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Most farmers I've seen sell mostly at Farmer's Markets. If you consider that you are selling a small amount of produce o a limited consumer base (twice a week), then it would be really hard to do anything beyond survival level. Add with the amount of time and money to prepare the land and get crops going, you would need a sizable next egg to bring with you. And don't count on picking up some contracting work on the side as there are already many established handyman businesses here, and the economy is still pretty depressed.
[[[[.......whether they are all full time farmers or if they have additional income from outside jobs for support?.....]]]]]
A generalization about farming: I know a lot of farmers all over the USA and in a few foreign countries, besides. It is very common for the wife to do all the farm work while the husband drives to town every day to a salaried job. He brings the cash to run the farm plus the health insurance which the family would not be able to afford otherwise.
Huge farms seem to be able to get by. You won't be able to purchase that much land in Hawaii unless you have won the lottery on one of the days when the pay out is way up there. In which case, you wouldn't really need a farm income.
I do know a few families who support themselves entirely with their farm. They have a niche product, work very hard at marketing, and live in exactly the right area to receive extra high prices for their product. But not many seem to be able to do it.
Aloha Nesoi, and welcome to the City-Data Forum on the Big Island, aka Hawai'i County.
Is that Nesoi, as in "Goddess of the Island," or Nesoi, as in the cargo category for items "Not Elsewhere Specified or Indicated?"
I think additional information would be helpful to all of us who comment here.
Do you have any experience as a farmer, or would you be stepping into the unknown and starting from scratch? What is it about farming that makes it more attractive to both you and your wife than what you have been doing for a living up until now? And what is it about farming in Hawai'i, in particular, and even more particularly farming in Puna District that appeals to you, as opposed to say... farming in Arkansas, or in Oregon? Have you ever been to Hawai'i? Puna?
Since you've ruled out coffee already, what are you thinking of growing? "Farming" is a broad occupational category, with several major divisions that I can think of, each requiring a different skill set and temperament, so what do you have in mind? How many years are you prepared to run at a loss in order to get the farm established and learn about the business? And have you, as the TOS here suggests, spent time using the Search function to comb through the forum archives for the wealth of information already posted?
Looking forward to hearing more about your unique dream...
Hi openD, thank you for taking my question. I find many of your posts to be very helpful and informative.
And Yes, Nesoi as in Goddess of the Islands.
I have visited Puna area 3 weeks ago and planning on another short trip in early December.
As a lad in my twenties, I worked at one of those "too big to fail banks" with high ego, selling collateralized loans to people where some couldn't afford to pay. After wanting to be my own boss, I bought a restaurant without any experience not knowing they kept fraudulent P&L statements, thus suffered 13 months of agonizing pain before filing for bankruptcy. Having nothing, I met my wife and our simple way of living saved us enough to at least give another shot. After crash of 08', I became a contractor while my wife worked as a credit analyst. Our jobs here may provide security, but is not the life we want to pursue and I'm willing to take another risk, but with a different mindset this time.
I couldn't agree more with Jason Scott Lee, it's just that he shoots movies to fund his PONO life, whereas I'm not as handsome as him, so I need to grow crops and sell.
As it is typical of my age group, I have many farming ideas without any real experiences as I know ideas don't necessarily translate into products. I've been expending ideas by searching for what and how I can possibility grow in PUNA, and as far as learning about the business, other then WWOOFing, I can't think of anything else. I could be wrong, but from reading the posts here, I sensed that it would be difficult to make living on a small farm just by selling typical island raw produce for local consumption especially for new starter.
I've ruled out coffee since I didn't like what I've been hearing; appearances of beetle bugs. On top of issues concerning drought, organic or not, Kona Farms spray pesticides or risk having lower yields. Maybe Monsanto or Dow Chemical will come out with a beetle bug resistant coffee beans too. I smell someone is making money with bugs and diseases by offering problem and solution.
I would like to grow something to sell directly to oversees (i.e. S. Korea). Something simple enough to make it into finished product ( e.g. instead of napa cabbage, sell kimchee; instead of papaya, sell papaya jam). If possible, I'm thinking about ginseng (grows very well in jeju island) with aquaponic, dry Cyatheales fiddleheads, mushrooms and local green salads (can't think of any other unless I buy existing farm) to minimize my lost. I have no idea how much all this will cost me, but am anticipating 3 year's loss. I think farming is very honest and healthy way to live. Aside from sustainable farming and its beauty, my wife and I enjoy the seclusion which jungle provides, yet reasonably close to Hilo.
Most farmers I've seen sell mostly at Farmer's Markets. If you consider that you are selling a small amount of produce o a limited consumer base (twice a week), then it would be really hard to do anything beyond survival level. Add with the amount of time and money to prepare the land and get crops going, you would need a sizable next egg to bring with you. And don't count on picking up some contracting work on the side as there are already many established handyman businesses here, and the economy is still pretty depressed.
Thanks for your input. I agree with you and that is what I have suspected. I know it will be hard and I appreciate all the input I get from here, negative or positive.
Hi openD, thank you for taking my question. I find many of your posts to be very helpful and informative.
You are welcome. I do very much like to be helpful, whenever I can.
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As it is typical of my age group, I have many farming ideas without any real experiences as I know ideas don't necessarily translate into products. I've been expending ideas by searching for what and how I can possibility grow in PUNA, and as far as learning about the business, other then WWOOFing, I can't think of anything else. I could be wrong, but from reading the posts here, I sensed that it would be difficult to make living on a small farm just by selling typical island raw produce for local consumption especially for new starter.
My experience is that your impression is accurate. Among my acquaintances in the area are a 3rd generation cattle rancher, a blueberry farmer, an owner of an organic lime orchard who sells directly to Japanese brokers, the king of the US organic yellow ginger market, an orchid wrangler, and a woman who hauls a flatbed truck full of daikon radishes down to Hilo every week for shipment to Japan.
The daikon farmer and the ginger farmer are the only two actually making a living at it, as far as I can tell. The lime grower was getting close before the economy collapsed, but he never quit his day job in Public Safety. Notice the frequent references to "organic" and to "Japan." I think those are key elements of a successful business plan in Puna today.
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I have no idea how much all this will cost me, but am anticipating 3 year's loss. I think farming is very honest and healthy way to live. Aside from sustainable farming and its beauty, my wife and I enjoy the seclusion which jungle provides, yet reasonably close to Hilo.
If you go for an organic certification, I understand it takes 5 years to qualify.
Noni fruit has also been a recent trendy crop in lower Puna, with the juice selling in every health food store. But again, it takes years to get an orchard established. Papaya is the only tree fruit I know which produces the first year you plant a seed, and it grows prolifically on the Big Island, but it's common as dirt. I normally figure on buying 5 solo papayas for $1 at the Farmer's Market. Maybe Poha jam. The fresh berries are perishable, but the delicious jam has been an export item for over 100 years.
Since you've visited Puna, I guess you noticed there really isn't any soil underneath the top layer of leaf litter on the ground? "Farming" in Puna is usually not the traditional plow the soil sort of farming done on the mainland. Above Hilo, along the Hamakua coast, there is deep soil but that land is a lot more expensive than the equivalent size area in Puna.
If you can outright buy the land and keep your operating expenses really low and work hard, then you can (probably) survive as a farmer in Hawaii. They've been talking about "diversified" farming ever since sugar left (mid-90's) and it sort of seems to finally be taking root. We still lack a lot of processing places, though. Perhaps you could build a packing and processing plant and be an accessory to farming? That wouldn't take as much land and wouldn't be dependent on the weather as much, either. I've been thinking about a processing place for sheep's wool and other fibers. It would be a "mini-mill" and not a full sized mill since we don't have enough fiber to keep a full sized mill going. Not that I have funding to build such a place, but just contemplating what it would take to build it. The scale of your project will have to be "island sized" if it is to work, so that's something else to take into consideration. If it is larger than "island sized" then your produce will have to be packed and shipped somewhere.
You could research Richard Ha and Hamakua Springs. He's doing a pretty good job being profitable at farming, I think. He produces a lot and has been around a long time. Plant It Hawaii has been around for a long time, too. They graft fruit trees.
Since you've visited Puna, I guess you noticed there really isn't any soil underneath the top layer of leaf litter on the ground? "Farming" in Puna is usually not the traditional plow the soil sort of farming done on the mainland. Above Hilo, along the Hamakua coast, there is deep soil but that land is a lot more expensive than the equivalent size area in Puna.
If you can outright buy the land and keep your operating expenses really low and work hard, then you can (probably) survive as a farmer in Hawaii. They've been talking about "diversified" farming ever since sugar left (mid-90's) and it sort of seems to finally be taking root. We still lack a lot of processing places, though. Perhaps you could build a packing and processing plant and be an accessory to farming? That wouldn't take as much land and wouldn't be dependent on the weather as much, either. I've been thinking about a processing place for sheep's wool and other fibers. It would be a "mini-mill" and not a full sized mill since we don't have enough fiber to keep a full sized mill going. Not that I have funding to build such a place, but just contemplating what it would take to build it. The scale of your project will have to be "island sized" if it is to work, so that's something else to take into consideration. If it is larger than "island sized" then your produce will have to be packed and shipped somewhere.
You could research Richard Ha and Hamakua Springs. He's doing a pretty good job being profitable at farming, I think. He produces a lot and has been around a long time. Plant It Hawaii has been around for a long time, too. They graft fruit trees.
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Thank you, hotzcatz. I appreciate all your information and everyone taking time for feedbacks. The thought of being an accessory to farming is something I'd love to look into.
I saw/read recently that UH @ Hilo had brought in a cashew expert to try to encourge that as a cash crop. IIRC Hawaii is the only state in the US whose climate will work with cashews. It also said cashews were one of the most expensive nut to buy. (However, I'm sure it takes years to get any nuts).
I wonder about your statements regarding coffee. It appears that some folks in Kona & Ka'u are still successfully harvesting coffee.?
I saw/read recently that UH @ Hilo had brought in a cashew expert to try to encourge that as a cash crop. IIRC Hawaii is the only state in the US whose climate will work with cashews. It also said cashews were one of the most expensive nut to buy. (However, I'm sure it takes years to get any nuts).
It takes three years for cashew saplings to begin flowering, a couple more years for them to become large enough to be very productive. And one obstacle I can see is they grow in sandy loam, which I think would have to be built up artificially with a lot of amendments in most areas of the Big Island.
Cashews are weird, very weird, the weirdest thing I can think of that gets commercially farmed. Originally from Brasil, cashews are grown around the world in tropical regions. What we call the nut is a crescent shaped external seed that grows first, one to a blossom, then a large bell shaped yellow to red fruit called a cashew apple grows between the seed and the stem. See pics in the Purdue link below. The shell of the seed contains a highly caustic oil that burns the skin, and it throws off very dangerous and highly acrid fumes when roasted. A typical cashew processing operation occurs for me like an EPA violation just waiting to happen.
Because the seed is so nasty, and because processing to remove the kernel of the seed, the part we call a cashew nut, is very difficult, this part is actually discarded in some growing regions like the West Indies, in favor of the fruit itself, which is sold and eaten both fresh and cooked, in syrup.
As the article points out, in India, a major production area for the nut itself, after the roasting takes place very low paid women pound on the shells with wooden hammers at long tables to extract the nuts. I've seen pictures of these workers' hands, blistered from the residual oil left in the shells after roasting.
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I wonder about your statements regarding coffee. It appears that some folks in Kona & Ka'u are still successfully harvesting coffee.?
Yes, but it can't be much fun growing coffee these days. After more than 150 years of production in an area that was simply unsuitable for sugarcane cultivation, Kona coffee has been declining in quality for a number of years, plus there has been a drought for the last few, and the emergence of the coffee borer beetle as a crop threat has recently become serious. Plus the harvest is very labor intensive. Then the wholesale price dropped 20%.
I have a friend who grows some coffee as a sideline near Captain Cook, and she says she tries to market directly to coffee enthusiasts over the web, because the wholesale price she can get from brokers is hardly worth her effort. Another friend in Kea'au grows enough to supply friends and family, but says it is too much of a PITA to expand his plantings.
Ka'u coffee has been on the rise the last few years, winning prizes at international competitions and beating Kona varietals. I favor the richer Ka'u coffee myself, despite its high price. I buy it directly from small producers when I swing down that way, or pick it up at the Ohi'a Cafe in Volcano, where it is served and sold as whole beans or ground. But sadly, the coffee borer beetle has also been found in Ka'u, spring of 2011, and prospects for the future are uncertain.
If you want a little light reading this is a link to the State regulations on transport, especially interisland transport, not just of coffee, but of all the agricultural items which have major pests, like the papaya mosaic virus, and the banana bunchy top virus, and the taro root aphid, etc. The list of all the major pests that commences on page 72-5 is particularly depressing. I'm thinking that playing uke for tips at the cruise ship dock might be a more stable occupation than farming on the Big Island.
Why not contact a random amount of farmers on island and ask them what crops are most profitable and in demand.... commisserate with friendly like minded folk.
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this is a link to the State regulations on transport, especially interisland transport, not just of coffee, but of all the agricultural items which have major pests, like the papaya mosaic virus, and the banana bunchy top virus, and the taro root aphid, etc. The list of all the major pests that commences on page 72-5 is particularly depressing. I'm thinking that playing uke for tips at the cruise ship dock might be a more stable occupation than farming on the Big Island. 
