Tag Archives: Hamakua Springs

Food Safety Certification

Hamakua Springs is Food Safety Certified

The farm had its external food safety audit yesterday.

“We don’t hear officially for a week or so, but I know we did pass,” said Tracy Pa, Richard’s daughter, who – among other responsibilities – handles the farm’s food safety certification process.

I asked her how she knows.

“Because the auditor couldn’t believe how clean our place was,” she said, “and how orderly the records are.”

There are two different audits – one for the farm, and another for the packing house. “It’s all about worker protection, safety and cleanliness,” said Tracy.

For the farm audit, she said, you even have to show documentation about what the land was used for before you got there.

“Everything has to be documented,” she said. “We are on land that was previously sugar cane land for 90-100 years.

“There’s a cleaning schedule for when to clean your harvest bins, you have to sanitize your knives every day before you use them, we wear disposable gloves when we’re working, and they’re discarded once they touch some surface other than the food itself. They take water samples and test the water quality.”

“These days pretty much everyone requires it,” she said, “like Costco requires it to sell anything to then, and more and more supermarkets, too.”

But back when the farm first received “Food Safety Certification,” in 2003, it was not the norm. “We were ahead of the game,” she said. “It was very unusual then, and everyone looked at us as if we were crazy because we were spending a few thousand every year to get audited. And it’s a lot of paperwork on top of whatever else we’re doing.”

It was primarily as protection for their workers that they started pursuing Food Safety Certification, which they received every year.

These days, “the employees are proud when we pass,” she said. “When it’s over and you tell them we did a good job, they give a sigh of relief.”

Bananas

Our Bananas are at Foodland

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Foodland Supermarket is now supporting locally grown bananas.

Bananas

Sometimes the bananas may not be picture-perfect looking on the outside, because we refuse to use insecticide-impregnated bags. That’s because our workers cannot avoid skin contact with the bags.

We know we could make the fruit prettier by using the insecticide, but we refused to expose our workers that way.

We appreciate Foodland going to bat for us.

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Though local bananas may not be the prettiest, they are definitely the best tasting.

Mahalo to Foodland for supporting locally grown bananas.

Geothermal, How We Do It, Hydroponics

Forcing Change

On Saturday, I spoke at a workshop on soil-less farming, which was put on by the College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources at UH Manoa. The core group was made up of aquaculture enthusiasts, and the workshop expanded into hydroponics (the growing of crops in soil-less media). About 170 people attended.

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Fred Lau spoke on the challenges that he has faced while developing his aquaponic operation. Tim Mann and Susan Friend spoke on their Friendly aquaponic operation on the Big Island. They sell modular aquaponic systems with complete, how-to instructions.

Tisha Uyehara spoke about marketing produce. She pointed out the importance of growing what is in demand, and in the quantity and quality that retailers need.

I was asked to speak about Hamakua Springs’ hydroponic tomatoes. I started by asking how many in the audience were new farmers or folks who are interested in farming. Maybe 40 people raised their hands. They looked to be younger folks, in their 20s to 30s. I have noticed that lots of folks are interested in farming; they are just trying to figure out how they can make a living at it. I got the feeling that most of the audience was made up of community folks.

Instead of talking about the technical details of our operation, which they could learn by taking courses or getting information from the internet, I decided to share with them the thought processes that went into developing our farm.

I related how my Pop told us small kids to look for three answers to every problem and then find one more. He also said, “There are a thousand reason why no can; I am only looking for the one reason why Can!”

I told them about being influenced by my experiences in the jungles of Vietnam, where the unwritten rule was that “We all come back or no one comes back.” I liked that attitude of taking care of each other. Although I had flunked out of UH earlier, this time I knew I wanted to go into business and so I decided to major in accounting, in order to keep score.

Then Pop asked me to come and run the family poultry farm. I had no money, but really that was a blessing, because then I could not lose money. Instead, I gained experience. We traded chick manure to get banana keiki, and eventually grew to be the largest banana farm in Hawai‘i.

Along the way, we had to change and adapt constantly, and so change is second nature to us. We just look into the future five to 10 years, and force the changes to get us there. I told the audience that this is the secret to our survival. It isn’t rocket science, but is common sense: Being able to adapt and force change are traits that have served us well over the years.

I could tell from the audience’s reaction that they absolutely got it; that they have the tools, or can get the tools, that are necessary to make a difference.

Six or seven years ago, we realized that input costs to our farm were rising due to the fossil fuel component. I went to the Peak Oil Conference to learn about oil and figure out how we would force change so we could adapt our farm to be relevant in the future.

I learned that the world has been using twice as much oil as it has been finding, and has been doing so for 20 to 30 years. That was clearly not sustainable and we set out to transform our farm. We looked into using the water flowing downstream to generate electricity. Soon we will be completely off the electric grid.

We also downsized our farm, and then made up for the loss of production by leasing land to area farmers. The result is that the productivity of our land has actually increased, and the variety of products has increased as well. Another benefit: It strengthens our community.

I talked about how sun energy gives mainland farmers an edge over Hawai‘i farmers. Long summer days result in high production, and as the production follows the sun around the country, this advantage is kept throughout summer.

But I told the audience that we could get an advantage if we were able to use our natural resources to get cheaper electricity. Quite often folks think that fuel is the highest cost of getting farm-grown food to the table. It is actually the cost of electricity that is more important. Keeping the cold chain from the farm to the home refrigerator is actually more costly than the cost to run the tractors.

When oil is $100 per barrel, which is near today’s price, the cost to make electricity from oil is around 20 cents/kWh. However, the cost to make electricity from geothermal is only about 10 cents/kWh, and it will remain stable.

Lloyds of London warns of $200 per barrel oil by 2013. The cost to generate electricity from that oil will rise to 40 cents/kWh, while geothermal electricity will stay at 10 cents/kWh.

The answer to food and economic security is to force change.

I was struck by people’s reactions to my talk. The way that people expressed their appreciation for what I said makes me think that people are getting very worried for Hawai‘i’s future. I think that people felt hopeful, that common sense was more important to survival than any amount of letters after one’s title.

Bananas, Eating Locally, Food Safety Certification

What’s Wrong With This Picture?

What is wrong with this picture?

Hamakua Springs bananas are Food Safety Certified.

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We were also the first banana farm in the world to be certified ECO-OK by the Rainforest Alliance.

We, and other local banana growers, refuse to use insecticide-impregnated bags because we cannot stand the thought of our workers having to carry those bags in close contact with their skin.

Yet our bananas can only be sold in Chinatown, because they are not blemish-free enough.

I write this because a friend of mine from O‘ahu asked me yesterday: “Where can I find local bananas?” He told me his family prefers local bananas – because they taste better, not because they look better.

What is wrong with this picture?

Community, Peak Oil, Renewable Energy Sources, Schools, Sustainability

The Kids at Kua O Ka La Charter School

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High school students from the charter school Kua O Ka La came to Hamakua Springs the other day on a field trip.

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Richard talked about how great it was to connect with that school, which is located on the ocean at Pu‘ala‘a in Puna, right next to the Ahalanui warm pond. “They are off the grid and all their computers are run by solar,” he said. “They have composting toilets that are very sanitary. They live on, and with, the land. I really like their hands-on learning style. They live sustainability.”

From Kua O Ka La’s website:

Pu`ala`a is an intact ancient Hawaiian village complete with historical sites, fishponds, and native habitat that affords an ideal outdoor learning environment for our project-based curriculum.

Kimo Pa, the farm’s manager, told me that he and his wife Tracy Pa were surprised, and pleased, at how interested the students were.

“We told them about what Richard has been working on,” said Kimo, “wondering how we are going to adapt to the new way of doing business, and to the high cost of oil. I talked about how we looked into Peak Oil, studied it for a few years, to really understand it. And how Richard got to the point of looking at geothermal and how he can help the rest of the community.

“We told them we’ve been looking at our resources here. We had water, so we could make hydroelectric….

“I told them that Richard said, ‘What about our workers, the island, the state? What resources do we have that could help the rest of the people?’ That’s how he found geothermal. Now he’s working with Ku‘oko‘a.

“They were really into that part, and had questions,” he said. “This has to do with their community. They’re next to the warm pond. Why is that water hot? Because of the volcano.”

He told the students that our huge dependence on oil now has to do with the leaders we have picked over the years, and their decisions.

“I told them how important they are as an individual, and that it’s their responsibility to pick the leaders; that their vote counts, because they are the future leaders. That their decision making is for the generations under them.”

He showed the students the farm’s hydroponics system, the tomatoes, and the fish they are raising.

“And I explained that we are working with other farmers, and that we like to employ people from nearby,” he said. “Working with other farmers, we can produce more food. We want to fit into the community and grow food for the area. It’s all about the sustainability – taking care of your neighbor, doing the right thing for your community so in the next generation, and the next generation, things don’t get worse.”

It’s a perfect fit with the school’s vision:

Kua O Ka Lā has adopted the concept of `Ke Ala Pono – The Right Path – to describe our goal of nurturing and developing our youth. We believe that every individual has a unique potential and that it is our responsibility to help our students learn to work together within the local community to create a future that is pono – right.

 

Alan Wong, Tomatoes

Dinner at Alan Wong’s

Richard, June, daughter Tracy and her husband Kimo (who is also the farm’s manager) and Tracy and Kimo’s daughter, Kimberly, recently flew to Honolulu for dinner at Alan Wong’s.

It was one of Alan Wong’s Farmers Series dinners, where he features a certain grower whose products he serves. It was the first dinner of the current series, and Chef Alan was featuring Hamakua Springs.

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“It was a real honor,” June told me. “It’s the second time they’ve done that, and they are so welcoming. They treat us like we’re celebrities there.”

Richard said that Chef Alan asked them to speak to his staff before the dinner. “I introduced ourselves,” he said, “and talked about where we came from, what we do and why it’s important, what they do and how they support it. He let me talk about energy and geothermal; it was interesting to talk about that and how food security and energy is related. Now his staff has a better understanding of who we are and what we do.”

Richard said they were very impressed with Alan Wong’s staff. “They are very very knowledgeable and attentive. They really do know who grows their produce. I spent almost an hour talking to them before the dinner.”

As customers were seated, the staff took them over to the tables and introduced them. “We talked to the customers, told them what we do,” said Richard, “and invariably, everybody told us how much they support local agriculture. Every single one. It was pretty striking.”

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For the first course, Chef Alan demonstrated the difference between fresh grown Hamakua Springs tomatoes, and those from a can. He made soup from canned tomatoes, and soup from Hamakua Springs tomatoes, and let people do a taste test. Hamakua Springs was preferred in the blind taste test, hands down.

He also made stewed tomatoes, both canned and fresh, and served them in saimin spoons. “The one made with canned tomatoes was  dark red, and the one with our tomatoes was lighter. The other one had an aftertaste, like canned tomatoes do,” said June. You could really taste the difference, Richard said, and everybody commented about it.

If you have read Richard’s blog much, or heard him speak, you’ll get a kick out of what Chef Alan called this tasting: “Not No Can…Can!” Tomatoes.

June’s favorite course was the ravioli lobster. “That was the best,” she said. “It was about a two-inch ravioli stuffed with lobster pieces and a buttery corn sauce on top.”

June said that some customers asked if they worked with other chefs and restaurants in that way. “We said, No, Alan is the only one that does this. I was telling his staff we are proud to work for a company that has their produce in Alan’s restaurant.”

Richard pointed out that because Alan does that – makes sure the farmers and restaurant staff know and respect each other – the farmers feel more responsible for the product of our work. “Instead of leaving it at the loading dock and not thinking about it, we are responsible for it until it’s on the plate in front of the customer,” he said. “He depends on us to produce it for him, and not only the family but everybody on the farm feels that way.”

He was also glad to be there at Alan Wong’s Restaurant with Kimo, Tracy and Kimberly, he said. “They are the next generation, and it’s so important for them to be able to have the same feelings that we had. That was really valuable. It’s really unusual, to make the farmers and others feel important like Alan does.”

Tomatoes

Current Tomato Trends

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The Packer is a national produce newsletter. Here’s how they describe their publication:

There’s no argument that The Packer is the fresh fruit and vegetable industry’s leading source for news, information and analysis. The Packer has been reporting every week on the produce industry since 1893. ThePacker.com serves fresh fruit and vegetable growers, packers, and shippers; produce retailers; foodservice distributors; fresh-cut processors; wholesale produce distributors, and allied product and service providers.

Every year, The Packer does research on fruits and vegetables, and I will periodically post some of the reports. Here is its 2010 tomato report.

Fresh Trends 2010

Tomatoes are one of the most popular commodities in the produce department. This year tomatoes were the third most-popular vegetable, down from the No. 2 spot last year. Overall, tomatoes were the fifth most-popular item of all commodities studied in Fresh Trends 2010.  Purchases increased five percentage points in the past year and were up 10 percentage points from Fresh Trends 2009.

For the fourth consecutive year, the likelihood of purchase increased according to income, with consumers earning more than $100,000 annually being the most likely to buy tomatoes. Consumers with kids living at home were slightly more likely to buy tomatoes, at 90%, than those without kids, at 86%. Consumers in the lowest income bracket, and single shoppers, were the least likely to buy the red vegetable.

Field-grown beefsteak tomatoes remain the most popular variety. In fact, purchases of the slicers climbed 12 percentage points from Fresh Trends 2009. Preference for romas, consumers’ next favorite, slipped seven percentage points in the past year. Preference for cherry tomatoes fell more than 50% from Fresh Trends 2009, while most other varieties remained relatively steady.

Shoppers are comfortable with tomatoes, as 81% of those surveyed said they felt at ease selecting ripe tomatoes for immediate consumption. For example, consumers said they were more comfortable selecting ripe tomatoes than they were selecting ripe bananas. Sixty-seven percent of consumers said they knew how to ripen tomatoes once they got them home.

Tomatoes top many salads around the country, as more than 80% of consumers said they use the vegetable in salads. Shoppers also buy tomatoes to add to their favorite recipes or to use as a side dish.

Last year organic tomato purchases reached new heights – this year organic lost all it had gained the previous year, and more. However, tomatoes were still one of the most popular items that consumers purchased organic at least some of the time. Tomatoes were the No. 2 vegetable and the No. 3 commodity overall that consumers said they purchased as organic periodically. This year, 17% of tomato consumers said they bought organic at least some of the time. The likelihood of an organic-only purchase fell 66% from Fresh Trends 2009 and dropped 50% from Fresh Trends 2008. Seventy-one percent of organic tomato buyers said they bought organic less than 25% of the time. Single shoppers were most likely to buy organic tomatoes exclusively.

More of The Packer’s Fresh Trends articles here.

Water, Where We Live

Rainy Season at the Farm

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It feels like the seasons are starting to change. This, the rainy time of year, is when the plastic covers on our growing houses are advantageous. Our crops grow, without interruption, all the way through February. During the shorter days, the ground stays damp because there are less hours of sunlight to dry up the soil.

Finally, in this past week, the stream is starting to increase in volume. We’d been starting to worry about the spring water flow. Coming back from Kona on the Saddle road recently, we noticed the pastures are starting to turn green. It feels like the dry period is over for some parts of the island.

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Here are some more pictures from the farm. This is the first kalo crop grown at Hamakua Springs and it looks really healthy. Tom Menezes is the farmer, and he really knows what he is doing. Among other things, he is a taro breeder.

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This is the first ‘ulu tree growing at Hamakua Springs. It wants to grow tall and we will have to constantly prune to keep its fruit within reach. We would rather plant a variety that is shorter in stature.

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We transplanted this ‘ulu at the farm a few weeks ago. Instead of fertilizer, we used the spent coconut media that we use for our hydroponic tomato crops. The tomato plant is a volunteer that germinated from the coconut media. There is one flower cluster, and the plant is very healthy even though we did not give it any conventional fertilizer.

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We found this kalo growing in the river and we are growing it on the hydroponic solution we use for green onions. To my great surprise, it has thrown out runners. I wonder what Jerry Konanui will say?

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Peak Oil

Energy Conservation & Regular Folk

I don’t talk about energy conservation much because the regular folks already have this figured out.

I would feel a lot better, though, if the regular folks had a greater say about our energy policy.

When the oil price spiked in the summer of ’08, Moms all over the island were following their kids around, turning off lights. By that summer, one could see lots of big pick-up trucks in used car lots. Many more were parked along the roadsides with “For Sale” signs on their windshield.

My nephew’s family had a car and a big-tired 4-wheel drive pickup truck for work transportation. One day, my nephew told me: “Uncle, I’m going to sell my truck and get a scooter to go to work.” A young guy, selling his big-tired pickup truck, the one he used to take his pitbull riding in the back, for a scooter? There is no question that the regular folks get it about high energy costs! That consciousness is working its way through our whole society.

No, I don’t worry about the regular, rubbah slippah folks. I worry more about the folks that have no “real world” life experiences and are making survival decisions for the rest of us.

Geothermal, Peak Oil, Renewable Energy Sources, Sustainability, Video

Video: Climbing Up The Bamboo Pole

Richard Ha writes:

Awhile back I spoke to the UH Hilo Student Association Senate leaders about geothermal energy. I warned them that exponential growth fueled by a finite resource – oil – was a serious problem for us here on the Big Island.

Along the very same lines, Lloyds of London just warned its business clients to prepare or it could be catastrophic. I wrote about Lloyds of London's warning here.

I told the student leaders that we need to know what we are going to do before a catastrophe happens. "White water coming, we need to climb up the bamboo pole and lift up our legs." 

This video sums up everything I talk about on this blog.

Richard Ha Video