November 2012

November 12th

          The garden is still growing lots of food, and as plants are spent out, we replace them with others. Thus old squash and cucumber plants are pulled out. Once the ground has been rejuvenated with tilled in compost, it is replanted. Out goes the old bean plants. Out goes the old tomatoes plants. In goes baby chard, beets, lettuce, and all sorts of other plants that we grew in the hoophouse. Some things we direct seed, so in goes daikon, peas, beans, onions. It's a marvelous cycle to see and be part of!

           The pipinola we planted is starting to vine. It is time to train them to the trellises. The jicama plants are climbing up their trellises and are now blooming lovely light blue flowers. Long seed pods follow the died flowers, thus growing seeds for the next crop. By the way, jicama seeds are not edible... toxic. But the tubers are great to eat. 

           We are experimenting with tomato tip cuttings. We know that we can produce new plants this way, but it the time of the year that we are experimenting with. It is November, a time that tomato plants usually start to mature and die off. But we are going to start the tip cuttings and see what happens. 

          Winter is a great time for brassicas.... cauliflower, kale, cabbage, broccoli, etc. So we have started seeds and look forward to baby plants. 

          We are experimenting with growing onions and leeks from seed. This week we planted out our first plants that we produced ourselves! We are soooo proud. 

          Our chicken pen is basically completed. Just need to finish up the final touches. So the hens have arrived and are quite comfy in their new digs. We will be keeping them in the pen for a while so that they can imprint on this location. Then we will start letting them out to do bug control. They will need to return to the safety of their pen when we are not here to keep an eye on them. There are too many predators around that would love to kill chickens: loose dogs, mongooses, Hawaiian hawks (called and I'o). 

November 2012

           Wow, it has almost been one whole year since the idea of a community garden was formed into a reality. November 15 of last year, Mac and I got together with Gloria and agreed to start up the garden. We targeted January 2nd as the physical ground breaking, using the month and a half between Nov 15 and Jan 1st to order seeds, get equipment in place, make a plan. 

          In just one year we have accomplished so much for being such a small group of volunteers with extremely little funding. We've cleared land, removed rocks, tilled, and planted crops. Compost bins were made and filled. Herbs were planted, plus perennial plants. A very large gourd patch was put in and trellises built for it. A hoophouse was built. Just recently a very secure chicken pen was completed, and 50+ hens moved into it. Right now raised garden boxes are being put into place. 

          An incredible amount of food has been produced, considering we are amateurs. Volunteers were constantly able to take home food. Boxes of food was also delivered to senior groups, and organizations making meals for seniors. Several families in need of temporary help were given baskets of food. Seniors were given hydroponic lettuce growing units. Plus we were able to sell food  and excess plants are low cost to Ka'u residents via farmers markets. 

           We held a couple of open gate events, inviting the local residents to come see the garden. And we held our first gourd workshop, a howling success! Next month will see our second gourd workshop. 

          The coming year will see more expansion. More ground being used for the garden. More food trees being planted. More container gardening. The addition of hydroponics and aquaponics. We have already experimented with some hydroponic systems and plan to establish a more permanent set up. A section will be developed for seed stock..... growing seeds, growing start up cuttings. By the end of the year we anticipate the rabbits to be moved to the garden grounds, with the lambs to follow. Plus we are having many, many requests now for workshops. And speakers who which to host workshops. 

            Volunteers come and go, but we have a nice core group that gets along just fine. As the garden expands, we seem to add a few more, so as time goes by, we expect our core group to grow. The great part is that our group enjoys coming to the garden, enjoys socializing afterward, and is very interested in developing the community garden project. 

            So....Happy Anniversary to the Mala'ai Ka'u Project! 

October 2012

October 28th

          Sorry for the lack of updates, but my computer has been giving me fits. 

          The garden is doing great! In fact, it is growing far faster than we can keep up with. So we are coming up with shortcut ideas so that our time is being used more effectively. We are adding trellises for anything that will grow vertically. Caring for vertical plants is easier than if they are on the ground. And is some spots of the garden the grass is coming back. Pulling the grass is time consuming and tiring, so we laying down a thick layer of newspaper then putting mulch atop that. We hope to smother the grass this way. 

          The gourds are unhappy with all the rain we have been having. Just about every night it is raining lightly. Not enough to benefit the soil, but enough to get everything wet for hours. We are seeing spotted and pitted surfaces on many gourds. And the sage hates being wet too, having dropped many of its leaves. The cukes and squashes are also complaining. Not much we can do about it, although we are thinking of experimenting with little umbrellas over each gourd to keep them drier. 

          The Aztec Spinach plants are pau. We are not planning on growing it again for a couple of reasons: the greens are tougher than the other greens we grow; it is not anything near as productive as other greens: it goes to seed rather quickly even though we harvested the tips twice a week. It might be a plant of choice for areas such as Green Sands or Oceanview, but it not the best option for us. 

          We are removing the red sugar cane and selling the plants. It grows really well here, but it is not a good producer of sweet juice for us. The light green cane is far superior for our area. We plan to try a few more varieties and hope to find 4-5 that do well here. 

          While cherry and grape tomatoes have been doing fantastic, the slicer types have been hit by disease and fruit fly. We pulled the plants out today. The next time we try slicers we will grow them in a screened cage. Fruit fly finds them all the time. 

           The last of our watermelon was picked and consumed today. About half the crop was hit by fruit fly, but it still gave us plenty of sweet watermelons to eat. We are not sure if it was fruit fly or pickleworm moth that got them, but either way, we will plan on protecting the flowers and fruits better next time. Diane started some more seeds in the hoophouse. 

          The pipinolas that we planted have all sprouted. Yeah! The baby vines are about a foot long now. Pretty soon we will be able to train them up the trellis. 

         Big news.......Chicken pen is almost done. We cemented the floor, patched any holes that the mongoose could get in, put bird mesh over the top to foil the i'o (Hawaiian hawk), and should have the roof tarp on tomorrow. Everyone is looking forward to having the birds help with the beg problems. It will be a happy day!

         October saw us renting the farmhouse for the first time. Look, our very own clubhouse that every childhood wanted! Having the house is making a big, big difference. We now have access to a toilet, shower, kitchen, tables & chairs, and beds. For a bunch of oldsters, it makes life a whole lot better. We are furnishing the house slowly, but it is getting there. We want to keep the furnishing in period with an old farm house. But renting the house has its down sides. We now have to earn enough money to pay the rent. That means we can't give away as much of the food and we have to get serious about having workshops and retreats. But we shall do it.... at least for now. 

October 29th

          October 26th, a Friday, saw our first official workshop. We are so very, very pleased to announce that it was a success. We all were terribly worried going into this, thinking of all the ways it could fail. But it turned out just fine. Everybody seemed to have a good time. 

          This first workshop was about gourd carving. Sue J passed along some of her knowledge about not on carving, but how to pick a gourd, prepare it, dying tips, etc. She had lots of example finished gourds on display, not only depicting successes, but also failures. Showing what can and does go wrong is just as important as showing the successes. 

          We started out our first workshop with a handful of carvers. We didn't want to overwhelm ourselves. And it turned out to be a good idea. Next time we can invite more people. The carvers al had a chance for individual attention, ask as many questions as they wished, and share information with everyone. 

         Sitting under a magnificent avocado tree, people worked their gourds until the noon break for lunch. Lunch consisted of many foods from the garden: fried spiced sweet potatoes, sauted leeks and green beans with polish sausage, turkey vegetable soup, steamed buttered beets. Dessert was watermelon and papaya. Yum!

           Back to work after lunch, people stayed until 2 pm working on their projects. No one finished their carvings that day, so everyone went home with a homework assignment. Next month everyone will be back to finish up after the gourds have been dying for a month. We are all looking forward to the results. 

September 2012

September 4th

          So we are 9 months into this project now and we are still going strong. Along the way we have lost a few volunteers for various reasons, but we have also gained some. We have had failures, but also surprisingly many successes far beyond what we had anticipated. All in all, we are very happy with the progress so far.

          New volunteers this month include Tabitha and Zack. Welcome!

          We  have started a new tradition. Every Monday at the end of work we are having a little BBQ lunch. So far we are using primarily what our garden produces. Last week we had sloppy joes over mashed potatoes. While the beef was from the garden, it was local. It came from Michelle Galimba. This week we had tomato soup, fried sweet potatoes, cucumber ice cream and haupia. 

          We have replanted chinese cabbage since we found that almost everyone likes the green leaves. The variety doesn't head up for us but the leaves are excellent. Since it bolts quickly, it is one of those crops we need to replant on a regular basis. 

          By majority request we are going to replant those ugly, gnarly white sweet potatoes. While they are a frightly sight, they really do taste good and make excellent fried sweets. 

          The gourds are doing very well and we have sold a number of them so far. The plants are taking a rest right now, so we don't expect anymore ready for a couple of weeks. Wew have also sole close to a dozen of the edible gourds and are getting requests for more. This surprises us because we didn't know that anyone would be interested. 

          We are hoping to start offering workshops. It all depends upon whether or not we can hold them on the garden grounds or if we need to find another venue. But I will keep you posted. 

September 20th

          We are harvesting lots of gourds now. Yes, we knew that these days would come, but it only now that the reality of it is hitting us...... right between the eyes! This week Sue J took out over 60 gourds of various types and uses out of the gourd patch. Amazing. 

          I already told you that we were expanding the garden size. Well, we are at the point where we can start rototillering. There is still some of that vining type grass to hand pull, but we are going to get the tiller working. There are lots of baby plants ready to plant, some more taro huli, some pipinola, and more sweet potato slips. So we'll till bit by bit and plant as we go. 

          October is almost upon us and that's the month that we need to replant gourds. Yes, start a new gourd patch. With all the mature gourds that we are now taking from the garden, it is really hard to think that we need to plant more. What? More? Are we crazy? Not really, because if we don't plant them now, we won't have gourds next spring. 

          We are changing our approach to planting gourds. This time we will give them far more space and make better and different trellises. Because of the amount of moisture here, we need to have the vines more open to the air flow. Climbing around the current gourd patch is difficult, so we will attempt to train the vines better, making the patch navigable. 

          We are also changing the way we are growing the grape and cherry tomatoes. The trellises were far to skimpy, so we are constructing larger, more robust permanent trellising. While the trellises will be permanent, the crop won't. We will rotate through crops that will be using trellising: vining tomatoes, vining sweet potatoes, jicama, vining lima and green beans, vining peas, etc. 

          Lots of veggies are being harvested. The list includes: mustard spinach, arugula, chinese cabbage, broccoli, chard, carrots, peas, snap beans, aztec spinach, grape and cherry tomatoes, cucumbers, edible gourds, herbs (dill, genovese basil, thai basil, greek oregano, stick oregano, salad burnet, cilantro, parsley, tulsi, garlic chives, common chives, celery), and potatoes. 

          Last night we got 2 inches of rain. Relief. Looks like we won't need to use irrigation for a while. 

September 25th

           So what did we goof up? Aaaawww, we just picked 20 gourds too early, that's all. Yup, we mixed up our dates and happily chopped away until someone pointed out that we were off by 30 days. Yikes. Wow, no wonder the gourds looked so perfect and pretty. So now we have 20 gourds that go to feed the chickens. So it's not a total waste, but it still isn't a pretty sight, all those lost gourds. 

          On a happier note, we did get mature gourds from the patch and sold three right on the spot. And Linda planted out a whole lot of seedlings from the hoophouse. Many of the seeds are germinating in the hoophouse. The watermelon vine is setting 4 more fruits. And the eggplants are starting to produce. 

          A section along the driveway has been mowed and we had a conference as to what to plant there. We decided upon a row of fruit trees set back from the driveway, and sunflowers, cosmos, and cherry tomatoes. The flowers can go up against the fence for support and we'll build trellises for the tomatoes. 

          We have scheduled our first gourd workshop to be held right here on the farm.  A basic beginners introduction to gourds. Should be fun!   

          Harvest today included cucumbers, eggplant, tomatoes, leeks, white potatoes, yellow sweet potatoes, two different types of green beans, snap peas, and herbs. Our youthful volunteers did a great job with the heavy digging. Thank you!           

August 2012

August 6th

          Many crops are coming to maturity right about now. Must have something to do with the fact that its mid-summer and the days are getting shorter. Maybe the plants think winter is coming? Regardless of the reason, we are seeing many gourds coming out of the garden, lots of potatoes and sweet potatoes, lots of greens (chard, mustard, spinach, lettuce, kale, etc). The radishes are constantly producing. And finally the tomatoes are coming in strongly. The snap beans and peas are great producers, too. 

          We have been getting an abundance of certain herbs, more than we can use, sell, or give away. So we are going to try our hand at drying them. So far the summer savory, celery leaves, tulsi, greek oregano, dill, sage, and parsley have all dried well. We will be trying the other herbs this coming week. 

          Today we harvested a new potato for us called Nicola. Not a real heavy producer, but very nice looking spuds. We also dug the white Hawaiian sweet potatoes. Not a heavy producer either and the sweet potatoes are gnarly shaped. We've already tried tasting them and they are just fine and sweet, just not what people nowadays expect to see. 

         We started a new crop that none of us have tried before....Okinawan Spinach. Kind of exciting when we find something new! We will let you know how it turns out. 

August 13th

           Lots of potatoes are coming out of the garden this week. Reds, purples, yellows, and whites with names like Huckleberry, Yellow Finn, Russian Banana, Kipfel, Purple Majesty, Red Thumb, Daisy Gold, All Blue, Adirondack Red, Yukon Gold, Irish Cobbler, La Ratte, Rose Finn Apple, and Carola. 

          Harvest also includes Norli snow pea, Oregon Giant snow pea, Valentino snap bean, Hickok snap bean, Black Valentine snap bean, Fordhook chard, Silverado chard, Bionda de Lyon chard, Yaya carrot, Dinosaur kale, Red Russian kale, Red Giant radish, French Breakfast radish, Portuguese cabbage, Goliath broccoli, Aztec spinach, Munchkin cucumber, Spacemaster cucumber. Also some veggies we don't know the exact name of: mustard spinach, chinese cabbage, and grape tomatoes. 

          We are drying our excess herbs now. This is the first time many of us have grown herbs, so we don't understand exactly when to reseed and start anew. So we are scrambling to restart the basils and dills. Happily the dried herbs will carry us through the times when we don't have fresh ones. 

          Lately we have been having plenty of small rain showers. Actually, we could use a few nice sunny days without the rain because we are starting to see mold among the plants. Today we thinned some of the rows and removed old plants. Hopefully that will improve air flow and reduce the mold problem. 

          The old pasture grass is trying to make a comeback in sections of the garden. The persistent stuff is even pushing up past the deep mulch. So we are digging the bigger clumps out and putting down a thick layer of newspaper before reapplying the grass clipping mulch. We'll see if that thwarts the pasture grass for a while again. A herbicide would indeed kill the stuff, but we want to keep any chemical use to the barest minimum. So we will try to avoid round-up, or even heavy doses of clove oil, an approved "organic" herbicide. As a group we have decided to avoid when possible all chemicals, even so called "safe" organic ones. 

          Diane worked all day today sowing seeds in the hoophouse. The house had gotten empty, yikes! And doing a seed inventory today shows that we need to order some more seeds. We'll figure out in the next few days what veggies we wish to maintain in the garden. 

          The sweet potato slips we got from Sandhill Preservation Farm are doing fine. One variety did rot out, but the others are vigorous. A few months from now we should be happily up to our necks in sweets. Sounds good to us! Since the old white Hawaiian sweet potato doesn't seem happy in our location, we plan to cut back on the amount of garden space we allot to it. Rather than trying to produce these sweets for food, we will maintain a preservation bed so that we can hand out slips to other gardeners who would like to try it. 

          The Okinawan spinich slips all look like they rooted. Every one of them looked perky this morning. How cool is that?!?!

          We might be getting some more volunteers joining the group. If that happens then we'll see the garden expand in space. Time to think about wacking down more weeds, digging rocks, and breaking ground again. 

August 23rd

         A little while ago we were complaining about it being too dry. Well folks, now we're moaning about it being too wet. Not a whole lot of rain, but rather, a little all the time without giving the plants the chance to really dry out. As a result we are seeing mold and rot. The poor snap beans and peas have suffered the most. We're at the point where we will be tearing out the beans and peas. So we will give it a try again by reseeding. As a hedge we plan to grow some pole snap beans so that we can still harvest during wet periods like this. Hopefully this idea will work. We shall see. 

          We have two new volunteers who are YOUNG!  Joyel and Tattie. Both energetic teenagers that have come to the rescue of a bunch of old fogies. Boy can they weed in a hurry! And they planted a couple hundred strawberry plants in a hurry. Gardening machines on legs! Wow!  We are very, very thankful and happy to see them come on board. 

          The gourds are now coming out of the garden on a regular basis. Sue has carved and dyed a number of them, and a couple have just come out of the dying process. Looking good! Sue J is donating these first gourds to us, and we plan to sell the first few as a fundraiser. Special gourds for special people. I'll soon have the pictures up on the website. 

August 27th

          The greens are coming on strongly, giving us plenty to give to families/persons in need. We had so much this week that we brought about 20 bunches to the market to sell at a $1 a big bunch. Selling them at very, very reasonable prices is another way to help "feed ka'u". When people can afford to buy fresh food, they will! We brought eggplant, squash, radishes, leeks, grape tomatoes, mustard spinach, chard, portuguese cabbage, chinese cabbage, and broccoli. Plus 5 edible gourds. 

          This past two weeks we have been focusing on expanding the garden size. Carl mowed, whacked, and hacked a large area. We have used the mower to scalp the weeds down to the soil level, and the tiller to flip everything over. Now we will wait to see what weeds survived and attack them. Harvested bunches of rocks which we moved to the next chicken pen foundation. 

          Diane has our hoophouse just about full again. Lots of all sorts of things planted in flats and pots. It is guaranteed to keep us busy for a while. I just hope the new ground that we have been preparing will be ready in time. 

          A giant trashcanful of strawberry plants have been donated to the garden. Linda and Sue J cleaned them up and Joyel and Tattie got them planted. So far they look good. Strawberries will be a nice addition. 

          Speaking of fruit, Mac donated numerous white pineapple tops. This week we will get them planted. We plan to put them into the hill that is too steep to use easily for other crops. Pineapples will be a yummy addition too. 

          Now that we are committed to expanding the garden size (just about doubling it), we are all thinking about what we would like to see growing there. So don't be surprised to see some really neat additions to the garden in the next 2-3 weeks. 

Messages to our Donators

To Jimmy of Pennsylvania:

         Your seeds are doing great. We have been harvesting the radishes already and have lots of your seeds growing out in the main garden. So far, all the varieties are growing well here in Hawaii. I saw Diane today using your seeds to start new plants in the hoop house. 

To Stephanie of New Jersey:

          Today we harvested the first of the potatoes you sent us. First to be dug, Yukon Gold. Second, Caribe. Both did really well. The plants never did bloom, but they signaled that they were ready by turning somewhat dull looking. When we dug them up, there were a fair number of eating sized tubers to harvest. Your other two varieties look like they will be ready to dig next week. We all intend to sample some of the potatoes, but we will be saving a lot of the tubers in order to start the next crop. 

To Carol of California:

         The heirloom beans you sent are already being harvested. The plants grew quite large and took us by surprise. Next time we will give them more space. But regardless, they are just covered in green beans. What a great variety!

To Linda of California:

          The heirloom tomato seed you sent sprouted wonderfully. In fact, we got close to 100% germination. Amazing, no? The plants are ready to be transferred out into the main garden, but we need to make their trellises first. I'm really curious what the striped and green ones will look like when they are ready for harvest. And none of us has seen a hollow tomato before, so that will be interesting too. 

To Mary of Ohio:

          We didn't get good germination on the purple green beans seed, but we did get some vigorous plants. They are just now producing loads of little beans and are covered in flowers. We plan to save all the seed for future plantings, rather than eat any of the beans now. This is one very nice looking plant and looks like it will be a heavy producer. 

To Joan of Oklahoma:

          Your peas are just now in bloom. Our plants grew a bit higher than we had expected. We hadn't trellised them, but next time we will. Looks like they are about 30" tall. We are looking forward to seeing how nice these peas will be in Hawaii. So far, so good. 

To Terri of Florida:

          We only recently started your okra seed. It has been too chilly here up until lately. I saw that some of the seed is starting to germinate. I'll let you know later if okra will grow in our garden here. We are hoping it does, since many of us like to use okra in stews and soups. 

July 2012

July 9th

          Yours Truly has been a bit busy lately, so I apologize that I haven't been posting updates. But I'm here now, so here it goes. By the way, we've all been real busy and working hard on the garden! 

          The garden is at the point that we are making second plantings into the rows. That is, we are harvesting a crop, tilling in compost/lime/bone meal/ash/biochar, and planting the second crops. In fact, in a few places we are already planting the third crop! Yikes!

          This past two weeks have been big harvests. Lots of onions, potatoes, chard, cabbages, kohlrabi, radishes, daikon, snow peas, and green beans. But of course, those green beans are not always green. Naw, we have green but also purple and red!!  Oh, so pretty! 

          New item: tomatoes. Our first grape tomatoes are now turning red. We've been able to harvest small amounts for two weeks now. 

          New Item: pointed cabbages. I've never seen the pointed varieties before. Might be a little odd looking, but everyone who has tasted them says that they were delicious. 

          New Item: we planted tumeric a while back, but we more or less forgot about it because nothing seemed to happen. Well, today while working on the gourd patch we found lots of tumeric plants popping up through the surface. Relief....we didn't plant it wrong. Guess it just wasn't time for it to sprout. 

           New crops being put in include potatoes, mustard spinach, yellow beets, white beets, red beets, long French breakfast radishes, daikon, dill, long green eggplant, fat black eggplant, frying sweet peppers, white patty pan squash, and watermelon. 

          Diane spent the day  starting new seeds in the hoop house. The house had gotten pretty empty there, so we needed to focus on filling it up again. I haven't seen exactly what she started, but I did see that there are lots of new trays added to the growing benches. 

          Working in the garden has been rewarding, but it is also pleasant. We are growing some flowering plants to add to the garden just for the beauty, just to make us smile. We have a few marking the ends of rows, but we are also starting to line the sides of the major walking paths. Geraniums, petunias, cosmos, sweet william, and others that I've forgotten their names. It is so nice to be working along hunched over a green bean bed, picking beans, when behold you come face to face with a purple and white petunia all covered with flowers. Can't help but stand up with a big silly smile across your face. And it feels so good! 

July 14th

          There is a storm off the coast that is pushing hot winds our way, with lots of bright sun. Alas, no rain. It's the rain we could surely use! So for only the second time since January, we have had to resort to giving the entire garden a nice watering. Sun and warmth, combined with the strong winds is drying everything out. 

          This coming week will be devoted to making as much mulch as we possibly can. Once the ground is watered, the mulch will keep much of the moisture there. 

July 30th

          The harvests now include chard, spinach mustard, savoy cabbage, broccoli, radishes, leeks, chinese mustard, fingerling potatoes, sweet potatoes, snow peas, cucumbers, green beans, grape tomatoes, kale, aztec spinach, and carrots. Plus lots of different herbs. Sue J also has harvested a total of 9 gourds so far wih more to be ready sometime in August. 

          This month we are happy to announce that we have been able to supply fresh vegetables to families in both Oceanview and Naalehu. We have been getting some requests from the Pahala area and plan to expand the garden in order to help those Ka'u residents out, too. 

          About 200 sweet potato slips arrived from the Sandhill Preservation Farm. We are really excited about having lots of new sweet potato varieties to try here in Hawaii. We don't know how well they will do in our area, but we are giving them a try. Today we have all slips planted and watered in. Now time will tell which do best. 

          We have started erecting the trellising for the pipinolas. Also known as chayote, pipinola grows really well here. Each plant produces numerous squash-like pipinolas, and it can grow continuously for a long time. The tender shoot tips are also good to eat. 

          We found a variety of carrot that grows super well. Yaya. It is consistently out preforming all the others we have tried so far. So it looks like Yaya will be one we will add to our "keeper" list. 

          The tumeric is finally growing. It took quite a long time to come up. But since none of us has tried growing it before, we don't know if that was normal or not. But the plants now look good and are getting quite large.