Company News

Our Food Safety Certification

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Richard Ha writes:

Hamakua Springs Country Farms was inspected this past Tuesday by Davis Fresh Technologies for its ProSafe Food Safety certification program. This is the independent, third party Food Safety certifier we work with to ensure that we comply with “Good Agricultural Practices.”

This food safety certification is something we do completely voluntarily. It’s not required in our business. It involves a lot of extra work, cost and time but we consider it very important because it results in a better work environment for our people and it makes them proud to work for a responsible company. Through its structured organization, the certification helps us to manage our operation. And, finally, it gives our customers confidence in our product and our Hamakua Springs brand.

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We think we did well on this inspection. We will receive the final report in a few days.

The ProSafe certification program was designed in response to the U.S. Government’s food safety concerns as addressed by the FDA and USDA in their “Guide to Minimize Microbial Food Safety Hazards for Fresh Fruits and Vegetables.” This guide describes “Good Agricultural Practices,” which reduce food safety hazards.

The guide covers agricultural and post-harvest water uses, worker health and hygiene, field and facility sanitation, transportation and traceback. We know our customers expect a certain level of care regarding our growing crops for their consumption, and the ProSafe certification program gives credibility to the extent of the care we take in growing our crops.

Some of the guide’s important points are:

When water comes into contact with fresh produce, its quality determines the potential for contamination.

Agricultural water. If water is of good quality, risk is low. We evaluate water samples for heavy metals as well as for bacterial content. We document and maintain records throughout the year. We use county water for all our spray water since it comes in contact with the edible portions of our crops.

Processing water. We use good quality water wherever it comes into contact with fresh produce, and monitor and document water quality throughout the process. For example, we know that bacteria need approximately 350 milivolts of electricity to hold itself together. Therefore, we maintain chlorine in the water so that there is at least 550 milivolts in the water. This causes the bacteria to come apart upon contact. We monitor and record the measurements of the wash water throughout the day and keep the records for inspections.

Cooling Operations. We maintain temperatures that promote best produce quality and minimize bacterial growth. And we keep our cooling equipment clean and sanitary. This includes inspecting and cleaning Young Brothers containers before loading and shipping. We document the inspection as well as the course of action for each container that we ship out. The records are available for inspection at any time.

Worker Health and Hygiene. We know that infected employees increase the risk of transmitting food borne illnesses. So:

We train employees to follow good hygiene practices. We do not allow employees with open cuts or lesions to come into contact with fresh produce. Neither do we allow workers with signs of infectious disease to handle fresh produce. We maintain records to show that all workers receive training in these areas.

Sanitary Facilities. We provide toilet facilities that are accessible to everyone and maintained by an outside service on a regularly scheduled basis. In addition, we check the facilities on a daily basis. We provide hand-washing facilities that are adequately supplied with soap and paper towels. Maintenance and resupply is documented and the record is maintained and available for inspection.

Field Sanitation. Fresh produce may become contaminated during pre-harvest and harvest activities from contact with soil, fertilizers, water, workers and harvesting equipment.

We harvest our produce into plastic totes that are washed and sanitized prior to each use. The harvest totes are placed on wooden pallets. We are a hydroponic operation and by its nature this gives less opportunity for contamination. Ida_logging_tote_sanitation

For example, we use sterile media. We do not use soil, compost or manures. The floors of the hydroponic houses are covered with a weed barrier and so the fruit cannot come into contact with soil. In addition, the houses are covered with plastic that acts as an umbrella. This prevents splashing of water and soil onto the fruit, thereby lessening the chance of contamination.

Packing Facility. We do not use secondhand boxes. Packing materials are covered and stored on pallets, not on the floor. Plastic totes are cleaned and sanitized and packers use gloves when handling the produce, which is always packed into new clamshells and boxes.

Pest Control. We maintain a 10-foot weed-free barrier around the packing facilities. We set rat traps outside the packing facilities to manage rat populations near the facility. We maintain a log that indicates when bait was changed and whether or not we caught any rats.

Transportation. We make sure the Young Brothers containers are washed and sanitized before we load up. In addition, we make sure that the product is sent at the temperature that is optimum for its type.

We have written procedures on how fruit is to be transported from the field to the packing house. We require newly harvested fruit to be stored in refrigeration as soon as it comes in from the field.

Traceback. We have formal procedures in place to recall product in the event it becomes necessary. We do mock recalls periodically, where we partner with distributors and simulate a situation where we recall a batch of product. We have pack dates on each box of product that we ship, which allows us to track the box.

We stringently enforce all of these procedures on a day-to-day basis. The most important result is that these procedures protect our workers from bacterial and infectious disease situations. Secondarily, it an important management tool that we use to manage our farm effectively. And finally, it gives our customers assurances that our brand stands for good food safety practices.

(Photos: Craig Bowden and Tracy Pa go over some of our standard operating procedures; Tomato Packing House Supervisor Ida Castillo logs data re: the sanitation schedule for harvesting totes.)

Community, Government, Tomatoes

A Whole Lot of Salads and Pasta Sauces Were Made

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When Hamakua Springs had an unexpected tomato surplus recently, Richard called over to the county building and said he had some extra tomatoes he wanted to give to county workers.

P1010053_3Dayday Hopkins, Economic Development Specialist at the Hawai‘i County Department of Research and Development, says she asked Richard how many tomatoes he was talking about. “I thought it was a case or two,” she said, “but he asked how many departments we have.”

“He went hog wild in sharing,” she said. “He gave us like 25 cases. Who gives away 25 cases of tomatoes? For him to do that, it really makes you feel good that there’s a business person who is not only for himself and his business but also wants to share with the rest of the people that touch him.”

Richard says sometimes they give extra tomatoes to the local schools their grandchildren attend: Kalaniana‘ole Elementary, Keaukaha Elementary and Kea‘au Middle School. P1010061_2

“Or schools that are having a hard time with the ‘No Child Left Behind’ thing,” says Richard. “We give to the teachers and staff and try to do a morale booster kind of thing.”

Last month, though, when they had a lot of extra cocktail tomatoes, Richard sent some to the Hawai‘i Island Food Bank and then took the rest to the Hawai‘i County Building.

He explains that sometimes there’s an unexpected short spike in production due to timing–one crop comes into production as another is going out. “Because we harvest the tomatoes when they’re vine ripe,” he says, “we cannot hold them very long when that happens and we have to move them quickly.”

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“The reason we chose the county workers,” says Richard, “is because they are pretty much not recognized for the work they do and we wanted to acknowledge their hard work.”

Dayday couldn’t say enough nice things about Richard. “We ask him for donations of bananas when we have fundraisers for the schools, and other community activities, and he’s always open and accommodating,” she said. “Mr. Ha is just one of those unique breed of farmers and people. June was here, too, and as goodhearted as the husband. I couldn’t believe she got up in the pickup truck and was getting out cases of tomatoes. She said, ‘Yeah, I have to help.’”

Richard took some cases to the Department of Water Supply, which isn’t located in the county building. Dayday got some help and took the rest around to offices in the County building: Planning, Parks and Recreation, Civil Service, Finance, Office of the Aging, Corporation Council and others.

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She says some of the workers were surprised and even suspicious when handed containers of tomatoes. “They asked me, ‘Are you selling them?’ I told them, ‘Mr. Ha wants to share his bounty of tomatoes for you to taste and enjoy. He has a big heart; he just really wants to share with the people in the county because he said the county has been very nice to him.’” Others, she said, were surprised they were such beautiful, perfect tomatoes and not “seconds,” or tomatoes that weren’t good enough to sell.

Dayday even sent some to the mayor’s office, where they were a hit. The mayor Harry Kim called her and asked if there was any way he could get two more. (He got them.) Andylevin_2

In these last two photos, that’s Dayday with Pat Koga, executive secretary to Planning Director Chris Yuen, and then with Andy Levin, executive director to Mayor Kim.

Dayday took her tomatoes home. “My husband eats tomatoes like grapes. And I cut some up and made a green salad.”

She also shares her recipe for a salsa she makes. She chops up Hamakua Springs cocktail tomatoes with a pinch of cilantro, some green onions and sea salt, and puts that salsa over her special fried rice: “I buy poke, cut it a little smaller and sauté it with garlic. Then cook it with rice, soy sauce, and put the salsa over it.”

“Ha ha ha!” she said as she recounted the recipe. Our kind of person! — posted by Leslie Lang

Losing Weight

Shedding Pounds and Washing Dishes

Richard Ha writes:

I lost 1.4 lbs. this week.

My goal: To lose one pound per week for 39 weeks
Starting weight on 5/23/06: 214.6 lbs.
End goal, on 2/18/07: 175 lbs.

This week’s target weight: 203.6 lbs.
Today’s actual weight: 200.4 lbs. 7/23/06
I am 3.2 lbs. ahead of schedule

Since 5/23, I have lost 14.2 lbs.

On 5/23, my resting heart rate was 65 beats per minute
Today’s resting heart rate: 55 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.

***

For about two weeks now, I’ve felt like I was hitting a plateau. The 1 lb./week weight loss was becoming difficult to maintain by exercising at a rate of 500 calories per day (3,500 calories per week).

I am eating more than I was when I started. If I compensate for that, I should have no problem. So I increased the time I spent on the elliptical from 40 to 60 minutes. This week I exercised 70 minutes everyday, which burns off about 1,000 calories per day. Because I was feeling exhausted, I took Thursday off.

I do this at a comfortable easy pace, but at the end of the time I am soaked in sweat. This is a huge percentage increase in exercise rate. I normally don’t increase this much. But it was either do this or diet.

I think this amount of work will allow me to continue losing weight comfortably. I plan to stay at 70 minutes for a while and I will increase intensity gradually as my body adapts to the increased work load. My goal is to lower my resting heart rate into the 40s. I feel that at my present pace, it will not go lower than 55-56 beats/minute.

Next week, I plan to add short bursts of higher heart rate training, maybe twice per week. I have been doing this sporadically and I think that is what’s most responsible for lowering my resting heart rate to 55 beats per minute. Otherwise, I think it would be in the low- to mid-60s.

In order to get my resting heart rate into the 40s, I know I have to work harder. But I want to take the easiest path to accomplish my goal. On the days I work harder, I will do three spikes of increased work for either three minutes or 45 seconds per spike—three minutes if my breathing coincides with every other step, and 45 seconds if I need to take a breath on every step.

It’s pretty simple, but it works for me. I hate to suffer for a long time. The rest of the 70-minute session will be spent at the low heart rate that I normally do. I get on and off the trainer whenever I feel it is necessary, and I know I need to work harder. But I don’t have to suffer needlessly.

Since I increased my exercise time, I have had a lot more energy. I don’t know what has come over me, but yesterday I told June that from now on I will do all the dishes.

It reminds me of the time several years ago when she went to Las Vegas with her parents. I had not had to fend for myself much before and so I was determined to show her that I could take care of myself. I figured I would use just one cup, one fork, one plate and I thought that this would be a piece of cake.

One day I looked around and decided that I would water the house plants to prove I could do more than just take care of myself. So I took the hanging basket and started watering it in the kitchen sink. Something was not quite right. Then it dawned on me—it was a silk plant.

I almost fell over. I had to call her in Las Vegas and tell her. We had a good laugh.

Here’s my chance to try again and get it right.

Community, Shorts

Making Good Life Decisions, and Wearing Long Pants

Leslie Lang writes:

You might remember that even when Richard met the Governor of the State of Hawai‘i, he wore short pants. So here’s something you don’t see every day:

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Richard busted out his long pants recently to speak at a graduation for 169 high and middle school students considered “at risk.” The students were graduating from some pretty impressive summer programs funded by the Department of Human Services and the Hawai‘i National Guard.

Jenea Respicio is program director at the Paxen Group, the group that administers the summer programs. She says the students liked Richard; they thought he was funny.

“He started off saying, ‘I actually always wear shorts. I never, ever wear long pants. I met the governor and I still wore shorts. But I think this is really important and so I wore pants for you.’”

Jenea says Richard was invited to speak at the graduation because he was someone the kids could relate to—a local boy who, Jenea says, would be classified “high risk” if he were in school today. And one who definitely “made good.”

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“He was a very effective speaker,” she told me, “and the kids could relate to him. It was nice for them to see a local boy who was just like them. It was nice for them to see that he made the decisions he made and did well.”

When Richard was that age, he admits, he was “drifting” and making some bad decisions. He went to college, but did poorly. He had more traffic tickets than he could pay. He got behind in payments on his Harley Davidson motorcycle and it was repossessed right off the street. “That was the end of my bike,” he says. Richardlectern_4

And he got into a lot of fights and at one point was charged with malicious injury.“I had all those things going on,” he says, “and at one point I asked myself, ‘Am I a crook? Am I a criminal?’” The thought distressed him.

He flunked out of college, got drafted and ended up in Vietnam, where he says he decided to make the best of the situation. He became an officer.

That was undoubtedly a good decision, which is what the summer programs concentrate on teaching. Jenea explains that in addition to teaching at-risk students about decisions, they also teach life and employability skills with courses called Exploring Careers, Effective Employee, Job Search and others. Among other things, “Life Skills” teaches them to write a check, balance a checkbook, fill out a job application and the hard facts about drugs, sex and smoking.

She explains they just present the facts. “We don’t tell students what they should or shouldn’t do and we don’t push an agenda. We just teach them all the facts and then it’s their life, their choice.”

And the summer program is a job. Students fill out time sheets and are paid $30 per day for six hours of work. Jenea says that’s about teaching responsibility. “If you don’t fill out the time sheet, you don’t get paid,” she says. “It’s your responsibility; it’s not my problem.”

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Students learn how to keep a budget, write checks, and keep a check register. In a form of “reality programming” way more useful than what you see on TV, they learn, through a simulation exercise, about the real world. They are assigned minimum-wage “jobs,” and checkbooks, and every month the instructor “collects” rent (based on real prices from the local paper) and real-world amount payments for electricity, water and telephone.

She explains what always happens. “At the end of the month, we ask ‘How much do you have in your check register?’ They say, ‘I’m minus $247.’ We say, ‘I thought you said you were going to drive a Lexus when you got out of school?’ We say, ‘This is what your parents go through every month paying bills.’”

Then, she says, they present information on how much someone with a college education makes. “We don’t tell them to go to college,” she says. “We just give them the facts so they can decide what they want to do.”

At the June 29th graduation, the Kaua‘i Hilton’s chef flew in with his staff and they volunteered their time to prepare lu‘au food for the 700 graduates, family members and friends.

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The graduation ceremony speakers (seated from left to right) were General Ishikawa, deputy adjutant general of the Hawai‘i National Guard; Richard Ha; Tim Iida, The Paxen Group’s program manager for the Big Island, and Colonel Wayne Kanemoto, retired Hawai‘i National Guard.

Richard says he made two main points in his talk. He passed on some important wisdom he learned as a kid, sitting at the table with his dad. “He always said, ‘Not no can, can!’ He’d pound the table and all the dishes would jump. I needed to say that, just that way, in pidgin English,” he explains.

“The second thing is that it’s a good thing to take care of each other, and treat everybody well,” he says. “That’s what I learned in Vietnam. Leaving anybody behind is not an option. Taking care of each other. That’s a good thing and I use that in my business.”

He also used it that night at the graduation, when he stood up there in his long pants and talked to a group of kids whose futures could go either way.

He says he really relates to kids not having any direction and just drifting along. “Myself, having found direction, I ran with it,” he says. “So I felt like I had something to share.”

Alan Wong, Losing Weight

There Goes Another One

I lost 1.1 lbs. this week.

My goal: To lose one pound per week for 39 weeks
Starting weight on 5/23/06: 214.6 lbs.
End goal, on 2/18/07: 175 lbs.

This week’s target weight: 204.6 lbs.
Today’s actual weight: 201.8 lbs. 7/23/06

I am 2.8 lbs. ahead of schedule

Since 5/23, I have lost 12.8 lbs.
On 5/23, my resting heart rate was 65 beats per minute

Today’s resting heart rate: 55 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.

***

I ran across this article in Web MD: Moderate amounts of regular exercise might delay Alzheimer’s disease in older adults.

The findings are based on more than 1,700 adults, aged 65 and older, who didn’t have dementia at the study’s start. Those who reported exercising at least three times per week were nearly a third less likely to develop dementia—primarily Alzheimer’s—over six years.

To me, this seems like a good reason to exercise.

Lately I’ve been having a tougher time than usual losing my one pound per week. I missed two exercise sessions this week. I’ve decided I need to do more than 500 calories per day to anticipate times when something comes up. Three thousand five hundred calories equals one pound, and it usually takes me a little more than 30 minutes to achieve the 500 calorie per day goal. My new plan is to do more calories per day in the early part of the week and build up a credit, in case something comes up and I have to miss an exercise session. 

I’ll work myself up to 50 minutes per day, which at my rate is the equivalent of 800 or so calories. To make it easy on myself, I will either break it into two 25-minute sessions, or else do one session but get off the elliptical trainer every 10 minutes to walk around. This is much easier than just powering through 50-minute sessions every day. It will also allow my body to adapt to the increased work load without too much mental strain. I always like to take the easy route.

I have been weight training off and on for more than 30 years. A little more than five years ago, I was a competitive powerlifter in the 54-59 age bracket. I entered 16 sanctioned powerlifting meets and several state championships and won my class in most of the meets I entered.

My best result was at Sonny Ronolo’s first annual Bench Press Contest held at the Windward Mall on O’ahu. I benchpressed 341 lbs. and won the best lifter award in the “Raw” category, which means without the stretchable bench shirt and other aids.

So I have a bit of knowledge as to what works for me as far as training is concerned. And the older I get, the wiser I become.

Several things I have learned:
   
1. It really is the journey that is the reward. I’ve been on this weight loss/exercise journey for two months now, and although it may seem that the main goal is to lose weight, another real benefit is that my resting heart rate has been in the 50s for two months. That means that my heart is getting stronger and working more efficiently, which hopefully will help me in the long run. As a bonus, the journey is even more fun because I am setting goals and giving myself rewards. The weekly goals are not too high, but the rewards are very good. For instance, when I break 200 lbs. soon I plan to take June to eat lunch at The Hualalai Grille by Alan Wong.

2. Overtraining causes injuries, even if your last name is Man and your first is Super. Injury causes one to abandon the journey. This is not good.

3. Set small achievable goals and reward yourself for hitting them. The idea is to set your self up for success. It’s always better to smile than frown.

4. Be realistic about what you can achieve and go ahead and do it. It’s better to successfully achieve 95% of what you hope to achieve than to fail while attempting 105%. Ninety-five percent of a big grin is still a grin.

5. It’s all in the mind. When you’re young and inexperienced, you may actually slap your own face for motivation; when you’re old and wise, you only think about slapping your own face for motivation; you don’t really have to do it. All that face-slapping did not make up for what I didn’t accomplish in the gym in the weeks and months prior to a powerlifting contest. Because I am older and wiser I don’t slap my own face for motivation anymore. Instead I go to The Haulalai Grille by Alan Wong for lunch.

I believe that half the battle in my attempt to lose weight has been planning my weight loss program in advance. 
    
I’m approaching the big “200 lb.” mark and I don’t want to get stuck there. I think that I’ll creep up close and then speed pass and not look back.

Bananas

Make-Your-Own Banana Splits

Hamakua Springs donated bananas again this year to the Hilo High School Grad Nite.

That’s the alcohol- and drug-free graduation night event the school has put on for fifteen years now. The action starts immediately after the graduation ceremony and lasts until the next morning.

This year three-quarters of the graduating seniors participated (some years it’s more than 90 percent), spending an action-packed night at the Hilo Yacht Club where they:

• climbed a rock wall
• played tennis
• played volleyball
• played basketball
• went swimming
• dressed up and had their picture taken, which was put into a key chain for them
• got massages
• had their portrait sketched
• had their fortune told
• got temporary tattoos (this was the most popular event)
• listened to live music
• danced, and
• ate all night long

Food was available the whole night—from the pizza served for dinner, to the make-your-own banana splits and ice cream sundaes with every possible topping, and then breakfast in the morning.

Each graduate took home a bag of goodies, including a beautiful towel with the Hilo High School logo, a Grad Nite t-shirt, a camera (so they could take pictures with their friends) and a coupon to develop the film.

At 5 a.m., they were bused back to the high school for their parents to pick them up—having spent a safe and sound graduation night, and a memorable one.

Hamakua Springs sends a hearty congratulations to the Hilo High School graduating class of 2006!

Health, Losing Weight

I’m Tiptoeing Around

Richard Ha writes:

Goal: lose one pound per week for 39 weeks
Starting weight on 5/23/06: 214.6 lbs.
End goal, on 2/18/07: 175 lbs.

This week’s target weight: 205.6 lbs.
Today’s actual weight: 202.9 lbs. 7/23/06

I am 2.7 lbs. ahead of schedule
I lost .6 lbs. since last week

Weight loss since 5/23: 11.7 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 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.

* * *

I’m 61 years old now. Is that old?

Prior to starting this weight loss program, I’d been feeling what I thought were the effects of aging. The symptoms were general aches and pains, especially in and around the spine.

I’ve been noticing that if I accidentally bumped into a rigid object, like a wall, I would feel a jolt run all the way down my spine. This had been coming on over the last five years. More noticeable is that over the last year I have felt a jolt go up my spine when stepping off a curb or down a step.

Before I started this weight loss program, I noticed myself taking a little longer to straighten out my back after sitting for a while, like after dinner or after sitting in the office for a while, and when getting out of the truck after driving for a bit. I hate to admit it but I was starting to acquire the gait of an old person. The gait had to do with avoiding aches and pains.

I was starting to wonder if this was all age-related. Or did it have more to do with being overweight and out of shape?

My recent program of weight loss has already helped me answer the question of whether it’s old age or under-use of my muscles.

It’s now eight weeks into the weight loss program. I’ve lost 11.7 pounds and I’m in much better shape. I’m moving around a lot more and I’m regaining the spring in my step.

I found myself tiptoeing around the house the other morning. This is significant, because tiptoeing has to do with the condition of one’s calf muscles. The calf muscles allows one to step toe-first and so cushion one’s step. Watch yourself walking or running down stairs—it’s toe, then heel.

Before, I was feeling a jarring and pounding sensation when walking down steps. It was because I was taking steps flat-footed, with no shock absorption. To protect against the discomfort, when no one was looking I would take the three stairs at home one at a time. It should be left, right, left and gone. But for me it had become more like left and right, one; left and right and two; then left and right and down.

It just occurred to me that I ran down the stairs the other day, and that I no longer drag myself out of a chair hoping I’ll be able to straighten out before it becomes noticeable. Now I find myself sliding out of the chair at a restaurant, jumping up and going straight to pay the bill. When did the pain go? One day, it dawned on me: It’s gone.

A light bulb went on the other morning when I found myself tiptoeing around the house trying to be quiet. I had forgotten I could do that.

Chris Seymour, owner of The Bike Hub in Hilo (mountain biking is his real job, and the bike shop is what he does to kill time) walks around on his toes more than anyone I know. His calves are so strong that it looks like he has a hard time staying down on the ground. He has major shock absorbers.

The good news? I’ve learned it’s definitely not age—it’s non-use. “Use ’em or lose ’em” is a true statement.

Age 61 is not yet old, my granddaughter’s opinion not withstanding. Just don’t let yourself get too heavy. Don’t let gravity win. When your calf muscles are overtaxed, it sets you up to slow down even more.

Second, get your resting heart rate down. The heart is a muscle and a strong heart takes less effort to do its work.

And that is the heart of the matter.

Alan Wong, Food and Drink, Hamakua Coast, The Good Life

The Day The Chefs Came Over and Cooked For Us

Richard Ha writes:

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Chef Alan Wong is featured in this week’s MidWeek magazine. Jo McGarry, the Honolulu Star-Bulletin’s Restaurant Specialist, writes about Chef Alan’s commitment to island-fresh products grown by local farmers. I’m in the picture with Chef Alan.

In the article, she mentions his bringing some of the staff from his Hawai’i restaurants to visit Hamakua Springs. Let me tell you about that visit, and about them cooking for us.

Tomato
First, it’s pretty amazing how Alan Wong treats his farmers. When our farm personnel visit his restaurants, they are treated like royalty. To Chef Alan, the farmers are the celebrities. He keeps telling us that he cannot make products better; that he is limited by what he has to work with. Although we don’t know if we believe that, it’s starting to sink in. Knowing this, we try to do the best we can.

Once Kimo and Tracy went to the Pineapple Room, unannounced. Restaurant Manager Barbara Stange recognized them and notified her staff that the people from Hamakua Springs Country Farms were in the house.

Kimo and Tracy both said they had never experienced anything like it: It seemed like they were assigned extra wait staff. They were brought extra dishes to sample. People were saying, “Try this, it’s made with cocktail tomatoes.” And, “Here’s another dish.” I’m sure Chef Alan does this for all his farmers. But it makes us want to take special care of all the products we supply him.

A few months back he brought some of the staff from his Hawai’i restaurants to visit the Big Island farmers on the Hamakua coast. He said it helps the staff describe his creations when they know the farmer who grow the product.

When he visited us, we showed him several things we were testing. A few months before, Chef Alan had expressed interest in creating a dessert with a specialty melon cut in half and served with a scoop of ice cream.

Alan_and_melons_1So we have been testing melons. That picture is of Chef Alan checking the melon for aroma. He gave his approval, and so we are now proceeding on to production. The next step is to get the melons to his restaurants and to make sure everything is right. After that we will bring it to the supermarkets. But first things first. We need to prove that we can deliver sweet melons each time, all the time.

We took everyone on a tour of our farm, where I explained our sustainable farming philosophy and how it drives our decision-making. They saw how we use high-tech monitoring of environmental conditions inside of a low-energy-consuming growing house.

We run the irrigation controllers with a few D batteries. We don’t use electricity at the tomato houses and all our water is free. We leave the tomatoes on the plants to ripen naturally for as long as we can. We continuously monitor sugar content of the tomatoes so we are sure they are sweet. I demonstrated how we take leaf samples, which we send to a lab to assess the plant’s nutritional status. Then we make up a custom fertilizer that helps to give it a rich and sweet flavor.

We are mindful of the effect our farming might have on the environment, so we are careful not to over-fertilize. Our tomato houses are surrounded by strips of vegetation that help prevent any excess fertilizer from reaching any streams.

Chef Alan gave us pointers about what he looks for in the various crops we grow, and we showed him how to drive a bulldozer. He and Kimo went in the back and pushed some soil around. Chef Alan got to make a pile and level it off, pack it down and then back blade it for a nice finish. He learned that you steer the bulldozer by locking one brake or the other. In that way you can even spin the machine around in one spot. He had an ear-to-ear grin when he cruised by on his way to park the machine. Now that we know his weakness, we’re going to trade lessons on the backhoe for another cookout.

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We put up a tent so we could do this and keep the farm running. Besides the immediate family, our supervisors came. Leslie Lang, our neighbor and future Chief Blogger, was there. Bob and Janice Stanga (of Hamakua Mushrooms) brought their Hamakua mushrooms, Lesley Hill and Mike Crowell (Wailea Agricultural Group) provided heart of palm, Dick and Heather Threlfall (Hawaii Island Goat Dairy) provided goat cheese, we supplied tomatoes and greens, and the chefs brought li hing mui/ume dressing with them, and wine. (We got to keep the extra li hing mui dressing). They also bought loads of stuff from the Hilo Farmers Market.

When they all started into action preparing the dinner, it looked like there were 50 things going on at once. Barbara Stange and Leigh Ito, also of Alan Wong’s staff, were making different kinds of salads that were so nice to look at. The head of the wait staff and Chef Alan’s front-of-the-house personnel were busy doing the finishing touches on dishes never before seen at Hamakua Springs Country Farms.

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Then they fired up the grills and started cooking. Grandma Ha was thrilled that Chef Alan was cooking for us. She told him, “Give me the recipe, okay?” Mom can do that–she has seniority. (That’s my mom and Alan Wong on the right.) Chef James of the Hualalai Grille was on one burner, Chef Neil, Chef de cuisine from the Pineapple Room was on another, and Executive Chef Lance was on another.

The food was delicious and we tried everything. They brought beer and wine and there was animated conversation going on all around.

Chef Alan, Dan Nakasone and I have pineapple-picking stories in common. Tracy and a small audience cornered Chef Lance, who was at a burner demonstrating the finer points about preparing risotto. (You have to keep your eye on it.)

Some of the guys were trading pig hunting stories with the Hualalai Grille staff. Why was I surprised that they would know anything about pig hunting, just because they are associated with a restaurant that has won nine ‘Ilima awards and is the quintessential Hawaii Regional Cuisine restaurant?

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We realized that they are all normal, everyday people, like you and me. But they are incredibly good at what they do. We like to think that we are kind of like that, too. We all live here in Hawai’i, with all of the local influences. At the end of the evening we were like good old friends. And, can you imagine–we got to give all our people take-home plates of Alan Wong’s creations.

Life on the farm will never be the same.

Now we know what happens to the products we grow and how important it is to provide the best quality possible. We used to be concerned about our products until they left the farm’s loading docks. Now we worry about everything that goes on after they leave our farm and until they reach Chef Alan’s door. And that makes us better farmers.

Bananas, Our Employees, Tomatoes

Employee Spotlight: Ida Castillo

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Tomato packing house supervisor Ida Castillo has always been so good at her job, Richard says, that it was almost hard to promote her.

“She’s one of those workers who you think you can’t afford to take out of her present position,” he says, “because she’s so good. But in our company we try to make sure we give people opportunities as they arise, no matter how uncomfortable it may make us feel in the short run.”

Ida came to the company 13 years ago, when she was hired as a banana packer at what was then Kea‘au Bananas.

“Ida was always the fastest and most efficient banana packer, and it always seemed effortless to her,” says Richard. “When we started raising hydroponic tomatoes we asked if she would consider packing tomatoes, and she immediately became the most efficient tomato packer.”

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Now, he says, she’s doing a great job as the tomato packing house supervisor, her position since the beginning of the year. “Ida has the little things under control and that takes care of the big things,” he says. “She is a quiet person but she is efficient and she definitely gets the job done very well. I’m extremely proud of her.”

Outside of work, there’s her family. She is married with three children. Her sons are 24 and 19, both in the army. Her daughter, 22, recently gave Ida and her husband their first grandchild, Shayla, who is 18 months old. “That’s the first (grandchild), and we love her so much.”

She laughs when she admits she likes to watch her soap operas. “The Young and the Restless, and some Filipino soap operas,” she says. “I go to church when I’m not working. I love to go shopping.”

And how does she feel about tomatoes after years of packing 15 pounds of them into 60 boxes a day?
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“I love to pack tomatoes,” she says. “I just love holding them, and the color. And I still like eating them. These are good tomatoes.”

She says she likes her job. “I always loved to work agriculture. Before I worked bananas, I worked papayas, flowers. I love it.

“Plus the management, they’re good,” she says. “They treat us like family, not a worker. They’re nice people.”

The 45-year-old says she hopes to work there for awhile. “Until I retire,” she says. “Then they going kick me out.” — posted by Leslie Lang

Losing Weight

Good Music

Goal: lose one pound per week for 39 weeks
Starting weight on 5/23/06: 214.6 lbs.
End goal, on 2/18/07: 175 lbs.

This week’s target weight: 206.6 lbs. 
Today’s actual weight: 203.5. lbs. 7/16/06
I am 3.1 lbs. ahead of schedule
I lost 1.1  lbs since last week 
Weight loss since 5/23: 11.1  lbs.

Resting heart rate 5/23: 65 beats per minute
Today’s resting heart rate 55 beats per minute.*
* This goes down as one gets into better shape. Lance Armstrong 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.

***

I realize I’ve become overconfident in my ability to lose weight, as if it is automatic. I’ve started to wait until Thursday to focus on my weight loss goal for the week. This week, because of the strenuous bike ride last week, I took two days off the elliptical. That’s 1000 calories that I did not burn off.

At about the same time, Etsuko, our son Brian’s mom-in-law, made banana bread. She makes really, really delicious, moist and heavy banana bread. If one serving of steak is supposed to be the size of a deck of cards, I think I’d eaten six decks of banana bread by Thursday.

I decided to do the 1,000 extra calories on the elliptical by Saturday evening. This was pushing it a bit. But I could just feel that if I didn’t do it, I wouldn’t meet my goal. 

All’s well, though. I lost 1.1 lbs.

It is important to remember that burning fat and training for athletic improvement (lowering the resting heart rate) are two different things. Working extra hard for a short time does not change the rule that 3,500 calories equal 1 lb. (I’m talking to myself.)
 
In retrospect, I should have done at least a few calories of work on the elliptical, instead of taking those days off completely. If I had done 250 on each of the two days, I would only have had 500 calories to catch up, instead of the full 1,000.  I need to keep this in mind next time. 

My resting heart rate is going down. I have been sneaking in interval training sessions. These are short bursts of high heart rate work. Two or three bursts in a 30 minute total workout session. 

I don’t like to suffer for a long time. I’d much rather do a few bursts that reach a higher peak than suffering long, mind-numbing grinds. 

When I am totally out of shape, my resting heart rate is in the 70s. When doing sporadic training, it’s in the 60s. When I’m on a scheduled program, it’s mostly in the high 50s. 

Ten years or so ago, when I was on the mountain bike a lot, it was 52. It’s now 55 and I’m pretty sure I can drive it lower. I’m much wiser now. And besides, George W’s resting heart rate is 47. When I get my weight and heart rate down, and with a little practice,  I may be able to ride with him and the boys on the Kulani trails.

I bought myself an Ipod and loaded it up with tunes to reward myself for last week’s accomplishment of breaking 205 lbs. My granddaughter checked out the playlist and said, “Papa, you have good music!!!” as if I broke the law or something.

For a second, I thought, “You have a cool Grandpa.” But more likely it was because I downloaded the celebrity list of American Idol judge Randy Jackson’s Top 20 songs. Oh well.