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ericahitshawaii · 4 years

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From the land

Today I am leaving the ocean and heading to the land. The Big Island is even more biodiverse than Maui. It contains 11 of the 14 climate zones in the world. They even have snow on their tallest peak, Mauna Kea. Today I am heading south og Kona to explore a Chocolate Farm, a coffee farm and a bee apiary!

Chocolate Farm

The Original Hawaiian Chocolate factory is the only chocolate producer in an industrialized country that processes the chocolate from the plant all the way to the final product. Most chocolate producers start with the dried cocoa bean. The beautiful estate grows cacao (the pod that chocolate is made from), macadamia nuts and coffee. The entire operation is run by only eight staff, including the owner (Bob) and his wife. (American Ex-pats)

Above are the tree that the cacao pods grow on. They are about the size of a large eggplant when fully ripe. Iniside these pods there is a fibrous membrane (like in a squash) that contains seeds. These seeds have to be fermented and dried to give them the chocolate flavor. This produces chocolate nibs which are ground to make cocoa powder, which becomes chocolate. (More or less, you can google it if you want to fact check me on this one.)

Cacao pods growing in the trees. This variety will will turn a bright yellow when they are ripe.

Ripe cacao pods. They grow in a variety of colors. For example green pods turn yellow when ripe, maroon pods turn candy apple red when ripe. Other colors include purple, orange and rainbow!

These are the seeds (or cocoa beans) inside of the pod. They are covered with a bitter coating that will help ferment the seeds.

After they have fermented, they are cleaned off and left outside to dry on these racks.

Cocoa beans on the drying rack. These will be ground to make the cocoa powder used to make chocolate! This chocolate farm only makes milk and dark chocolate.

Fun fact: White chocolate is not actually made from the solid bean, it is made from cocoa butter, which is extracted from the bean. Since there are no cocoa butter extractors on the island, they are limited to milk and dark chocolate only.

It was really interesting to see this done as a small operation, given the extremely unjust conditions that many cacao growers face in developing countries. At least one aspect of eating chocolate was guilt-free today! m On to cofee next!

Coffee Farm

There is a oot of coffee grown in Hawaii so I had lots of options for a coffee tour. No one will be surprised to hear that I chose the Kona Historic Socity’s Living History coffee farm!! YEA! The nerdiest of an already nerd activity!

So...the Kona Historical Society has preserved one of the early coffee farms on the island that was run by a Japanese family. It was purchased by the Ushida family in 1913. The Ushida’s had immigrated from Japans and decided to take up farming. However, they had no experience farming coffee when they bought the coffee farm in 1913. The spent the next few years learning from local farmers how to grow it. This was the beginning of what we know know as the Kona coffee industry, which was led mostly by Japanese immigrants. The Ushida’s were one of the first Japanese families to do it and encouraged and inspired many other to take up the trade throughout the 20th century.

Fun fact: In the 1940s 50% of people living in Hawaii were Japanese.

The Ushida’s tore down the small farmhouse that was on the property when they purchased it and built a traditional Japanese home. The Ushida’s had 5 children, who all shared a three room house (a iving area, bedroom and kitchen).

The Ushida farmhouse, built circa 1917.

To be totally honest, I had absolutely no idea how coffee grew. I knew it came from beans, but that was about it. Well...it grows on trees. Coffee trees can live and produce coffee for hundreds of years, in fact. Coffee beans actually form inside of these cmall round berries. (They sort of look like cranberries.) They are green when unripe and turn a bright red color when ripe. Inside each berry is a small amount of flesh (similar to grapes) and in the center is a coffee bean. In order to make coffee, the berries have to be picked, the skin and flesh need to be removed, the beans need to be dried and then they can be roasted. Coffee beans are harvested 4 months out the year from September - December.

Coffe tree. The base of this tree is over 100 years old. The branches are trimmed every few years, but the base and root systems can remain for hundreds of years.

Coffee berries. These are small because the are yound. They are about cranberry sized. The will grow to be closer to grape size when it is time to harvest next September.

The Ushida’s also grew other plants for subsistence farming and to sell at local markets. Although the weather in Hawaii is perfect for growing almost anything, it can sometime be difficult to farm because of the lava rock that covers most of the land. Plants that do very well in Hawaii have extremely strong root systems that can actually break through the rock or grow within cracks a crevasses in the rock. (Like coffee, cacao and pineapple).

It’s a baby pineapple! It’s one of the only plants, where if you plant any part of the pineapple it is capable of growing a new one.

This may look like a cucumber, but it is actually a plant that grows bath loofahs. Yep, for real.

See!?! I didn’t make this up.

During the 4 month harvesting season, the Ushida men would wake up at 2:30 to start harvesting and finish after sunset. The women would wake up at 4:30am. The entire family, including small chilren, would harvest the beans. The most difficult part of the process was removing the skin and flesh from the beans. It is only since WWII that most farmers had a mechanized process to do it. For centuries it was done by stomping on them with your feet. Like grapes.

Once the beans are removed from the berries, they need to be dried, which can take up to 10 days. The Ushida’s would leave them out in the sun to dry and bring them into the shed when it rained and at night. At any given time there would be over 1000 pounds of beans drying. (On average, an adult could pick 150 lbs. a day). In the 1940 the Ushida’s developed a brillant idea to create a drying platform on the top of the barn/shed that had a sliding roof, so that they could cover the beans at night or during rain and not have to carry the beans in. Genius. This is the original roof and the sliding mechanism still works perfectly!

Kona coffee is still an institution in Hawaii. Descendants of the Ushida family lived in the original house until 1994. (They never modernized the house, it still had a wood burning stove and outhouse/outdoor bath house) The historical society bought it and preserved it. It is still a working farm today.

Lunch

L&L Barbeque is Hawaiian fast food institution. I stopped here for lunch and was not disappointed. Many of the things on the menu reflect the Asian and Japanese heritage of the island. I ordered the chicken lovers platter, BBQ chicken, Chicken katsu and...something else delicious.

Chicken Lovers Plate

Bees

My last stop for the day was Big Island Bees. A bee apiary.

Big Island Bees, Kona

I have always been obsessed with bees (and colony animals in general, like ants) so I was SO EXCITED about this. I have probably told many of you this, but the U of M refused to let me volunteer at their bee lab and I am still really bitter about it.

Kim, the master Bee keeper, gave us free samples and showed us the hives. They have several sites across the island that produce different kinds of honey. There are two ways to get flavored honey. One is to infuse a flavor into already created honey, like pepper or cinnamon. The other is to place the hives in a area where they have access to only one or prodominantly one kind of flower. Their bees make three kinds of honey. One from Macadamia Nut trees, one from the Wilelaiki blossom on theChristmasberry tree (introduced in Hawaii from Brazil) and the rareist type, the Lahua blossom honey, which comes from the Ohi’a trees. Ohi’a trees are found only on Hawaii and grow out of lava rock. The honey is naturally white. (Apparently you can buy Big Island Honey at costco!)

So I learned a lot of cool stuff about bees. I could write for hours about it, but I’m just going to give you my favorite fun facts. If you want to know more, let’s hang out!

Fun fact 1: Queens can live for 1-5 years, where as the rest of the bees in the hive only live 4-8 weeks.

Fun fact2: All of the worker bees in the hive are female. The only male bees in the hive are called Drones. Their only job is to mate with the Queen, so when the food is scarce or the hive is in trouble, the female workers bees evict the Drones by biting off their wings, pushing them out of the hive and leaving them on the ground to die. Sorry fellas, they don’t have time for freeloaders! I love bees!

Fun fact 3:The worker bees go through four different jobs in their short lives 1) Take care and feed of the baby bees, which hatch in the cells in the hive, feed and take care of the queen, protect the hive, and forage for pollen.

Fun fact 4: Bees are super ruthless, if the queen is not doing so hot, the hive releases special pharamones (sp?) so that the queen will give birth to her own replacement and then they will kill the queen once she’s born. Total mutiny.

Not so fun fact 5: Bees are in trouble because of a small hive mite that has starting taking over the hives, laying eggs in the cells and eventually forcing the bees out of the hive. Hives have to be checked and treated regularly to keep from being infested by these small invasive beetles from Asia. Boo!

Beekeeper Lisa

One hive. It contains both the cells for honey and for making baby bees. This hive has no drones, because it is a slow honey producer, so they opted to kill all of the drones until they have more honey.

The queen is in here somewhere..

Lastly, bees can make art. Their so cool and talented. I am ecited because my goal for this spring and summer is to plant a pollinator friendly yard. I applied for a grant to do, I will know shortly if I got it. My eventual goal would be to have a hive in my yard, but it is really hard to overwinter bees in Minnesota, so I might have to work up to this. Future goals...

Honeycomb sculpture (Real honeycomb that the bees constructed over a metal frame)

That’s it for the day. Tomorrow: Travel along the southern coast of the island to visit the Place of Refuge National Historic Park and one of only 4 green sand beaches in the world.

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snowshoe1980 · 4 years

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“Famously announcing a “war on ugliness” in a speech against the cheap proliferation of cookie-cutter housing developments, Ossipoff was an early proponent of design attuned to the sensitivities of its surroundings, working in sync with nature, rather than against it. In the 1970s, he predicted that “the design of buildings will be oriented toward energy conservation” as it had in the past, “before we were seduced into ignoring the elements by simply overcoming them with brute mechanical force, consuming, as we were told, limitless, cheap energy.” Calling air-conditioners “the root of all evil,” he designed ecologically friendly tactics for cooling. In his work, Ossipoff was careful to move as little earth and fell as few trees as possible, all while working with local, readily available materials such as volcanic stone, redwood, and koa and ohi’a woods.”

Vladimir Ossipoff

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hoogesinmaui · 4 years

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Birding in Maui

Saturday, December 7, 2019

Every now and again I get to go out birding here in Maui. Most of the birds that we see at sea level are exotic birds that have been released, often by people who missed the birds of their home country. Unfortunately between that and habitat destruction many of the native birds are extinct and many of those remaining are endangered. These are birds that are not found anywhere else on the planet. The Nene is the state bird. It is a descendant of some Canada Geese which made there way here eons ago. The Black Neck Stilt isn’t a separate species, but is a cousin of the one we have on the continent. My favourite here is the Iiwi. It is a brilliant crimson with a long curved orange/red bill. It lives up on the mountain side where it eats nectar of the Ohi’a tree.

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petri808 · 5 years

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65 Questions : 2, 5, 12, 13, 16, 19, 34, 39, 50, 61, and 64. 😛

Lol is that all j/k, I’m an open book so idm 😉 thank you for the ask! 🥰💜

2. On a scale of 1-5, how afraid of the dark are you?

If 1 is not at all and 5 is major afraid, I’d say 1-2 maybe depends on the circumstances. I deal with spirits so the dark doesn’t bother me much. Plus my eyes are light sensitive so I prefer when it’s not too bright. I despise fluorescent lights lol

5. If you were a type of tree, what would you be?

I’ve answered this before with the ‘Ohi’a Lehua. It’s a tree found here in Hawaii that is a hard wood, it’s a very tough tree, lives in some harsh environments. But it’s flowers are rather delicate. I think that is a lot like me. Tough and delicate at the same time.

12. Who told you they loved you last?

My husband over the phone. He works out of town so I don’t see him more than 1-2 times a week. I actually don’t mind cause I’m pretty busy myself and independent lol. But yeah the end of the conversation always ends with I love you. 💕

13. Your worst enemy?

Time 😂 I am/feel old.

16. The last song you listened to?

Telephone by Lady Gaga feat. Beyoncé on Pandora in my car.

19. If anyone could be your slave for a day, who would it be and what would they have to do?

@diabl0o 😈 worship me MUAHAHAHA! And draw me more kitty pics 😋. Or I’ll take Mamoru Miyano and he can censored item 😏

34. What was your last dream about?

I can’t really remember details except the color red and talking which is normal for my dreams when I do have them.

39. What type of music do you like?

All kinds lol. Pop, some Rap (not hardcore), R&B, Latin (love Latin), J-Pop, Alternative, some grunge, pop country (not twangy kind). 70-80’s, early 90’s are more my faves to sing 🎤 😊

50. What is the most unusual conversation you’ve ever had?

Um, it’s more unusual to others, but if I talk about my ‘gifts’ or more like curse. I won’t go into it unless someone is genuinely curious but let’s just say it delves into the spirit world and I wish they’d leave me alone sometimes.

61. Do you often read your horoscope?

Lol I do more than once a week but it’s more for fun to see if it pans out or not.

64. What do you think about babies?

Welp okay I do have an adult daughter (she’s turning 20 in August) because I got pregnant at 19, and I raised her fine, but me and babies, yeah not really of interest to me. When I met my current hubby I literally told him if you want kids walk away cause I ain’t having anymore. I think it might be because of childhood trauma that I have no true desire for motherhood. I think they’re cute and fine, just not for me if that makes any sense. I’m also a staunch believer that people, especially women shouldn’t feel pressured to have kids if they aren’t ready or don’t want any.

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esandersonucc · 9 months

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Story: The 'Apapane Who Lied

July 30, 2023 Genesis 29:15-28Romans 8:26-39 Generally, ‘apapane are pretty honest birds. They give warning calls when there’s danger near, they sing “Waiting for the rain to end” songs when it’s raining, and they sing “Oh, look what I’ve found!” songs when they’ve discovered a tree particularly rich in ohi’a blossoms. One day an ‘apapane had a different idea. He had sung his “Waiting for the…

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#lies #truth

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thatsnakeman · 5 years

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Hawai’i. Ohi’a a Lehu’a. Pele fell in love with the warrior Ohia, but he loved Lehua. In retribution, Pele turned Ohia into a tree. As a mercy, Lehua’s deity turned her into the red blossom, so the lovers would be joined for all time. Ohia is the first tree to grow on new lava. [OC][3200x2400] via /r/EarthPorn https://ift.tt/2XKsKPj

#IFTTT #reddit

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buddywolff · 5 years

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Nine of 13 of Africa’s oldest and largest baobab trees have died in the past decade, it has been reported. These trees, aged between 1,100 and 2,500 years, appear to be victims of climate change. Scientists speculate that warming temperatures have either killed the trees directly or have made them weaker and more susceptible to drought, diseases, fire or wind.

Old baobabs are not the only trees which are affected by climatic changes. Ponderosa pine and Pinyon forests in the American West are dying at an increasing rate as the summers get warmer in the region. In Hawaii the famous Ohi’a trees are also dying at faster rates than previously recorded.

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chewbecky · 7 years

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I just came across some interesting facts about Polynesian mythology surrounding mermaid folklore and I was taken aback so for a second. I’m not exactly sure how many people actually know about this but I’m gonna explain anyway cause I’m a nerd and I love hearing myself talk.

So we all know this girl right?

Well in Polynesian mythology and folklore, she was a mermaid named Moana-Nui-Ka-Lehua. Along with two shark gods, she protected the Ka’ie’ie Channel and also had a thing for shape shifting. Some people saw her as a giant fish or as a human girl.

But the thing was, Moana was like other water-bearing mermaids. She had the ability to whip up any storm or wave at her own will. And she did this frequently to get what she wanted.

Moana was so butthurt about her waters that when the goddess of lava/volcanoes fell in love with a human and wished to cross Moana’s channel to marry, Moana said hell nah. None shall pass, bitch.

However, Moana’s reign of the channel came up short when she noticed the mischievous demigod Maui fishing on her waters. Of course she was pissed. Last time I checked, you don’t mess with a mermaid’s shit.

Like take Ariel for example in Disney’s The Little Mermaid. In folklore, it is said that mermaids sometimes had fascinations of material items. And they guarded that shit with their life.

In the Polynesian myth, Maui and Moana had a bit of a brawl. What with Maui’s trickster personality, he ultimately overpowered her and literally dragged her to the shore where she fucking died.

But Maui was somewhat of a decent creature, so he layed her next to a shrine and she eventually turned into a common tree in Hawaii known as

the ohi’a lehua tree.

I found this sort of interesting because, despite Disney over exaggerating the body scale of Maui and changing up the actual encounter of Maui and Moana, they still kept a few of the concepts. I appreciate that Disney does its best to appeal to younger audiences but i just wish they could be historically accurate with Polynesian mythology.

Like imagine Moana as a bad ass mermaid goddess that just rampaged like a spoiled teenager to get what she wanted?

#moana #disney's moana #maui #maui disney #polynesian #polynesian culture #mythology #polynesian mythology #damn #i talk alot #nerd #mermaids #facts #moana goddess

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