Food and Drink

The Splendid Table Makes a Really Good Salad

Now that it’s summer – well, I guess it isn’t officially summer yet, but it’s definitely summer weather  – I’m starting to switch gears from those satisfying, cool weather meals I like to make (like hearty chicken and dumplings) to cool, light dishes that are refreshing on a warm day.

Like this one. It’s a recipe for Hamakua Springs Tomato, Beet and Avocado Salad with a Li Hing Mui Vinaigrette, courtesy of Alan Wong’s Restaurant in Honolulu, and it’s presented over at Lynne Rosetto Kasper’s The Splendid Table.

Do you know that NPR program? It’s really wonderful. It airs in Honolulu on KIPO-FM 89.3, on Saturday mornings at 9 a.m. Or on your own computer – go here to listen to the program online.

Here’s the line-up for the podcast that’s up right now:

This week it’s a look at the noodle foursome that’s the heart of
Japan’s beloved noodle cuisine: udon, somen, soba and ramen. Our guide is Chef Takashi Yagihashi, author of Takashi’s Noodles. He talks noodle cooking, noodle etiquette, and the Japanese way with noodles that may even outflank Italy.

Jane and Michael Stern are forking into some of the most sublime
banana cream pie anywhere at Betty’s Pies on Minnesota’s North Shore.

Indian food expert Raghavan Iyer has the fastest, lustiest breads
you’ll ever make. Forget the oven; for this quick bread you need to
fire up your grill. Raghavan’s latest book is 660 Curries: The Gateway to Indian Cooking.

American Public Media commentator and dad John Moe tells of a little experiment in dinner table politics. Parents of picky little eaters will want to tune in!

Brendan Newnam takes an off-center approach to the dinner party and it all starts with a joke. Then poet Nikki Giovanni reads her poem “So Enchanted with You” from her book Bicycles: Love Poems.

Education, Mauna Kea

TMT & Money For Our Children’s Education

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Nine months into discussions about what will be important to our community if the Thirty-Meter Telescope (TMT) comes to the Big Island, I feel that we can get at least $100 million for the education of our children over the next 50 years. At a minimum; it could be more.

Last summer, I wrote a post speculating about how the TMT could benefit our island if it were built here on Mauna Kea. I wrote:

I’m on the board of the Hawai’i Island Economic Development Board, and we’ve made it clear that this can only happen if, unlike with previous telescopes, our people clearly benefit from it.

That post last August had a lot of “What ifs,” regarding how our people could benefit from the siting of this telescope here, as opposed to what’s happened with past and current telescopes.

We have made a lot of progress. It’s pretty amazing how far we’ve come, and how many of those “What Ifs” have been addressed.

In their draft Environmental Impact Statement (EIS), the TMT people have committed to a community benefit package as well as a higher education package. I wrote last week, before the draft EIS was published, that the community benefit package will consist of at least $1 million dollars annually for the education of our keiki.

The higher education package will even surpass the community benefit package.

This means that the TMT will be giving at least $2 million per year, over the next 50 years, for the education of our Big Island children. That’s for both kids in K-12 ($1 million/year) and those in higher education (Hawai’i Community College and the University of Hawai’i at Hilo; $1 million/year).

Two million dollars for education every year for the next 50 years. At least $100 million over the next 50 years.

It’s a far, far cry from the $1/year rent that telescopes pay now.

The money for younger kids is to help kids so they are in a position to succeed when they are in high school-that is the whole objective. It takes smart people to do that; educators, not us. We’re just putting in the framework so the smart people can figure out how to do that in these times. The money would be administered through a foundation by seven people, chosen geographically from around the island. Programs will apply for grants.

From my post last August:

• What if the TMT coming here meant disadvantaged Hawaiian (and other race) students can attend Hawai’i Community College and the University of Hawai’i at Hilo for free?

That discussion is going on right now. People are looking at the “unmet needs” of these students.

• What if we develop a pathway for local people to fill jobs during the extensive construction and operating of the telescope?

The TMT’s Environmental Impact Statement addresses work force development. They are looking at developing the skills of today’s ninth graders, so they will be ready to step into jobs that open up when the TMT is built eight years from now.

• What if we collect all the funds attributable to astronomy and have that money administered by a group of wise people who are chosen specifically to allocate it to the education of this island’s keiki?

The Hawaii Island Economic Development Board set up the framework and governance of this fund specifically for the education of our keiki, emphasizing K-12. It will be administered by the Hawaii Community Foundation.

• What if these credible people fund education programs about the Hawaiian culture and Hawaiian language, and about traditional ways of sustainability, the sciences, job skills and other subjects that prepare our children for a new world where we, living on the island of Hawai’i, might have to survive on what exists here on our island?

We recognize that not all students are suited for a career in astronomy. A certain percentage of this fund is set aside for Hawaiian cultural and traditional approaches.

• And what if this organization exists far into the future and benefits many generations to come?

An annual contribution will ensure this. In addition, wise administration of these funds will ensure benefit to future generations.

• What if, not at the summit though on Mauna Kea, the world’s finest and most powerful telescope looks back in time to the beginning, seeking the answer to the question, “Are we alone?”…

If the TMT helps our people to help their keiki succeed, our people will help the TMT succeed.

…while on the ground, the people have learned how to restore the ancient fish ponds, and are supplementing that with modern aquaculture methods that don’t require oil? And the people on the island’s windward side are using their abundant water to again grow kalo, and growing food with hydroponics, and as in pre-Western times they are able to feed everybody without depending on foreign oil?

A rising tide raises all boats.

It would be the best of the future and the best of the past. What if?

We have some answers to our What Ifs now, and they are pretty impressive.

Renewable Energy Sources

See Demonstration of “Project Better Place” Electric Car Use

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Project Better Place, which has partnered with the state of Hawai‘i to bring electric vehicles powered by renewable energy here by 2012, and which we wrote a lot about recently, just unveiled a video of what battery changing stations might look like and how they work.

Watch the video here.

You drive into a special battery changing bay, and one minute and thirteen seconds later, your car’s discharged battery has electronically been removed and a fully charged one put in its place – so you can drive away. One minute later!

From Gas2.com:

“…’Range anxiety,’ as it’s called, describes the most fundamental fear expressed by would-be adopters of electric vehicles. It’s no different than the fear of driving through sparsley inhabited parts of the United States, where it’s important to know your car’s mileage and the distance to the next gas station.

Electric vehicles differ in that their fuel is electricity stored in a battery pack. But battery packs can’t be recharged in the same amount of time that it takes to pump 10 gallons of gas. It usually takes hours. That means that either EVs are restricted to short driving distances, fully charging during long breaks in commuting (like work or home), or, they just never take off.

Better Place intends to solve this problem, and thereby eliminate range anxiety, by swapping out used batteries for fully-charged replacements. If this can be done in the same time as a pit stop (under 5 minutes), it would offer drivers a hassle-free way to dramatically extend the range of their electric vehicles.”

Also, Shai Agassi, founder of Project Better Place, was just named to a pretty impressive list. It’s the Scientific American 10: Guiding Science for Humanity, defined as “ten researchers, politicians, business executives and philanthropists who have recently demonstrated outstanding commitment to assuring that the benefits of new technologies and knowledge will accrue to humanity.”

This Project Better Place is fascinating to me, and how interesting that we here in Hawai‘i are about to become one of the “Better Places.” I look forward to seeing how it all unfolds.

Thanks to Damon Tucker for calling this video to our attention.

Education, Mauna Kea

Mauna Kea: The Beginning of “Doing It Right”

The Thirty Meter Telescope project is getting ready to submit its draft EIS.

When I volunteered for the Thirty Meter Telescope committee of the Hawaii Island Economic Development Board nearly three years ago, I said: “If the TMT is to come here, we need to do it right.”

There needed to be big changes:

  • We needed to make sure that the mountain was under the control of the University of Hawai‘i at Hilo. Mauna Kea is the kuleana of Big Islanders, and this was an important change. It happened. A rule making bill passed through the legislature, which gave the University of Hawai‘i at Hilo enforcement powers to protect the mountain.
  • We agreed with Judge Hara that a Comprehensive Management Plan (CMP) needed to be done. The CMP has been done.
  • We’ve said from the start that $1/year rent is not acceptable anymore. Instead of $50 for 50 years, let’s start at $1 million/year, which would be $50 million for the education of our keiki from kindergarden to 12th grade.

As I said nearly three years ago: “If the TMT is to come here, we need to do it right.”

This is the beginning of doing it right.

Community, Education, Science

‘Amounting to Something’

I recently read a nice article in West Hawaii Today of a young person, Mike Rasay, who came out of a small rural school in South Kona.

The 1997 Konawaena graduate idolized our Kona-born and -raised astronaut Ellison Onizuka, and is now doing things he could not have imagined just a few years ago — such as serving as a “ground segment lead in Tuesday’s launch of a NASA microsatellite to study space’s affect on cells in long-duration space travel.”

These are the kinds of things that happen when students are influenced by a special teacher, inspired by surrounding events and supported as they pursue their dreams.

All Big Island students now go on excursions to ‘Imiloa Astronomy Center, where they are awed and inspired by stories of astronomy and Hawaiian culture. If the Thirty Meter Telescope, the best telescope in the whole world, comes here with a new paradigm of support for local communities and education for young students, more people like Mike Rasay will find themselves being able to do the unimaginable.

Rocket science: Konawaena grad contributing to NASA mission

by Chelsea Jensen
West Hawaii Today
cjensen@westhawaiitoday.com
Monday, May 4, 2009 8:55 AM HST

Never let graduating from a school in Hawaii keep you from accomplishing your dreams.

“I have been on the bad end of the comments where people say ‘you’re never going to amount to anything. You’re never going to have a chance to do anything you want to so there’s no sense in trying,'” said Mike Rasay, a 1997 graduate of Konawaena High School who will serve as a ground segment lead in Tuesday’s launch of a NASA microsatellite to study space’s affect on cells in long-duration space travel.
…
“I never thought I would get into doing space missions. You never really think it’s possible,” said Rasay. “I always feel like I proved the naysayers wrong and just have been able to break through all of the negative generalizations about the students from Hawaii.”

Read the rest of the article at West Hawaii Today.

Sustainability

Make Farms and Farmers Cool Again

My friend Jeff Alvord sent me this link to a Michael Pollan talk called “Deep Agriculture” on the blog The Long Now. Jeff Alvord is a key employee working for Pam and Pierre Omidyar, who are major supporters of the “The Long Now,” a long-term, thinking blog.

It is absolutely true that agriculture is tied closely to oil. As Pollan says, we are eating cheap oil.

The opening of this article:

Farming has become an occupation and cultural force of the past. Michael Pollan’s talk promoted the premise — and hope — that farming can become an occupation and force of the future. In the past century American farmers were given the assignment to produce lots of calories cheaply, and they did. They became the most productive humans on earth. A single farmer in Iowa could feed 150 of his neighbors. That is a true modern miracle. “American farmers are incredibly inventive, innovative, and accomplished. They can do whatever we ask them, we just need to give them a new set of requirements.”
Farmers Market

Kino‘ole Farmers Market: Blue Kalo

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Aaron and Vinel Sugino, who bring their products to the Kino‘ole Farmers Market every Saturday morning, run their Blue Kalo Bakery out of the old Fujii store and bakery in Wailea, near Hakalau on the Big Island.

Blue Kalo makes cookies, like their “Mac Poi Chip,” which is macadamia nut, poi and chocolate chip, Mac Poi Raisin Oatmeal Chip, Sweet Potato and more. They also make chips (ulu, taro, purple sweet potato and more) and manju, such as lilikoi, ulu, taro and guava among other flavors. Their stuff is delicious!

When Aaron was just two years out of college, in 1986, he started Sugino and Sugino Inc. with his parents. They grew onions, sweet potatos and various other small crops.

From there he began making his own poi and taro chips, and then expanded into making sweet potato, ulu and cassava chips. He added the sour poi he could not sell into his mother’s chocolate chip cookie recipe.

It all led to the products they sell at their bakery, in tiny Wailea just down the street from Akiko’s Buddhist Bed & Breakfast, and which they bring to the Kino‘ole Farmers Market.

The Kino‘ole Farmers Market is located at 1990 Kino‘ole Street, at the corner of Kahaopea St. (the old Sure Save Market) two streets mauka of Puainako Town Center. It’s open on Saturday mornings from 7 a.m. to noon.

Mauna Kea, Peak Oil, Renewable Energy Sources

Part 3: We Have Two Good Options

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In Part 1 and Part 2 of this article, we talked about how in just one generation, the U.S. middle class increasingly came under financial pressure. And we talked about how our whole complex economy is now resting on the stressed-out middle class.

We are noticing that as the finite oil supply depletes, the world population increases, and that puts more and more pressure on demand. As prices rise beyond what we can stand, our economy will drop back into recession. It’s a scenario that can keep repeating itself.

There are a couple of “big picture” things that are unique to us living here on the Big Island, which we can use to do something about all this.

1) We can support the Thirty-Meter Telescope (TMT). Now that the Comprehensive Management Plan has passed, there are specifics in place to take care of Mauna Kea and so we can proceed with the Thirty-Meter Telescope process.

The TMT is a $1.3 billion construction project. It will take nine years to build and will employ more than 300 people during the construction phase. These jobs will help alleviate pressure on our middle class.

Many people feel that most oil exporting nations will no longer be able to export oil within 10 -20 years. If so, we will be happy to have a resource like the TMT located on the Big Island.

In steady state operation, the TMT’s payroll will exceed $25 million a year — and it will be around for 50 years after construction is finished in nine years or so. These are steady jobs that will not rise and fall with the economic times. This will be increasingly more important as the economy suffers from rising oil prices.  In addition, the TMT folks are willing to dedicate a significant amount of money to the education of our keiki, K-12 and beyond.

In addition, the TMT folks are willing to dedicate a significant amount of money to the education of our keiki, K-12 and beyond.

Having this opportunity to site the best telescope in the world on our island is a unique opportunity that comes only once in a lifetime. For the sake of the future generations here, we need to make it happen.

2. The other opportunity unique to the Big Island is the possibility of increasing use of geothermal energy as a source of generating electrical power. Geothermal energy is very dependable and steady. It’s the most dependable source of renewable energy we have available on the Big Island. Let’s use more of it, now!

Our electrical utility HELCO is tasked with providing us dependable and inexpensive electrical power. They also have an obligation to give their investors a fair rate of return. They have a two-part problem.

Electricity usage decreases with lower economic activity, yet they need more electricity sales to generate income for their investors. How about increasing the use of electric vehicles to increase sales for HELCO? Simultaneously, we can utilize as much geothermal energy as possible to stabilize the cost of electricity and make our electric grid more dependable.

It takes energy to get energy. The energy left over, after we use some to grow our food, gives us our lifestyle. We in Hawaii can look forward to a good lifestyle if we switch to renewable sources for our energy. And geothermal gives us the best opportunity to maximize all the renewable resources we have available to us.

By supporting the TMT and Geothermal Energy here, we could have good jobs, good education and dependable, reasonably priced energy. As we face an uncertain future, this would not be such a bad outcome!

Farmers Market

Kino‘ole Farmers Market: Volcano Isle Fruit Company

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Rusty and Jenny Perry, who farm in Kapoho, have been bringing their Volcano Isle Fruit Company produce to the Kino‘ole Farmers Market since it started a year and a half ago.

That’s Rusty at left, and Jenny on the right. Richard tells me that he and the Perrys have been friends, farming together, for more than 30 years.

21 Rusty

Rusty was part of the Farm Bureau group that developed the market. He says that the farmers needed more markets and that “the idea was, is, to give customers local stuff, and make it real clear that it’s local stuff. I think we’ve succeeded in that, and that’s really been a good thing.”

17 Rusty with a customer

The Perrys started out primarily as banana growers. Back in the late 1970s, along with Richard Ha and three others, they started the Big Island Banana Growers Association.

These days they have fewer bananas, and more of other types of produce. “We’ve always been diversified,” says Rusty, “which I think is a good business model in Hawai‘i farming.”

19 Rusty Jenny with some of their produce and orchids

“We’ve got a fair amount of papayas,” he says, “some apple bananas, citrus, tangerines, tangelos, navel oranges, some lemons. We have about 4000 ft. of hydroponic vegetables, mostly lettuce so far, and about 20,000 feet of orchids.”

Richard says they are perhaps best known for their high-quality papayas.

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Those are the crops they bring to the Kino‘ole Farmers Market every Saturday morning, and occasionally some that are a little more seasonal, too. “We bring sour sop almost every time, and right now we have rambutan and longan. The lychee is not ready yet.”

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He says the market is a little better every single week. “We get more customers coming and liking our concept, and liking the vendors,” he says. “And they are trusting that our vendors are selling stuff they’ve produced themselves. That’s a real benefit to the customers – getting to meet the farmers. They can ask them, ‘What pesticide do you use?’ or, ‘What’s this thing on my plant?’”

He says that the Kino‘ole Farmers Market is working out well economically. “Both for our customers who are getting pretty good deals,” he says, “and also for the vendors. It’s become a really important part of our business.”

The Kino‘ole Farmers Market is open every Saturday morning from 7 a.m. to noon. It’s located at the Kino‘ole Shopping Plaza (the old Sure Save Market) at 1990 Kino‘ole St (at the corner of Kahaopea St.).

Renewable Energy Sources

Part 2: How Will We Address This?

Did you read Part 1, The Coming Collapse of the Middle Class? That tells an interesting story of what’s happened to the middle class since the 1970s, and how much harder it is for people to keep up now.

With that background in mind, I think the price of oil rising to $147 per barrel was the straw that broke the camel’s back.

Once that happened, some folks could no longer make their house payments, and from there everything started to come apart. People blamed the greedy bankers, hedge fund people, the slicing and dicing of credit instruments, etc. And to a large extent that was true.

But the people on the bottom of the pyramid, the middle class, were already stretched too thin. They had no place to turn. So foreclosures started.

Here in Hawai‘i, we have many of the same problems as the nation as a whole. But, to their credit, our banking institutions stuck to the old-fashioned requirement of qualifying lenders to make sure they could make payments before they lent money. Had they not done that, it would have been much worse.

Now we have to figure out what we are going to do to help our people, and to make Hawai‘i a place our children and grandchildren will be able to afford when they grow up.

The most important consideration is that we depend on oil here for most of our power. We know that we need to get off foreign oil.

Electric cars are an idea that do seem feasible here in Hawai‘i, and we think they will work.

Another idea that keeps being discussed, and one that concerns me, is replacing fossil fuel oil with biofuels. Several years ago, a bunch of us farmers sat in a meeting where biofuels were discussed as a possible new crop for Hawaii’s farmers.

We were told that palm nuts could generate x amount of production per acre and that jatropha could generate x amount of production per acre. We knew these were a soft answer at best.

I believe that oil was close to $100 per barrel then. We did this simple, back-of-the-napkin calculation:

If oil was $100 per barrel, this equals 35 cents per pound. We farmers made a quick calculation: What if it took four pound of stuff (palm nuts, jatropha, kukui nits, whatever) to squeeze out one pound of oil. At $100 per barrel oil, no farmer in his right mind would grow biofuels to get 9 cents/pound for their crop. At $200 per barrel for oil, the farmer would only get 18 cents per pound.

The conclusion then is that by growing jatropha, kukui nut, macadamia nut and palm nuts for biofuel, farmers lose money. No farmer would grow these crops for these returns!

How about the second generation cellulosic biofuels? A couple of things bubble up. They can be produced for $10 – $20/gallon. But the required volume throughput needs to be huge, and the plantings need to be close to the refinery to be efficient.

The Hamakua Coast is very hilly and its high rainfall took a toll on sugar companies; that’s why sugar went out on the Big Island. The location was just not competitive relative to other places in the state of Hawai‘i.

As much as we want to get a liquid biofuel source, we do not think it will work in the long run. Biofuels are not the answer.

Stay tuned for Part 3, where we’ll discuss what the answer might actually be.