Television

Avon Calling

Diane Ley, of the County’s Research and Development branch, asked if I would do an interview with Howard Dicus for a segment of the public television program PBN Friday. I thought it might be related to June and me receiving a Best Farmer award at the Hawaii Agriculture Conference this Thursday.

Here is the information I got from Howard Dicus:

“The PBS Hawaii studios are at the corner of Dole and University, across from the UH campus….It would be good if they could arrive by 9 a.m., which will leave plenty of time for them to get their TV make-up on before we start taping. The make-up lady will also REMOVE the TV make-up after the taping if they don’t want to go around town looking like movie stars.

“I’m working on the script for the all-food show, and as it stands now it opens with Andy Hashimoto, who has separately confirmed, then Richard Ha will be on second, Joan Namkoong third, and chef Ming Tsai on the couch. I’m treating Ha, at least for purposes of beginning the segment, as a representative example of the Big Island farmer who raises a number of crops.”

As soon as I got the instructions I started preparing mentally. Many years ago, when I did a TV presentation with Dr Jack Fujii, former Dean of the College of Agriculture at the UH Hilo, I had a bad experience. I had diligently prepared for the presentation, but the red light on the live camera blindsided me.

That time it was as if a million people were staring at me through the lens below the red light. And to my horror, I had found my mouth jogging ahead of my brain. I had no idea what I was talking about and I was sure I was sweating profusely.

I wanted to be sure this wouldn’t happen again, so this time I prepared myself for that red light. At first I imagined that behind the lens there would be an average person wearing boxer shorts, no shirt and a three-day-old stubble. This, I thought, would be an easy person to relate to. But then the thought popped into my mind that that guy’s family kitty might be named “Spike.” Suddenly that image seemed unpredictable and possibly unreliable, and I worried it might make me start sweating again.

So instead I imagined a nice couple with two young children, two doggies and a kitty named “Kitty.” I practiced on my flight over to O‘ahu by imagining the “Fasten Seat Belt” light was the red light on top of the camera. After a few tries, I realized I would have no problems with this nice family and with the red light. I was very comfortable.

TV

But then I started worrying about the makeup—would they ask me to put on lipstick? No way, I thought. I don’t do lipstick. But it might really help our farm if I made a good impression on public television, I thought, so maybe colored ChapStick would be okay. But no lipstick. Absolutely not.

I found the PBS station, no problem. And soon after arriving it was my turn for makeup. I asked Dean Hashimoto, the Dean of the University of Hawai‘i’s College of Tropical Agriculture, to take a picture of me getting made up. The last time I remember putting on makeup was when I was in the fourth grade and they made my cheeks red for a Christmas play. I’m pretty sure this might be the last time I ever get made up.

Dean Hashimoto was up first and he spoke about the College of Ag and its programs. I remember that he did a really good job.

Then it was my turn to be interviewed. I wanted to talk about sustainability, our close partnership with Chef Alan Wong, how we would not be anything without our wonderful employees, our Food Safety certification and more. But the absolute only thing I remember about the interview was what Howard Dicus told me before it started: “Before you know it, it’s over.”

He was right. Before I knew it, it was over and I didn’t remember one thing I said. Not one thing.

(It airs on Friday, November 24 at 7:30 p.m. on PBS Hawai‘i, by the way, if you want to see what I said. I know I do.)

I walked off and Joan Namkoong went on. I remember that she talked about her cookbook and the Kapi‘olani Farmers Market and she did great.

And then it was all over. The only thing left to do was have the makeup person remove the makeup–unless I wanted to walk around looking like a movie star. I thought, Hmm, I could walk around looking like a movie star? And I walked out the door.

It didn’t take me any time at all to realize that no one noticed or cared. I got a phone call, and afterward I realized the makeup might have smeared, leaving me with a dirty face. This must be what women worry about. This is more than I wanted to know about makeup.

So to recap, I met an imaginary nice family on the other side of the red light, I learned something about wearing makeup, and there was absolutely nothing in between. Very interesting day.

Losing Weight

More Jetting

I’m in San Diego for the Produce Marketing Association trade show. I arrived Saturday evening, 8 p.m. West Coast time. I missed dinner and went to the fitness center at 11 p.m. where I did 30 minutes of cardio and 30 minutes of dumbbell work.

Today, Sunday, I missed lunch because there was so much to see at the tradeshow. At 11 p.m. I did another 30 minutes of cardio and 30 minutes of dumbbells.

Monday is the last day of show. I plan to do a good workout and then fly out Tuesday morning, arriving back in Hilo late Tuesday with enough time to do 30 minutes of cardio and 30 minutes of weight lifting. I forgot to mention that I signed up for a year at Spencers Gym. I have enough motivation to do cardio and weight lifting.

I’m feeling pretty good about controlling the weight. I feel like I may have even lost a pound or two. But there’s no scale here to monitor. I will report my weight gain or loss this coming Sunday.

Travel

Farm Friends

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We visited our friend Judy Lundberg, President and CEO of Babe’ Farms, while we were in Carmel last month attending the Tomato Fest.

We first met Judy during a trade show at the Blaisdell Center in Honolulu where we were doing side-by-side product demos in the Armstrong Produce booth. We were offering cocktail tomato samples and they were handing out baby lettuce salad with her special dressing. They had the most beautiful selection of specialty vegetables, such as multi-colored real baby carrots, radishes, multi-colored cauliflower and baby lettuces.

judy-and-june

Judy, who is of Portuguese descent, was very interested in the history of the Portuguese in Hawai‘i, which she hadn’t known about. She and June, also Portuguese, were like long-lost sisters, and we’ve since kept in touch. (That’s Judy on the left and June on the right.)

So after the Tomato Fest last month, we drove south from Carmel along the coast highway. This is one of the most scenic drives you can imagine. It’s like the stretch of road on O‘ahu between Hanauma Bay and Makapu‘u beach—single lane in either direction and winding along the edge of sea cliffs.

In my rear view mirror I noticed a brand new Porsche 911 Cabriolet rapidly catching up to us. It reminded me of when I was a U.S. Army 2d lieutenant stationed at Fort Ord, a few miles south of Monterey. I loved to go through the gears driving that stretch of road in my 62 ‘Vette with the top off. I pulled over and waved the Porsche by so he didn’t have to slow down. It made me smile.

The road runs under tall pine trees and passes through small towns and then winds again along the sea coast. One can occasionally see islands of rock peaking through the fog pressing in from the ocean. On those rocks, one can imagine seals and sea lions stretched out among the colonies of sea gulls. Was that a pirate ship receding into the mist? Couldn’t really tell.

Coming around a downhill curve, there is a nice view of rugged coastline. Floating on top of the water’s slowly rising and falling surface are long ribbons of flat seaweed. The air smells like salt and seaweed. And the fog constantly presses toward the shore.

purple

Babe’ Farms is one of the nation’s premier specialty produce farms. It’s located in Santa Maria, in the northern part of Santa Barbara County, which is a very special place.

Unlike at most places along the coast, the mountain range in Santa Maria runs east and west. This allows the fog to roll in and moderate that valley’s mini-climate, which allows Babe’ Farms to grow crops year-round.

We drove to the Babe’ Farms office where we chatted with Judy for a bit. Then her son Jeff, who is the farm’s vice president and operations manager, took us on a tour. Jeff told us they grow a wide variety of specialty crops and take great care to provide the freshest product possible. They take orders in the morning and by the afternoon the product is harvested, packed and shipped. It is truly a finely-tuned operation.

with-boxes

Compared to our farm, this is a large operation. And it’s a very well-run one. The supervisors are very professional, knowledgeable and obviously took great pride in their work. And they should be proud of the product they sell. They take great pains to ensure that their product is the freshest and safest it can possibly be. It was very impressive to see their operation.

The cleanliness and attention to food safety struck me everywhere we went. Their water comes from underground wells, and their packing operation is spotless. Everyone wears hair nets and gloves. It’s so clean inside the packing house it’s like a hospital operating room.cookout

That evening we went to Judy’s home for an authentic Santa Maria-style cookout. We went out back and Jeff did the barbeque. They had specially-cut steaks that looked three inches thick. I had never seen steaks so thick. Judy bought linguica, Portuguese sausage, which impressed June and me.

Jeff grilled halved jalapeno peppers stuffed with blue cheese and black pepper, and some garlic bread. He said you have to be sure to scrape the seeds out before stuffing the Jalapenos, unless you prefer them hot. We relaxed and chatted on the patio while picking on the linguica and the stuffed jalapenos.

Even their grill was very impressive. It is made of heavy-duty steel and obviously made for serious grilling. It has a crank to raise and lower the grill, which stays right where you put it. It lets you either cook or keep the food warm as you chat and sip wine. Very nice.

Farm Friends

We went inside for dinner and ate the thickest and best steaks I’ve ever eaten. June and I really enjoyed the visit and so appreciated the time that Judy and her staff spent with us. We’re farmers too, and know how hectic the farming business can be.

Our hotel, the Radisson, was near the Santa Maria airport and so near the runway we could look down on the planes taking off. The morning after the barbecue dinner we even saw the Goodyear blimp taking off.

Eleven people, each holding a rope, guided the blimp onto the runway. We thought a blimp takes off by going straight up like a hot air balloon. It doesn’t. It actually takes off heading down a runway with a lawn mower-sounding engine and a small propeller pushing it along. After a hundred feet or so, the nose starts to rise and it takes off—actually, it kind of floats off.

That morning we drove down to Santa Barbara. Jeff had told us that strawberry growers moving up from Los Angeles had cause farmland rents there to double. He also said that vineyards were coming in and replacing cattle land along the slopes. We saw lots and lots of new vineyards on the hillsides as we made our way south.

Mark Shishido, wine director for Alan Wong’s restaurant, had told me that the cooling fog creates a micro-climate that makes the Santa Maria region well known for its good wines. He also said that its high pH soils give the wines a sense of place.

From a farmer’s point of view, I know that the mild climate would also give consistency. I look forward to trying Santa Maria’s red wines. Due to the mild climate there, I feel that when I find one I like, it more than likely will be consistent from year to year.

Santa Barbara itself is like a resort town. We had to drive out on the famous pier and walk around. Driving back, we noticed two Hawaiian outrigger canoes pulled up on the sandy beach.

Then we walked around at the town’s outdoor shopping mall. It’s how Ala Moana shopping center would look if it was spread around Ala Moana Park so it was all outdoors. Very nice and relaxing. No wonder Frank Sinatra used to live there.

It was a very nice trip.

Losing Weight

Toys ‘R Us

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I am starting a new weight loss/exercise cycle. During the five weeks we were on the mainland, we ate every meal out. This meant I was not able to lose any weight, and I fell five pounds behind in my weight loss plan.

The good news is that I didn’t gain any weight. And that overall I’ve already lost 15 pounds.

Instead of trying to catch up to my original weight loss goal and stressing myself out, I decided to start a new cycle. It’s all about feeling good about what you do, right? And since I’m the one making the rules, why not change the rules and be happy?

My new goals: To lose one pound per week for 15 weeks, and to lower my resting heart rate below 50 beats per minute.

One might think that the best measure of success is how I stay on the weight loss schedule. And that is a good measure.

But I think that lowering my resting heart rate below 50 is actually a more meaningful measure of success–I don’t want to be skinny yet out of shape. The heart is just another muscle. To lower your resting heart rate you need to strengthen the heart by doing physical training.

I enjoy reading about training principles and tweaking them to fit my age and situation. And, of course, I need the most modern measuring devices (toys) to accomplish these goals.

A while ago, I told June I needed a compass watch for the farm, in order to be able to track wind and sun direction. I also needed an altimeter to measure the elevation of the spring source for the farm. And a barometer to anticipate change in weather. All for the farm, of course.

But I thought I might as well get the watch that can also measure heart rate, so I could graph my training by transferring the data to the computer via an infrared device. Unfortunately, the watch I bought has capabilities beyond my ability to utilize them. I mainly use the heart rate monitor and read it directly.

helicopter

I bought the same watch for my son Brian, who is an Apache helicopter pilot in Iraq. He does a lot of physical training and has been using it to its maximum potential.

Last night he sent me a graph of a recent 4.5-mile run he did. It graphed time, heart rate and could have graphed elevation change and other details if he wanted. He has his training sessions filed on his computer.

He’s going to teach me how to do this; he’ll walk me through the whole process. I can’t wait.

I need to know how to do these things for the farm.

Current Affairs, Lettuce

Go Ahead, Eat a Salad

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Richard Ha writes:

Lettuce has been in the news, of course, since some of a mainland grower’s produce was recently recalled due to possible E. coli contamination.

Let me tell you what we do at Hamakua Springs to make sure that doesn’t happen here:

First of all, the E. coli bacteria is primarily associated with cattle operations and contaminated irrigation water, as well as field sanitation. There are no cattle operations that compromise our irrigation water. In addition, we regularly check the water we use for E. coli. We have not once tested positive since we started our hydroponic operations.

We also sanitize the water our plants grow in with chlorine, and we sanitize the beds themselves with chlorine after each crop.

Our vegetable crops are grown indoors. This eliminates the possibility of water splashing contaminated soils onto the lettuce, and means our lettuces are never in danger of contamination by flooding. And soon after harvest the lettuces are placed in cold temperatures, which slow down bacterial action.

We don’t use manures or compost when growing our lettuce; instead, we use sterile media.

Our people are instructed in proper hygiene. Anyone with a communicable illness is not allowed to work with the vegetables. They always wear gloves when handling the lettuce.

So go ahead and eat your Hamakua Springs lettuce. You can make yourself and your family a big, healthy Hamakua Springs salad—Chef’s Select baby lettuce maybe, with slices of crisp, crunchy Japanese cucumber and some Hamakua Sweets tomatoes—and eat it in full confidence that we’re on top of things over here.

Community

Flying tomatoes

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Charlotte Romo, who works at the farm, set up a Hamakua Springs Country Farms booth at the St. Joseph’s Country Fair last weekend, with bright, tomato-red balloons, and watched the tomatoes and lettuce practically fly off the table.

She said people would stop in their tracks and rush up to her and ask if these were the same Hamakua Springs as in the stores. “I guess even with the big sign and my Hamakua Springs shirt I still don’t look like a Ha or a Pa,” she joked, referring to the rhyming surnames at the family farm.

Charlotte Romo

When she said yes, and especially when they saw the tomatoes were priced at about half the price they go for at the stores, people scooped them up. It was a good opportunity to let people know, too, where our tomatoes are available: at Foodland, KTA, Safeway, Costco, from wholesalers, or they can call the farm (981-0805).

“I am always impressed by how loyal our customers are,” said Charlotte. “Many people, usually women, tell me that because of the good flavor they will only buy our tomatoes.”

She said a lot of people told her they buy the lettuce and are impressed with how long it stays crisp in the refrigerator (that’s because of how it’s harvested and packed).

By 11:30, she told me, people had wiped her out of tomatoes, lettuce and balloons. “It was a good day visiting with friends and making people happy with good produce, and also raising money for a good cause,” said Charlotte, whose two girls go to St. Joseph’s School. “I want to give big thanks to Richard and family for donating all that wonderful produce for the fair.”

And once the produce was gone, she got to go check out the old-style, small-town country fair. “I had never been to the St. Joseph’s fair,” said the newcomer to Hawai‘i, “but when I mentioned it people’s eyes would glaze over and they would get a smile on their face and say, ‘Malassadas….’”

“I was happy to go early so I could try those famous treats. They were onolicious! Warm, sugary, deep-fried cake. And I wonder why I can’t lose weight.”

It’s a pretty neat fair, with train and pony rides for the young ones, a rock climbing wall and jumping castles, arts and crafts for sale as well as pickles, preserves, lau lau, sushi and baked goods. There was a plant sale, and carnival games, music and good food and more. What a fun, small-town community event to be a part of. — posted by Leslie Lang

Losing Weight

Restructuring

Richard Ha writes:

Today’s weight: 199.3 lbs. 
This week’s target weight was 193.6 lbs.
I am 5.7 lbs. behind schedule.

Starting weight on 5/23/06: 214.6 lbs. 
End goal, on 2/18/07: 175 lbs. 
Since 5/23, I have lost 15.3 lbs.

On 5/23, my resting heart rate was 65 beats per minute. 
Today’s resting heart rate: 65 beats per minute. Recently it was mid-to-low 50’s. This higher heart rate is likely a result of the interval session I did yesterday. I pushed it more than I normally do.

* Heart rate 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 lower my resting heart rate below 50 beats per minute.

* * *

June and I flew to Las Vegas three weeks ago because Grandma became ill and was in the ICU there. Grandma is much better now, and Grandpa and I flew back home yesterday. But Grandma and June are on a cruise ship heading to Hilo right now because Grandma is not able to fly.

We’ve been on the mainland for four of the last six weeks, and losing weight at the one lb. per week rate has been very challenging. Considering that we ate out every meal and did not have easy access to a gym, just keeping the weight off was a major accomplishment.

I accomplished this by being conscious of how much I ate. I never ate all the starch on my plate, whether it was french fries, baked potatoes or rice. A lot of time I chose salads. Most of the time “kiddie meals” were the right size and regular meals were way too much food.

The way I avoided gaining weight, therefore, was by portion control. I didn’t have the opportunity to do a lot of training.

But while I didn’t gain weight, I didn’t lose my pound a week either.

As a result, I have decided to restructure my weight loss program. My new plan is to lose 15 pounds in the next 15 weeks. I will start at 200 pounds and finish this phase weighing 185. After that I will lose 10 pounds in 10 weeks, ending at 175 lbs.

By resuming my exercise program and maintaining a reasonable diet, I’m sure that I will resume losing weight.

I’m confident I could have caught up and accomplished my initial goal of losing 39 pounds in 39 weeks. But why stress? Catching up by losing the 5.7 pounds I am “behind schedule” would add stress to my life. It’s important to me that I make this an enjoyable journey.

How We Do It

Be Gone

1 Comment

Richard Ha writes:

At Hamakua Springs Country Farms, we use techniques of Integrated Pest Management to control insects and plant diseases.

Integrated Pest Management is a program of prevention, monitoring, and control. It lets us drastically reduce or even eliminate the use of pesticides, and also means we minimize the toxicity and exposure of any pesticide products we do use.

Say, for instance, we find an insect tunneling through the tomato leaves, and that there are so many of them the leaves are drying up, causing the tomato plant to shrivel up and die.

First we send an insect sample to the Extension Service office for identification.

Having identified the insect, we learn as much as we can about it, such as its life cycle, enemies, likes and dislikes. Then we figure out how to encourage insects that feed on that pest, while also looking for ways to make it difficult for the pest to grow. If we have to spray, we choose the least toxic chemicals as we know that sooner or later insects become immune to chemical sprays. That’s another reason it’s not good to rely on chemicals alone.

The leaf miner, for instance, tunnels through a tomato leaf and causes yields to decrease drastically. But we know that there’s a tiny wasp that will lay its eggs next to or on the leaf miner larvae, and as the wasp eggs develop into adults they feed on the leaf miner larvae. This is all in miniature, as the leaf miner is about 1/16 of an inch long, while the wasp is approximately 1/8 of an inch.

So our job is to encourage the wasp (by not spraying it with chemicals). After a time, the wasp and the leaf miner will find a balance. At that point the leaf miner will no longer be an economic problem.

This is an example of how we deal with one problem insect at the farm. It’s been a success—leaf miners are no longer a problem for us.

Still, it’s a big leap of faith to go from chemical control to Integrated Pest Management. From time to time, I will write about how we use these methods to control other insects.