Farm Status

Farm Status was Originally Posted on April 7, 2007 by lavarock

Things are moving along over here.

Last week I was down on the Kailua-Kona pier selling coffee at a fundraiser. Our coffee group was selling coffee in bags, but the cup and a number of other items including honey. I was able to sell 12 one pound bottles of it! The secret is having a sample to taste.

Playing almost next to me were some Grammy winning musicians. Of course they won in the Hawaiian category.

I was at the KonaWeb party on Tuesday night and we saw many spinner dolphin right near the shore. The photo taken just before sunset is at http://www.konaweb.com/together/index.shtml

We were not threatened by the recent earthquake and tsunami as the quake was on the far side of their island and it shielded us from it. We have only had 2 tsunamis of any consequence in the past 50 years as I understand it and now these days we receive notice and warnings many hours in advance. They only way a tsunami could sneak in here would be due to qa large earthquake almost on top of us. That happened Oct 14 but the quake was so close to the Big Island and Maui that there was no room for the wave to generate before landfall here. Maui protected Alaska and the Big Island was in the way of any waves going towards the mainland (you’re welcome!).

As for the weather, same as usual, a bit cool some nights but other than that, not bad. Still getting into the frigid 60’s at night!

Last week two guys from the USDA came by with the preliminary plans for my water system. As you might know, I have cleared 5 acres for new coffee. I applied for and received a contract with USDA under their EQIP grants, which pay me a portion of the cost to use rainwater for crops instead of county water. Although we get sufficient rainfall here most of the time, a draught is possible and these tanks will help. I will have 80,000 gallons of water stored here.

They surveyed the property, took topographic readings and generated an overall map. Next week they stop back with official copies of the map, layout and complete specs for the project, which also includes drip tubes to water each individual plant.

The other day I was up at COSTCO buying some things. As I exited I passed a woman who had a cart filled to the brim with items. She saw me carrying a jug of Roundup weed killer. “How is COSTCO going to stay in business if you buy just one item?” she asked. I lifted the jug up and said “Well, this jug just cost me $150!” “Oh” was her reply!

So, over the past few days I have been spraying all 5 acres with Roundup to kill the weeds that are springing up. I had put down some grass seed but only enough to get a bit of root structure in to hold the dirt after clearing. I need to get a good ground cover on, but need to kill the weeds too. There will be a lot of weed pulling soon.

Speaking of pulling weeds and working… I am considering a project called “Woofers”. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WWOOFer It is kinda like a work/study program, which started in the UK. The original idea was to get people out of the city and onto an organic farm to see where their food comes from. The farmer would put the people up; they would work some in exchange for the learning experience and perhaps dinner. It is not just limited to organic farms and a recent request to me came from a guy who was working on an orchid farm on the Hilo side of the island.

I think there are many organizations popping up and individuals who are doing this without being under the umbrella of the Wwofer organization. It is certainly not very different from itinerant workers.

Woofers might pick crops, dig holes, put a roof on a barn or perhaps prune trees. They might need lots of supervision or may already have the skills needed. Each farm might have different needs and abilities to host woofers. Perhaps one farm might have a cabin to offer along with meals. Another might only be able to offer camping space and a shower.

Perhaps I could find a woofer who knows how to build a cabin and hot tub…

I will be posting a link on the ItsKona website soon, so that those interested can follow along with the photos of the project.

Speaking of the website, I will be officially offering some honey soon. This is the same stuff that was snapped up at the event I mentioned earlier. The problem is that that the honey is in a one pound container and can be a bit expensive to ship by itself, I’m looking at box sizes and ways to ship it in a cost-effective manner.

Speaking of cost effective, I have a customer in Canada who wants coffee and I had found a way to get him 12 ounces at a time. The 12 ounces was chosen to come just under the import duty, which would cost him another $5 Canadian. Anyway, I think that I am ready to ship to 2 pounds of coffee to Canada now; as long as the recipient knows that he will be responsible for any extra charges. We here have no idea what extra charges a foreign country adds to items received. Our Post Office even tries to stay out of that.

Right now, I am offering free shipping to the U.S. on the website. As you can imagine, that cuts into my profits quite a bit, and I can’t keep that offer going forever. I expect to change that any day now. I have to make adjustments to each item and will set some time aside for that. That is, after killing the rest of the weeds because I’m not orgainic!

Just on Wednesday I picked up freshly roasted Medium coffee and today (Saturday) I will be getting some coffee roasted dark. And that will ship beginning Monday. Gosh, with the extra day to do your taxes, it might even get there in time to keep you awake!