Category Archives: Eating Locally

Company News, Eating Locally, Tomatoes

Something New

The other day at the market I spotted something new and it really caught my attention. It was one of those plastic “clamshell” containers from Hamakua Springs and the label said “Vine Ripened Hamakua Gourmet Tomatoes.”

First, let me tell you that when it comes to Hamakua Springs produce, I qualify as a Frequent Eater. Long before I knew or worked with Richard, I discovered Hamakua Springs produce in the supermarket and it’s what I always bought. And since I’ve been working with Hamakua Springs, I’ve been lucky to have enjoyed more great produce—even some that is still in the experimental stages and not yet available in the markets, which is really fun to me.

And I’ve enjoyed a lot of the company’s delicious heirloom tomatoes, which Hamakua Springs has been producing for and selling to restaurants throughout the state. Really enjoyed them.

These clamshells I saw at the market have different combinations of heirloom tomatoes. I bought one with two small, deep red heirlooms and a large, broad, deep orange and yellow one that smells like sunshine and summer and green vines and a grandma’s garden. Inside it’s streaked with red, and its name is “Striped German.” They are Real Tomatoes, unlike the tasteless tomatoes you can buy in the stores—these are exceptionally delicious tomatoes—and that delights me.

The big one is sitting here in front of me as I write, and I’m planning how we’ll enjoy it. Maybe I’ll do what Richard likes to do with his beefsteak tomatoes: Refrigerate it for awhile, and then cut firm, sweet, delicious slices and eat them with a little Hawaiian salt.

We ate the two small red heirlooms with their deep red/purple flesh a couple days ago when we had people over for dinner. I cut them up and put them in a green salad. And even admidst all the pieces of carrot, cucumber, red bell pepper and sugar snap peas, the tomatos stood out. Biting into one meant getting a little burst of incredible flavor. Summer. Memories. (Did you all grow up eating tomatoes out of the garden?)

The big, fat and sometimes funny-looking heirlooms are great for cooking with, Richard has told me. Sometimes I chop them up and cook them in olive oil with some garlic and onion, and a little Hawaiian salt and lemon pepper, and then put that over pasta. That plus a tasty, quick salad and maybe a chunk of good bread makes an easy, delicious dinner, and I love when we eat like that. Healthy, light, good eating with natural ingredients, most of which come from ’round these parts.

I’m going to go put this burst of flavor in the refrigerator now, and all day I’ll anticipate having cold, delicious slices of sweet, ripe tomato with our dinner tonight.

Books, Eating Locally

Animal, Vegetable, Miracle

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I read this New York Times review of the new Barbara Kingsolver book Animal, Vegetable, Miracle and knew it would be interesting. From the review’s first paragraph:

“A few years ago, the novelist Barbara Kingsolver packed her husband and two daughters into a car and left their home in Tucson for good, resettling on a farm in southern Appalachia. Their intention was to spend a year of their new rural life eating only what they could grow themselves or buy from local suppliers. The plan was no whim. Kingsolver and her husband, Steven L. Hopp, a biologist who teaches environmental studies, had been raising fruit and vegetables at Hopp’s farm every summer since they met.”

Great author, really interesting topic — and it’s the sort of thing that’s really on my radar since I’ve gotten to know Richard Ha and Hamakua Springs. It reminds me of our recent interview with Andrea Dean, who did something similar here on the Big Island. I got the book and just started reading. Will report back on how it is!

Community, Company News, Eating Locally, Farm Stand

Farm Stand!

There is something interesting going on behind the scenes at Hamakua Springs and I talked Richard into letting me tell you about it.

They are fixing up a small building that has long sat empty on the road at the edge of the farm, and the plan is to open a farm stand there, probably around late August.

It will most likely be open on Saturday mornings, though everything is still in preliminary stages right now. Richard says the number one goal is to serve the farm’s neighbors in Pepe‘ekeo (though you are welcome, too).

On Fridays, you’ll be able to come here to the blog and see what produce will be available the following morning.

“It will depend on the season,” Richard told me. “I can tell you for sure that we’re going to try to do watermelons and melons during the off-season. Smaller, personal-size specialty melons, like the French Chrentais. That’s an orange-fleshed melon with a real sweet aroma you can smell through the skin.

“And pumpkins at Halloween, and I don’t know what else yet. This is all kind of new to us, so we are doing a lot of experimenting.”

He says they don’t intend the farm stand to compete with the supermarkets. In addition to selling “seconds” of bananas, tomatoes and other produce, they will test-market different, interesting produce there.

You’ll get to see (and buy) some of the fancy vegetables Hamakua Springs grows for and sells to chefs, but which aren’t available in the stores. Like really tiny baby lettuces, different-colored carrots and radishes and small eggplants and squashes that are great for throwing on the grill. Richard says they are tastier than some of what’s available at the market, and I can attest to that.

There will also be gift baskets of various combinations of produce.

“We’ll do what we do,” he says, “and develop it along the way. Who knows where it will go. It’s kind of exciting. I know that we’ll be very responsive to the people and what they want to see.”

Richard is very open to ideas as they think through the scope of the farm stand. “I’d like to hear what people think might be unique or interesting—something they’d like to see in a farm stand that’s not being done now, or a kind of product that’s not being produced now,” he says. “We’re just open to all kinds of suggestions.”

If you have ideas, you can comment here or contact Richard directly at “mkeabanana@aol.com.”

You’ll have to stop by the farm stand if only to have a look at the building, too, because it has an interesting history. It sits near the old airstrip, and Richard says they assumed it had been used to support the airplane operation, which the sugar plantations used to fertilize the sugarcane.

But he has since learned the building predated the airstrip, and thinking back, he remembered there were leather harnesses in the building when they bought the farm. It turns out the building was there to support mules, back when the plantations used to plow with mules.

We’ll update you here as plans develop. And if you have ideas and want to help shape the farm stand, let us know.

We’re almost halfway to our goal of sending Keaukaha Elementary students on field trips they otherwise won’t get to take. Click here.

– posted by Leslie Lang

Eating Locally

Eating Locally

I talked to Andrea Dean the other day. Did you see her article in the Hawai‘i Island Journal about eating only food produced on the Big Island? She did that for three months last year, and an even more extensive version of that interesting and well-researched article appears on her website.

She told me she’s always had a vision of living sustainably. “That was my whole plan when I moved to Hawai‘i in 1989,” she said. “However, I’ve never been able to manifest my vision and grow a lot of my own food; live softly on the earth. Other things got in the way, like the reality of life.

“Now I feel like I don’t want to live out of harmony with my values anymore. So regardless of how busy I am, or how modern my life is, I am wanting to realign my day-to-day existence with my ideals.”

Married and with a 14-year-old son, Andrea lives in Hawi where she truly “walks the walk.” An event planner and project manager, she works with the Kona Earth Festival (a 3-week eco-event festival starting April 21), The Waimea Community Development Plan, the Maui Film Festival, the Hawai‘i Island Economic Development Board and other groups.

Her “eating locally” experiment was impressive, and extensive. She wanted to see if it could be done, she explained in her article. She’d been preaching food self-sufficiency for Hawai‘i, but suddenly realized she didn’t know if it was even possible for one person (let alone everybody) to survive only on foods grown on the island.

No bread, because the wheat was imported. No tofu, because the soybeans came from elsewhere. Guava jam was out, because it was made with sugar from somewhere else.

Her conclusions?

• She realized that you don’t have to shop at Farmers Markets here to eat locally. You can get a high percentage of your diet in locally produced foods even when shopping at the supermarket.

“You really don’t have to go out of your way,” she said. “Though it’s great to go out of your way and connect with your farmers. You get a higher variety, fresher foods when you go directly to the farmers market.

“The two stores I did a lot of shopping at were KTA and Foodland,” she said. “They have a lot of local products. Obviously KTA has made that commitment for a long time, and Foodland really has a lot as well.”

She said she did have to ask a lot of questions at times. “I would grab whoever was working there,” she said, “and ask, ‘Where’s this taro from?’ ‘Where are these sweet potatoes from?’ ‘Okay, those are from Molokai.’ If they’re not labeled, you can ask. I think the food stores could do a little better job of labeling right there where the prices are.”

It’s all about paying attention and making an effort, she said. “You can go into Foodland in Waimea and buy locally grown broccoli and celery and tomatoes and bananas. Or you could walk further down the aisle and pick up produce from somewhere else.

“It’s about beginning to have that awareness,” she said. “Looking at signs and being aware of what’s local.”

• Maintaining a high percentage of your diet in locally grown foods requires time and energy. “You have to put in the time,” she said. “When you’re buying taro and sweet potato and squash, there’s washing, cutting, cooking. Fruit salads, soups—it just takes time. You have to gear up.” It’s hard to do when living a modern life, she agreed, which doesn’t always support that type of time commitment, but she figured out how to do it and even enjoyed it.

• Eating locally can mean different things. “It can be about your health,” she said, “or supporting the local economy. But for me it’s also about self-sufficiency and being able to feed ourselves. It’s the most basic of all needs.”

Andrea’s article is full of interesting facts she gathered in some extensive research on Hawai‘i’s dependence on imported food. One point that struck me is a quote she attributes to Peter Vitousek, Professor of Biological Sciences at Stanford University:

“Studies of Hawaiian agriculture in the time before European contact show us that Hawaiians maintained highly productive agriculture and supported large populations in places and ways we couldn’t now, not without fertilizer and fossil fuel subsidies. We should learn how they did that, pretty much on their own in the middle of the Pacific.”

I encourage you to check out her article. She wrote at length about the island’s carrying capacity, self-sufficiency for health reasons, waste reduction, food security, the island’s local economy and much more. Plus it’s interesting to read about what was involved in her changing her diet so dramatically, what she ate and how she liked it.

It’s a great reminder that we live on an island. When it comes to food and self-sufficiency, the world shouldn’t be our oyster—our island should be our oyster.

It’s easy enough to pay a little more attention in the store and buy locally grown foods, when possible, vs. those shipped in from California, Mexico or elsewhere. Making those choices supports our locally farmers, our neighbors, and keeps money flowing through our local economy instead of someone else’s. Keeping local farmers in business also keeps our Big Island land agricultural, rather than developed. And it means fresher, tastier food. It’s all good. —posted by Leslie Lang

Eating Locally, Hydroponics

Eating Better Than Organic

Richard Ha writes:

Time magazine recently ran an interesting article titled Eating Better Than Organic, which made me reflect about our long-time farming philosophies at Hamakua Springs.

The article talks about eating organic food that is produced elsewhere and transported long distances vs. buying food that is grown—and purchased—locally.

“Nearly a quarter of American shoppers now buy organic products once a week, up from 17% in 2000,” writes John Cloud. “But for food purists, ‘local’ is the new ‘organic,’ the new ideal that promises healthier bodies and a healthier planet.”

Cloud goes on to quote ethnobotanist Gary Paul Nabhan in his 2002 memoir Coming Home to Eat: The Pleasures and Politics of Local Foods: “If you send it halfway around the world before it is eaten,” he muses, “an organic food still may be ‘good’ for the consumer, but is it ‘good’ for the food system?”

Here at the farm we have thought about these issues for a long time. Even when organic was at the top of everybody’s consciousness, we always believed that “local” was most important and what we wanted to concentrate on.

In her 2001 memoir This Organic Life, Columbia University nutritionist Joan Dye Gussow writes that her commitment to eating locally is driven by three things. “The first is the taste of live food; the second is my relation to frugality; the third is my deep concern about the state of the planet.”

Long ago we came to three similar conclusions. First, regarding taste. We select the varieties we grow for taste above all else, and then we find the methods and systems that allow us to grow them successfully. In an effort to produce the freshest lettuce possible, we even sell Living Lettuce.

Second, frugality. We live in an area where production costs are high, so we look for ways to add value to our products. As only one example, our produce is third party Food Safety Certified by Davis Fresh Technologies.

Thirdly, whereas Gussow has a deep concern about the state of the planet, our similar concern is—because we live in the middle of the Pacific—about our island community.

But philosophies are one thing and measurable results are another. We believe in measuring.

Our cocktail tomatoes were ranked “Best Tasting” by Honolulu magazine in their 2005 “Best Of” issue.

Lynne Rosetto Kasper, who hosts the NPR program The Splendid Table, recently conducted a side-by-side tomato tasting in Honolulu. She invited 100 master chefs and culinary students to rate tomatoes from various farms, and our cocktail tomato was voted Best Tasting.

Recently we have started measuring the nutritional contents of the edible portions of our products, and we are working to improve them. We are taking baseline data, making adjustments and keeping track of results. This is not commonly done, but we think it makes perfect sense as long as the extra effort does not jeopardize our business.

Although we agree with most organic philosophies, after careful consideration we decided not to grow our vegetables organically. Before we started our hydroponic lettuce production three years ago, we knew that E. coli contamination was a huge and growing issue. We felt that composting, as done with organic methods of production, was riskier and less controllable than hydroponic methods of production.

We decided to use hydroponics in our lettuce growing operations, rather than organics, because we can disinfect our nutrient solution and keep it clean for the duration of the crop. We feel this is more dependable than field production, where rainwater could splash soil and contanimants onto the edible portion of leafy greens. Also, as we’ve seen in the news recently, growing in fields near cattle operations is a risk factor for E. coli. Our nutrient raceways are isolated, and the edible portions of our leafy greens never come in contact with soil or compost.

Finally, we strongly believe in locally grown products because Hawai‘i needs to be self-reliant in its food supply.

At a recent Senate hearing where Hawai‘i’s dependence on imported food was discussed, I testified in favor of growing food on all islands in all climate zones. Concentrating food production in one location can be risky, as we found out when Banana Bunchy Top virus devastated our Kea‘au banana farm (fortunately we had the Pepe‘ekeo farm, too).

Hawai‘i, it was noted, imports the majority of its food and is just seven days away from empty shelves should there be a shipping interruption. Andrew Hashimoto, Dean of the University of Hawai‘i College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources, testified that, “We are the canary in the coal mine for the rest of the nation.”

The Time magazine article quotes local-eating pioneer Gussow defining “local” as: “within a day’s leisurely drive of our homes. [This] distance is entirely arbitrary. But then,” she says, “so was the decision made by others long ago that we ought to have produce from all around the world.”