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What's
New! (May 25, 2010)
Back from vacation and hitting the ground running. We are having granular fertilizer applied later this week but I also did a round of fertigation yesterday. Jonathan mowed the orchard on Sunday and Monday so it looks very nice and the tall grass is out of the way for the fertilizer spreader. While we were away it appears we got some small amounts of rain fairly often. We have the irrigation set back to 50 minutes from an hour and a half.
Our crop is looking very good. We got another very large water bill, but I have to say, it is worth it. There are quite a few orchards hurting from lack of rain. So we are fortunate that we have the ability to irrigate. Our trees are getting loaded with green coffee cherry so our harvest should be good this year. And as long as we keep those trees irrigated appropriately, the quality will be good as well.
What's
New! (May 3, 2010)
Kona Snow again today. A nice medium-sized bloom. The weather has been wetter. We got a little over 1.4 inches of rain for the month of April. We have also been having cloudy days lately so the sun isn't beating down on the trees and drying them out. The hope is to get some granular fertilizer on the orchard some time this week. We are still irrigating but have been able to scale it back a little bit.
Vacation
Jonathan and Nancy are taking a vacation. I know, it's hard to believe that farmers can do such a thing. May is the best time for us to get refreshed. The orchard is cruising along, putting on fruit and growing the cherries nice and big. Once summer rolls in we will be busy getting ready for harvest season, putting the mill together and making refinements.
The house sitters are arriving tomorrow and we take off on Friday. I have already made arrangements with our middle-of-the-month Coffee Club subscribers to get their coffee to them a week early. Please place all orders before 7 AM HST on Thursday, May 6th, so we can get the coffee roasted and shipped before we head off to visit San Francisco and Alaska. Roast-to-order will resume May 24th.
Spring Specials!
The coupon code KonaSpringFling2010 is still valid and gets 20% off all web orders until the end of May. This coupon code works for green bean orders as well.
Coming Soon!
Our new roast profile is almost ready. We have a great procedure for a small batch and are now working on duplicating the roast with bigger batches. The roast is lighter and a bit more acidic, meaning it has brightness and some citrus flavors up front. The finish is very smooth and somewhat chocolaty. Stay tuned.
What's
New! (April 13, 2010)
We finally have been getting some rain. Not a bunch but there have been some good soaking rains over the last two weeks. We had two large blooms recently as well. I've been reluctant to decrease the irrigation even with some rain since we are now showing some heavy new bean load on the trees and it has been so hard to fertilize. We continue to fertigate weekly. Hopefully we will be able to apply some granular fertilizer soon if the rain continues.
The orchard is getting some farm labor this week. Jonathan had a great time reversing the hammer blades on the mower and is almost done mowing the orchard. Even the small amounts of rain have nurtured the grass and weeds enough to have them shoot up. The coffee trees are also going to be getting some suckering and hand-weeding within the tree rows starting on Thursday. Thursday will also be the day for our annual sampling of the leaves and soil to send to the University of Hawaii for analysis. We do it every year to monitor soil pH and to see how the nutrients we apply are getting to the tree root systems and up into the tissues. The results of the analysis give us insights into how to modify our fertilizer regimen or whether we need apply soil amendments and such.
Spring Specials!
We are celebrating Spring with some coffee specials. The coupon code KonaSpringFling2010 gets 20% off all web orders. We decided to extend it until the end of May so you can order freshly roasted Kona coffee for Mother's Day and Memorial Day. This coupon code works for green bean orders as well.
Make sure you follow us on Twitter or become a fan on FaceBook so you will see SALE specials. The roaster has "sweet spots" with regard to batch sizes so when we roast to order, sometimes we will have a few half pound bags of various grades that are left-overs. We post these in FaceBook and Twitter when they are added to the SALE bin for a great price. Catch them quick though as they go fast! (Hint: Coffee Club roasting days are the 1st and 15th of the month so keep an eye out around those days.)
We did have some 2008 harvest green bean left over that we have been roasting and packaging to be sent over to Hawaii-based troops in Afghanistan and Iraq. Another 41 pounds will be on its way this week.
What Else is New?
Let's see. I modified the web site (see below) to embed the wall posts from the Makahiki Farms FaceBook fan page right here.
We have been working with Shawn Steiman of Coffea Consulting to refine a roast profile for a lighter roast in order to bring out the subtleties and uniqueness of our 100% Kona coffee. Jonathan has been drinking the final candidate for the last few days and really likes it.
I now need to work out duplicating the roast for our common batch sizes.
Bing has a really cool aerial photograph of our farm. The best we can figure is it was taken about 18 months ago since the grass wasn't yet planted behind the garage. Check it out.
What's
New! (March 8, 2010)
We are officially in an extreme drought here in Kona. I'm so glad we have the ability to irrigate and to fertigate (soluble fertilizer through the irrigation system). It rained last evening and we got 0.02 inches - barely enough to wet the dust. Our trees are looking pretty good since I've been giving them 3 gallons of water per day. We are about to have a big flowering soon.
Without much rain the weeds and grasses aren't growing much so there hasn't been a need to mow or weed-eat. We had planned on pruning the six large monkey pod trees this year so that the coffee tree under them would get more sunshine yet still be "shade-grown". But we
think it would be better to have the more extensive shade right now. We are also postponing any planting until we get some significant rain. We moved our fertigation equipment to the mill building a while ago and have room to plant about 10 more coffee trees where the shed used to be.
2009 Green Bean is Certified and Ready
We transported our parchment to the mill and it has been milled, sorted, graded and certified. The State Department of Agriculture completed the certification and we have the 100-pound bags on our climate-controlled store room. As of the first week of February, we switched over all our roasted orders to this season's coffee. The initial reports from our repeat customers is that they like the flavor very much.
We did have some 2008 harvest green bean left over that we have been roasting and packaging to be sent over to Hawaii-based troops in Afghanistan and Iraq. We sent 26 pounds at the first of the month which is 5 batches of roasting in our 3-kilo roaster. I will be roasting at least that much again around the first of April.
Tropical Paws
Our local Hawaii Island Humane Society (www.hihs.org) is having its annual fund-raiser on May 14 called Tropical Paws. We won't be able to attend but will be donating our Kona Coffee Gift basket again this year.
It will be in the silent auction and includes our 100% Kona coffee, a couple logo mugs and a t-shirt.
What's
New! (January 29, 2010)
El Nino is still having a tremendous impact on our weather. We still have not had rain since December 20. Some other farms got a small amount of rain in the last few days, but none here on our farm. We continue to irrigate. It is cloudy today and was a little misty last night, so maybe we'll be lucky and get some moisture today.
The pruning was completed at the end of last week, including mulching all the cut verticals in order to keep the organic matter in the orchard. The remaining verticals still have quite a bit of cherry on them. The pickers will be in next week to pick that round. We might also have another small round later in February. There are lots of buds starting to show on the branches so there will be "Kona Snow" soon.
Small Hiatus for the Farmers
We will be traveling for a much-needed vacation to the Lake Tahoe area for the first week of February. The house sitters/farm sitters will be monitoring the cherry harvest, but will not be doing any roasting. Any orders placed now will be delayed until we can roast again on February 12. Thanks for your understanding.
I (Nancy) managed to break a small bone in my foot while traipsing through the orchard doing irrigation line maintenance. Not that I was planning on skiing anyway. So I guess I'll just sit by the fire, sip some 100% Kona coffee and enjoy a book. I hope to get to watch it snow.
What's
New! (January 11, 2010)
The weather remains very dry. We have not had any rain since December 20. We are fortunate to be able to irrigate our orchard and have been giving our trees about 3 gallons every day. We tried cutting it back a little but after only a few days, the trees were suffering. It is better to brave a large water bill than to let the trees die back. Drought stress can negatively impact the trees, making them susceptible to pests. And that can impact the health of the orchard and the production for several seasons.
We have a round of picking that should start tomorrow. This one will be a bit smaller than the one before. We still have quite a bit of unripe coffee on the trees, but we will go ahead and prune soon. Most of the coffee is on the new growth verticals so we won't lose much of it and it is better to prune on time in order to keep the trees on track for next season. Once the coffee is pruned we need to get e tree crew in to prune our monkey pods. The canopy is getting too low and the coffee under and near the monkey pods isn't getting enough light to bear well.
Join us on the Social Networking Sites
Become a Makahiki Farms Fan on Facebook and follow our Tweets on Twitter! We will still have our monthly "What's New" updates here on the front page of our web-site, but with Facebook and Twitter we'll be able to provide a more frequent view into the workings of the farm.
Another benefit is that we'll periodically offer limited-quantity specials when we have some extra freshly-roasted coffee inventory that must be sold quickly. Since we roast-to-order, we don't want to keep any roasted inventory, and by sending out notices via Facebook and Twitter we can let folks know in a non-intrusive way that we have a limited-quantity special available.
 
Come Visit Us at Makahiki Farms for a Farm Tour
Over the last few weeks we have had a number of visitors come tour our farm. It reminds us of how lucky we are to live here and that we enjoy showing folks around. We don't have the ability to run scheduled tours every day, so if you are planning a visit to the Big Island and want come see what we do here, just give us a call or send an email or tweet and we can set up a time. We'll show you the orchard and the wet mill and explain how it all works. We can even roast some coffee for you while you watch.
Shipping Rate Increases
You might have already noticed that the US Postal Service and Federal Express have recently increased shipping rates for 2010. The new rates will be reflected on our shopping cart automatically. Those of you who are Coffee Club members will see an adjustment to the billed total. We never mark up the shipping so you are getting exactly the rates at our cost, including any discounts that we receive.
Hau'oli Makahiki Hou!
Wishing you a Happy New Year. May 2010 be good to all of us. Mahalo for your support.
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