Kealakekua, HI
I have embarked on a grand adventure to Hawaii for 6 months, starting November 15th, 2021 with my incredibly capable brother Forest. We will be working as an organic farmers at Kawelo Farm as well as some building projects to improve the infrastructure for processing goods and living spaces. In exchange for labor, the incredible family hosting us is providing food and living quarters on the farm. Here I plan to record our journey through photos and little snippets of our 182 days here.
​
I intend to do updates so you can follow my journey as you please. There will always be more photos and videos on my shared google drive. Pictures will automatically be available there so you can see what I photograph throughout my day. I welcome you to comment or ask questions on the photos if you feel so inclined!
You can get access here:
​
WEEK 1
day-by-day
NOV 15
We arrived at the airport at 7:30pm Hawaii time, after almost 23 hours of travel; a 2-hour car ride to the shuttle bus, 45 minute bus ride, then two 6 hour flights. Lastly, we were met by Todd to pick us up. We drove to the farm through Kona and were able to see the night time glow of the towns local coffee shops, food and lights coming from up the side of the mountain (of volcano). We learned about island directions and how direction is in context of Mountain side (Mauka) and Ocean side (Makai). We settled in for the night, we able to meet our wonderful host family, and get cozy in our rooms before crashing for the night. I fell asleep to the sound of frogs and toads peeping in the jungle around us.
NOV 16
I woke up the next day I was greeted by the many sounds of roosters and birds. We met Todd for breakfast and he made a beautiful breakfast with a fruit plate with freshly fallen Lilikoi (passionfruit), Oranges and Papaya, along with cinnamon raisin toast and cream-cheese. We got a tour of the farm and looked at all the potential projects in store for us for the next 6 months and even beyond. We hopped right in a started off with harvesting and processing coffee beans.
The ancient avocado tree that lumes above the yard, will intermittently drop avocados down on to the ground. Now well deserving on its name, The Drop Zone. The beautiful avocados are on average the size of a softball in their classic oblong shape. I have witnessed the tree drop about 15 fruit a day and they need to be collected each day into a wheelbarrow. There are truly too many to know what to do with. The farm has used them to create a truly magical Chocolate-Sugar-Avocado popsicle (Otherwise known as the CSA popsicle). They are deliciously creamy and has been approved multiple times by Forest and I, in partnership with Quality Control.
Our other daily tasks include feeding the chickens, gathering fallen Lilakoi and Avocados, harvesting coffee beans and then processing them, and lastly making as many popsicles as possible. For lunch we made a udon noodle ramen with vegetables from the garden.
After work we were taken out into the town to do a preliminary grocery shop for the times we are not eating all together and went to a gorgeous ocean swimming spot. The water was truly the bluest I have every seen and my mind had to adjust to the fact it was naturally occurring. The water was warm and we let the water push us around for a while as the surges came and went. I found a promising looking coconut on the rocks and we decided to bring it home and see what was inside. I let Forest do the machete work.
NOV 17
Today was a big coffee bean processing day, we harvested another 2.5 gallons of the coffee of the trees, then ran them through the mill that takes the red husk off. We did some seeding into trays for the garden, as well as popped some transplants into the garden beds. At one point in the day I tried to source a howler monkey noise coming from up in a tree, until I realized I had been bamboozled by a wild Forest. We made more CSA popsicles and even had to freeze some avocados that didn't make it into the batch.
NOV 18
After our morning chores, we started our harvest for the farms' First CSA Box! We harvested and washed a collection of produce to put in the box. We then made bundles of produce for 10 families that the farm is supporting in an effort to connect and supply them with fresh produce. Then, of course we made popsicles. We processed the coffee beans soaking from yesterdays harvest, rinsing and sorting through the good and bad ones before spreading them out in the dehydrator. We spent some time weed-wacking to manage the overgrowing weeds that climb into the farm. I hit a mushy avocado and Gaucified myself pretty hard.