Richard and June’s daughter Tracy Pa, now 36, told me she grew up on the family farm.

“When we had our banana farm in Kapoho, when I was 11 or 12, we would go to work on the farm in the summer,” she says. “We used to pack bananas, or pluck the flowers off of each banana. It was fun.”

When she was 13 the family started its farm in Kea‘au, where they planted each banana tree by hand. “On the weekends the whole family would carry five-gallon buckets and fertilize each plant by hand,” she says. “We used to ride dirt bikes then, and Dad made us a track around Kea‘au Farm. That was a lot of fun.”

In her senior year of high school she started working in the farm’s office, and she has worked at the farm ever since. Besides working in the office, she has packed bananas, loaded containers with a forklift and worked in the tissue culture lab.

“We’re all-around people,” she says. “We do what we have to do. Wherever we are needed, that’s where we go.”

These days, she works in the office doing promotions and marketing, making displays and doing some of the accounting. She is in charge of the farm’s extensive food safety program. She gives visitors tours of the farm. Just Wednesday she gave a tour to Chef Alan Wong and his staff from the Hualalai Grille on the Kohala coast.

“Alan likes his staff to know where things come from,” she says, “so it was an educational thing for them. The focus was on the quality we produce in our product, and our food safety certification.”

She likes taking elementary school students around the farm. “They get all excited when they get here. The boys, in general, when they see the four-wheelers, they say, ‘I want to work at the banana farm.’ It’s a lot of fun. Being that young, some of them don’t realize where bananas come from. They are so amazed to see the bunches hanging from the line.”

[Editor’s note: How can children growing up in Hilo not know where bananas come from? There are bananas growing from practically every tree! Parents of young children, turn off that television!]

What’s it like to work with your parents? “It’s good,” she said. “We understand. We know what has to be done, and we will work together to get there.”

Richard says Tracy is versatile, and can do many things at the same time. “She is very aggressive and energetic, and everything she does she does well,” he says. “I rely on her a lot.”

He says she’s been very determined, and very sure of what she wants, since she was a teenager.

“In 1993,” he says, “we were scheduled to be presented the ECO-O.K. award at the Ritz Carlton Hotel, by Kate Heaton, an executive of the Rainforest Alliance from New York City. It was the biggest thing that had happened to our farm to date, so June and I wanted to make sure our farm displays were done just so. And we were going to do it ourselves.

“But it was apparent to us that Tracy had everything planned out in her mind and was determined to get it done her way. So we decided to let her do it and we went to find a cup of coffee. It turned out just perfect. That day she earned the title of “Person-in-Charge of Special Projects.”

I asked Tracy if she thinks her son Kapono, 17 years old, or daughter Kimberly, 14, will be generation number four of the family to work at the farm.

“It would be nice. I’m not sure. Kapono is still thinking about college right now, and is looking to go into business. Kimberly likes cooking.”

Speaking of cooking, just Monday, Roland Torres from the television program Kama‘aina Backroads came out and videotaped Tracy cooking with tomatoes for the show.

“I made three different kinds of pupus,” she says. “Lomilomi salmon stuffed in cocktail tomatoes. I mixed tuna and mayonnaise and Tabasco, and stuffed that in cocktail tomatoes. Kimo said that was the best. Then I took little cubes of mozzarella cheese, stuffed it in a cocktail and put that in the microwave to melt the cheese a little and put in balsamic vinegar and olive oil.”

Just imagine—In the same week, Tracy’s job had her cooking for a television program and giving a tour to a highly-acclaimed chef. What a job! —posted by Leslie Lang

The first time I called Farm Manager Kimo Pa, in order to try and interview him, he was standing in a river fixing a water pump. When I tried him again later, he was driving a load of bananas and tomatoes to the airport.

“My job is to make sure the operations are running smoothly,” he told me. “Anything and everything that comes up, I jump in there and make sure I accomplish whatever it is that needs to be accomplished.”

It’s why, he told me, they wear t-shirts to work instead of aloha shirts. “We’d just get them dirty,” he said. “You never know what will come up on the farm. There are a lot of moving parts to this operation.”

Thirty-nine-year-old Kimo first worked for the company, then called Kea‘au Banana, back in 1988 when he married Richard and June’s daughter Tracy. Then he went into the construction industry for awhile. When construction slowed down in the early 90s, he came back to do construction work with Richard.

“I was building things at the farm on the weekends,” he said, “and then it was full time. Then he had some plans to do new packing houses and I did all those, and then I got back involved with the farm.”

Kimo said he always wanted to get into business. “I thought I was going to become a building contractor. But then I ended up doing this, and I enjoy it. There’s never a dull moment. It’s always a challenge to figure out an answer; not the way everybody else is doing it, but trying to do it better and different in methods of growing, processing. We’re always trying to improve the wheel.”

With Kimo as farm manager and Tracy working in the farm’s office, the couple is “the next generation” and will take over when this generation retires.

“Kimo will take over after me,” said Richard, “and I’m fortunate to have such a strong transition plan in place. It has nothing to do with the fact that Kimo is my son-in-law. He’s been the farm manager for several years now and has done an excellent job.”

“And more important to me was knowing how he would treat the employees,” he said. “I’ve watched him in action for many years and he treats all the employees fairly.

“Beyond that,” said Richard, “he embraces change. He’s always looking at least five years in the future and he believes, like I do, that if you’re not moving forward you’re going backwards.”

I asked Kimo about working with his father-in-law and he talked about how much he’s learned from Richard over the years. “He’s really an inspiration in guiding us in the right direction,” he said. “I really enjoy working with him and the challenges he comes up with. He’s not the type to sit back and relax and watch the world go by, and I’m not either. I want to be proactive, accomplish things, improve things. We get along perfectly. We kind of think alike.”

Kimo told me he is at the farm seven days a week. “Whatever time I don’t spend on the farm, I spend with my family,” he said. “I guess you could say that family time is my hobby.”

He has three children, ages 23, 17 and 14, and even two grandchildren, who are 3 years old and 9 months.

“I like working the way we have the farm set up, with family (working there),” he said. “It’s good because I’m a family type of person. It gives you more drive to work even harder.”

And then I just had one last question: Does he eat a lot of vegetables?

He does now, he said. “Until we started growing tomatoes, I never ate them because I never knew what a good tomato tasted like. I’d eat a tomato in a hamburger or salad, but just because it was there; because when I was growing up my parents told me, Don’t waste food.

“Now when I eat one of our tomatoes, or our cucumbers or whatever, I really appreciate it because I know what went into it to produce the food. But also because it has a distinct, good flavor I never had before.” —posted by Leslie Lang

Employee Spotlight: Florence Lovell

Thirty-nine-year-old Florence Lovell—supervisor of the farm’s banana-packing house, tomato-packing house and of its vegetable growing operation—tells us she was a tomboy as a kid.

“I have two brothers,” she says. “I was the only girl, and I had no girls to play with. So I used to run around playing with my brothers and their friends, and it was kind of like I had to define myself, because I was the only girl in that crowd. That helped me be the person I am. I’m glad things turns out that way.”

Her job at Hamakua Springs entails a lot of physical work. That’s one of the things she likes about it, probably because of that outdoor, tomboy upbringing.

“I can do the stacking of the bananas, carrying heavy things,” she says. “I enjoy doing those things.” She has 18 or 19 people under her supervision now, other supervisors as well as employees.

When she’s not working, her focus is often on her new grandson. Kaimana, 5 months old, is her only grandchild so far. “I take him riding, play with him in the swimming pool,” she says. “I watch him for two or three nights, to have that time with him.”

“I enjoy time with my grandson, my husband, my brothers. I drink a little beer now and then,” she laughs. “I have those enjoyments.”

Flo started at Hamakua Springs five years ago when she was hired to pack bananas. After about a year, her employers asked if she’d be assistant supervisor in the banana-packing house. That evolved into her position as supervisor of the banana-packing house, then also of the tomato-packing house and of the vegetable growing operation.

She said it was a little overwhelming at first. “It happened so fast,” she says. “It was a chain reaction thing. I was never expecting to move that fast. But I enjoy it. I get up early, I’m here early. I enjoy doing my job, being able to do all the different things in the different areas.”

Richard Ha, the big boss, describes her position as tough and demanding. “But she took the responsibility and didn’t shy away at all,” he says. “She was game and accepted the job and has been doing a good job since. Kimo Pa, who is our farm manager, recommended Flo for her most recent promotion a little more than a month ago. I was aware from early on that he had a lot of confidence in her.”

June Ha recalls when she and daughter Tracy Pa were developing a system for packing their apple bananas into Harry and David gift boxes. “There was a real spark in the way Flo approached helping to organize the project,” says June. “She would always focus on how things could get done, rather than on why things couldn’t get done.”

“She’s a good example of someone working her way up through the ranks,” says Richard. “We’re really happy for her.”

It sounds like Flo knows that. She speaks equally well of her employers.

“They became not only my boss but they’re like a part of my family,” she says. “They made me feel welcome from the first time I started working here. Their personalities—they were nice. They appreciate what I do. That’s something you don’t see too much of.”

“I enjoy working here,” she says. “I plan to stay as long as I can.” — posted by Leslie Lang