Other than Farm Blog

We found a wild turkey chick in tea field. One of our farm volunteers is now a foster mother. She is a vegan and don't eat meat so I assume that this bird is not for our thanksgiving turkey. Taka caught 3 wild turkey chicks about a year ago and domesticated them. He fed them and took a good care of the birds for about 3 weeks. These birds can actually fly at the age of 1 month or so and eventually they figured out that they could fly over the fence of their coop that they were in. About 4 feet high. One day Taka sow the turkeys walking in the tea field and immediately caught them again. After a while they took off and never returned. Then he found out that his neighbor across the street adopted the turkey for a while. The birds just walked right up to them. Taka wondered if they knew that the birds were domesticated at that time since they were such friendly wild turkeys. A few weeks later they released the birds, but were they thinking about keeping the turkey for thanksg

The Beautiful Truth Website (http://www.thebeautifultruthmovie.com/) The Beautiful Truth emphasizes that what we eat and what environment we live in is directly connected to our well being and eating well through Gerson therapy can cure termical cancer patients. Sometimes even when the cure is so simple and possible, politics influence and greed of pharmaceutical and medical industries deliberately disguise the truth about curing cancer. The message I got was stay away from processed foods and eat organic, local and pure whole foods. No irradiation, No GMO, no additives (MSG, etc.), The beautiful truth description reads, "... Growing up on an Alaskan animal reserve, Garrett’s father recognized his son’s interest in the dietary habits of their animals. That prompted him to assign a book written by Dr. Max Gerson, which maintains that there is a direct link between diet and a cure for cancer. Fascinated and curious, Garrett embarks on a cross-country road trip to investigate the

It's been so rainy this year which makes it hard to find a good day for harvesting. We had some hours of no rain recently and decided to harvest. The photos show that some of our farm helpers carefully harvesting our tea.

It's a long and complicated story.  Knowing my background might give some understanding too. Natural farming and tea are not two separate things.  In my mind, natural farming provides a raw ingredient, tea leaves of natural purity, and tea processing helps to bring out that natural purity in a more visible and detectable form.  Tea is one way of showing what nature can do.  It could have been any crops, but the world of tea allows me to look deeper into differences in quality and there are people who actively seek the true quality and subtle details.   I never have been a believer of destiny, but I do believe that the universe designs things to work for us in some mysterious way and it sends energy to take our dreams to reality.  But, just like that, the idea of organic farming came into the reality of my life at the right time.  When my wife and I got to the big island, the land we were going to farm was surprisingly suitable for tea cultivation.  Nursery stock was available f

Growing tea is rather natural gardening experience for gardeners in Hawaii. When I first moved to Hawaii, it made perfect sense to grow tea because of the hilly terrain, rich deep soil, warm climate with no frost, and abundance of rain. Many of these requirements are met for quality tea growing. Preferred Growing Condition for Tea Climate Tea grows in tropical to subtropical climate with average temperature 14-16 degree celcius, annual precipitation 1300mm or more. Tea plant is very vulnerable to frost damage. If you get frost in your area, plant should be protected from cold weather and frost damage. Soil Soil is very important medium for growing most plants, but for tea it is critical to have good soil because the flavor and aroma is greatly influenced. Tea grows in many places in Hawaii, but exceptionally refined taste and aroma of tea is generally found in places with deep weathered soil. Soil pH is also an important factor. Generally 4.5 - 5 is desired for optimal growth. I

The photos show what we grow and harvest from our vegetable field without input of both chemical and organic fertilizers. Of course, no pesticides.

This page is for the farm interns and volunteers who got to spend time at Mauna Kea Tea Farm. I am sure that all participants had different experiences both good and bad since everybody has their own expectations and their unique circumstances. Please post your comments to reflect on your personal benefits and experiences from your stay at MKT farm.   Also, if possible, please include your background and expectations before stay so that future participants can judge adequacy of their responsibility, skill levels and commitment to natural farming while their stay at the Farm. Thank you for helping us improve the Internship Progarm, Taka, Kimberly & Koji

There are more and more people aware of global warming, peak oil, and many other environmental crises and this documentary narrated and produced by Leonardo DiCaprio poses last minute change we have to make on peak oil, global warming and environmental degradation. I have seen some peak oil and global warming documentaries and stay updated with current environmental conditions because as a farmer we have to be. Nature is always there, but we are temporary resident in her space. We can try all our best to change nature, but it will do whatever it wants in the end. This topic puts us in deeply troubled feeling, but they show various solutions that we can do right at this point and what we can develop.

This book is a good introductory permaculture book. It covers many aspect of growing plants in natural ways with detail explanations of how things work e.g. how soil is created by natural cycle of insects and weathering, and specific gardening techniques you can apply to your garden and farm, e.g. sheet mulching, cover crops. I especially like tables of useful information such as cover crops, compost c/n ratio, beneficial insect habitat plants, etc which you can refer to when you are designing your garden space. Eventually, I found that the plant list on this book was not enough so I started to compile all my data from field and other sources, but this book is still one of many that I refer to for that purpose. Gaia's Garden: A Guide to Home-Scale Permaculture (amazon.com link)

If you are interested in growing mushrooms or understanding what mycelium can do to improve your garden and farm, this is a good book. I like how Paul Stamets introduces the idea of casual cultivations that anybody can do at home from cardboard spawn to natural spore methods. I thought clean laboratory was essential to start mushroom culture (and still is for most pure culture), but he shows various methods that we can use to start our mycelium running. I have experimented with cardboard butt spawn, wood chip spawn and it works quite well. Natural mushrooms are of course better adapted than commercial mushrooms, but it gives ideas that you can be creative. Many of the supplies can be purchased from his store at fungi perfecti (fungi.com) and it's organic too. Mycelium Running: How Mushrooms Can Help Save the World (amazon.com link)

I came across "The one straw revolution" when I was studying in college, trying to find a way that is more sustainable. The idea is not as striking as it might have been when Mr. Fukuoka initially published a few decades ago while no one else was doing this in peak chemical farming time. Even now we read this book and one will inevitably realize that this book is full of inspiration and Mr. Fukuoka talks about how he got to his method of natural farming. This book is almost considered as a classic alternative farming book, yet the theory of natural farming and attitude toward the current farming practices always sound fresh and alive perhaps because the ultimate purpose of his pursuit of his natural farming is to harmonize with ever-changing flow of nature. It's good to have basic farming knowledge to read this book, but you will still be inspired and learn much if you do not have much knowledge in farming or gardening. The One-Straw Revolution: An Introduction to Natur

A classic permaculture book. Really good resource for permaculture garden and farm design. I have used it quite frequently and still refer to it occasionally. Diagrams and sketches are nice, but I would like some photographs. Also, instead of using plastics, like pond liner, it would have been nice if the book showed how you can do without plastic like how they do their rice field in Asia. Introduction to Permaculture by Bill Mollison (amazon.com link)