Maybe I’ll Become a Farmer

I’ve said au revoir to the palm trees of Hawaii and am back wearing my winter hat in a not-so-tropical climate. But I do have a few tidbits about palm trees and coconuts I’d like to share. At one point on the farm, an order came in for 16 “drinkers.” Those are the green coconuts still on the tree with slightly sweet coconut water inside. In order to get them, someone has to harvest them from the tree. I feel like I’ve seen a TV show where young men with some sort of Spider Man gene scale the trunks.

Without anyone with such agile abilities on the farm, a tree stand was in order. I had no idea how the two metal pieces with cords that snapped around the tree would work. So I just watched. Both parts of the tree stand have claws that grip into the tree trunk, keeping it securely locked to the tree when pressure is applied. Rick, a fellow worker on the farm, attached both parts to the tree. He then hooked his feet into the bottom section and allowed the top section to come under his arms. He then shimmied up the tree, alternating pressure on either the top or bottom part to keep him steady, and moved the other section up. After only a few minutes he had reached the top. At that point, the green drinking coconuts could be cut down.

Here is the tree stand in use.

He was supposed to have tied a rope around them somehow so that they wouldn’t fall to the ground. It must not have worked because a showering of coconuts came down instead. Even though a few of them broke and couldn’t be sold, that just meant that we could enjoy the clear, refreshing coconut water instead.

In terms of coconut meat, the more mature brown coconuts that have naturally fallen have that. It’s a little difficult to hack the shell open and pry the white fruit from around the shell, but the succulent treat is worth the effort.   I also got to taste a sprouted coconut. These are fallen brown coconuts that have started to grow roots into the ground and a stalk on the top. Left alone, these would eventually grow into full palm trees. But harvested in an early stage, they offer a surprisingly delicious treat. Inside, the sprouted coconut has a spongy white ball that feels like angel food cake. The sweet and soft goodness melts in the mouth.

A sprouted coconut doesn't look that appetizing from the outside, but its deliciousness waits inside.

   Fruit most aptly named: Star Fruit.

Talk about a crash course in tropical fruit. Kumu Aina Farm has over 60 varieties of fruit- many with names I’ve never heard of.  Since the market is on Sunday, Friday and Saturday were spent harvesting the various fruit currently growing. Here are some of my favorites.

Most fun fruit to harvest: One of the first fruits we went after was lilikoi, or passion fruit. The smallish round fruit grows on a vine that has made its way over a few treetops. On the vine this fruit has a green color, but they’re yellow by the time they’ve ripened and fallen to the ground. So to harvest them we looked in the grass under the vine, occasionally spotting pockets of yellow balls a little bigger than golf balls. Searching for the round orbs in the grass reminded me of hunting for Easter eggs. I had heard of passion fruit as a flavor in drinks and candy, but hadn’t actually tasted the fruit. Peeling away the rind, inside a clear gel with seeds greeted me. Apparently you can eat the seeds too, which seemed easier to do since there were several stuck in the fruit. Juicy, sweet, and tart, it all went down deliciously. 

Largest fruit: Ever heard of a jackfruit? I find these guys remarkable for their sheer size. They somehow manage to stay hanging from the tree, often low, directly out of the trunk, without falling. They look to me like beehives: a tree of beehives.

The jackfruit manages to hang on.

Most surprising tree: I asked where the papaya trees were since I didn’t think I’d seen the fruit. I had somehow managed to overlook the skinny trees right next to my cottage. Compared to the rest of the sturdy trees, the papaya trunk seems almost delicate. In addition, the trunk is hollow.

The papaya tree has a skinny trunk and the fruit grows in clusters where the trunk meets the limbs.

New favorite fruit: Mamey supote is one of my new favorite fruits. These have brown skin, and when picking them you can tell the ripe ones from the unripe ones by scratching the skin. If an orange tint, as opposed to a green tint, comes through then you’re good to grab. Under the tough skin, the soft orange/ red fruit cuts away easily. Sweet, with a consistency similar to cooked sweet potatoes, these really hit the spot.

The mamey sapote is so sweet.

Craziest fruit: The durian wins this category for a couple reasons. 1. It’s pokey like a giant burr. 2. It’s extremely pungent—the soft, white flesh almost has a garlic hint to it. After I ate a sample and was asked what I thought, I tried to politely answer it must be an acquired taste. This fruit is extremely popular with people who eat a raw food diet—I’m not exactly sure why.

The durians have a pungent taste and smell.

Best fruit realization: Most, if not all, fruit can be made into wine. I enjoyed partaking in a little banana wine the other night. A little yeast, honey, water, and Voila! It took about a month to ferment into its sweet goodness. 

Here is the banana grove we cleaned up. The trees on the right have the brown leaves cut off and added to the base of the trees as mulch.

Well, I wielded a machete for the first time yesterday. The banana trees needed the dead leaves chopped off and the machete is the tool of choice. Terri, who owns Kumu Aina fruit farm with her husband Bob, sharpened the blade and told me to be very careful. After she demonstrated the proper technique of swiping the brown leaf off from the top and also cutting the thick cane grass away from the base, I began swinging. The first swipes didn’t go so well. Dried banana leaves are very fibrous (and apparently also high in phosphorous so they’re good as a natural fertilizer). But after I realized it’s better to cut in on a little angle I was on a roll.

These bananas are not quite ready to be harvested.

As we chopped away, Terri noticed that one group of bananas hanging down were ready to be harvested. The flower that blooms from below the fruit had dried up and a few of the bananas were starting to turn yellow. She chopped into the fleshy tree enough so that it could tip over, but not crash to the ground. Then she cut off the bananas, leaving enough of the stem so that they can hang and ripen more in the outdoor kitchen. Finally, she chopped the rest of the tree down. Banana trees have little offshoots that start up next to the existing trees. So the little kiekie (a Hawaiian name for children pronounced kay-kee) next to the harvested tree will take its place.

If on the two other farms I felt like I was channeling a pioneer spirit, here I feel I’m connecting with more primitive ancestors. Granted, the farm does have solar power, so I can plug in the computer to type away, or charge my phone. So maybe it’s not that extreme. But between the water catchment system that collects the water for the sinks and outdoor shower, the composting toilet, and my shelter with two screened-in sides, I feel like I’m living pretty close to nature. It took a little adjusting.

My living quarters

Part of the adjustment, with my shelter at least, came from the warning that wild pigs might be out at night and to not be alarmed if I hear them. They can be pretty dangerous to the animals on the farm. That was enough to make me almost put a machete under my bed. Almost. But I was reassured that the pigs aren’t interested in humans, and they couldn’t get into my shelter even if they wanted to.  I think I’ve heard them in the distance, but knock on wood, they haven’t come too close. The little brown coqui frogs create a cricket-like symphony that probably drowns out some of the pigs’ snorting. I’ve been sleeping with my headlamp (very necessary past 6 pm) wrapped around my wrist in case I hear the pigs in the night and need to shine a light on them/ make my escape. Oh paradise.

One thing I haven’t had to adjust to at all is the delicious fruit. Those bananas taste pretty good mixed into oatmeal in the morning with a little fresh coconut. There’s nothing like a good breakfast to welcome the sunlight that banishes the threat of those noisy wild pigs.

The sun melts into the Pacific in Hawaii.

I took a little detour. The week between Greenfire Farm and Kumu Aina Farm on the Big Island of Hawaii my fingernails have gotten a little cleaner as I traded in farming for sight seeing. Dan and I were lucky enough to stand among towering redwoods, drive where dramatic cliffs meet the Pacific, stretch our legs on the hills of San Francisco, and watch the early evening sun dip away into the ocean in Hawaii.

Amongst all this beauty away from the farm, one thing I have continued to wonder is where all the food I’m eating is coming from. At Greenfire Farm it was easy. The veggies that comprised the majority of our meals came from the field and the other basic food supplies came from the food Co-Op in town. But now, back on my own, I’m wondering more. Who picked the carrots I bought at the grocery store? How much were they paid since I only had to pay $1 for the bag? As I ate mouth-watering sushi in Waikiki, I wondered if any of the ingredients besides the ahi tuna came from the island.

Clearly it’s not always realistic to grow all of the food locally for a community—especially considering the space it would take for a large city like Honolulu and the restrictions on the types of food that can be grown and produced based on climate. But it does seem like it should be possible for the avocadoes in the grocery store to be Island grown rather than imported from California, as a newspaper article here today pointed out. I think articles like this one that highlight the work of people trying to get more local produce into grocery stores are a good sign. As the efforts of those working on behalf of farmers and local food producers converge with greater consumer awareness, the more our taste buds, environment, and farmers benefit.