Losing Weight, Travel

Weight Loss on the Fly

Richard Ha writes:

We’ve been in Las Vegas since ten days ago, when June and I flew here suddenly because June’s mom went into the hospital. She left the hospital yesterday, but the doctor says she cannot fly. So we are arranging to bring her home on one of the cruise ships that visit Hilo. Tomorrow we drive to San Diego.

I did not bring my heart rate monitor and haven’t had a chance to weigh myself. I’ll try to post my weight loss statistics next week.

Trying to lose weight under these circumstances, while eating hotel food, has been a real challenge. For the first few days, we ate a combination of hospital cafeteria food and hotel food. I exercised by walking for an hour each day through the mall and around the hotel. But it was not very useful since I hardly broke a sweat.

One day I even walked the stairs of the hotel’s six-story parking garage. I didn’t realize it was so high. The stairs are like a fire escape on the outside of the building, and it got a little hairy up on the top floors when I was breathing heavily and hanging on to the railing closest to the wall.

I finally had to acknowlege that the hotel food was way too much volume and too many calories. I had to tell myself, “Even if you paid for it, you don’t have to eat all of it.” Getting over that idea was a big deal.

Since I don’t gamble, even for entertainment, I was able to justify paying to go to the spa. It’s a place where people go for manicures and massages, and where the walls and ceilings are mirrored and the trim is done in wood tones. The ambience is quiet and sedate. There was a pitcher of ice water for guests that had slices of lemon and cucumber in it. It was not your ordinary power lifting gym by any means.

But I was on a mission and I went twice. The first time, I wanted to do a long session at a 125 heart rate or so. I started at 5:50 p.m. and at 7:00 they told me the spa was closing. Two days later I went in and did three intervals–one at a 138 heart rate for ten minutes, another at 145 for five minutes and the last for three minutes at 153.

I don’t know what my weight is because I did not go into the locker room where the scale was. I know that I have gained a few pounds. But not many.

I started to get control of the situation once I realized that serving sizes were twice what I needed and adapted to that. As far as exercise, it’s been the first time I ever set out with the intention of walking as far as I could for an hour. I had to take side trips so I wouldn’t draw attention to myself as the guy who was coming around the block again. But it was enjoyable as I saw a lot more of the place than I otherwise would have.

Once we reach San Diego, we will be in a more stable environment and I’m sure losing weight will be much easier then.

I wasn’t able to plan the exercise portion of this trip ahead of time because we had to get here as fast as we could. But I’ve found that I can adapt and maintain my weight even under unplanned conditions.

It’s been a great learning experience. There have been obstacles in the way of my continuing the weight loss program. But I feel I’ve adjusted well and I am more convinced than ever that I will succeed in losing 39 pounds in 39 weeks.

Alan Wong, Awards

We Already Knew It But Now It’s Official: Alan Wong’s Restaurant is Great

Richard Ha writes:

Gourmet magazine has just ranked Alan Wong’s Restaurant in Honolulu as the Eighth Best Restaurant in America. That’s on its most recent list of the America’s Top 50 Restaurants, which it publishes every five years.

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That’s pretty impressive, but Chef Alan—who uses Hamakua Springs tomatoes and lettuces at his restaurants—treats his farmers like they are the ones who are the celebrities. When Tracy and Kimo, the next generation of Hamakua Springs farmers, went to eat at his restaurant on O‘ahu recently, they were treated like celebrities.

The respect Chef Alan shows for the farm products we provide his restaurants has a big impact around here. Our people on the farm want to do a better job knowing that Chef Alan will handle our products in such a spectacular way.

When June and I attended the Tomato Fest in Carmel recently, we brought back some incredible new varieties of heirloom tomatoes. We cannot wait to harvest them and bring them to Chef Alan.

Recently, Chef Alan invited me to sit in on a product development meeting with his staff. They were discussing lettuce, and I learned a lot about how important every lettuce leaf is. I pay attention now to each leaf in every salad I eat, and all because of the attention that Chef Alan pays to our products. He truly makes us better farmers.

We know that being named Eighth Best Restaurant in America is a big deal. And we know that Chef Alan makes us farmers want to do the best job we can do. For that, he’s number one in our book.

Current Affairs, Lettuce

Lettuce Reassure You

Richard Ha writes:

It’s no secret that E. coli and spinach have been in the news recently. News stories about the recent spinach recall have been making me think about how Hamakua Springs Country Farms came to be Food Safety Certified, and how we always try to prepare for the future.

More than 15 years ago, when we started to expand our banana operation, we knew that being environmentally friendly was the right thing to do. And so we set out to make sure we operated that way. In 1992, we were the first banana farm in the world to be certified “Eco O.K.” by the Rainforest Alliance, the world’s largest third-party certifying environmental organization.

Next, we were certified as a “sustainable farm” by The Food Alliance, a sustainable certification organization from the Pacific Northwest. Later, our company was one of six finalists for the national Patrick Madden award, a sustainable farming award sponsored by the USDA.

About four years ago we applied to get our banana operation “food safety certified.” We were not required to do this; we just knew it was the right thing to do. To be food safety certified, there were approximately 60 line items to address in each of the growing and processing operations. Each time we are recertified, the requirements are stricter. We have learned from this and become better operators.

When we started our hydroponic tomato operation four years ago, we already knew what critical food safety points needed to be addressed. Most of the line items in being food safety certified for tomatoes were similar to what we already followed for our banana operation. Though we wanted to be sure to address the fact that people eat tomato skins, which the Food Safety certification does cover.

Two years ago, we started planning to grow lettuce and other leafy greens. Because we have experience in food safety issues, we were able to plan and implement a system that specifically addresses growing lettuce, herbs and spinach. Basically, all the food safety issues pertaining to growing tomatoes also apply to growing leafy greens.

But safety is even more critical with lettuces and similar crops. First, because the leaves are eaten. But also because such plants usually grow in soil, and any microbes found in the soil, or in irrigation water, could readily contaminate the plants. Furthermore, once the plants are contaminated, it is difficult, or even impossible, to decontaminate them in the processing operation.

As we planned our leafy green crops, we were very conscious that since 1995 there had been more than 15 cases of E. coli contaminating leafy vegetables in the mainland U.S. Some knowledgeable people we respect feel such contamination likely comes from contaminated water associated with the cattle industry—mostly irrigation water, flooded fields or even just rain splashing contaminated water onto the edible parts of the plants.

We wanted to avoid the risks associated with contaminated water and contaminated soil. That’s why we chose to grow our lettuce and similar crops hydroponically, using sanitized water, sterile growing media and overhead covers that protect against rain splash.

We started two years ago. It was not easy, largely because it was a new system that we had to develop on the fly, and it isn’t the cheapest way to grow crops. But this method of growing gives us the level of comfort we need for our customers and ourselves.

Obviously, we do not much like the idea of being dragged kicking and screaming into the future. We prefer thinking, planning and preparing for the future ahead of time. Which is what we have done with our leafy green crops.

We are relieved to realize that the extreme safety measures we set up from the start will help us avoid situations like the one now plaguing farmers, and consumers, in central California and beyond. And we continue to scan the horizon to see what might be coming up in the future that we need to focus on right now.

Bananas, Community

Run, Then Eat Bananas

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Besides the supermarkets, our bananas sometimes find their way to some interesting places.

Such as the ones we donate to the annual Kilauea Volcano Runs. Every summer, up at the 4000-foot elevation of Kilauea Volcano within the Hawai‘i Volcanoes National Park, people gather from Hawai‘i, the mainland U.S. and other countries to participate in what has become the state’s largest trail run.

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The runs started modestly more than 20 years ago when a Hawai‘i Volcanoes National Park ranger wanted to “toughen up” his staff by having them run in the back country. And it is “back country”—still, runners find themselves climbing crater walls and crossing dirt trails, cooled lava fields, the Ka‘u Desert’s sand, tropical rainforest and more.

These days, more than 1000 people participate each year in what’s sometimes called “Athletes for the Arts.” That’s because the runs benefit the many arts, cultural and educational programs offered by the non-profit Volcano Art Center. The VAC also donates artwork as prizes for top finishers.

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There are three different races. The Volcano Marathon, considered “the world’s toughest measured marathon,” encompasses rough, uneven terrain, stark lava fields and 1000-foot elevation changes. Race information warns that runners should have trained on trails, or have participated in trail running events, and should be able to finish in 7 hours and 30 minutes. “Add one hour to your best time to see if you can meet this requirement,” paperwork warns.

The 10-mile “Kilauea Rim Rum” circles the summit caldera of Kilauea, mostly following its rim. Runners cross rugged pahoehoe lava, pass steam vents and cinder cones, and traverse beautiful wooded trails amidst birdsong.

The 5-mile Kilauea Caldera Run & Walk—the only run that allows walkers—takes runners past steam vents along the caldera’s edge, down into the caldera and along its pahoehoe lava floor, and then out again through the high-elevation rainforest.

Afterwards, participants visit the refreshment tent where they pick up their finisher t-shirts and some rejuvenative snacks. Besides Hamakua Springs Country Farms bananas, there are papaya, potato chips, cookies and other goodies, as well as water and juice. And then it’s on to the awards ceremony.

Maybe, when Richard loses some more weight, we could bully him into registering for one of the Kilauea Volcano Runs. I wonder if he would try to sneak his bike in. – posted by Leslie Lang

Food and Drink, Tomatoes

Where To Have Your Own ‘Tomato Fest’

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When Richard told me about the heirloom tomato sampler that Hilo Bay Café serves—it’s made with several types of Hamakua Springs heirlooms—I had to see it for myself.

30_mos_chef_joshua_closeup_2 If you don’t live around here and haven’t eaten at Hilo Bay Café, the restaurant itself a good enough reason to come visit. Classy but casual, full bar, great food with an emphasis on local produce, local, free-range grass-fed beef and organic ingredients (even the bottle of Heinz ketchup on the table says “organic”—who knew!). It’s an easy-going, elegant and delicious place to eat.

But not only are the ingredients above par, so are the resulting dishes. Joshua Ketner, executive chef since the restaurant opened three years ago, struggled to describe the food in only a few words.

“It’s an eclectic blend of Island ingredients,” he told me, “as well as American and French, with undertones of Japanese. The dishes themselves are more new age. Some are traditional with a new twist. We call it ‘Good Food.’” 30_mos_chef_josh_3

Richard and June, who like “good food,” are regulars. One time they brought in samples of their heirloom tomatoes and Chef Joshua loved them.

He ordered more and started serving them, very simply presented, as a sampler platter. “I didn’t want to disguise the flavor of the tomatoes,” he said, “because they’re so good. I tasted them straight, and they were just great by themselves. I like to bring out the flavors instead of putting in a lot of ingredients to mask the vegetables.”

The special appetizer, normally served at dinnertime (but thank you again, Chef Josh, for making it for me yesterday at lunchtime) consists of thick wedges from different heirlooms—all beautiful, different and very tasty. They are served on a platter with a small mound of deep red ‘alae salt from Kaua‘i, for dipping, and another of cracked black pepper.

30_mos_tomato_sampler_long_4It’s a beautiful presentation. The thick cuts of the very different tomatoes are capped off with a couple Hamakua Sweets—the tiny, tear-shaped tomatoes from Hamakua Springs that are, truly, so sweet they taste like they have sugar on them. In a very, very good way.

I brought Emma Rose, my 2-1/2 year old tomato aficionado, along with me to the restaurant to help me taste. This girl knows her tomatoes. You might remember her eating a Green Zebra heirloom like it was an apple back when she was much younger.

She did not disappoint. She pulled that platter over to her side of the table and got busy. She dipped tomatoes in the salt and ate, sometimes with one tomato in each hand. She tried every piece, and made them look as delicious as they were. I finally realized I needed to stop taking pictures and get in there before they were gone. I’m glad I did.

From the yellow tomato on the end, that’s the Striped German variety, the Red Brandywine, the Purple Cherokee, the Lemon Boy and a Green Zebra. The tiny red tomatoes are the Hamakua Sweets.

Chef Josh said he also serves the Hamakua Sweets in his tofu dish. The tofu is baked in balsamic vinegar. Then he caramelizes some Kekela Farms fennel, then adds the Hamakua Sweets, some spinach and some basil pesto. That’s served with the tofu and topped with some feta cheese. Sounds like I’ll have to go back.

Richard, an heirloom tomato enthusiast who just returned from a whole festival devoted to them, loves that Chef Josh presents the heirlooms so simply. 30_mos_tomato_sampler_3

“He has enough confidence in his ability to just let the tomatoes do what they do,” he said. “To let the tomato just sit and shine by itself. I thought that was great. I think a lot of him. I think he’s a real artist.”

An older Japanese woman, who told me she used to have a guava farm at Hakalau, not far from Pepe‘ekeo where Hamakua Springs is located, sat at the table next to us with her granddaughter and marveled at our platter of beautiful tomatoes. I told her I was taking photos for Hamakua Springs, who grows the heirlooms, and she knew about Hamakua Springs: “Their tomatoes are just beautiful,” she said. “Tell them we like their produce.”

Richard, they like your produce. Emma Rose and I, and a lot of other people, do too. — posted by Leslie Lang

Food and Drink, Losing Weight

Catching Up

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Richard Ha writes:

I’m over 200 lbs., just barely.

Today’s weight: 200.3 lbs.
This week’s target weight was 197.6 lbs.
I am 2.7 lbs. behind schedule.
But I weigh 6.1 lbs. less than when we got back from the mainland Wednesday evening.

Starting weight on 5/23/06: 214.6 lbs. 
End goal, on 2/18/07: 175 lbs. 
Since 5/23, I have lost 14.3 lbs.

On 5/23, my resting heart rate was 65 beats per minute. 
Today’s resting heart rate: 54 beats per minute. *

* This goes down as one gets into better shape. Lance Armstrong’s is said to be 32. George W’s was reported to be 47 beats per minute. Out of shape, mine is in the 70s. My best was 52 many years ago.

My goals: To lose one pound per week for 39 weeks, and to get my resting heart rate below 50 beats per minute.

***

I didn’t report my weight this past Sunday because we were in Carmel for the annual Tomato Fest and I did not have easy access to a scale. My mission there? To taste test all the heirloom tomatoes I could, as well as all the tomato dishes served up by 60 of the area’s top chefs. I was not going to hold back on the samplings. I expected that I would gain a lot of weight.

And I did.

We arrived back in Hilo on Wednesday afternoon and went to dinner at the Sunlight Cafe, where I had rack of lamb. The minute we got home I went straight to our accurate-to-one-tenth-of-a-pound scale to weigh myself.

Vacations, especially eating vacations, are hard on the weight loss program. I was “scheduled” to be at 197.6 lbs. but I weighed in at 206.4 lbs. I calculated that I was 30,800 calories behind!

I was surprised, but not as horrified as you might think. I’d been expecting the worse, and had simply made up my mind ahead of time that I’d catch up back home by using a combination of training and portion control.

I’m starting to realize that it is not as simple as one pound equaling 3,500 calories. It appears that months of exercising have increased my metabolism. It seems easier to lose weight now, as long as I am willing to cut back on calorie intake—food.

By resuming my exercise schedule, and cutting back on portion size at every meal, I lost 6.1 lbs. When I first weighed myself back home, it was right after the rack of lamb dinner at the Sunlight Café. This is the time of day that I expect to weigh the most; normally I weigh myself early in the mornings. So I think that adjusted for time, I might have actually lost four pounds in three days.

Since I knew that I was not starved for nutrition, I skipped breakfast on Friday and then had a Quaker Oats “Weight Control” instant oatmeal breakfast for lunch. I notice it fills you up more than regular oatmeal.

For dinner I ate a large lettuce, tomato, Japanese cucumber and sweet onion salad with crumbled blue cheese, olive oil and balsamic vinegar. On Saturday, I had the Weight Control oatmeal for breakfast and then a large salad with oil and vinegar dressing for lunch.

For dinner Saturday, we went to Rodrigo and Charlotte’s house. I had a beer and ate everything, including flan for dessert. It was made from Rodrigo’s mom’s recipe and was delicious. Flan is sort of like custard, only better.

I’m eating everything, but in moderation.

As for exercise: On Friday, I exercised for 25 minutes at a heart rate of 128 and another ten minutes at 138. This is aerobic and as far as I want to push it; I’m being careful not to over train. On Saturday, I spent 40 minutes on the elliptical at a heart rate of 112 or so. I’m very conscious that this is supposed to be active rest.

Weighing in on Sunday morning, I’m down to 200.3 lbs.

I plan to do active rest for 40 minutes, at 112 heart rate, for the next couple days. When I feel ready, I’ll do an interval session. The plan is to reduce calorie intake—food—and do two interval training sessions per week and then active rest for the other days.

Together with reducing calorie intake, I’m pretty sure the pounds will melt away.

Tomatoes, Travel

I Say Tomato…

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Richard Ha writes:

I’ve had a strong interest in heirloom tomatoes since we grew our first ones a couple years ago. They were far and away tastier than any of the regular tomatoes. And heirlooms hold together better.

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I was fascinated by the fact that there were several hundred varieties of heirloom tomatoes, and I wanted to grow the best of the best. But where to start? When we first heard about the Tomato Fest at Carmel, California—and that it was all about heirloom tomatoes—we had to come and see what was up.

We have not been disappointed.

We arrived at the Quail Lodge in Carmel Valley Sunday an hour and a half before the gates opened and a lot of people were already there. The shuttle buses were running and there was a line waiting to get in.

The event is a charitable fund raiser for the Chef and Child Foundation, a project of the American Culinary Federation. Some consider it Central California’s best annual food and wine event. We bought VIP tickets because in addition to contributing to the good cause, we wanted an opportunity to check out the many different heirloom tomato varieties.

Gary_ibsen_2And that way we got to meet the Tomato Fest director Gary Ibsen and his wife Dagma Lacey, too. Gary started the Tomato Fest 15 years ago as a way for family and friends to celebrate the season’s tomato harvest, and it has since grown to 3,000 participants.

The VIP tent was buzzing by 11:30, an hour before start time, and there was a line for wine and a double line for samplings of tomato dishes. We got a glass of wine and sat down next to a guy wearing a Poipu Beach shirt. He was from Hawai‘i, in town to attend his third Tomato Fest and to golf.

Musicians kept the mood in the VIP tent upbeat. We each received a tray that holds the souvenir wine glass and pupu so one hand is free.

Lines_of_tomatoes_1We were allowed into the display area a little ahead of the 12:30 start time and headed straight for the heirloom tomato sampling tent. The large tent was devoted entirely to the display and tasting of heirloom tomatoes. Not to sound like a Dr. Seuss book, but there truly were big ones, little ones, green ones, purple ones, red ones, white ones, yellow with stripe ones, round ones, long ones and everything in between ones.

Tables were set up around the perimeter and tomatoes were displayed on a continuous line so people could sample and keep moving. Each was displayed on an upside-down plastic glass, which served as a pedestal that showed off the whole fruit. On the platter below were small cubed pieces to taste with a toothpick.

Richard_tastesWhen we got there, no one had yet sampled any tomatoes yet and the display was perfect. The tomatoes were of all shapes, sizes and many different colors. I took more than 50 pictures of the more than 200 different varieties on display and sampled even more.

When the gates opened up it was a madhouse—people were trying to taste as much as they could and as fast as they could. It was very interesting listening in on conversations of non-farmers talking about heirloom tomatoes. I can’t imagine any other type of tomato generating this much interest. I sense that interest is building in Hawai‘i, as well, and we want to bring to Hawai‘i the very best varieties we can find.

Once we finished with the variety tasting, we visited the three tents with the chefs’ creations. The chefs did a great job creating their dishes and it was apparent that they put a lot of effort into it.

Tomato_shootersThere was a tomato tower, made of carmelized onions and slices of different colored cocktail-sized heirloom tomatoes. Another tasted suspiciously like Kalua pig and heirloom tomatoes served on a toasted cracker. The tomato sorbet was surprisingly good: refreshing with a hint of basil, and leeks sauteed with something sweet and tasty underneath.

We had a tomato shooter made up of yellow lemon boy tomato soup with a red heirloom tomato soup on top. The instructions read: “Sip the red soup and notice the burn, and then drink the rest of the lemon boy soup with syrup to top it off.” It was very good.

There was a slab of heirloom tomato that was red, flecked throughout with yellow, something like a striped German heirloom tomato. It looked like a 10-pound slab of ahi.

The chef made smaller squares about an inch and a half square served on a toothpick. I don’t have a clue how he did it. It tasted like heirloom tomatoes with basil and was delicious. Cherokee_purple_6

We went from station to station. It moved very rapidly and was a stream-of-consciousness kind of thing. I looked forward to finding out, at each station, how I would be surprised yet again. It was a spectacular tasting event.

The whole area was as big as maybe three or four football fields. In the middle, there was a sit-down area of 30 or 40 tables. Along the sides were specialty tents with some of the commercial tomato-grower sponsor booths, wine tasting booths with wines from the Monterey area, olive oil from local orchards as well as other products. There was a stage and a live band that kept people jumping all day with songs like “Lucille.” We stopped at the fried green tomato booth. Maybe something for our fruit stand/snack bar?

Farmers_marketThere was a Farmers Market booth where people could buy a basket of mixed varieties of heirloom tomatoes. The mixed basket looked so farm fresh. This is decidedly different from the all-same look of commercial tomatoes.

People were paying close attention to a chef preparing a tomato dish from a mini-cooking stage. Close by was a souvenir tent selling t-shirts, baseball caps and other things. I got several Tomato Fest baseball caps and June got some t-shirts.

The influence of the Tomato Fest is pretty evident. We had lunch at a small cafe at the Barnyard Shopping Center in Carmel and there were heirloom tomatoes on the salad bar. Heirlooms were also served in salads in place of regular tomatoes.

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That evening we had dinner at Fisherman’s Wharf in Monterey and noticed heirloom tomatoes in the regular salad there as well. I commented to the waiter that we had come from the Tomato Fest and he said that he just recently started eating tomatoes; and that it was only because he tasted heirloom tomatoes and liked them. Before that he had hated tomatoes.

I feel that heirloom tomatoes could be very popular in Hawai‘i. When we get home, we’ll start to increase our supply and see what we can do about bringing heirloom tomatoes to the masses.

Losing Weight

On The Road

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Richard Ha writes:

We are in Carmel, California right now for the Tomato Fest.

Normally on Sundays, I weigh myself at 8 a.m. and post the week’s results. However, I don’t have access to a scale here, or exercise equipment. Plus I’m going to need to taste as many tomato dishes as I can. There are going to be 60 chefs with dishes to sample and around 200 varieties of heirloom tomatoes.

I have no intention of holding back on trying whatever looks interesting. I’ll deal with the consequences later.

I plan to see where my weight loss program is at when we get home, and I’ll post about it next Sunday.

My resting heart rate is 54. Last week it was 52. A few beats either way is expected and so this is not indicative of a trend yet. I think the low 50s is good since I started out being too heavy to run. I have had to find other ways to exercise. An elliptical trainer and a mountain bike work for me. It appears that intensity—high heart rate training—is key to a lower heart rate.

I am now 61 years old, and I don’t feel any limitations in terms of accomplishing high levels of fitness just because of age. The challenge is to find the right combination of exercise and rest that will keep one improving at an optimum rate.

One of the reasons I know I can keep improving is because I’ve been doing a few dumbbell exercises with cardio all along. And now I can do dumbbell curls with heavier weights, and more reps and sets, than when I was into powerlifting.

I feel that a muscle is a muscle. They all work the same way. Just don’t overtrain.

I have some early observations on my ambitious 30-minute exercise plan, which involves different levels of intensity three times per week plus low level exercise on the other four days.

It is much harder than it appears. It seems that I cannot recover fast enough to stay on the three times per week schedule at a high intensity. I am thinking of modifying it so it’s an intense interval program twice per week, with the remaining days accumulating 500 calories at a low level—below 70 percent of max heart rate.

I think this can be done, because I was successful at power lifting by doing one intense training day per week for the major lifts. That, too, was a situation where it took a long time to recover. At that time, like now, the major caution was to avoid overtraining.

After the Tomato Fest, we plan to take a leisurely coastline drive from Carmel to Santa Maria, where we will visit our friend Judy Lundberg and her family. Judy owns Babe’ Farms, which is one of the premier specialty vegetable farms in the nation. I’ll tell you more about our trip on Wednesday.

Family News, Health

Through the Window

After we did that post about his mom the other day, Richard and I got to talking. I was saying how much I admire Mrs. Ha’s commitment to stay fit vs. letting herself get creaky and “old.”

And then Richard told me a great story. He said he picked his mother up one morning a few years ago, when she was in her late 70s, and she told him she’d locked herself out of the house the night before.

He asked her how she got in. It turns out she rolled over an empty 55-gallon drum and climbed up on it so she could climb in the house through the window.

I have a similar story about my grandmother. She, too, was in her late 70s when, one day, there was a big earthquake here in Hilo. I was living in California then, but I heard about it on the news the next day and I called to ask her about it.

“Where were you when it happened?” I asked.

She and her sister had found themselves locked out of her sister’s house, she told me, and she was climbing in through a window. She was halfway through the window when the earthquake hit.

I love two things about that story. One, that she was still climbing through windows in her late 70s. And two, that it was no big deal to her and I wouldn’t even have known about it except for that earthquake.

Richard’s mom Florence just ordered a lawn mower, the old-fashioned push kind. She purposely got that kind because she wants to get some exercise when she mows the lawn. Pretty impressive for someone who’s about to turn 83. May we all take such good care of ourselves in our later years (or now!), and do as well.

P.S. Check out our friend Sonia Martinez’s new food blog, especially her post about Richard’s tomatoes and her recipe for roasted tomato sauce.

Bananas, Our Employees, Video

Watch Us Harvest Bananas

Richard Ha writes:

Several years ago, the owner of a large, organic produce distributor visited us from Tokyo to explore whether we could supply bananas to Japan. He was soft-spoken and reserved. We had dinner with him and his interpreter, and he was so formal that I felt a little uncomfortable wearing my shorts at dinner. We arranged to show him our banana farming operation the following day.

As we showed him the banana packing operation, we explained about our sustainable farming methods as well as our food safety procedures, but we couldn’t tell whether we made a favorable impression or not.

Then we demonstrated how we harvest bananas. We stood at the road alongside our rows of bananas and watched as our harvester Albert notched the banana tree so it would bend over just right, placing most of the banana bunch weight on his shoulder. Then he cut the bunch off and carried it to the trailer. Up to that point, it was a routine demonstration.

But then Albert went back to cut the tree down and move its pieces so they’d be out of the way of the fertilizer tractor.

Our banana trees are very healthy and their trunks are as thick as a man’s torso. The standard tool used to harvest bananas is a razor-sharp machete with a two-foot blade.

Albert swung his machete once and cut the tree completely off, and then on the back swing he chopped it in two more pieces before it hit the ground.

Unexpectedly, our quiet, reserved guest yelled, raised his arms and leapt completely off the ground. Glancing at him, I instantly guessed what he saw–a samurai warrior swinging his sword cleanly through the enemy.

That’s what banana harvesters are like: Samurai warriors.

Only certain people can be banana harvesters. It’s not necessarily the biggest, strongest or baddest person who will become a successful banana harvester. It’s the person who has the most determination and mental toughness. I’ve seen lots of big, strong and mean guys over the years who just could not handle the job. A successful banana harvester doesn’t give up just because the job is hard. He has much more pride than that.

Watch our Harvest Superviser Radley Victorino harvest a bunch of bananas in this video (above), and notice how he positions the bunch on his shoulder. When he swings and cuts the bunch off the tree, he doesn’t flinch at the weight of that bunch dropping onto him—though that bunch probably weighs more than a hundred pounds.

Banana harvesting is by far the most physically demanding job on the farm. Good harvesters, like Radley, make it look easy. It’s not easy at all.

To help, we’ve invented a system where our banana harvesters walk only an average of seven steps with a bunch on his back. In Central America, it’s common for banana harvesters to carry the heavy bunches 100 feet or more. We’ve also designed our trailers so the harvesters don’t have to bend forward too much to put the bunch down. And we use a winch system to lift the bunches off the trailer.

The deal with the Japanese importer didn’t come to fruition, but it gave me a great new way of thinking about our harvesters–as Samurai.

No matter how you cut it, so to speak, you have to be tough to be a banana harvester. I’m proud to have been the original banana harvester more than 25 years ago. That’s how come I know what a difficult job it is, and it’s why I have such enormous respect for our banana harvesters.