Mamaki

I grow mamaki in the semi shade. The plant seems to prefer living along the margins of a woods. While it also grows ok in full sun, the semi shade plants produce bigger leaves. Mamaki is in the nettle family, and thus is good for making tea. 

Red Swan Beans

Red Swan .... A variety of fresh snap beans that I find is easy to grow. And the fact that the pods are reddish in color, makes the, very easy to find when picking. 

Very pretty pink flowers. 

Photo Parade

Life is such that I don't have the extra time to devote to blogging. I have choices to be made and priorities to set. I've put blogging way low on the list. Caring for friends and my community is far more important to me. Keeping my homestead farm going is a bit lower on my list, but also real important.

This pandemic is taking a significant toll on people. Not everyone, for sure. The covidiots seem to be living life as usual, since many of them didn't have steady jobs before the lockdown either. So outside of fighting mask wearing and social distancing, their lives are pretty much the same. They just can't join the crowd that is bemoaning their loss of income. But for everyone else, this pandemic has changed a lot of things. And after many months, it is wearing some of us down....way down. I'm seeing depression developing in many of the people I help out. 

Hubby and I are surviving ok. I'm just busy. By evening I'm tired out. Thus, no blogging. 

I propose that in place of blogging for awhile, I'll post photos from my farm. Photos are quick and easy. They don't require thinking. Don't require much time. 

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.