatropha is 10 cents per pound. I told him farmers would not farm jatropha for that price.

He said that jatropha likely would not make enough money just as an oil. He said its usage as a byproduct, for plastics, etc., is key. I told him our market is too small to justify a byproduct production plant. I told him that I admired his entrepreneurial spirit and that I was not against his project, but that I just wondered if farmers would be motivated to grow jatropha for biodiesel. I don’t see it.

Last week, David Ikeda gave a class on simple hydroponic lettuce growing. Once planted, no more care is needed. This absolutely works. I can attest to it.

More people are discovering the Kino‘ole Street Farmers Market. We had record sales this week and last. Since we started there, we have tripled our sales.

We’ve been focusing on heirloom tomatoes for the last several weeks and now lots of people are buying and enjoying them. Maybe they will buy them at KTA now, too. And we have found that people are very comfortable with our living lettuce, but it really is about freshness. When the lettuce is fresh and crisp, people buy it. When it is wilty, they don’t. We now know what our job is.

Adopt-a-Class, Community

Welcome Chant

February 18, 2008 Leslie Lang

We were interested to see that when Keaukaha Elementary School students visited ‘Imiloa recently as a result of our Adopt-a-Class program, they did a traditional Hawaiian chant for permission to enter, and then Hoku‘ao Pellegrino responded with a traditional ‘oli komo, or welcome chant.

Hoku‘ao works at ‘Imiloa as Cultural Landscape Curator, caring for more than 50 types of native plants found on the ‘Imiloa Astronomy Center’s nine acres.

He graduated from the University of Hawai‘i at Hilo’s Ka Haka ‘Ula O Ke‘elikolani Hawaiian Language Progam last year. Besides his passion for kalo (taro) and other native plants, he considers his role to be sharing and increasing understanding of the Hawaiian language, culture, music and values.

Here is a glimpse of the traditional greeting and welcome between students and Hoku‘ao, who of course represented ‘Imiloa.

Big Island, Community, Water, Where We Live

Hilo Flood 2008, postscript

February 8, 2008 Richard Ha

Altogether, the farm had 31 inches of rain over the weekend.

Granted, it was a long weekend (from Friday to Tuesday morning). But still, 31 inches of rain is an awful lot.

It was 873,000 gallons per acre, or 499 million gallons of water falling on the entire farm. A half billion gallons of water. Amazing.

So here in Hamakua, we’ve had to rethink some things. Like our choice of pets:

And, also, our fashion choices:

Hilohighheels

Big Island, Community, Water, Where We Live

Hilo Flood 2008

February 4, 2008 Richard Ha 10 Comments

Kapono and I had the truck loaded with lettuce, bananas, Japanese cucumbers, green onions and five types of tomatoes, and we were just about to leave for the Kino‘ole Street Farmers Market Saturday morning, when we heard a Civil Defense weather alert announcing that severe flooding was imminent.

We looked at the weather satellite image of the Big Island and it was bad.

Here’s how it looked at 9:35 a.m. Hawai’i time Saturday morning. The blue shows the remnants of the moisture-laden air that came up from the south and dropped on land as it was pushed inland by the northeast tradewinds.

Outside, there was pounding rain with thunder and lightning. Lightning always makes me concerned for my employees’ safety. I had to make a decision: Should we go to the Farmers Market, where customers might be waiting for us, or go to the farm to see how our workers were doing? No choice—we drove to the farm.

Along the way we saw streams that are normally dry but were running at very high levels because of the storm. Roads were closed, warning lights were flashing and water was flooding across the main roads. Police and public works personnel were out in yellow rain gear directing traffic.

(All photos by Kapono Pa, except #6 and #12 were taken by Richard.)

When we came to the Bayfront Highway, we could see a few vehicles standing in water halfway up their windows.

The soccer fields and Pau‘ahi Street, which runs down from the County Building, were entirely flooded and blocked off.

We drove across the singing bridge and looked upstream. The Wailuku River was an angry beast. It looked like serpents were writhing downstream, their smoke shooting in the air.

At the farm, everybody and everything was okay. The Soil Conservation plan we follow, which retains all the former sugar company’s diversion berms, diverted the storm water just as planned. The sugar industry was on that land for 100 years before us, and they knew a thing or two about coping with heavy rains.

In 24 hours, 11 inches of rain fell at the farm, or 297,000 gallons per acre. This means 177,309,000 gallons fell on our 597-acre farm in 24 hours. I tried to explain to the County Council that the drainage is good in our area and we do not need special rules on flooding.

After checking everything—such as noting where the water was high and where we need to shore up the berms—we drove back to Hilo along the winding, scenic route.

The river beneath the six-ton bridge was raging. It was clear to me that if the bridge gave way and we fell into the water, there would be zero chance of survival. For a moment it entered my mind to turn back. But, I thought, this road has been here for more than 100 years and it was once the main route to Kona. We
drove across it, but it was unnerving.

Waterfalls down a hillside on the scenic route

We took the cutoff to Wainaku so we could drive across the second concrete bridge and look at the Wailuku River up close. Kapono took a picture of a couple of kids at the park in Pu‘ueo, doing what comes naturally in a big, flooded yard—running as fast as they could and seeing how far they could slide.

We parked and walked on the bridge. One had to speak up to be heard over the river. It was kind of scary.

Then we walked up to the third bridge; the one alongside the river and behind the Federal Building. There were lots of people out doing the same thing. There was mist in the air from the churning water careening over waterfalls and bouncing off the river walls. The next bridge upstream looked vulnerable, and I wondered if there was even a remote chance that the concrete supports under us could be undermined by the tremendous force of the water. It was a humbling experience.

We humans think we are in control. But witnessing the force of nature makes us realize that we are just passing through, and that we need to keep in mind that we aren’t in charge here.

At the very best, we are caretakers. We need to pay attention to what we’re doing.

Community

Looking Forward

February 1, 2008 Richard Ha

I just got a call about planning for the next “Chef Du Jour,” which is a fundraiser for Easter Seals. Boy, time flies.

It’s a food event that Chef Alan Wong and his friends have supported for many years.

The celebrity chefs of Hawai‘i

My grandson Kapono, talking story last year with Lt. Governor and Mrs. Aiona and State Department of Agriculture Director Sandy Kunimoto

Dan said, “I’m touching bases with last year’s participants; what do you think?”

Butterscotch, strawberry and chocolate ice cream with blueberries and Hamakua Springs apple bananas. Yum!

I told Dan that we would like to participate again and that the farmer/chef connection was great.

June with Oprah’s personal chef, Art Smith

I even enjoyed the plane rides back and forth to Chef du Jour last year, and took these pictures.

Mauna Loa (left) and Mauna Kea (right)

Hamakua Springs from the air

Flying into Hilo airport from the south

I’m looking forward to doing it all again this year.

Adopt-a-Class, Community

‘Ohana Night

January 25, 2008 Richard Ha

June and I were so honored to be invited to ‘Imiloa for an ‘Ohana Night get-together held Wednesday night for the families of teachers and staff of Keaukaha Elementary School. The folks from the Gemini Observatory put on a program for the small kids.

The whole night came about because of the Adopt-a-Class project and the energy generated by this worthy project. First Peter Giles, director of ‘Imiloa, gave a brief introduction. He talked about the Hawaiian culture’s connection with the heavens.

Back in May or so, I told Peter about our new Adopt-a-Class project and that we wanted to tie it into ‘Imiloa’s Hawaiian culture-oriented approach to science. I asked Peter if he would talk story with Kumu Lehua Veincent, principal of Keaukaha Elementary.

Peter did not expect Lehua to come see him, as some people in his position might have. Instead, he went to see Lehua. It was an acknowledgement that there is nothing more important than teaching the keiki. And at their meeting, Peter seemed to instantly understand that this is a special place—a special school.

I could tell that the experience affected him profoundly. Now he is learning Hawaiian language from Kumu Lehua. Peter is one of those people who “get it.” I have a lot of respect for him.

At ‘Ohana Night, we went into the planetarium so the children could get a sense of how many different cultures looked at the sky and gave names to the star combinations. They got a feel for the moon’s relationship to Earth.

When we returned to the “classroom” we were asked to demonstrate how far away the moon is from the earth, and other puzzling questions.

June and I were pleased to see the “ripple effect” of our Adopt-a-Class program, as these young kids from Keaukaha have experiences and exposure that will only help to open up their universe.

More than anything, we came away feeling how privileged we are to help teachers accomplish their goals by bringing together people who believe, like us, that there is no more noble profession than to teach our children.

Some photos from the ‘Imiloa ‘Ohana Night:

“Okay, your job is to make 50 balls of equal size from this 1 lb. ball of Play-Doh. If you make one ball represent the moon, and then roll up the 49 other balls into one big one, you will see the relative size of the moon to the Earth.”

That’s Kumu Lehua. He says, “Why can’t learning be fun?”

“Okay, we have to do this right! They said the ratio is 49 to 1, not 49 to 1.2!”

“Okay, so what you think?”

Aunty Luana says: “Take the string and make it 30 times the diameter of the Earth, and when you stretch it out, that will be the distance from the Earth to the moon.”

“Again, students: Thirty times the thickness of the Earth is the distance from the moon to the earth. Got that?” They might have gotten that for the rest of their lives.

Community

Go FISH! 2

January 14, 2008 Leslie Lang

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.’”

Community, History

Talking Story

January 7, 2008 Richard Ha

I got to chat with Robert “Steamy” Chow at the Farmers Market Saturday morning. When I was a kid, people called him “Steam Pork.” But since then it’s evolved to “Steamy.” He was an old friend of my father’s and although I had never met him before, Pop talked about him so often I feel like I know him.

Steamy was a master caliber pistol shooter, as was Pop. Pop was into pistol competitions. He built his own pistol range, made his own koa gun box that he took to competitions, and carved custom koa handgrips for his pistols when the store-bought custom grip did not work just right.

I can remember that Pop would “dry run practice” for hours at home. He put a piece of black tape on the living room wall and practiced focusing. Since a person cannot focus both near and far at the same time, he had a routine. He would focus on, and level, the front and rear sights, making sure the distances through the rear sights were equal from side to side.

Then he kept that relationship steady and refocused downrange, to balance the black bullseye on top of the front and rear sights, which were out of focus but already set.

To become as proficient as humanly possible he exercised to strengthen his shooting arm. The stronger the better. For hours he practiced holding his breath—thinking his heart rate down so that his arm would stay steady.

Pop was amazing. He was not satisfied merely to hit the bullseye. He was more interested in how many times he hit the “x,” which is the mark in the middle of the bullseye.

When live firing and “in the zone,” he could call the shots. He would say, “2 o’clock X.” This meant he thought his round had hit the bullseye on the right upper side of the “X.” More often than not, Pop was right.

He told us: “Like everything else, it’s a mental game.” This was his shorthand for figuring out where you need to be, breaking the problem down into its essential elements and then doing or inventing what you need to get there.

At the market Saturday morning, Steamy said he has followed our farming progress in the newspapers for many years. He told me, “You’re just like your dad.” This reinforced in me the belief that influencing a child early in life can have a positive impact. And because I had such respect for my Pop, it also made me feel good.

Pop always said, “Not, no can. CAN!” I learned this lesson well and I still absolutely believe it. I want to give kids the opportunity to feel like anything is possible.

It’s great to go to the Kino‘ole Farmers Market on Saturday mornings. Talking story with people makes it so interesting and gratifying.

Community, Eating Locally

Santa and the Bananas

December 28, 2007 Richard Ha

Santa was at the Kino‘ole Street Farmers Market the other day handing out candy cane and our apple bananas. Rusty Perry asked if we could donate apple bananas for Santa to hand out to little kids, and we were more than happy to give him all the bananas we brought that day.

When a woman came to our booth looking for apple bananas, I told her we didn’t have any, but that I knew where she could get some. I took her over to Santa and she got a few.

There was something going on at the Farmers Market the whole time. In addition to Santa, there was a cooking demonstration going on. I was surprised to see so many people sitting on benches in the audience. It was good to see. And every 30 minutes or so there was a “lucky number” drawing.

The market, which is on Saturdays from 7 a.m. to noon, is sponsored by the Farm Bureau, which wants the actual farmer to be at the booth. Everyone brings good quality, really fresh products and my grandson Kapono and I are happy to be included. This is the third time we have participated and we really look forward to it.

Community, Schools

Go FISH!

December 24, 2007 Richard Ha

The other day, when Richard found himself sitting on a yellow school bus surrounded by a bunch of fifth graders dressed in red shirts and Santa hats, he says he looked around and thought, “What am I doing here?”

Sounds like it took him only moments, though, to answer that question.

What was he doing there? Karyl Ah Hee’s Kaumana Elementary School class had invited him along on its annual excursion around Hilo to show appreciation to people who serve this community.

“The first thing that impressed me,” says Richard, “was that the principal came up before we left the school and talked to the children. He said, ‘Now you’re going to represent our school…’ He reinforced the teachers. It was a big deal.”

The kids took down posters they’d made and hung them in the windows of the bus.

First the bus took them to Hospice, where the kids gave out candies and told the people there how much they appreciate what they do.

The reactions, he says, were amazing. “I’m pretty sure that having done this is going to have a real impact on the kids’ lives,” he says, “because the feedback everywhere we went was incredibly positive. People were really touched by the kids and what they do.”

Then to the fire station. “They brought everybody out and maybe three kids gave a presentation,” he says. “It was a talk about their FISH philosophy, making people smile, making people’s day. That sort of thing.”

The FISH philosophy, according to the handout the kids gave (with candies) as they went around Hilo, began at Pike’s Place Fish Market in Seattle.

It is used as a business philosophy, but we have adopted it into our classroom. We have NO class rules…we swim with the FISH. Philosophy for life!

The FISH PHILOSOPHY contains four components:

Choose Your Attitude. You decide your attitude. No one can select it for you; choose a grand one. Even if your day is not going as planned, make the best of it! Be proud of your choice!

Be Present. Really focus on what you are doing or the conversation you are having. Don’t let others interrupt, don’t work on the computer or answer the phone when you are talking with someone. Be in the moment!

Play. This means to do whatever you need to do with a positive attitude. Even it it’s something you don’t enjoy as much. If you have to do it, make the best of it! Give it your ALL!

Make Someone’s Day. This is the most important and easiest component. It means to make someone feel great! Look for situations where you can help: a simple smile, holding a door open, a wave, or a “hi” or “good morning” can do the trick! Help someone in need. The feeling inside is wonderful!

The small information sheet ends with this:

We CHALLENGE you, Hilo! After learning about the FISH philosophy…Go and out Make Somebody’s Day. “We’re striving for a better Hilo, One heart at a time!”

If YOU made somebody’s day, we’d love to hear about it.

Our address: Kaumana Elementary School
Attn: Mrs. Karyl Ah Hee
1710 Kaumana Drive
Hilo HI 96720

Richard was impressed that when they got to the police station, there was the police chief, the assistant chief, and all the police officers sitting in a classroom. “They made a special point of bringing in all the detectives, who were in street clothes,” he says. “It was impressive that they really acknowledged how important it was by bringing everybody in. Everybody was there. The same at the fire station.”

“At the police station, there was this helicopter pilot with Operation Green Harvest, who has 40 years in the National Guard. He said he landed at Kaumana School one day in conjunction with the detectives, and the kids there showed him so much respect he remembered it. He said he’d never seen it before. He asked if he could speak to the kids, and he gave a heartfelt talk with tears in his eyes. I thought, ‘Whoa. There’s really something special going on at Kaumana Elementary.’”

Richard says he is impressed, too, with teacher Karyl Ah Hee.

“She’s a very dynamic person,” he says. “What it all really gets down to is that there are teachers like that, all over, but people largely don’t know. It’s good to see them, because you kind of know it intuitively. When you’re a kid you run across teachers like that, who have such a strong impact, but to actually see it as an adult is great.”

He also talked about how reassuring it is that this sort of thing goes on. “And not only in one school. We know it goes on at Keaukaha School, and at other schools. It is so apparent that when people say that there is something wrong with our educational system, it is not the teachers that are the problem. I’ve seen too many dedicated teachers who, like Karyl Ah Hee, work over and above what can reasonably be expected. They’re doing way above and beyond what they get paid for.”

He gave a little talk to the kids before he left. “I told them thanks for inviting me, because it was really that I was lucky to go, rather than that they were lucky to have me. I told them I was really proud of them. And that we had some apple bananas waiting for them when they got back. They liked that.”

“I’m so glad that I went along,” he says. “Our dedicated teachers are making good citizens of our young children, and I wish everyone could have seen what I saw.”