Father and Son Develop Strategy

Drake and Eric at work developing campaign strategy

State Representative District #1.

Website:  FarmersForEric.com

Now that the papers are filed, "Farmers for Eric" is registered with the DCCA and the Campaign Spending Commission, a TIN (taxpayer identification number) is recorded with the IRS, a bank account is opened, we are ready to get to work.

Our theme is "Growing Community Together".   We want the campaign and the web site to be the example of our vision for District One.  Drake is my Campaign Manager and Web Master.  It is great for father and son to be working together, discussing what elements to include in the web site to best accomplish our goal.  We agree that a map of District #1 is important.  We want a place where leaders and those involved in building and growing our community can share their vision for our District.  We want an interactive site, one where folks come to be connected.  To that end, we want to have a place where farmers can post what they grow, how they farm, and how they sell their farm products.  We will have an events calendar.  We plan to host campaign events that plant gardens and share locally grown food.

Growing Community Together

Farmers For Eric

Growing Communities Together

Eric harvesting Taro grown using IMOs

Today I filled papers to run for District One State House Representative because I hope to make a positive transformation!

Look in your yard or your neighbors yard and the fruit tree you see was most likely grafted and produced by "Plant It Hawaii".  Back in the late 70's my sister and myself started that business with a vision to provide healthy fruit trees for all the people of Hawaii Island.  During the past thirty-five years over a quarter million fruit trees have been planted!  We searched the globe to bring the widest variety of the best tasting fruit to our island.  From Avocado to Zapote, the people of Hawaii Island now enjoy the delicious fruits from the best cultivars on the planet.

My life long passion for agriculture lead me to Korean Natural Farming.  In 2007 my son, Drake, and myself traveled to South Korea to spend a week with Dr. Park and Master Cho.  We toured farm after farm practicing KNF methods, using indigenous micro organisms (IMOs) to grow vegetables, fruits and raise animals.  Natural and healthy inputs are used to produce plants and animals that taste delicious and are super healthy.  Upon our return I set out to adapt the Korean farming systems to Hawaii Island.  We continued to learn and both earned certified status from Master Cho.  

1st Class of Cho Certified Korean Natural Farmers in Hawaii

We are blessed to live in District One, the bread basket of Hawaii Island, with arguably the best growing conditions on the planet.  Our family is working together to develop a model Korean Natural Farm on our property in Onomea.   In  August 2011 my wife, Jennifer, and myself, ate only what we grew ourselves from our own land for the whole month.  That was the inspiration for this blog.  Our meals and thoughts for each of those days is still posted by going to the older posts.  Leaving the convenience of the corner grocery store and depending on Nature and the land for our daily food taught me valuable lessons.   The spiritual connection to the Aina is profound and I remain grateful.

Eric and Jennifer with Eric’s co-workers in Keaau

I look forward to campaigning this Summer and Fall.  Why?  Because I’ll be doing what I love; teaching friends and neighbors how to grow healthy food naturally.  Why?  Because I’ll be meeting new people in our District, listening to their ideas, seeking to understand their concerns.  Why?  Because we’ll be working with each other to Grow our Community Together.

Spring 2014

This Spring has just blown by.  Jennifer and I spent January in New Zealand, a wonderful trip to a magical place.  We cruised 4,000 kilometers in our camper van, taking in the Southern Alps at Mt. Cook, hiking almost daily on long empty beaches or mountain trails, touring wine regions, just having a bucket list blast.

Eric & Jennifer picking up our camper-van in New Zealand

Still working my day job Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, which allows me 4 day weekends to pursue my gardening hobby.  Keeping up with our greenhouses, mostly for our greens and morning green drinks.  Have reconditioned the bottom gardens, where I have replanted sugar cane, kept the pineapples weeded, planted taro and sweet potato and green beans.

Ariel View of Farm with Hilo in upper left corner

I have recommitted to making all the Korean Natural Farming ingredients and have been spraying weekly.  This means Fermented Fruit Juice, Fermented Plant Juice, Fish Amino Acid, Lactic Acid Bacteria, Oriental Herbal Nutrient, Calcium from egg shells in korean rice wine vinegar.  This weekly spraying has made a significant difference on plant growth and health.

I have made IMO again.  Started with IMO one (bamboo leaf mold in rice), and threw it away three times until I nailed it.  Then IMO two mixing that rice mold with brown sugar.  Then mixed with the inputs mentioned above into mill run to make IMO three.  Added wood chips at this stage to get more fungus in the mix.  And finally mixed this with soil and more of the inputs to get IMO four, the finished product.

IMO #3 pile (my best ever)

I mixed dolomite (calcium and magnesium), bio-char into my new planting beds and topped with a thin layer of IMO four, then put grass clippings on top to protect the IMO four from the sun.  The grass clippings also keep the soil moisture in while preventing weeds from sprouting.

This past week I got 29 Buckeye chicks sent via US Postal Service from a special breeding operation in California specializing in heritage American breeds.  They only send straight run, so half will be male and half female.  These are dual purpose birds, meaning both meat and eggs.  So I'll keep the best roster and all the females, the other boys will consumed by us.

Buckeye Chicks in their new home

Fall 2013 Update

Mid October 2013 and Jennifer and I are planting seeds for one last planting.  It might seem strange for you folks living in Seattle, Denver or Madison, but upon opening my eyes waking up from a great nights sleep, I glanced at the digital readout on our weather station and the temperature was 74 degrees F.  So we put on our shorts, flip flops and headed out to our gardens.

Our seed starter bed 

Oct 2013 Jennifer showing off her produce

Tomatoes, lettuce, beets, comfrey, arugula, chard, and kale.  Yes, plants still growing very well.

Picture from earlier Summer post.  Same greenhouse as above just planted

Orange tree is full of fruits.  Fall is harvest time and I love my fresh squeezed OJ.  Check out the microbe population growing under the tree.

Washington Navel Orange tree

Microbes huge populations of white hairs helping feed the oranges

to GMO or not to GMO???

The papaya ringspot virus (PRV) devastated papaya production on the Big Island of Hawaii in the early 1990's.  Commercial papaya production virtually ended as the virus completely wiped out all Solo papaya production.  Fortunately, Dr Gonsalves and his team foresaw the impending disaster (the virus was already in Oahu but not the Big Island) and started work in his laboratory at Cornell University a decade in advance of release and commercial production of "Rainbow".

Naturally Farmed GMO "Rainbow" papaya

At my day job I am General Manager for the largest papaya exporter to the US Mainland.  We exclusively produce GMO "Rainbow" papaya.  Papaya is always in the top five most nutritious fruits anyone can put in their body.  Is our Rainbow papaya safe?

Well the Japanese government recently approved our Rainbow for sale in Japan after 13 years of reviewing the science.  Believe me, if there was even a small shred of evidence to the contrary, it would never have been approved.  It is safe!!!!!!  It is HEALTHY!!!!!

Naturally Farmed non-GMO papaya

On my weekends I have been a student of Korean Natural Farming.  The whole point is sustainability.  If you have to import fertilizers, commercial or organic, it is not sustainable.  So what about GMO's?

Well take a look at the evidence presented in photos above.  Non GMO get the virus and die.  GMO Rainbow thrive and give us all the papaya we can eat.  Both are identically naturally farmed.  No pesticides or herbicides.

Planting more Sugarloaf Sweet White Pineapple

Jennifer watering in liquid IMOs

August is typically the month when the Sweet White Sugarloaf Pineapple is in full harvest mode.  With all the tops on the fruit we will have it is time to prep more beds.  Because plants often need two years to bear fruit, weed control is very important.  Using weed mat has proven a good strategy with pineapples.

I ran the spader implement on our real tractor over the bed several times to loosen the soil and till in the weeds.  Next step was to use my Japanese hand held digging fork to take all weeds and roots from previous crop out.  This is time consuming and hard work, but helps keep this old guy in shape.

Hands in the Dirt

After this I spaded in some dolomite lime (calcium and magnesium) and watered in some of Drake's oxygenated liquid IMOs.  Then it is back to hand work, shoveling trenches on both side of the garden row and burying the sides of the weed mat.

Now the fun part, planting.   We remove the bottom leaves of each top to expose root nodes.  This allows the tops to root quickly.  Then I cut a small X in the weed mat with a knife and push the new plant into the soil through the weed mat.

Peeling back leaves to expose the roots

The new tops will take two years to fruit.  We will plant all the tops from our harvest and all of the kekeis located at the bottom of each pineapple fruit.  This could be several hundred new plants.  We will leave the suckers on the older plants which are harvested this year.  There is two suckers per plant and they will each produce a pineapple fruit next Summer.  Voila, a bit of hard work now, and sweet pineapple for years to come!

New babies planted!

Mid-Summer 2013

Harvesting String Beans

The first half of 2013 just whizzed by but not without accomplishments.  We installed a 4 inch line on the Hanawai, added a second 48 volt Harris hydro alternator and we are now producing 20 Kilowatts of power per day from our river.  The additional ag dwelling is completed, insides caulked, painted and the pine interiors sanded and coated with a water based varathane finnish which totally brings out the natural woods brilliance.  Our daughter Kaitlin is expected to move in to the blue cabin soon.

Jennifer shows off her Kale and Amaranth

It is only in the last month that I agian have concentrated on my gardens.  If you neglect them, the grasses take over.  So I have been digging out the wainaku roots in my greenhouses.  This requires digging down three feet and sifting through each shovel of dirt to remove the roots.  So as not to have to do this again I am utilizing my son's Drake method of changing the soil chemistry.  The microbes are either bacterial (grasses) or fungal (forrest).  We are attempting to be more fungal which we expect will be less atractive to the invasive grasses.  Drake is using  a living compost pile to inculate batches of liquid IMO which is then applied to our garden beds.

Drake making liquid IMO adding oxygen for 24 hours before spraying on plants

We have planted our greenhouses with big beef steak tomatoes to be trellised up to a single leader.  This leaves lots of room for more low profile vegies down below.  We have scaled back in area, but are trying to be more intensive with that smaller space.  This means less weeding as the vegies help shade out areas weeds would normally fill.  Our plan is to have our greenhouses produce our green drinks.  So we've planted kale, spinnach, chard, cilantro, celery and lettuce.

Newly planted Greenhouse

We continue to drink our smoothies blended in our Vitamix from our papayas, bananas and sugar cane juice.  So tastey.   With an abundance of free electricity we can dehydrate our excess fruit.  Our sugarloaf pineapple patch is in its annual harvest season.  Dried pineapple is the bomb and apple bananas aren't bad either.

Eric in his Pineapple patch

Kaitlin and Jennifer Sugarloaf Harvest

12/21/2012

Sunrise Blessings

The Mayan Calendar starts counting in 3114 B.C.  Wow, that is more than a few moons ago.  Despite the craziness of our world today, including insane tensions and transitions in the Middle East, our daily lives and the human race march on.  For me it is about the rhythms of life.  Almost daily I am blessed with incredible sunrise paint-scapes of multi-colored clouds at sunrise as the world turns another turn.  This morning a sliver of a new moon was just above the horizon as the sky turned from the blackness of night into another brilliant day.

Mauna Kea at sunset and our nearly completed Kitchen/Living Area.

Getting near our goal of completing the infrastructure to be self sustaining, we crossed the $200K mark today.  It ain't cheap to build.  But I am blessed to have the resources to do make this happen. 
Thank you!

My dream is to enjoy the rhythms.  I may get my wish soon. 

Halloween Night

Trick or Treat

We are so remote, no child has ever knocked at our front door in the seven years we've lived here.  They probably know they would receive an avocado or rambutan as their "treat" and are off to better pickens where they can get their high fructose corn syrup rush.  So I am spending this uninterrupted time posting to my blog.

Additional Farm Dwelling Oct 31

Humble first steps.  Foundation for Drakes bedroom starts to rise.

Our goal for 2012 was to get the infrastructure built.  We just might make it by 12/21/12.  Our main kitchen / living building got the dry wall textured today.  We'll paint the inside this weekend and cabinets and floors should go in soon.  The three detached bedrooms are getting the interior finishing touches done, wood floors, bathrooms tiled, etc...  The electrician is connecting the main unit to the bedrooms tomorrow in underground cable.  The trenching was fun, ask Drake.   The plumber will be installing solar hot water next week.

New shed before putting the tin roof on.

View from new shed

Our new shed is up, roof on, water tank full.  Animals and their Natural Farming habitat is so close to being ready.  Working hard trying to cross the finish line and meet our 2012 goal.

De-Wainaku

Wainaku Grass deep beneath Garden Bed

  I just spent four hours double digging a garden bed that had become overtaken by Wainaku Grass.  It is also known as "Torpedo Grass" as it sends out roots very deep.  It must like anerobic conditions as it most often travels along the clay just below the prepared garden.  This makes it very difficult to combat.  You just can't weed the surface.  One must turn the entire garden bed, one shovel full at a time, throwing the dirt in such a manner as to expose any roots that may be in that shovel full of dirt.  So each shovel of dirt must be sifted through to pick out the roots.  Even the smallest root left in the garden bed will grow and be the nexus for the invasion.

Garden Bed after de-Wainaku process

Master Cho suggests no till.  However, Wainaku is so aggressive, I'm not sure desired plants could compete.  I won't till this bed again.  I'll let the insects dig their air holes in the soil, the microbes establish their environment, and I won't disturb it.

Wainaku Roots

During this process I did notice that the soil just under the weeds was very healthy.  It was darker in color, and in granules.  It also had lots of worms.  This must mean that the weeds are adding fertility to the soil.  I used all the weeds and roots removed from the garden bed to mulch a near by avocado tree.  Thinking that these have lots of good nutrients.

LACTIC ACID BACTERIA

rice rinse water surrounded by milk

LAB, Lactic Acid Bacteria, is an ingredient we use frequently in Korean Natural Farming and it is easy to make.  Rinse some rice, keep the water, let it sit for a day or two.  Then pour a little (one part rice rinse water to 10 parts milk) into a jar of milk.  Don't refrigerate.  The kurds will separate in a day or so.  Pour off the liquid and mix with equal parts brown sugar.  This is liquid will keep for months and is used in almost all our plant sprays.

Lactic Acid Bacteria are very effective in improving ventilation of air in soil and highly effective in growth of fruit trees and leaf vegetables.  It has a pH of 2, possessing strong sterilization power.  LAB decomposes or chelates minerals stuck to soil and not easily dissolved, making them easy for plants to absorb.  When plants absorb lactic acid, body fluid is adjusted within the plant to increase the disease tolerance and withstand heavy rain without becoming soft.

If I ever have a tummy ache or the runs, a take a sip of LAB and in no time I'm normal.  

Summer Time

 

Today's Harvest

Summer is here in full swing.  Jennifer and I hiked down to the beach in Volcano's National Park to celebrate our 30th wedding anniversary.  We spent 4 days watching the tide go in and out at a remote beach enjoying the solitude.  When we returned we had fresh ripe tomatoes, lychee and zucchini waiting for us.

IMO #3 pile growing mold

I've been taking it easy this year, backing way off of last years gardening pace.  Yet we still have lots and lots of food.  Above is an IMO#3 pile, two days old, growing micro-organisms like crazy.  A thin layer of IMO#4 on garden beds between plantings, and weekly sprays of CHO spray is all that the plants require to pump out large volumes of nutritious food.

Preparing Pig and Chicken Feed

Drake has been feeding our pigs and chickens.  Here he is cutting papaya, and he'll add a tiny bit of store bought feed, and add OHN, and a hand full of IMO#4.  He lets it sit to ferment for a day before feeding to the animals.  The animals get much more nutrition out of the same amount of food and they do NOT exhibit hungry behavior as they did before he went to a 24 hour ferment of their feed.

Common living and kitchen begins to rise

Troy and Drake are working daily to construct our additional agricultural dwelling.  The 3 detached bedrooms are almost complete and the common living and kitchen is beginning to take shape.

Family Gardening on Sunday

Team Ready

Weekend weather was just gorgeous.  We weeded, chopped and dropped and just enjoyed working together.  Jen treated us to french toast & bacon after our morning session.

Smoking Home Made Bacon

Speaking of bacon, today I made home made bacon from pork bellies.  Cured by coating with salt and brown sugar for about 5 days in the fridge, then smoked at 150 degrees F for about 5 hours.  Yummmm!

Cherry Tomatoes ready for Dehydration

Inspired by Richard Fletcher, who is posting recipes on his facebook page, these cherry tomatoes are being dehydrated to make sun dried tomato pesto.  Buckets of these tomatoes are coming off one volunteer plant rising out of the compost pile from last years green waste.

Our Chemical Shed

Preparing Bones to make Water Soluble Calcium Phosphate

We make all our own fertilizers.  Fruit and plant ferments, lacto bacilus, oriental herb nutrient, rice wine vinegar, and water soluble calcium made from egg shells and pig bones.  All of these can eaten/drank.  In fact we do that to see if it's ok to spray on our plants.  If you don't want to drink it, you shouldn't spray it on your plants.  I spray a 5 gallon tank on our garden and fruit trees each week, that's all it takes.

First post for 2012

All those who come to this site, please read posts in 2011.  Specially during August where we only ate what we grew on our own land.  Each day that month is documented.  Fresh, very fresh, naturally farmed produce, it changed me in so many ways.  I learned so much about myself last year.  The most important lesson wasn’t that I could feed our family, but the spiritual connection with the “aina” that comes from depending on the land and the good earth to provide your next meal.

So moving on in 2012, my goals are two fold: to personally be “in health” and for the property, to put in the remaining infrastructure in place to support our family from the land on a sustained and ongoing basis.
We are now building two more detached bedroom units in addition the one Drake currently is living in.  There will also be a central shared kitchen and living area, big enough to host small groups interested in learning about natural farming.  On the far side near the Hanawai river, we are building a 36’ by 72’ shed for animal production.  All the construction should be complete by years end and fully functional.  As those who have followed know, I think a big shift is coming to our economy and way of life because the world has reached peak oil.  Although the media tells us things seem to be recovering as I write, this is only temporary.  The math says the old ways cannot go on indefinitely.  The dollar too will crash, as the reality of a debt larger than GDP takes its course.  So why hold onto savings?  I’m spending ours on tangible infrastructure.

Personally, I’ve come a long way toward being “in health”, but have a long way to go.  At least now I am conscious of what I put in my body.  Before putting only fresh naturally farmed food into my body, I didn’t even realize that it mattered.  I stopped drinking alcohol this past February, cause I had trouble limiting my intake to the doctor recommended maximum of two a day.  Easier just to put it aside, avoid temptation.  I read a life changing book, “younger every year” that speaks to people my age, those entering the last third of their life.  Says that 70% of ALL diseases can be avoided by simply exercising 45 minutes per day 6 days per week and recommends strength training 2 to 3 days per week to eliminate all the aches and pains of old age.  I want to really enjoy the last third of my life, so I’ll be doing this every day for the rest of my life, my new job.  I may be getting older, but I don’t have to feel older or accept the aches and pains that our society claims is ‘normal’.

I've downsized our gardens, trying to minimize the size and time for upkeep.  Still, we have lots of tomatoes and salad greens.  Our fruit trees and sugar cane keep going regardless of human energy output.  We lost one cow during childbirth but she now fills our freezer, and is some of the best grass fed steaks ever.  Our other cow birthed a healthy calf so we still have two.  Our chickens give plenty of eggs.  So despite minimal effort, we still have lots of fresh naturally farmed food.

Growth Has an Expiration Date

Growth Has an Expiration Date

Check out this lecture by Tom Murphy, physics professor at UCSD.  He outlines the mathematical reasons why our economy based on continual growth must end.  It is filled with insights and well worth the 23 minute investment.

This is a must see for anyone who talks about sustainability.  It should be seen by every voter and every politician. Understanding these concepts are essential to constructing our planetary future.

Our future is now.

OCCUPY HILO

Drake thanking volunteers

My son Drake organized a positive protest this past Sunday evening October 30th.  Rather than be "against" anything, he is protesting by planting food in public spaces.

Jennifer and Julie planting taro

Over 40 persons showed up in Downtown Hilo to plant taro and other edible plants in the median strips on Kamehameha Avenue.  What had been weeds and roundup became wonderful edible landscapes in just two hours.  The vibe was so positive and the intention will reverberate and hopefully spread across the globe.

 

 

 

Transformation in Progress

This is all done using Natural Farming techniques.  Several weeks ago Drake and a few of his friends sprinkled IMO (indigenous micro organisms) in the areas to be planted. Folks showed up with plants, mulch, watering cans, more IMO's and intention to make Hawaii sustainable.

Each of us on the Island can plant food.  It will make us free from dependence.
Be the solution!