Citrus on B.I. (licensed, ethanol, permits)

[Dinty Moore]

Originally Posted by hotzcatz

For a commercial venture, looking around at the CTAHR site would be good as well as calling the extension offices. Check out how vog affects the citrus, too. There was a site I saw years back which listed the agricultural imports and exports from the island. I forget where I saw it, but one exists somewhere. That might help you decide which sort of crop to grow.

I wonder if it would be possible to do a commercial citrus crop and then export it as juice? That would go around any export difficulties (if there are any) on the fruit itself. Of course, you'd have to build your own processing plant, but on a small scale that might not be too terrible. Zumex makes an interesting fruit to juice machine which juices a box full of fruit at a time. Zumex, Zumex of America: citrus juicers and multifruit juicers for commercial oranje juice extractorsSet one of those up in a commercial kitchen area and you'd pretty much have an instant juice maker. You'd need County water for a commercial kitchen, although I think you can bring in the water by truck if necessary. You can also set up a processing plant on ag lands, I think, but you'd best ask the Planning Department to confirm that before proceeding.

Hmm, a fruit orchard, a juicer, then what? Sell it as fresh juice? (Need refrigeration) Sell it as frozen juice (Need a freezer) Sell it as bottled orange juice? (Need a canning or bottling device) Hey, how about orange soda made from fresh oranges? Yum! Or orange marmalade or....

I was also thinking about olives-for-oil, but I'm afraid that it takes too long for productive trees to grow. Anyone know of an olive orchard??

[OpenD]

Originally Posted by Dinty Moore

I was also thinking about olives-for-oil, but I'm afraid that it takes too long for productive trees to grow. Anyone know of an olive orchard??

Specifically? No, but I know there are some around. It's been kind of a hot topic the last couple of years...

Olives: Hawaii’s Latest Farming Gamble - Hawaii Business - March 2011 - Hawaii

Olives require hot summers and mild winters, seem do best in Hawai'i between 2,000 and 4,000 feet altitude. I've got the altitude and the mild winters, but not the hot summers. I actually cut down an old olive tree on my property that was not productive.

Check with CTAHR. They are your go-to source for agricultural info.

And did you see this thread on the new crop maps? https://www.city-data.com/forum/25664025-post1.html

[newUHprof]

Originally Posted by OpenD

Calamonsi, calamondin, golden lime, panama orange, chinese orange, acid orange, calamonding, or calamandarin. Indiginous to the Philippines, when ripe they are orange inside and out and have a sweet peel and a sour pulp (didn't know that) so they give a sweet and sour taste when fruit is eaten whole (didn't know that) and make a delicious beverage when mashed up, peel and all. I've heard they make delicious cocktails.

Crazy amount of juice for how small they are! Definitely good in cocktails of all varieties. Also salad dressings and just squeeze half into a glass of water. Never thought to taste the peel, though... Will have to try it! They're full of rather big seeds, so I think you'd have to do some straining if you make the beverage with the whole fruit.

[BigIslandBum]

Originally Posted by newUHprof

Crazy amount of juice for how small they are! Definitely good in cocktails of all varieties. Also salad dressings and just squeeze half into a glass of water. Never thought to taste the peel, though... Will have to try it! They're full of rather big seeds, so I think you'd have to do some straining if you make the beverage with the whole fruit.

I never peel them, just eat them whole, seeds and all. Love em Great in smoothies too.

[oregonwoodsmoke]

Thinking of our non-existent chocolate factory with all our co-op members with non-existent stock options for non-existent stock:

Unfortunately, citrus is just about the only thing that isn't marvelous with chocolate. However, I just found a recipe for lemon fudge that sounds interesting and I am about to test it. It doesn't use fresh fruit, it uses lemon extract.

So, coming around the bend the long way to my point, perhaps it would be possible to use exotic citrus to make citrus extracts that could be marketed to specialty markets. It would ship well, it's very small, and extracts can bring substantial prices.

If this lemon fudge works, I can probably figure out how to make calamonsi fudge. If you have a webpage with some great recipes that use the extract and sell the extract on-line, I think you could make a business that would support a family.

By the way, chocolate co-op is non-existent, but there are some genuine living breathing taste testers who are eager to get to work.

[OpenD]

Originally Posted by oregonwoodsmoke

Unfortunately, citrus is just about the only thing that isn't marvelous with chocolate.

What are you talking about? One of the great revelations of my childhood was the Christmas when I was given a got a Droste (Dutch) chocolate orange that separated into individual delectable segments. And orange chocolate in bar form is a standard item in gourmet chocolate arrays. I see some real potential for Calamonsi in this regard.

Also, candied ginger enrobed in dark chocolate is like crack for some people. Not naming any names.
But one of the premier organic ginger producers in the country (his ginger is sold in all the Whole Foods Markets, and a lot of Natural Foods Markets) is based down past Pahoa, near the water.

There is also an interesting fruit that was once an export item for Hawai'i, and that still grows wild in the woods and even shows up at KTA supermarket occasionally, called a Cape Gooseberry, or Goldenberry, are as it is call in Hawaiian, Poha. Less edible versions are grown as ornamentals on the mainland, and called Japanese Lantern. I think this bears some followup.

Originally Posted by oregonwoodsmoke

If you have a webpage with some great recipes that use the extract and sell the extract on-line, I think you could make a business that would support a family.

One of the recent imports to Puna mentioned she was bringing along a copper alembic still for making floral and herbal extracts. That's a business by itself.

[KauaiHiker]

Did OpenD really suggest noni liqueur???? YUK!!!! I respect the noni for it's cultural value, but I just can't eat it or drink it myself.

However, I definitely think there is room for more tropical fruit alcohols being produced and sold in Hawaii, starting with rum and infused rum.

As for olives, I don't think we have a Mediterranean climate anywhere in Hawaii, or anywhere large enough. Rather, to make oil, you can use another popular Filipino plant, the moringa. It's seeds apparently yield an oil of high quality, close to olive oil. Most of the plant is edible too, and praised as one of the "miracle plants" for various reasons.

By the way, for all of the posters asking question about what grows in Hawaii, you should really take a course in tropical agriculture at the local community colleges. A lot of those course are aimed at small farmers, and they explore typical market crops as well as specialty crops that could be started (tea, chocolate, hearts of palm, acai, etc.).

[OpenD]

Originally Posted by OpenD

Imma think, get a small Alaskan still to produce vodka from all the downed fruit that can't be used otherwise (I coulda had a whole truckload of discarded noni fruit at the Hilo dump for free gratis if I'd just been a little better prepared and not so nicely dressed) and then..

Originally Posted by KauaiHiker

Did OpenD really suggest noni liqueur???? YUK!!!! I respect the noni for it's cultural value, but I just can't eat it or drink it myself.

Try wait, try wait!

Federal law defines vodka as a colorless, odorless, tasteless alcoholic spirit. Vodka can be produced from anything that contains sugar, or starch (because starch can be converted to sugar.) There's even a company in Vermont that makes vodka from milk.

Vodka Distilled from Milk | Bevlog | beer, wine, spirits trends | beverage blog

My point about the noni was simply that a large quantity of it was available free gratis (I think it might have been from that noni farm that got burned out by the lava flow a year or so ago.) Ferment it (it was already well started), then distill it properly, and you'd end up with firewater without any taste, from which you could make various infused vodka products with exotic fruits, like vodka with Surinam cherry, or vodka with Calimonsi, or maybe most alluring...

Pele's Tears - Noni Fruit Vodka, infused with Lilikoi Passion Fruit from the Tropical Paradise of the Island of Hawai'i.

See, there's your whole marketing plan in a nutshell. People know that juice from noni fruit is touted as being some kind of miraculous healing elixer, so they would perceive vodka made from noni juice to be much more healthy than your average booze, plus you'd get that whole tropical sexiness thing going on with the passion fruit, which actually happens to taste good. And of course invoking the image of Pele, with a good picture of a volcano in the background ties in naturally with the traditional offering of bottles of vodka to Pele at Kilauea. And you could pick up trade from people who are buying vodka for their Huna to use when blessing their new water cistern, or whatever.

And of course, a small sales booth down by the cruise ship dock would be a natural. What better souvenir of Hawai'i than some exotic booze that you can't get just anywhere?

Not to mention it would be:

"Naturally 100% Gluten Free"

[oregonwoodsmoke]

That's a winner, Open D. Go for it.

I don't think it is that hard to get licensed to manufacture liquor. I know you must have bonded warehouses, but mostly, the government wants to make sure you are paying the taxes on it.

Again: local product, marketed to the tourists, and bingo.

[OpenD]

Originally Posted by oregonwoodsmoke

I don't think it is that hard to get licensed to manufacture liquor. I know you must have bonded warehouses, but mostly, the government wants to make sure you are paying the taxes on it.

I don't know. Hafta look into it. It used to be hella hard, but it must have eased up some because craft micro-distilleries seem to be popping up everywhere lately.

Bonded warehouses mostly have to do with aging, I think. Distillers don't pay federal tax until they bottle, so the warehouses have to be bonded against untaxed withdrawals. With vodka there's basically no need for delay in bottling... except for overnight steeping for infusions, I reckon.