Sustainability

Hawaii Island Energy Forum

If you attend one forum this year, I highly recommend it be this one.

We’ve been positioning our farm for the future for a while now, and we know that things are moving fast on the energy front. What is the future likely to be? This forum will give valuable information so you can plan for the future.

Gail Tverberg, the featured speaker, is extremely knowledgeable and highly credible. She is in the top tier of writers about energy issues.

Her professional job is as an actuary. She advises insurance companies on risk and rewards. She speaks the language of business in a clear and common sense way. Of all the energy writers out there, I find her approach to be the most balanced.

Here’s the forum information:

Hawaii Island Energy Forum
Business Challenges, Business Opportunities, and the New Energy Reality
9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. ∙ June 6, 2008 ∙ Hilo Hawaiian Hotel

REGISTER NOW!
ATTENDANCE IS LIMITED

Individual consumers and local businesses are feeling the “crunch” of rising fuel costs. For some of us, our employees are telling us that they can barely afford the gas money to come to work. What do we have to know and what can we do to preserve prosperity in the face of rapidly changing circumstances?

At the request of private and public sector leaders, The Kohala Center has designed this one-day session to explore critical business issues with energy experts and economists, as we all confront the new energy reality. This session is designed specifically for the Hawaii Island business community and is co-sponsored by the Hawaii Island Chamber of Commerce, the Kona Kohala Chamber of Commerce, and the Hawaii Island Economic Development Board. Members of each of our organizations are invited to attend.

Talks and panel discussions with national and local experts will cover the following topics:

9:30 am – Welcome, opening speakers Mayor Harry Kim and County Council Chairman Pete Hoffman

10 am – Economic implications of the rising prices and diminishing supplies of liquid fossil fuel: Gail Tverberg, Fellow of the Casualty Actuarial Society and a member of the American Academy of Actuaries

10:45 am – Economic implications for Hawaii: Makena Coffman, Ph.D., Department of Economics, UH Manoa

11:30 am – Technical challenges and opportunities for increasing renewable energy resource use on Hawaii Island; the importance of acting quickly and collaboratively: Maurice Kaya, former Chief Technology Officer at DBEDT and Jay Ignacio, CEO of Hawaii Electric Light Company (HELCO)

1 pm – Regulatory barriers and potential solutions to deploying renewable energy: Jim Lazar, Regulatory Assistance Project; Carl Freedman, Haiku Analysis and Design

2:15 pm – Transport challenges and opportunities in the public and private sectors: Tom Brown, County of Hawaii Transit Agency; and Maria Tome, Energy Engineer at DBEDT

3:30 pm – Business opportunities and investments to take advantage of the new energy reality: Miles Kubo, Energy Industries, and Riley Saito, SunPower Corporation.

4:30 pm – Wrap-up with Maurice Kaya and Richard Ha, Hamakua Springs Country Farms

Additional speakers are confirming their participation. For more information and to register for this forum, please contact The Kohala Center at 808.887.6411 or email assist@kohalacenter.org. A registration form is available for download at  www.kohalacenter.org. The cost is $60.

Tomatoes

More “Fan Mail”

Richard received this note the other day. It is so nice to get unsolicited letters like this one; it lets you know you’re really on the right track.

Dear Hamakua Springs,

I just bought some of your grape tomatoes from Times and they are the best-tasting tomatoes I’ve had in 23 years on Oahu! Firm, sweet and delicious. Thank you so much!

I have been trying to grow my own but with little success. Yours will definitely fill my “tomato gap.” Thanks again for a great product and keep up the good work.

Aloha,
Jan Pappas

P.S. My family and I appreciate the de-emphasis on pesticide use.

Peak Oil

Changes

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We had two fertilizer shocks this past week.

First, we were told that we could not get any Monopotassium Phosphate coming out of China because of a 135 percent tariff that China has imposed. It’s not surprising that with so many people to feed, they need the fertilizer material themselves.

I should have guessed that and stocked up when I saw the press release from Potash Corporation of Saskatchewan last month. That’s the largest fertilizer company in the world, and they announced that China did not get the full amount of potassium that they needed. They only got one million tons.

Potassium and Phosphorous prices are rising faster that any of us had imagined. It turns out that we can get fertilizer. But the price has doubled.

Then we were visited by a sales manager from Yara, one of the largest nitrogen distributors in the world.

He said there is a shortage of nitrogen manufacturing plants compared to demand and so the price is going through the roof. He said to grab it if you can get it, because no one can be assured that there will be a continuous, unbroken source of supply. It will be like this for at least three years, he said, which is the time required to bring a new fertilizer production plant on line.

I tried to protest that Hawai‘i is very vulnerable, sitting here in the middle of the Pacific. The reality of it is that no one cares!

I wrote to Dr. Steiner, Dean of the College of Agriculture at the University of Hawai‘i at Hilo, in order to inform him of this. His response: “This is happening faster than I thought it would!” My exact thoughts, too.

The world is changing faster than we expect.

Hydroponics

Earth Box

This is my friend Jim Murray’s garden.

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Jim lives in a condominium and has a limited amount of ground area to work with. Earth Box is the simplest method of growing vegetables that I know of, and I was happy to see it in action at Jim’s house. The farming principles are sound, and it’s what I will use to grow stuff for myself.

From the Earth Box website:

The patented EarthBox was developed by commercial farmers and proven in the lab and on the farm. Our maintenance-free, award-winning, high-tech growing system controls soil conditions, eliminates guesswork and more than doubles the yield of a conventional garden-with less fertilizer, less water and virtually no effort.

I see this method of gardening as useful to someone with a limited space to plant. It is also good for someone who has a full time job and not enough time. Another plus – you do not need machinery for ground preparation.

Certainly there are other systems of gardening that might be more appropriate for feeding larger groups of people. But this system works well for a small family.

This system is meant to lower maintenance time. The light film on top prevents weeds from growing by preventing light from hitting the soil. If the black side is up, it retains heat. If the silver side is up, it keeps the media cool. The silver side is probably best for Hawai‘i.

There is a pipe that one fills with water. Since there is a drain hole about two inches from bottom of the box, it self-drains. At the time of planting, low-release fertilizer is buried about an inch in the growing media. One application is enough for the life time of the plant.

To change the subject for just a moment – When we toured Taiwan many years ago we observed that their water table is extremely shallow. So shallow, in fact, that sometimes the plants grew on the top of the row of mounds while the walkways were under water. This observation led Dr. Bernie Kratky of the UH Manoa Extension, and others, to realize that the top part of the roots were taking in oxygen while the bottom part took in water and nutrients.

This is the basis of the theory of non-circulating hydroponics – that is, that plants need to have a portion of their roots exposed to air or they drown. The Earth Box takes care of this problem with holes in the bottom of the containers, so drainage is assured. And it uses soil, instead of water, because soil is more forgiving as a growing medium.

A roma tomato plant and a regular beef tomato.

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Note that the container is elevated to discourage slugs and make it difficult for ants to carry aphids around. One could also put the chair legs in water to accomplish that. Rosemary, basil and other aromatic herbs are said to repel insects, too.

One can plant many different types of crops this way. Here are some strawberries and eggplants.

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When my friend Jim told me how his system worked, I realized right then that it was sound practice. So much so, that I will use this method to grow plants for myself.

Tomatoes

Satisfied Customer

Richard recently heard from a “satisfied customer.”

Sandra Reed, who lives in Tennessee, wrote:

Aloha! My husband and I are visiting here from Tennessee. Tennessee prides itself on its great produce, and with good reason. Nevertheless, I have experienced your cocktail tomatoes and they are unequaled! What a taste! Sooooo good!

She closed by writing:

Y’all come see us some time!

Sandra and her husband were on O‘ahu visiting their son Derek and his wife Lorri, who is a major in the Air Force, when they had Hamakua Springs tomatoes.

It was their fourth visit, and she says they had gotten their sightseeing out of the way the first couple times (like Pearl Harbor, which they found very moving, and Don Ho’s show, which Sandra most recently took in shortly before he passed away).

On their more recent visits, she says, “Derek and Lorri scout out places for us to eat, and we pretty much gorge our way across the Island!”

She says her son brought home some Hamakua Springs cocktail tomatoes from the commissary as a snack food. “Little did he know that I was going to eat three cartons of them while I was there. I ate them straight out of the container with a touch of salt. My mouth waters just thinking about them.”

She says she and her husband always used to have a garden in the summer, but don’t these days. “We try to buy fresh produce when it is available. If the people here ever got a taste of your tomatoes, they would throw rocks at the farmers who sell tomatoes here!”

She and her husband hope to return to Hawai‘i for a family vacation in the next few years. In the meantime, she says she wishes there had been a way to bring home some of Richard’s cocktail tomatoes.

“That was a taste I will savor in my mind for a very long time!” she said.

Thank you, Sandra, for taking the time to be in touch. We loved hearing from you!

Food and Drink

Aloha Luigi

Since June is away in Texas for a few weeks, I’ve decided to visit lunch places outside my normal routine. Aloha Luigi, the small restaurant on Keawe Street in downtown Hilo, qualified.

The back entrance, from the very convenient back parking lot.

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The main dining area.

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I’ve actually tried several different places. But Aloha Luigi is one I can already write about now, without even trying anything else off its menu.

I ordered the spicy ono served on linguini with lots of garlic and capers, to take out.

This is where you place orders. You walk straight through to the back parking lot.

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While waiting for my order, I wandered out back to look around. An old bathtub with a decorative purple crawling taro growing in it caught my attention. I noticed some guppies swimming around – for mosquito control, I thought to myself.

A friendly guy with a slight New York accent asked me if I was admiring the fish. I told him I liked the potential of the place and he said he was Luigi, the owner.

Nearly 30 years ago he built the restaurant in Hilo that eventually became Pescatore. He moved back to New York, and then back to Waimea where he opened the original Aloha Luigi. He said he returned to Hilo four years ago, because Waimea was getting too built up.

This is a multi-function mail box. Local artists’ works hang on all the walls.

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Four months ago, Luigi purchased the land where the present Aloha Luigi now stands, just down the street from Garden Exchange on Keawe Street. And now he is building the place up. He told me he’s going to open up second floor dining as well as an outside, open air dining area.

Two tables and the view from under the outside canopy. Looking toward Keawe Street, where there will be more outside seating.

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Look carefully and you can see the outline of his vision. He has a gem of a location. The back parking lot is so unbelievably convenient.

Outdoor dining in Hilo. Who would have thought?  But if you look closely, you can see that too. Upstairs and downstairs dining? I love that.

The spicy ono linguini was so good that I went back later to order a Sicilian slice of pizza. It’s square. As toppings I had jalapeno, spinach and garlic. I’ll be back often!

Renewable Energy Sources

Starting on Our Hydroelectric Plant

It’s really true: “The more things change, the more they stay the same.”

We are now starting to construct our hydroelectric plant, which everyone thinks is a wonderfully new, fresh idea.

But Kapono uncovered this interesting bit of history that we posted here recently, in which we learned for the first time that people were evidently doing the same thing here more than 70 years ago.

Pepe`ekeo’s mill was located at the shore to make use of fluming to transport the harvested cane. For many years before 1935 the hydraulic head of mountain ground water (spring water) drove a hydroelectric plant that supplied all of the mill’s needs and also supplied power for housing.

We are making an access to the flume head so we can begin laying the pipe.

The rest we will do by hand because we don’t want to do anything that compromises the river.

If you look carefully, you can see the old concrete work. This flume source is a permitted use, according to the Water Resource Commission. Its personnel came by to look at the site and said we can proceed as long as we do not affect the river in any way. We’re being very careful.

 

Hamakua Coast, Where We Live

Stopping the Glottal Shift

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It’s always been interesting to me, and a little sad, that the rich history of Hawaiian words gets more and more diluted, overlooked, and even changed as time goes on and so many of us without an intimate knowledge of the language and culture inadvertently make errors.

Such as that which seems to have been made with the name of the place where the farm sits.

“Kaupakuea” is located in Pepe‘ekeo, north of Hilo, and a few years ago the county put up a street sign off Highway 19.

It read like this: “Kaupakue‘a Homestead Rd.”

We recently wrote about some of the history of Kaupakuea (without the ‘okina, or glottal stop), where the farm is located.

The name Kaupakuea is mentioned in an 1860 Hawaiian language newspaper, and the area even had its own Kaupakuea post office from 1858-1869.

Suzanne Romaine, writing in the Society for Linguistic Anthropology, says that the place name seems to be composed of two words: kaupaku (ridgepole, highest point) + ea (to rise).

Though there are different meanings for “ea,” this linguist for whom the Hawaiian language is an area of concentration says that “rising ridgepole” is most consistent with other recorded place names of that type, and also the morphology and semantics of the 4,000 place names analyzed by Pukui, Elbert and Mookini in their respected work “Place Names of Hawai‘i.”

The “rising ridgepole” translation also fits the topography of the ahupua‘a, the land division, whose high ridge culminates in Pu‘u Ka‘uku, a prominent feature of the landscape that is visible from afar.

“Since the greatest number of Hawaiian place names (21 percent) refer to geographical features, it is not unreasonable to suppose this is an appropriate etymology for Kaupakuea,” she writes.

The gravel road fronting the farm’s banana packing house, which joins Kaupakuea Homestead Road, sits exactly on the ridgeline. Part of the hydroponic houses sit on the Hamakua slope, and the other part sits on the Hilo-side slope.

Romaine finds nothing that allows the spelling “Kaupakue‘a” to make sense, and suggests it is a county misspelling on the sign.

She also details a long story wherein back in 1996, the president of the Kaupakuea Homestead Association learned an ‘okina had been inserted into the name’s spelling (Kaupaku‘ea), and tried to get it removed.

One person at the county assured that the ‘okina would be removed, and then the county council voted to keep it – and yet when the sign was printed, the ‘okina, still present, mysteriously moved to a different location. The street sign was printed with yet a third spelling (Kaupakue‘a).

It’s a long and involved story, and one that is undoubtedly still going on all around us as words evolve and morph.

All we can do is grasp onto the words that we do know, and their definition and cultural meanings, and pass them down to our keiki. Pronounce them correctly, teach the meanings we know, and let them live on.

Blog, Where We Live

Hilo Living

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I just knew that Hilo would soon be discovered by discerning people who value quality of life. This blog is the first, real-life proof that confirms my suspicions.

It lays out the thought processes of a former Silicon Valley citizen who moved to Hilo four months ago.

This person made a conscious decision to move where he can improve his quality of life in the face of world turmoil, caused by world oil supplies not keeping up with demand.

He chose Hilo.

Hilo is much more special than a lot of us realize. I read this person’s previous blog posts, too, and it was so reaffirming that we do, indeed, live in the most special place on earth.

I am very optimistic for our future.  I notice that Café Pesto and Hilo Bay Café are full of people from away. I believe more and more people will discover Hilo. And they will bring in outside money.

I came to the same conclusion when I was in Houston last September, at the Association for the Study of Peak Oil.

I was the only one wearing shorts. I did not have the heart to tell the people I met that I was going to wear shorts right through the winter. I did not have the heart to tell them we would grow food all winter long.

And when I got off the plane in Hilo, I knew – just like the person who wrote this blog – that Hilo, Hawai‘i is the best place in the world to ride out this new period in human history. We just need to take care of each other.

Television

Emmy Award-Nominated!

We were happy to see that Chefs A’ Field, that PBS series that did an episode on Chef Alan Wong recently, has been nominated for an Emmy!

While they were here, the Chefs A’ Field people accompanied Alan Wong and Richard to Keaukaha Elementary School, where Chef Alan had adopted the 6th grade through our Adopt-a-Class program, and videotaped him teaching them about cooking and also a little bit about life. It’s scheduled to air sometime in 2009 — we’ll keep you posted on that.

Here is some information about the Emmy Award nomination. Our huge congratulations to them on a really impressive achievement.

Chefs A’ Field: Kids on the Farm
NOMINATED FOR 2008 EMMY AWARD &
RECEIVES HONORS FROM THE PARENTS’ CHOICE AWARDS

WASHINGTON, DC – May 1, 2008:
The public television series Chefs A’ Field: Kids on the Farm has been nominated by The National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences for a 2008 Daytime Emmy Award. The awards recognize outstanding achievement in television production broadcast in the 2007 calendar year. The series was nominated in the category of Outstanding Achievement in Photography. The coveted Emmy will be presented at the 35th Annual Daytime Emmy Awards broadcast live on ABC Friday, June 20th  at 8:00 pm, from Hollywood’s famed Kodak Theatre.

Last month, Chefs A’ Field: Kids on the Farm was awarded the 2008 Parents’ Choice Award for excellence in family programming. This national award recognizes programming that exceeds standards set by educators, scientists, artists, librarians, parents, and kids themselves.

In other news, Chefs A’ Field: Kids on the Farm is in the midst of field production for a fourth season, with shoots in Washington DC, Mexico, Alaska, California, Hawaii, and Virginia. In the coming months the series will continue its culinary adventures traveling throughout the United States filming America’s best chefs and their kids as well as the stellar farmers and fishermen the chefs rely on. Thirteen exciting new episodes will be released on public television in Spring 2009.

Currently in its third season, many have described Chefs A’ Field’s “green cuisine” approach as “a cooking series with a conscience…bringing the important issues of sustainability and the environment to forefront…without getting preachy.”

In over 40 episodes filmed so far the series explores the vital relationship between great chefs and their food sources. Each episode features one of America’s best chefs traveling to the field to explore the offerings of their local farmers, ranchers, and fishermen. The chef then returns to the kitchen, where ingredients are transformed into delectable dishes.  As the chefs interact with the farmers, ranchers, and fishermen, viewers see how environmental practices make a difference in how foods taste and hold their nutritional value. Shot in locations across the United States and abroad, the high-definition series showcases regional cuisine and is filled with picturesque scenes shot at the peak of seasonal harvest.

ABOUT THE SERIES: Chefs A’ Field currently airs on public television stations nationwide–check your local listings or visit chefsafield.com for national listings.  The series is a co-production of Warner Hanson Television (Washington, DC) & KCTS 9 (Seattle, WA) and is distributed by American Public Television (Boston, MA).

SPONSORS: Chefs A’ Field is made possible by the generous sponsorship of Whole Foods Markets,  W.K. Kellogg Foundation, USDA/SARE (CSREES), The Park Foundation, Seeds of Change, Topco/Full Circle Food, The Wallace Genetic Foundation, California Strawberry Commission, Walnut Marketing Board.

CREDITS: Producers: Heidi Hanson & Chris Warner; Writer/Narrator: Jed Duvall; Directors of Photography: Tim Murray, Mark Thalman, & Chris Warner; Editors: Rachel Vasey, Don Lampasone, & Chris Warner; For KCTS 9: Executive Producer: Jay Parikh; Production Manager: Tom Niemi; Station Relations: Shaylan Frazee

PARTICIPATING CHEFS: John Besh, Michael Mina, Joseph Wrede, Bruce Sherman, Robert Weidmaier, Richard Sandoval, Mitchell & Steven Rosenthal, Cathal Armstrong, Michel Nischan, Jason Wilson.

ADDITIONAL AWARDS:  James Beard, CINE, Chicago Film Festival Hugo, Film Advisory Board, New York Festivals, White House Photographer Awards, Food & Wine Tastemaker Award, and others.

MERCHANDISE: Chefs A’ Field DVD’s and Cookbooks are available by phone KCTS 9-Channel 9 Store (800) 937-5387 or visiting channel9store.com & amazon.com

SERIES WEBSITE:  chefsafield.com