Beautiful days in Kona

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The evenings get dark earlier,and these few nights were cold,a chilly breath came down from the top of  Mana Loa , sending a message down the hill “winter is here”.

We know this kind of night usually brings warm, sunny weather the next morning; we had beautiful days. Early morning sunshine sinks into our body silently from skin to flesh, feel the warm ray join the stream in blood vain. Terry sat on deck reading his book and warming his bare feet after breakfast, enjoying these wonderful moments before we start working on the farm. Our cats love these moments too.

Slowly sun rise higher and higher, blue sky open up, seems farther than ever; view the blue ocean from our deck, it’s so clear that I can see the coast line, so crisp that I almost can hear the sound, came from gentle touch by wind. It input abundant magic energy into my body, my mind. It touched me and I felt it.

This is a perfect day in paradise, a beautiful image of Hawai’i anybody can dream about. Cherish and love it with my heart.

A perfect day to dry Landry too.

 

 

 

 

 

Mr. August

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I mentioned that Terry is in a 2012 calendar, we just got it last Sunday. It’s well done job with beautiful photos.

A few weeks again, Terry and Sonny stopped at a garage sale, the lady had the sale recognized him, called him ” Mr. August”. Terry didn’t get it right away, until she showed him the calendar. He’s going to get used to the new name, since some friends like to use it too.

The whole idea of this calendar is to promote 100% Kona coffee, especially family owned small farm, the real coffee farmers. If you have a interest to purchase the calendar, please call: 808-328-8987.

Thanks for Kollette, Danielle, and Terri, a great work by wonderful ladies.

Happy Thanksgiving

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We had 3 inches of rain in the last two days. I’m glad that this round of coffee picking was finished on Monday, otherwise we would find lot of ripe cherry on the ground, not on our drying deck.

We used to make a Thanksgiving party for our coffee picking crew (who helped us for over 10 years), two friends chipped in for expense since they were using the same picking crew. Now we only rely on whoever can show up in the farm.

Every coffee picking day, Terry provide beer and soda for our pickers. Beginning I didn’t quite understand why, asked him, ” we pay them as much as other farmers, why do you want to buy drinks for them?”

He said,” well, you know picking coffee is not hard, but it’s not easy either. Those guys are picking 7 days a week, making a living by picking coffee is hard. Buying drinks for them costs some money, not a lot, but it makes their hard working day a little sweeter. Why not do something like this to make them happier? ”

This is Terry, a wonderful man, it’s just a small part of his good quality in the heart.

Those coffee pickers always thank us for the cold drinks,  one who could speak English said, we are the only farmers to offer free drinks on their working day.

We showed our gratitude toward them, since their hard working makes our coffee farming a possible thing. They expressed their gratitude by saying “Thanks”.

It’s a positive energy circle, let’s keep it going around, around , around.

Wish everyone happy Thanksgiving.

 

 

In memory of John

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This is my favorite photo of my friend Berni’s’ dad and our son , taken at our favorite “supper/meal” beach four years ago.

John passed last week at age 91 and this week we gathered here again to remember John,share a meal and memories.

Mahalo John

Another round coffee picking

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We are picking coffee this week again.

Ama is our good friend’s son, Iraq and Afghanistan veteran. Becky is his wife, graduated from University of Puget Sound and got a degree of psychology. They both are unemployed now. Last round, they heard that we couldn’t find any coffee pickers to help,so they came to help for one whole week until we got a crew. They both are very mellow and seemed to enjoy their picking time. If we had more people who don’t mind doing some farm work, we wouldn’t have to rely on Mexican workers so much.

Finding a good crew to pick coffee is not easy for a small coffee farm,  like us. Farms with an extra house, can provide a place for coffee pickers, so their coffee is guaranteed to get picked  first. We have used a friend’s crew for over 10 years, they are very good pickers, clean and fast.

But last year was a different story. This friend didn’t have enough pickers and couldn’t take care his coffee, or our coffee. Terry and I tried our best to pick as much as we could. Our good friends, Jack and Sara came to help at off work time, and picking coffee was totally a new thing to them. Jack worked in office with numbers before he retired, Sara ran a coffee shop on the mainland. Their contribution showed a true friendship toward us, we accepted it with appreciation. Here, I’m talking about our friends again. How can I not to talk about it? After all, friends wave in our life all the time, they are part of our life story.

Coffee cherry are getting ripe, from red turned to purple, from purple to brown, some fell on the ground, some dried on the tree. Terry phoned this friend about coffee pickers, he said the picking crew would be here this Monday. But the crew showed up on Wed, picked two days, then have to go some place else.

Before the crew came, Becky, her mom and I started picking on Monday. Her mom is visiting her from Washington for two weeks, so she wants a little coffee picking experience. After two days picking, she is more appreciate the work we are doing.

Yesterday morning I was picking near the house, Terry yelled to me, he had to go to town because the pulper’s chain just about to break. So that set my mind to work, how can I take care all those problems alone when Terry is not here anymore? Well, I need Terry to show me how to maintain the machine, I will learn if I have a interest.

Around 2pm, the picking crew quit. We just had our lunch, finally we got a chance to sit down and rest. Half deck was covered with coffee, a wore out blue round barrow set upside down as a small table, radio, flashlight, lighter and Terry’s items lie on top. I was tired from picking alone, slow progress; Terry looked tired too.

We had a little talk, I put out my little worry about farming the land alone in future. Terry had a long breath, said:” well, time like this, you need to sit down and rest, think who is the best person to ask for help. Eventually something will happen.” Then he lift his eye lids, looked at me with that grin on his face, said:” I know you, you have now ideas about mechanic.”  I couldn’t help to laugh, because he is right, said:” I can learn, just necessary things to keep the machine running.”

We had 20 minutes rest, he went to pick up Sonny, and took him to a gathering at the beach for our friend Berny’s dad who past away last week. I stayed home and pulped 6 bags of coffee.

A day of our coffee harvesting season.

 

A successful busy day

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It’s coffee harvesting season in Kona country, from November 4 – 13 is Kona Coffee Cultural Festival week. Usually we are very busy at this time, picking coffee every day ourselves. But not this year, our coffee is ripening very slowly, and we haven’t gotten a big round yet. Well, it turned out to be the best opportunity to attend coffee festival event.

Yesterday was cupping competition – preliminary round, from 9:00am to 2:00am, we went in the this morning. We didn’t enter our coffee this year, we just going to have some fun. We went there with our friend Tom, Trudie and her son Orion. Before we met our friends Jack and Sara, we were a pretty good size group to taste the coffee sample and exchange opinions.

Terry saw the calender which our friend made to promote estate Kona coffee. She used photos of male coffee farmers as there already is one with only women.Terry is the August farmer.

I imagined there would be lot of people inside the cupping room, but there were few people; it was around 10:00 am, we were not really too early. We were there and got to try some coffee samples. OK, here is how coffee tasting went with me.

There were only three farms sample on the table. I poured some coffee from the middle thermos, inhaled the steam from the cup, captured some coffee aroma but not very strong, bitter then sour, the more I drank the stronger the acidic became.

Coffee from left side thermos, a very strong cooked sweet potato smell, first I thought that I like sweet potato, so smell like sweet potato is OK with me. Next second I thought, well, when anyone drinks coffee, they might prefer coffee aroma than sweet potato aroma. Detected acidic right away, and get stronger.

Coffee on the right side, no coffee aroma, acidic was stronger than second one.

Later, another sample came, fresh brewed coffee, captured some coffee aroma, taste mild. Mean while, We sat around a table chatting, coffee cool down in the cup. Tried again, it hardly had any taste, even acidic.

Between those tasting time, I took some pictures and watched judges cupping some coffee. It’s a very interesting scene and I wish I had more knowledge about cupping.

I noticed they’d been tasting from the same coffees for a while, longer than I expected. One judge was a young lady, she always gave a friendly smile to people. With a few questions, I learned something from her. Tasting fresh brewed coffee to identify good quality; tasting again when the coffee temperature come down, at this stage, some good quality disappear, some bad quality show up. Be a good coffee, good quality should remain without adding bad quality.

Hooray! I learned something today. As a coffee farmer, except trying our best to take care the farm, I’m going to learn more about tasting. And I will love to share my learning experience with everyone.

Tom treated us lunch at Huggos’ on the rock, wonderful meal and happy group. It was a satisfied morning, we didn’t know something was waiting for us, kept us busy.

On the way home, a friend need some help to take care of some fish , about 25lb of fish steak needed to be dried or smoked, his dryer broke down so Trudie and I will care of this fish.

Trudie Burnham is Terry’s long time friend, she has lived in New Zealand over 25 years. She is visiting and staying with us for few days. She is a great cook, published 2 cooking books. << Innovative Soy Cooking>>, and <<Secrets of a Sauce Queen>>. With Trudie in the house, I feel very confident to take care this big pile of fish.

I cut up fish, Trudie made sauce, we made 4 batches with different recipes. It took us 1 hour to do the work. We are going to smoke them tomorrow, well, actually it’s first time for both of us to make smoke fish.

Our fishing man friend recommended that hang the fish in the air for a couple hours before smoke them, so outside of the fish will dry a little bit and firm. I took his words, suggested to hang the fish stripes on laundry line over night. Cool breath from mountain will dry the fish a little bit, and no flies at night. But how to hang them, there are hundred pieces of fish.

When things come up to you and you never did before, you just have to deal it with your own way. If it works, then it’s good way for you. Here is my way to solve this present problem.

I used a chopstick, poked a hole at one end of fish, pushed through a cotton string ( we use the string to tie coffee bag ); then Trudie tied them on laundry line. After tied few pieces, she suggested we tie the fish strip on our wooden hanger, it will save us lot of trouble to move it into smoke box. Good idea!

She said, this was the craziest thing she had ever done in 6 months.

This is my first time doing it too, I will remember this for ever. There are many first times in our life, give it a try, we might find some surprises. Who knows, from this first time, I might learned a good recipe for smoke fish. Ha ha ha!

What a day!

 

 

 

 

 

Community event

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There was a community event at Keoua Honaunau Canoe Club on Saturday afternoon, with music, dancing, food, and more. I enjoyed the music and dancing most, took some nice pictures. I recognized one Hawaiian song, which was first introduced to me by Terry back to 2000. At that time, the music formed lot of images of Hawaii in my mind, helped me to get know and close to  this paradise in my heart.  On the CD there was a hula dancing cat. Oh, I need to find the CD and listen to them again.

Surprise birthday cakes

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Birthday is a big deal for kids; cake and present are not enough, inviting friends to  their birthday party sounds better. Usually kids always have fun at a birthday party, and birthday party pictures record their special moments of growing up.

When you grow older, you don’t care so much about having a birthday party.

My brother, sisters and I were all born at home in a village, no clinic, no birth certificate. Villagers keep their children’s birth date by a lot of interesting ways. Like: planting paddy rice season, peach blossom season, mushroom season; rooster’s first crow in the morning, cooking smoke rose up from houses in the evening, group of villagers came back from field. You see, how accurate our birth date could be, we just take our parent’s words. Nobody seems to really care about it, every one has a birth date on their ID.

My family didn’t do much for birthday, lucky if my parents cook a couple of meat dishes for birthday occasion. I was the one who always remembered my birthday and would remind my mom in time. So my mom would boil an egg for me, the whole hard boiled egg just for me.

At that time, most family’s were poor, meat was a rare dish on the dinning table. Lucky we grew up in tropical area, people collected wild vegetables for themselves or livestock on the way home from working the field, we kids picked wild veges by the stream or paddy field on the way home from school. Every year’s rainy season my elder sisters went to the jungle looking for bamboo shoots, they always came home with a full sack of shoots on their shoulders. Bamboo shoots were made into dry bamboo shoot or preserved bamboo shoot, both ways are ideal to store the shoots. But stir fried fresh bamboo shoots are delicious, we ate it a lot during the season. At wild fruit season, my friend and I went 2 , 3 kilometers away to hunt wild fruit, that’s how we dealt with our sugar cravings.

My family had 6 children, 4 kids still in school, only my dad had a job ( My mom couldn’t speak Chinese and she was close to retirement age when we moved to Han community, so she didn’t get a job). My dad’s small salary fed the whole family.

In the community there was a crazy man, who originally came from Shanghai, an educated man. I only remember his last name was Li. During the Culture Revolution, the horrible treatment drove him crazy. Even after the Culture Revolution, he didn’t go back to his home, he lived alone with filthy clothes wondering around the community, looking for cigarette butts. I’m not sure, did he have a place to live, can’t imagine he had 3 meals a day. He always carried a dirty big mug around, some times people gave him food. Wonder, did he ever beg for food?

He didn’t do any crazy things to frighten kids, most time he was quite OK and had common sense. Even though, he got money every month from government. I know one way he spent his money. Many times he bought a kilo of pork and gave to my mom, asked my mom to cook for him, he only took less than half of this meat, left the rest to my family. My mom cut the meat into small bite size, fried with home made preserved soy bean; salty and strong taste, very good with rice and lasted longer time too. That’s how my family got special treat from Mr. Li. I don’t know why Mr.Li picked my family to cook for him. Maybe he felt easy to ask my kind and humble parents; or he felt pity for my family, that was his secret way to help us. We’ll never find the answer for this quiz now, I heard he went back to Shanghai and died many years ago.

That’s a side story my mind led me to. It is amazing, even in my life time, I have experienced so many changes. I usually hear more bad news than good news about the Chinese government on media here, and I agree there are lot of problems in China. But I have to say, the Chinese government did a pretty good job to feed their people, the most populated country in the world.

Birthday party, I never dreamed about it before I came to Hawaii. I had my first birthday party on the first year I moved to here. Terry wanted a party for me, he made it happen. Friends, lots of food, music, and cake. That was first time I had Chantilly cake, a local favorite cake, became my favorite cake too.

I didn’t plan for a birthday party this time, Terry ordered a roasted duck for lunch, we just wanted a easy day. On the way home from store, Terry stopped at a bakery, said” buy a small piece of cake for your birthday”, I didn’t even get out from car.

When we get to home, there is not one small piece cake, but two cakes. Look the picture, they are not only pretty, but also very yummy. Our friend made them for me, and Terry helped to keep the surprise. If I knew it, I would rather have a small party to share with friends. There is no way to eat them all by ourselves, even Sonny said ” I can eat them all” before we started, he couldn’t even finish the first piece.

I phoned my friend, thanked her for the wonderful cakes, and asked her family to help eating some cake.

Getting older, I’m still smiling to my life.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

TO ME

Harvest food

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Terry and I cleaned the orchids patch yesterday, planning to add more different kind orchids. That was the biggest job we did yesterday, well, it still took us the whole morning.

Today Terry cut the grass and I harvested some food.

I picked some string beans, gave some to our friend and going to make some pickled bean. Talk about pickled long bean, I have a little story to share with you.

I met an Ahka lady on a cargo boat which carried full load of garlic on Mekong River from China to Thailand, she was the cook for the boat crew. Our transportation fee included 3 meals with the crew, those meals were very simple, but they were sure taste good. I’ll never forget those meals.

We were the only two women on the boat, so we chatted. It only took us a few minutes to find out we speak same language, I felt like a sister toward to her.

There were always a dish of pickle on the table every meal, she made it. It was so good, I had to get the recipe, she taught me her tricks. Back to Hawai’i, it didn’t take me too long to start experiment her recipe, and I succeeded. Terry give me a new nick name ” pickle lady”.

Later I picked some Po ha ( goose berry) and trimmed the bush.

Then I went to look for some Avo under the tree, nothing on the ground but lots on the tree. During Avo season, we can find a lot of Avo on the ground everyday, and we always tried to give them away. We are so used to have them around, now we can’t find any, kind miss it.  So I picked some from low branches, their skin are not too shinning, hope they will ripe.

I walked by mountain apple tree, it was loaded. I picked some for Sonny, he likes it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

An memory

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This morning Terry asked me:” what are you going to do today?”

“Don’t know, maybe work in my garden for a little while.”

Quiet often this is our early morning conversation, and usually we don’t have big plan for the day, just do something around the house or in the farm.

After I visited my garden, I weeded one orchid patch by the house. Orchid and Bromeliad are planted together, it was hard to weed. My arms got lot of cuts from Bromeliad’s sharp leaf edge, didn’t finish the job.

When I was working, my mind took me back to an old memory.

My dad worked for rubber plantation when I was young, he took care about 5 acres hill side land. He and my mom cleaned the jungle land, planted rubber trees. Weeds grow very fast on tropical land, my parents built a working shack on the field, it was built with bamboo and thatch roof . There are about 5 meters space between two rows of rubber tree, so my family planted corn, upland rice, soy bean, peanut, sorghum on those unused land; planted pumpkin, bean and veges in the valley near the shack, and flowers around the shack. Of course, we kids all helped planting, weeding and harvesting when we were off from school.

I remember the days of harvesting peanuts. Beginning my parents and elder sisters pulled the peanuts from the soil and piled them around my younger sister and me, and my younger sister and I picked peanuts off from the plants. Early mornings were pretty cool ’till around 9 or 10 O’clock when it got hot. My dad would tie an umbrella on a bamboo pole and stick the pole on the ground beside us to gave us good shade since we just sat on one spot. At the end, everybody would pick peanuts with us.  We girls were talking, joking, singing, laughing, like a flock of chirping birds. The whole valley was filled with our happy voice and laughter, nobody lived in the valley, so the valley became our private little world.

At that time, not only my dad, but also lots of Chinese men didn’t kiss or hug  their children to express their love, or say “I love you” to them. I’m sure lots of them do love their children, and I’m pretty sure my dad loved us too, we girls all understand his love now from lots of his small deeds.

Sometimes field chores could be hard for us, especially for me and younger sister. I cried many times without anybody seeing my tears, but now those memories are priceless. I can find them inside my mind,  so warm and fresh, just like yesterday’s life. I’m really happy with my childhood which my parents gave to me, it taught me a lot without me knowing it.

I  never thought I would be a farmer before I married, now I’m a coffee farmer.  I’m fitting in farmer’s life pretty good, and I’m still learning. The most wonderful thing is that I’m happy to be a coffee farmer.