Although our time at that farm has ended, our adventure as WWOOfers has not! We have left Honaunau and moved to a vegetable farm on the other side of the island, in the Puna district south of the city of Hilo. While we have endeavored to respect the privacy of our previous host, we are currently working on the adjunct farm of a not-for-profit peace and justice organization that has been active here on the island for over 30 years. Because the organization and farm, Malu'Aina, is run by the well-known and hardworking activist Jim Albertini, we feel we can be more forthcoming about the identity of the farm and farmer.
From the website:
“Malu ‘Aina (Land of Peace) is the Hawaiian name given to the Center for Non-Violent Education and Action located ten miles south of the city of Hilo on the Big Island of Hawai’i. Malu ‘Aina is a spiritual community based on peace, justice and sustainable organic farming.”
The work here is not unlike what we've done at other farms, though on a larger scale. Unlike Kona, Puna has deep soil. Jim uses a tractor to furrow rows into the earth, much like farms we're familiar with from back home. This mean not only more space for crops than on any farm so far (corn, beans, eggplant) but also lots of weeding and weed-whacking. For the first time, we are working with the traditional Polynesian crop, taro (“kalo” in Hawai'ian), which deserves its own post.
Malu'Aina grows a great deal of taro for distribution to local health food stores and includes the surplus in food boxes donated to those in need. In addition to the veggies, we also grow a huge quantities of bananas, oranges and avocados, and a bunch of fruit we are seeing for the first time, like mangosteens. We are also getting exposure to sustainable methods we've heard about, including aquaponics - the use of outdoor fishtanks for generating fertilizers.
We like weather here a bit better than Kona weather. We are now on the wet side of the island and entering rainy season. It does rain quite a bit, at least a few inches nearly everyday, and it's very humid.
Things stay wet for days, and every morning, we find a film of moisture clinging to our glasses lenses. But when it's not raining, the skys here are truly beautiful. Big, multi-textured, multi-colored clouds with great depth set against crystal blue backgrounds. In addition to being nice and sunny at least half the time there is no vog! In the evening, we can see the stars unmatched in number (except up on Mauna Kea).
There's another WWOOFer working here, CB from California. He's now an old hand here at the farm; he began here about a month before we arrived. We get along with him very well, and are happy to have his company and guidance around the farm.
This is the last farm where we will work before departing Big Island and our stay will be the shortest. We also have the least reliable internet access so far – despite being within earshot of Highway 11, Malu'Aina is surrounded by rain forest. Still, we hope to post about the new things we are learning at least a couple of times before we leave.
