Small Farm Hawaii and the Falls


My dad had a few racks of bananas to harvest and he let us tag along. 
We learned that banana sap stains like tar and not to get it on you. Also that they should be harvested as soon as you see the first yellow. 


To harvest them you cut most of the way through the branches that the rack is on and then pull it down so that the rack is near but by no means smashed into the ground. 


Then you cut the rack of at easy to carry sets (easy if you can comfortably carry 40-60 lbs). 


Then it was off to the next rack to do it again. 



There is a problem with rats climbing up and eating the high fruit so getting them down and stored before they are too tempting is useful. 


After that we all loaded into his car to go tour his friend Brian’s farm. 


Look at this spectacular view!
Brian is on the side of more soil rich section of the coast and he and his partner have a ton going. 


Pineapple both yellow and white.
They said that the weed mats had completely failed and that no matter what type they tried they would continue to fail. They are pierced through by sharp grasses and over grown quickly. 
They said the blessing of being a grower in Hawaii is that the growing season is every season and that the curse of being a grower in Hawaii is that every season is growing season. 

 
He showed us how to get pineapple to root well. 


Brian loves Thai papaya but hates Mexican papaya. 


They have ton of beautiful purple lilikoi (passion fruit). 

They have a fair sized field of cacao. 


Some intimidating racks of bananas (up to 120lbs and they need a tractor to harvest them). 


We bought a beautiful pineapple off of them and they gave us some fresh chopped up pieces from their fridge that are the best I’ve ever had. 

Then we left their place and drove by an old sugarcane processing mill. 
This is plantation Hawaii which still exists as ghost town style buildings and old roads. 


Finally we drove up to Akaka falls, which was well rated as an easy short hike with good views. 
This one wasn’t free and was probably our most touristy thing that we’ve done. 
It was crowded (for Hilo). 


But
The reviews were right. 


This is a well paved walk. 


It has beautiful jungle trees,


Fern lined walls,


And two excellent waterfalls,


It was hot and we were properly tired. 


We stopped by a local beach on the way back. 


This was a surfing beach and I’d really wanted to hang out at a surfing beach.
The top picture is the view from the bathroom. 


This is a place when a river pours into the ocean. It was down some steep stairs and was filled with families and surfers.
This was my favorite beach of the trip. 







 

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