Adam's Bananas

Adam wanted to show off his banana harvest. Today he harvested this bunch of Williams bananas. Not the best eating banana (they are a commercial type), but they sure do produce large clumps! While Adam plans to eat some of these, most will end up being fed to the livestock.

Adam has been watching this particular clump of bananas for weeks and weeks. He's gotten pretty good at judging when to harvest them. He waits for the individual bananas to plump out. Then he watches for signs that the birds or rats are interested. They can tell better than us that the fruits are nearing ripeness. In a matter of days, many of these individual bananas will begin turning yellow. 

We have numerous clumps of Williams bananas on the farm. Since they produce very large bunches, they are worth growing for livestock feed, if nothing else. We usually don't eat them ourselves. But we have used them for trading and selling. I guess not everyone is as fussy about bananas like we are. Adam admits that he's become a banana snob too. 

July 4th

Life is different this year. The 4th is nothing like last year. And unlike parts of the mainland where they are heading to the beaches and large family gatherings like nothing is out of the ordinary (with many getting exposed to coronavirus), here in Ka'u the community is tending to be far more mindful. No big town parade. No BBQ set ups around town. No giant community celebration in the central park. No 2 day rodeo. No ball games.

People arriving for the event. 

But all's not dull here. Our community hosted a small safe event for the Fourth of July....an alternative to everyone heading to the beach. Using the farmers market grounds, OKK hosted a free event with music, free hotdogs & shave ice & watermelon. Yes, all free. A drive through was set up for those who wished to do grab & go, and dozens of folks did just that......playing it safe while getting goodies for themselves and the children. Others opted to use the grounds, taking advantage of the widely spaced tents, picnic tables, or bringing their own chairs for maximum spacing. Tent space and picnic tables were restricted to ohanas -- no social mingling among groups. Masks, hand sanitizing, and social distancing outside of ohana groups was enforced.  .....Sounds un-fun? Naw. It wasn't. People seemed to enjoy themselves. Listening to music. Watching hula. Kids playing games. Everyone munching on holiday food. And laughing at the parade.

Hunnay dancing hula for us to enjoy. 

Parade? Uh? Yes, you betcha! There was a decorated lawnmower parade on the grounds! What a hoot! Come on, what's the 4th without a parade? Naalehu kept up the annual tradition ....with a twist. The line of lawnmowers works its way around the grounds, keeping their distance. Folks clapped, took pictures, laughed and smiled a lot. Hey, Naalehu got their parade! 

Lawnmower parade 

The event was small, low key, but safe. The 200-250 who attended had a chance to be part of our town celebration, and the 50 or so who opted for grab & go also go to feel that they participated. The 4th of July is alive and well in my small town ----- just very different this year,

Just having some silly holiday fun. 

A Great Papaya

Just recently I was introduced to a papaya that is the tastiest, sweetest one I've tasted. I thought I've had some good ones in the past, but this one is better. I haven't the foggiest idea what the name of this variety is, but the man I got them from said he was told it was from Thailand. He grew his own trees from seed he had saved from the fruit. So I'm trying the same. I know that papayas will cross with others around them, but since his trees are fairly isolated, I'm hoping the seeds grow pretty much true to type. 

This papaya is large and elongated. Red inside like a strawberry papaya, but far more sweet and flavorful. The tree starts producing early and low along the trunk. This makes picking far easier in the beginning. 

I have several hundred seeds that I've saved from the fruits I've eaten. Two weeks ago I sowed my first batch in some moist peat moss, kept them warm, and just now some of the seeds are starting to germinate. It takes that long for papaya seed to sprout. I just potted up my first 150 germinated seeds. Exciting, isn't it!!! 

I'm not sure if this variety will be successful in producing good papayas on my farm. My place is rather high in elevation and cool at night. But we shall see. The vast majority of my seedlings will end up at a farm a few miles down the road, at a lower and warmer elevation. It should be successful down there. Any if those farmers are successful in getting tasty sweet papayas from these trees, it will give them a year around income boost. Right now their farm income is rather seasonal and sporadic. 

I'm starting the sprouted seeds in cans......mostly old Spam cans, but also some cat food cans. Papayas are shallow rooted, with roots that spread laterally more so than vertically. So they will do ok starting out in these cans. I will be gently using a fork to extract them from their cans when it comes time to transplant them.

future papaya trees

Using Mulch in my Greenhouses

On Facebook I see a lot of photos of people's greenhouse. Here in Hawaii, they are often actually high tunnels as opposed to the greenhouses one finds on the mainland. But regardless of what you call them, folks here use them to grow food. Sometimes plants are grown right in the ground, but more often than not, they are growing in some sort of raised bed or container because of our lava rock ground. What I've noticed is that no one seems to use mulch in their greenhouses. I'm not sure why.

I mulch the soil in my greenhouses, for the same reason I use mulch in my outdoor gardens. 

... Weed suppression

... Soil moisture retention

... Add to the soil fertility 

Due to the sun and heat, the soil inside the greenhouse dries out quickly. It's common for me to water a greenhouse every other day if it is not mulched. By mulching, I can reduce the need to water to about every 5th day. When it's not windy and sunny, the greenhouse can go a full week between waterings. 

I prefer to use fresh grass clippings for mulch, especially for the greenhouses. It's easy to use and easy to control the thickness of the mulch. 

Mulched basil and young tomato plants in a greenhouse. 

A Couple of Pictures

Here's a couple of photos of things I was talking about yesterday.

Kitchen garden at the house----

One of the gardens right outside my front door. Yup, no lawn! 

Actually, the gardens totally circumvent the house. Sweet potatoes and comfrey in the more shady spots. Pineapples in both sun and shade. Various herbs and onion greens in the full sun. Also beans, peas, chard, bok choy and other Asian greens. Turmeric in the shade. Taro in full sun and semi-shade. Pipinolas climbing the trees.

And here's the hugel style pit I just filled in. It still needs to be topped with compost before planting. Getting a good photo is impossible with just a cellphone, so I took several to give you a better idea.

                           

The green grass clipping are fresh cut today. The other clippings are a couple days old. 

General Update

First of all, I had assumed (wrongly) that my life's activities would be getting back to normal along about now. But alas, not the case. I've been busy off the farm helping out seniors that are still avoiding social interacting due to coronavirus. There are trips to the pharmacy to pick up medications, runs to the dump to haul off their trash, shopping trips and visits to the food giveaways to keep meals in their kitchens. I've also made a few visits to check out health problems with their pets, and set up pig traps to eliminate the feral pigs that have  moved onto their places. Then a good friend of mine badly sprained her ankle the other day, so I've now added another daily stop to my schedule. Don't think that I'm complaining. I'm not. I'm just explaining why I haven't had much time for farming and blogging recently. Add to this the farmers market, and my schedule is full. 

I'm managed to get a little farming squeezed into each day. I've gotten another small hugel style pit almost filled in. It's one alongside the driveway, created by the new rock wall being built. About 20' long and 2' deep at the rock wall, sloping up 8' wide to join the hill. It took a lot of vegetation, cardboard, and manures to fill it in. It was like making a gigantic compost pile in the hole, starting out with compacted layers of wood (branches, tree truck pieces, and discarded heat-treated pallet wood), then layer after layer of organic material. I have a seemingly endless supply of organic material for such pits. It's just a case of time and effort to collect it. Anyway, it's filled in and now only needs to be topped with a layer of finished compost and mulch. Once done, I plan to plant pineapples there. I have a couple dozen pineapple tops just begging for a place to be planted. 

Up at the house I've kept the kitchen gardens going. I make a lot of soups out of those gardens. Peas. Beans. Onions and green onions. Beets. Potatoes. Chinese greens. Other greens. Herbs. By growing them near the house, it's easy to harvest what I need to finish off the soup or stir fries I'm working on. 

A month ago I plant little seedlings in the greenhouses. Tomatoes. Basil. Cilantro. For the past two weeks I've been able to harvest the herbs as I need them. The tomato plants have tiny baby tomatoes already! But it will be a while before I'll be harvesting ripe tomatoes. 

Almost each day I manage to get something seeded or planted. Not much, but I'm focusing upon getting at least something planted each day. This past week I've gotten 42 papaya seedling started. Also potted up a couple dozen taro keikis. Sowed some green onion seeds, and planted a few ounces of bean seeds. Started some more pipinolas. A friend just gave me 3  baby trees, so it's a priority job to get them planted in the next couple of days. 

So you see, I've been keeping busy. Just not farming as much as I had been. And not working much on the house or the cat sanctuary pens. But I did make a bunch of picnic tables for our local restaurant. I feel really good about that! The past 2 Saturdays we've been eating breakfast there, using one of those tables. It's set up in a side garden, so it's secluded, private, and alone. A rather safe place to eat out. 

Farmers Market Update

Leigh asked about the farmers market. 

It's up and running again, but in "safe mode", as hubby calls it. Here's some of the changes......

..... Vendor tents are now spaced 30' apart. This gives very spacious aisleways so that people don't bunch up. 

..... I can fit 25 vendors into the space that I had been able to fit 44 before, along with the music and demonstration areas, which have been completely eliminated. And there is no coffee truck taking up the space either. The coffee truck is pau. The owner has decided to shut the business down.

..... There is no longer free access into the market area from the parking lots. Everyone must enter and exit via one controlled entry point. 

..... There is a hand sanitation station at the entry. Everyone must sanitize their hands every time they enter and re-enter (even the vendors). The market provides the sanitizer. You're wearing gloves? They must get sanitized too. 

..... Masks and hand sanitation are required for entry, even if you're a vendor. Don't want to wear a mask? No problem -- you just won't be allowed in. I've already had to turn people away. And it didn't bother me one iota. I've been called a nazi, Hitler, gestopo, and the most popular - a bitch. No worries, you still can't come in. Not my problem. 

..... Social distancing is required and enforced. 

..... There is a grounds security person who enforces market rules. Violate them and you will be corrected. Ignore the security person and you're evicted. Call him a piece of shit and you're banned from the market. Vendors are not immune from being banned. And I'm not shy about calling in the police if needed. 

..... Market hours are 8 to noon. That's a bit shorter than before in order to discourage lunch people from sitting at the market to eat their meals. The prepared food is intended to be for carry out. 

..... The number of days has been expanded from once a week to 3 days. The market now operates on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. This is for two reasons. 1- all the vendors could not be accommodated on one day, and 2- my goal is to have no more than 50 customers on the grounds at anyone particular time. To achieve this I needed to spread things out. 

..... Up until this past week, the only things allowed to be offered for sale were food related and covid-19 support items.  Nothing else. Just this week our county mayor stated that certain other sales were now allowable, which includes jewelry & repairs, books, and apparel. So after working with the county civil defense, the market got approval to expand its offerings as long as we strictly adhered to the rules. And we have and shall continue to do that. Yeah, just call me "the bitch", but I get the last laugh because our market will be open. And we are probably the safest retail place in our district. 

The other manager (she runs the Monday and Friday market days) set up a Facebook page for the market. She's been posting videos of the market day, doing a quick walk through. It's for you to enjoy and see what our little endeavor looks like. Plus it helps the county officials keep an eye on us. And importantly, it helps us monitor violations and correct them. Yeah, I've spotted some violations via the video.....people think they're safe doing it behind my back. Ha, caught ya!!!  

Check us out on Facebook.    O Kau' Kakou Market 

(To our Hawaiian friends, yes its misspelled. The okina is in the wrong location. "J" made a mistake and we haven't gotten around to trying to change it.)