Category Archives: Bananas

Bananas, Hamakua Coast, Sustainability, Water

Why We Moved to Pepe’ekeo

Richard Ha writes:

In the early 90s, we just grew bananas and were located at Kea’au, where the risk of our farm being hit by Banana Bunch Top Virus disease was high. We decided we needed to develop another farm, in another location, to help spread the risk.

But where? Sugar plantations were closing down and we had alternatives. We could move to Waialua on O’ahu, and that is the advice we were given. It was close to the major market.

There were several alternatives on the Big Island as well. Finally, it came down to Waialua or Pepe’ekeo. Waialua had the obvious proximity to the Honolulu market and it came with a functioning, low-elevation well. Pepe’ekeo had abundant rainfall and not perfect but adequate sunlight.

On the principle of sustainability, we chose Pepe’ekeo due to its free water and adequate sunshine.

Fast forward to 2002. We had developed a new banana farm at Pepe’ekeo and we were looking to diversify even more. But what type of farming would we go into?

There were signs then that China’s strong economic growth would be using a tremendous amount of energy and so it was safe to assume that energy prices would rise. Again, on the principle of sustainability we decided to go into a form of hydroponic production that would take advantage of free sunlight and abundant water supplies. We planned to use the highest tech procedures in a low tech structure. The rationale is: why put in air conditioning when you can orient the house to let the breeze pass through?

Fast forward to 2006. Gas is more than $3 per gallon. In addition to China’s growth, other factors are pushing energy costs higher than we had expected. We are happy that we decided to move our farm to Pepe’ekeo. And boy are we happy we did not go into a high-energy system of production.

There are three streams and three smaller springs on the nearly 600 acres that we bought. The sugar plantation here had been authorized to use six million gallons of water per day from these streams. In addition, the Pepe’ekeo area was, in the past, supplied with drinking water from a large spring that is located on our property. Now it’s just used for back-up in case of emergency. The county is now drilling a back-up well for the community, and the spring and infrastructure will soon revert back to us. This will be another large source of water.

We find ourselves here in this position by following the principle of sustainability. We use it as our primary guiding principle in our business. Whenever we come to a fork in the road, we ask ourselves: “Which fork will take us down the road to a sustainable future?” This has given us a good and dependable compass to follow.

Bananas, Food and Drink, Losing Weight, New York City

Weight: Up, Up and Away

Richard Ha writes:

Goal: lose one pound per week for 39 weeks
Starting weight on 5/23: 214.6 lbs.
End goal: 175 lbs.

This week’s target weight: 208.6 lbs.
Today’s actual weight: 208.4 lbs. 7/2/06
I am 0.2 lbs. ahead of schedule

I gained 2.4 lbs from last week
Weight loss since 5/23: 6.2 lbs.

Resting heart rate 5/23: 65 beats per minute
Today’s resting heart rate 56 beats per minute.*
* This goes down as one gets into better shape. Lance Armstrong is said to be at 32 beats per minute. My lowest was 52 beats per minute many years ago.

We arrived back home from New York City on Wednesday evening and immediately jumped on our accurate-to-1/10-of-a-pound home scale.

I gained five pounds in the last part of the trip, when I stopped exercising at the fitness center because I wanted to rest and recover for the trip home.

Here, by the way, is the view from the fitness center there.

View_from_fitness_center

Because the fitness center was where the scale was located, during that period I wasn’t exercising I had no accurate way to monitor my weight. By the end of the week, back home and with a little exercise and eating a little less, I had cut that back to a net gain of 2.4 lbs. for the week.

I’m back in my normal exercise routine now. Since the unexpected weight gain has been on my mind, I have cut back a little at each meal. Not much, but just enough to know that I’m doing something positive.

And I’m putting in a few more minutes of training. Not much, just a little more than I normally would. I don’t need to get it back all at once. The lower my expectations, the better the chance of exceeding them.

I’ve been on the scale four times a day since I got back. Fortunately, I was nearly three pounds ahead of schedule before I gained all that weight.

This has been my basic approach:

1. It’s important to keep track of one’s weight. Because I stopped going to the gym two days before leaving NYC and did not weigh myself for four days, I had no way of knowing I was drifting.

It was only a few pieces of cheesecake from Juniors. I needed to try the different ones to really know about good cheesecake. And, oh yes, the Italian food and gelato was unreal. In no time I gained five pounds.

Get a good scale. If on your scale you can make your self “lose weight” just by shifting your weight around, throw the scale out. I use the Weight Watcher scale. It is accurate to one-tenth of a pound and is relatively inexpensive. It has a leveling mechanism that does not allow you to seemingly lose weight just by shifting your weight. Weigh yourself as often as you like. This is a good thing. It will help to prevent five pound weight gain surprises.

2. Set goals so they’re easily achieved. I set mine at one pound per week for 39 weeks. That allowed me to get ahead of schedule. And then instead of quitting after unexpectedly gaining five pounds, it gave me an excuse to feel good. Like, “Boy was I smart to have been 3.6 lbs. ahead of schedule.”

You need to set yourself up to have a lot of little successes as you lose weight. It’s good for your psyche. I had one disappointment. Yes, it was five pounds’ worth. But I’ve had four days of successes since then. Had I not set myself up for small successes, I might have quit the program right then. The term “blowing your diet” comes to mind. But I don’t even have a diet to blow. Instead I’m feeling pretty good about myself.

3. Find any excuse to reward yourself. If I must cut back on quantity, then I plan to reward myself by going for the best tasting food. I now make salads with lots of little intense flavors. I like anchovies (great Caesar salad and great pizza must have anchovies). Rasberry salad dressing is good and sharp crumbled cheeses are good. Cocktail tomatoes, Japanese cucumbers, baby lettuces are all good. Throw some apple bananas in; why not? Doing this makes me feel happy instead of deprived.

I also plan to reward myself for every five pound increment that I hit. The next one is 205 lbs. I haven’t decided what the reward will be. Maybe I’ll hang the portable TV in the garage, hook up the music channel and get good earphones that will make my granddaughter jealous. And for hitting 200, that should be extra special, right?

Now I’m thinking of what else we can grow that will taste really good. Hmmm. What about sweet onions? Asparagus? Those would be good in the salads. And if we are eating less, maybe we need to grow (and eat) things that are more intense in color, for their nutritional value in addition to their good taste. This makes business sense to me. And I’ll bet that my thinking about this is fairly typical of baby boomers.

Bananas, Food and Drink, Losing Weight, New York City, Travel

Treadmill over Manhattan

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DATELINE–New York:

At 8:00 a.m. on Sunday, June 18

Goal: lose one pound per week for 39 weeks
Starting weight on 5/23: 214.6 lbs.
Goal weight: 175 lbs.
This week’s target weight: 210.6 lbs.
Today’s actual weight: 207.5 lbs.
I am 3.1 lbs. ahead of schedule
This week I lost 1.2 lbs.
Weight loss since 5/23: 7.1 lbs.

Resting heart rate 5/23: 65 beats per minute
Today’s resting heart rate 57 beats per minute.*
* This goes down as one gets into better shape. Lance Armstrong is said to be at 32 beats per minute. My lowest was 52 beats per minute many years ago.

I knew it was going to be a challenge keeping to the one pound per week weight loss schedule in New York City. New York is known for its wide variety of good food and I planned to try it all.

My approach to weight loss has been simple. I don’t count calories very well but I can do exercise. So if I plan to eat more, I exercise more. With this in mind, I have upped my daily exercise to 50 minutes at an easy, 70% of max heart rate. And it appears that I am actually losing more weight than I did at home. Now I have a choice: wine or dessert.

Here I look down on Times Square from the treadmill. It’s better than TV.

Yesterday I got elbowed by a guy carrying a baby. I think he was using the baby as cover. My impression of New Yorkers is that they play it pretty close to the ragged edge. Generally, everything is cool. This particular guy was an opportunist, but I don’t think he’s the norm.

We’re walking many blocks just to get the feel of the city, as well as to burn calories since we’re eating all kinds of stuff. We’re now looking for corned beef sandwiches and pastrami sandwiches at a real New York deli. Next: Little Italy and authentic Italian food.

If anybody has deli or restaurant suggestions, please let us know.

Bananas here look great on the outside but are bruised inside. After breaking off all the bruised parts of one, I ended up with only one small bite, and that tasted pretty bad. Modern day banana ripening rooms, with their precise humidity and temperature controls, can make the yellow skin color look so uniform and attractive that it looks almost like plastic fruit. The computer control rooms look like the cockpit of a 747. The technology can actually disguise bruising of the skin. Bruising is the consumer’s early warning signal and disguising it is not a good thing. No wonder per capita banana consumption has been declining for the last few years.

But I can say with a high degree of certainty that local Hawaiian bananas taste absolutely, without a doubt, better.

I’ve been losing weight for nearly a month now and feel comfortable that I won’t wake up one day and discover I’ve gained five pounds without warning. Setting a goal of one pound per week is easy to do. Now I know that if I’m behind on my weight loss schedule I just need to exercise for a longer period of time at a fairly easy 70% of max heart rate.

Piece of cake.

Bananas, Company News, Sports

Run

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We were happy to donate Hamakua Springs bananas recently for participants at the sixth annual EMS Run over Memorial Day weekend. That’s an event supporting the Hawai‘i Fire Department and Hospice of Hilo that drew nearly 500 runners and walkers to beautiful Lili‘uokalani Park.
runners

Despite having taken a wrong turn, Germain Ortiz led the way and was first overall at 17:22. His detour added a few hundred yards to his route before he jumped a fence to get back on course. He regained his lead at the turnaround point.

After having won the last four EMS runs (wow!), Jason Thorpe came in second this year at 17:48. Lyman Perry was close behind (17:56). In sixth place overall, and placing as first overall female at 18:40, was Kona’s Rani Tanimoto. She was followed by Caitlyn Tateishi (21:13), who just beat out Angie Miyashiro (21:15).

We were impressed to learn that 7-year-old Ziggy Bartholomy zipped through the 5K course in 22:49. Another nod of the head goes to Bill McMahon, who warmed up by cycling from Volcano to Hilo and then still posted a very respectable time of 19:10.

boys

This was also the first year for an EMS Keiki Run. Kids were split into two heats—3-5 years, and 6-10 years—for a hilly, quarter-mile course through the park. In the older group, a glimpse of the Big Island’s running future: Ziggy Bartholomy and Kirah Cooke pushed past the pack and raced the last 50 yards neck and neck to a photo finish, breaking the tape together.

EMS run

Hamakua Springs is happy to support this good cause. Go run or walk the EMS event next year—support your Hawai‘i Fire Department and Hospice of Hilo—and maybe we’ll see you there.

There’s a full list of run winners here.

— Leslie Lang

Bananas, How We Do It

How We Do It: Toys

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Richard Ha writes:

Workers in Central and South America who harvest bananas have to carry the heavy bunches more than 100 feet to a cable for transporting.

Compare that to our workers, who harvest bananas using ATVs pulling trailers. We designed these units so the harvesters take only about seven steps with the banana bunch on their backs. The height is such that they don’t have to bend their backs too much when placing the bunch onto the trailer, and the tires run on five pounds of pressure, which prevents bouncing.

Aren’t we brilliant to have designed such a system? NOT!!

I’d like to think so, but here’s how it really came about: About fifteen years ago, when I used to ride off-road dirt bikes for fun, the first 3-wheelers came out. I just had to have one of those new toys.

So I mentioned to June how the farm could use one for spraying. I could strap on the backpack sprayer, I explained, and by riding on the 3-wheeler instead of walking I could get more spraying done.

I got the impression her reaction was, “Yeah, right.” But we got one, and it was as fun as I thought it would be and we did actually use it for spraying.

And then the 4-wheelers came out. They had lots of power and great suspension, so of course I had to have one of those, too.

“I know what!” I told June. “We’ll use it to pull a trailer when harvesting bananas.”

We’ve used them ever since.

Bananas, Company News, Hamakua Coast

The Name Game

“We’re the same guys that did Keaau Bananas,” says Richard Ha, president of the more-recently-named Hamakua Springs Country Farms. “It might not be generally known that we’re the same people.”

He started Keaau Bananas way back in 1982. Along the way the company took “Mauna Kea Bananas” as its corporate name, and began using the Mauna Kea Bananas name on its apple bananas as well.

But then they started farming in Hamakua, consolidated and expanded operations at their Pepe‘ekeo farm and sold their Kea‘au land.

And they changed the company’s name to Hamakua Springs Country Farms.

While their tomatoes have always been branded under the Hamakua Springs Country Farms name, Richard says changing the bananas to the new name, after decades as “Keaau Bananas,” was a big deal.

“It’s not that easy to just change it one day,” he says. “You wonder about the repercussions. And you get invested in the name emotionally. You’ve got to separate that out.”

logo

 

The new name, complete with its great, highly stylized logo designed by local artist Nelson Makua, includes:

Hamakua -because of the farm’s Hamakua coastline location,

Springs -because there are three springs on the property, and

Country Farms – because the Has think of themselves as small farmers, even though, with almost 600 acres, they aren’t. Richard says that as they expanded the farms’ products, they envisioned a series of boutique-like farms rather than one big corporate identity.

What does Richard most want people to know about Hamakua Springs? That the company’s culture hasn’t changed.

It is still a family farm that takes seriously the concept of sustainable farming. And he says that doesn’t mean just taking a “template” of sustainability principles and applying that wherever they are.

“It was different in Kea‘au,” he says. “Two different environments, two different sets of conditions. The environment dictates how we choose to operate; how to make the sustainability principles work.”

An example? Unlike at the Kea‘au farm where it was mostly rock, at the Pepe‘ekeo farm there’s plenty of soil, and grass grows wild between the bananas.

They soon realized that their tractors would make ruts in the dirt rows between plants if they kept using the same path, so they experimented with widening the distance between banana plants. That lets them mow between rows, which means their machines get traction on the grass and don’t make ruts.

It also means the grass between the plants traps water and chemicals, so they don’t run into the rivers.

“Some people call us innovators,” says Richard. “We’re very adaptable. We like change. It keeps things exciting. We’re always looking for change to make things better.”