Ha Ha Ha!

Living Lettuce

Richard Ha writes:

Our newest product here at Hamakua Springs Country Farms—our Chef's Select baby lettuce, which we grow hydroponically under a rain shelter—breathes.

That’s why we call our new product “living lettuce”—because we leave some of the roots on when we send it out to the stores. This means the lettuce can take up water and oxygen, and gives it a longer shelf life. It also means one can actually keep it fresh on a kitchen counter for awhile, in a bowl of fresh water, provided some of the roots remain above the water so it can take in oxygen.

We developed the “Chef's Select baby lettuce” product after learning about the finer points of lettuce from Chef Alan Wong, who provides much appreciated help and advice when we are developing new products.

We held a product development meeting at Chef Alan’s King Street Restaurant and I watched him evaluate several different varieties of lettuce. He removed each leaf, giving a running commentary of how each lettuce leaf could be used for salads, garnish and in other ways, depending on its size, texture, color.

I had no idea that lettuce was ever so closely scrutinized. He talked of loft, which is when a lettuce has characteristics enabling it to retain its shape and not go flat under the weight of different protein offerings as well as dressings. He said that he could use baby leaves as the baby lettuce leaves would be tender and retain their identifying shape in salads and garnishes.

That’s what led us to develop what we call Chef's Select baby lettuce, a combination of three lettuces in each container. We chose a mini romaine for its crunchy texture, dark green color, loft and good taste. A butter lettuce is included for its light green color, buttery taste and round shaped leaves, and a lollo rosa is a part of the mix for its brilliant red color, frilly leaves and because its taste complements the other two.

If you try some of our new Chef's Select baby lettuce you’ll know you are getting a lettuce with the characteristics that Hawai‘i’s finest chefs seek out.

3 Down

Richard Ha writes:

I'll be posting my training updates here on Mondays. Here are my first week's results.

At 8:00 am on Sunday, May 28:
Starting weight 214.6 lbs.
Week's target weight 213.6 lbs.
Today's actual weight 211.4 lbs.
I am 2.2 lbs. ahead of schedule

Goal 175 lbs.
Weight loss since 5/23: 3.2 lbs.
Starting resting heart rate 65
Today's resting heart rate 63 beats per minute.*

* This goes down as one gets into better shape. Lance Armstrong is said to be at 32 beats per minute. My lowest was 52 beats per minute many years ago.

I’m 2.2 lbs. ahead of schedule this week. I lost 3.2 lbs. this week when my goal was to lose 1 lb.
Although I am not dieting, I find myself looking up the caloric content of what I might be eating. And because I'm exercising, I find myself eating more apple bananas and snacking on cocktail tomatoes a lot, which have zero penalty points on the Weight Watchers list of foods. Fortunately, we grow these things at Hamakua Springs, and we grow the ones we do because of how great they taste.

Losing this weight by exercising means I'll be stronger and in better shape than I am now. I won't be able to keep up with “the boys” on the Kulani trails. But maybe I can soon keep up with our mountain-biking President if he joins them.

The leader of “the boys” is Chris Seymour, owner of Hilo Bike Hub. He is featured with Chris Clark and Ray Brust from Oahu in the Hawaiian Airlines in-flight magazine Hana Hou. He is a friend of mine; I went with him to the bank to vouch for his bank loan when he started his bike shop, though he didn't need me at all and had it well under control.

His riding is at a total different level than most people's. Mike Tanabe is up there as well, relative to his age group (he’s 58). That’s an indication of how fun the Kulani trails are—something less challenging wouldn’t keep their interest.

When I can easily do the long ride from the farm to the oceanfront and back, then I will be ready to try Banana Hill. The bike riders named it that: it’s the uphill Kaupakuea Homestead Road ride in Pepeekeo, straight up from the farm to the forest line. If I can do this ride without weaving back and forth in first gear searching for flat ground, I will be making good progress.

This coming week, I'll start to ride from the farm down to the ocean and back.

Meet Richard Ha

Our friend Sonia Martinez writes wonderful articles about food for the Hamakua Times, and last year she wrote this nice article about Richard and the farm. She generously offered to allow us to post this article on the website, and as it makes its way to the website we thought we'd share it here with you, too.

We were pleased but not surprised to learn that Sonia's cookbook "Tropical Taste" was recently selected as one of the "Best of the Best of Hawaii" cookbooks, by the way. We highly recommend it! It makes a great, local-flavor gift, too. It's available in Hilo at Basically Books, the Book Gallery and the Most Irresistible Shop, and coming soon to amazon.com.

Here's the article:

TROPICAL TASTE

By Sonia Martinez
May 2005 – The Hamakua Times of Honoka’a

Meet Richard Ha, tomato farmer

If you have forgotten what tomatoes really are supposed to taste like, you have to taste one of Richard’s tomatoes to bring the memory back. There is nothing of the odorless, light pink, thick fleshed, hardly any juice, cardboard taste and feel we have grown accustomed to seeing in the markets and restaurants to any of these tomatoes, regardless of the variety you try.

Long known for his bananas, papayas and oranges, Richard Ha and his family have embraced tomato growing in just the last two years. The Pepeekeo farm started out with a couple of experimental hydroponics greenhouses and now they number over a hundred.

Just a few weeks ago I was invited to a visual as well as a tasting treat.
The impressive display of tomatoes being grown and packed on premises is already mind-boggling.

Walking through the rows of vines laden with beautiful fruit and smelling the aroma of real vine-ripened tomatoes is a treat to the senses. Cocktail tomatoes, beef tomatoes, grape tomatoes, mini-Romas, tomatoes-on-the-vine, Green Zebras and other heirloom varieties such as Brandywine and in colors ranging from red to yellow to even green with green stripes are just some of the varieties now being grown.

Now operating under the name Hamakua Springs Country Farms, the Ha family has been dedicating their lives to farming for over 50 years and hope to continue for at least a 100 years more. Working as a family unit, Richard, wife June, mother Florence, daughter Tracy and son-in-law Kimo Pa will ensure that the next generations will continue in the tradition of the earlier Ha family.

Look for the Ha family’s tomatoes at your favorite grocers in clear clamshell containers with the attractive label and logo designed by Nelson Makua of Hilo.

Chef Alan Wong of Alan Wong’s Restaurant and The Pineapple Room in Honolulu has chosen the Ha Family tomatoes to feature in his restaurants. I was recently surprised and pleased to read an interview with Chef Alan that appeared in my copy of the March-April 2005 issue of Produce Concepts, a mainland publication where Chef Wong extols the taste of the Hamakua Springs Country Farms tomatoes.

During a recent visit to the Ha farm in Pepeekeo, Chef Alan and his crew of chefs delighted everyone with a presentation of several dishes using the farm’s tomatoes and cucumbers.

Given a box with an assortment of tomatoes, the first thing I did on returning home was to make a simple sandwich with bread, mayo, a thick slice of ripe Brandywine, a chiffonade of basil leaves and a light sprinkle of freshly ground pepper. The tasty juices literally ran down my hand as I ate it. It really doesn’t get any better than that!

Tomato Quiche
Serves 8

Crust of your choice
Rough Country Style Mustard
1 teaspoon olive oil
1 cup coarsely chopped fresh mushrooms (about 4 ounces)
3/4 cup chopped green onions (5-7 medium)
2 medium cloves garlic, minced
12 mini-Roma tomatoes or other ripe fresh tomatoes, thickly sliced
2 Tablespoons freshly grated Parmesan cheese
3 eggs or equivalent in egg substitute
2/3 cup or 5-ounce can fat-free evaporated milk
1 Tablespoon fresh chopped dill or 1 teaspoon dried, crumbled
1/4 teaspoon pepper

Preheat oven to 400o F.

Prepare crust by brushing lightly with a coating of the mustard.
Set aside until ready to fill.

For filling, heat oil in a medium nonstick skillet over medium-high heat, swirling to coat bottom. Sauté mushrooms, green onions, and garlic for 2 to 3 minutes, or until tender.

Arrange tomato slices on crust, cover with mushroom mixture, and sprinkle with Parmesan.

In a medium bowl, whisk together remaining ingredients. Pour over vegetables.
Bake for 40 to 45 minutes, or until a knife inserted in center comes out clean.

Rustic Herbed Tomato Tart with Parmesan Crust
Source: Intimate Gatherings by Ellen Rose

Pastry:
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted cold butter, cut into 5 pieces
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan
Zest from 1/2 lemon
1/4 cup ice cold water

Filling:
1 1/2 - 2 Tablespoons Dijon mustard
2 Tablespoons freshly grated Parmesan cheese
2 Tablespoons finely chopped fresh basil
1 Tablespoon finely chopped fresh thyme
1 Tablespoon freshly chopped fresh Italian Parsley
2 cloves garlic minced
Salt and pepper to taste
6-8 ripe tomatoes (about 1 -1/4 pounds) cut into 1/4 inch thick slices
1 Tablespoon olive oil
1 egg yolk beaten with 1 teaspoon water

To prepare pastry:
In food processor fitted with metal blade, combine flour, butter, salt, and Parmesan. Pulse until it resembles coarse meal, about 5-10 seconds with motor running, add lemon zest and pour water through feeder tube in steady stream.
Process 5-10 seconds until dough begins to bind. Remove dough and shape it into a 12-inch circle.

If mixing by hand or with pastry blender cut butter into the flour and salt until it reaches size of small peas. Add zest and Parmesan cheese and combine.
Slowly add ice water stirring with fork until dough starts holding together.

If not used right away, dough can be wrapped in plastic and refrigerated.
When ready to use remove and let soften to room temperature, about 30 minutes, then shape into a 12-inch circle.

Preheat oven to 425o F.

Transfer the dough to a baking sheet. Using pastry brush paint pastry with mustard leaving 1 to 1-1/2 inch border all around. Sprinkle Parmesan cheese evenly over mustard.

In small bowl combine basil, thyme, parsley, garlic, salt and pepper.
Arrange 1/2 tomato slices over must coated portion of pastry and sprinkle with herbs. Cover herbs with remaining tomatoes overlapping slices if necessary. Drizzle olive oil over tomatoes.

Fold the rim of pastry over the tomatoes to enclose sides of tart, gently draping pastry over and folding it into soft pleats every few inches. Pinch cracks to seal and prevent juices from running out during baking. Paint dough with egg wash. Bake 20-25 minutes. Let cool about 10 minutes. Slice and serve warm.

Almost Instant Heirloom Tomato Relish
A recipe recently shared by my friend Evie in California. Original source:
Chef Warren Schwartz of Saddle Peak Lodge in Calabasas, CA. Food & Wine August
2004. Yields 1-12 cups

2 pounds heirloom tomatoes, peeled, seeded and cut into small dice.
2 Tablespoons Champagne vinegar or white wine vinegar
2 Tablespoons sugar
Salt and freshly ground pepper
2 Tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1/4 cup finely shredded basil leaves

Heat a large skillet. Add the tomatoes and cook over high heat until sizzling, about 1 minute. Add the vinegar and sugar and a pinch each of salt and pepper and bring to a boil; transfer the tomatoes to a bowl, leaving the juices in the skillet. Boil the juices over high heat until reduced to 1/4 cup, about 5 minutes. Stir the juices, olive oil and basil into the tomatoes and season with salt and pepper. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Make ahead: The relish can be refrigerated for up to 3 days. Let return to room temp before serving.

Aloha nui!
Sonia

The Name Game

“We’re the same guys that did Keaau Bananas,” says Richard Ha, president of the more-recently-named Hamakua Springs Country Farms. “It might not be generally known that we’re the same people.”

He started Keaau Bananas way back in 1982. Along the way the company took “Mauna Kea Bananas” as its corporate name, and began using the Mauna Kea Bananas name on its apple bananas as well.

But then they started farming in Hamakua, consolidated and expanded operations at their Pepe‘ekeo farm and sold their Kea‘au land.

And they changed the company’s name to Hamakua Springs Country Farms.

While their tomatoes have always been branded under the Hamakua Springs Country Farms name, Richard says changing the bananas to the new name, after decades as “Keaau Bananas,” was a big deal.

“It’s not that easy to just change it one day,” he says. “You wonder about the repercussions. And you get invested in the name emotionally. You’ve got to separate that out.”

The new name, complete with its great, highly stylized logo designed by local artist Nelson Makua, includes:

Hamakua - because of the farm’s Hamakua coastline location,

Springs - because there are three springs on the property, and

Country Farms - because the Has think of themselves as small farmers, even though, with almost 600 acres, they aren’t. Richard says that as they expanded the farms’ products, they envisioned a series of boutique-like farms rather than one big corporate identity.

What does Richard most want people to know about Hamakua Springs? That the company’s culture hasn’t changed.

It is still a family farm that takes seriously the concept of sustainable farming. And he says that doesn’t mean just taking a “template” of sustainability principles and applying that wherever they are.

“It was different in Kea‘au,” he says. “Two different environments, two different sets of conditions. The environment dictates how we choose to operate; how to make the sustainability principles work.”

An example? Unlike at the Kea‘au farm where it was mostly rock, at the Pepe‘ekeo farm there’s plenty of soil, and grass grows wild between the bananas.

They soon realized that their tractors would make ruts in the dirt rows between plants if they kept using the same path, so they experimented with widening the distance between banana plants. That lets them mow between rows, which means their machines get traction on the grass and don’t make ruts.

It also means the grass between the plants traps water and chemicals, so they don’t run into the rivers.

“Some people call us innovators,” says Richard. “We’re very adaptable. We like change. It keeps things exciting. We’re always looking for change to make things better.”

39 pounds in 39 weeks

Richard Ha writes:

Since I got that email from Mike Tanabe I wrote about here last week, I have a new goal. I’m going to lose a bunch of weight.

Aside from health reasons, my reason for losing weight is to be able to ride my bike on the Kulani trails and have fun. The Kulani trails are an insider thing that only mountain bikers know about. I've ridden there before, but that was ten years ago when I weighed about 195 lbs., and at that weight it was more work than fun.

I estimate that I need to get down to 180 lbs. to have fun, and 175 to have a lot of fun.

Right now I weigh 214 lbs., so I have 39 lbs to lose and since I'm planning to lose a pound a week, 39 weeks to lose it.

About losing one pound per week: One pound equals 3,500 calories. To lose one pound per week I need to either eat 3,500 less calories or exercise 3,500 calories more than I do now. Or, some combination that results in a 3,500 calorie deficit. I can't do diets and I can't count calories, but I can do exercise.

My plan is to exercise so that I use up 500 calories per day. That times seven days equals 3,500 calories per week. I use an elliptical trainer, which is easy on the joints so fat old guys can use it. So it’s all doable.

I've been thinking about this for a long time now, sort of like when I quit smoking cigarettes. One day, 25 years or so ago, I quit cold turkey. I carried around a partial pack of cigarettes in my glove compartment for many months without even seeing it.

I'm at that point now with the weight loss. It took running into Mike and then his email to push me over the edge.

I’m going to post here every Tuesday re: how it’s going with my “pound a week” goal. Knowing I’ll be checking in here will keep me on track.

At 8:00 am Sunday, May 21, 2006:
Weight was 214.8 lbs.
Goal 175 lbs.
Weight loss to date -----
Resting heart rate* 65 beats per minute.

* This goes down as one gets into better shape. Lance Armstrong is said to be at 32 beats per minute. My lowest resting heart rate was 52; that was many years ago.

Uncle Tomato

Once upon a time there was a little girl named Emma Rose who really loved tomatoes. When she even just saw a picture of tomatoes in a magazine, she would say, “That’s my favorite.” Sometimes she ate Hamakua Springs Country Farms tomatoes like they were apples:

One day Uncle Richard was visiting Emma Rose’s house, and he brought a big box of goodies. Lettuce, cucumbers and many different sizes and types and colors of tomatoes:

Her mama said something about how nice it was that Uncle Richard brought them her favorite food. Emma Rose exclaimed: “Uncle Tomato!” and then laughed and laughed.

When Uncle Richard heard about this, he replied:

“You know, back when I was in high school and the macho image was everything, if someone told me that in my later years I would be known as The Banana Man and Uncle Tomato, we would have to go behind the gym, scrap.”

He’s mellowed since then.

Guy with the Bike

Richard Ha writes:

Mike Tanabe emailed yesterday after he read the blog. He is a professor at the University of Hawaii at Hilo College of Agriculture. More than ten years ago I audited his tissue culture class and, with his help, made a commercial tissue culture lab to produce banana plants. 
 
Mike is also an elite master mountain bike racer. He is not your average weekend warrior. He is an inspiration and role model for bikers half his age. He and I put on mountain bike races 10 years or so ago. I even entered several novice races back then.  
 
Mike wrote that I was becoming recognized as the guy with the shorts, which represents the casual and comfortable attitude that Hawaii is known for. Now, with all the concern about global warming and energy supply, he said, how about being identified with a bike as well as short pants? I hadn't given that a thought. 
 
I thought to myself, I am 61 years old now and way overweight. I can't do this.

He went on: You could be identified as the guy with the bike who cares about his health, and a person like this might be perceived as one who produces healthy food products and cares for the health of the earth, using less petroleum products and hence producing less harmful emissions, etc. This could be two-pronged in that it could serve as a marketing tool but also, you may be coerced to start riding again and the result would be an excellent supplement to your weight training program, he said. I had seen him at the airport a few days ago and we caught up with each other's training programs. 
 
Imagine, he said, photos of you next to your banana plants, tomatoes, cucumbers, lettuce, watercress, herbs, etc. with a bike. Even when receiving awards. Perhaps even from the President of the U.S. who has been very open about his passion for riding mountain bikes. Hmmmm!!! I wouldn't have to wear long pants. 
 
But then again, Mike probably really just wants to get the President to accompany him and the boys on the Friday Kulani Trails ride. Less than ten of the most hardcore mountain bike riders do this ride. I've tried to keep up and I saw them for a few minutes and lost them for the rest of the day. I've even tried to start mid-way. 
 
I wonder what those trails look like nowadays? 

Short Pants

Welcome to our new blog. You can click on the "About" button at right to read a bit about us, and enter your email address at right if you'd like to get an email whenever we update the blog.

And if you're just getting to know us here at Hamakua Springs Country Farms, let me start you off by explaining that we’re pretty down-to-earth around here.

Especially Richard.

When our fearless leaders Richard and June Ha were honored recently at Washington Place—that’s the governor’s mansion in Honolulu—the Hawai'i-style farmer wore what he always wears: short pants.

They were his good shorts, of course. And he wore a nice Aloha shirt with them.

(From left to right: Governor Linda Lingle, Lieutenant Governor Duke Aiona, Speaker of the House Calvin Say, June Ha and Richard Ha)

The Washington Place luncheon was to recognize founding members of the new Hawai‘i Seal of Quality program, a statewide branding program to protect and promote Hawai‘i-grown and Hawai‘i-made products.

Richard says he looked around and saw that Hamakua Springs Country Farms is in good company. “It’s a wide range of products, but the common thread is everybody is acknowledged as a good company," he says. "High quality. It’s good to be in with this group. Everybody's quality helps each other.”

(That's Richard and June at the top of the second column.)

Check out the mouthwatering Washington Place luncheon menu comprised of the 12 companies' products (but not if you're hungry).

Did Governor Lingle blanch when Richard came forward to accept his award in short pants? Nope. Richard says he got two reactions to his choice of formalwear, neither of them negative. One was anticipatory (someone told him he’d wondered if Richard would show up in shorts) and the other, envious.

Richard has worn shorts as far north as Edmonton, Canada, where he says it was “pretty cold” but he’d do it again. And he once wore shorts throughout England, where he said he really stuck out (but when people found out they were from Hawai'i, he was instantly forgiven).

He's speaking at a high school graduation soon, and says that's the only time he'll bend his rule and wear long pants. “That to me is serious stuff,” he says. “Everything else is pretty light.”

Re: the shorts. Would he do it again? Definitely, he says.

“If I met the president of the United States, I would have to really think hard,” he says. “But that’s about it.”