Why aren't more Hawaiians "homesteading" with all the land? (oceanfront, insurance)

[smarino]

I'm not sure what part of Hawaii you're referring to when you say that most homes have huge yards. Land in Hawaii is very expensive, and most homes are on tiny parcels of land. If you are talking about land out in the boonies, a lot of that is lava w/ just a very thin layer of soil. I am not a farmer, but surely you would have to do something to change that in order to grow crops. Just fruit trees are not going to be sufficient for a normal human diet, you need vegetables too, and some grains would be helpful. You won't be planting potatoes in lava!

What terracore said about needing not only the knowledge to do this properly but having the willingness to do all of the labor are something that most people are not willing to do. You don't just plant stuff and pick it off the plant later, there are a lot of steps in the process, and a lot that can go wrong too. If it were easy then everyone would be doing it.

[Arktikos]

Originally Posted by smarino

..
What terracore said about needing not only the knowledge to do this properly but having the willingness to do all of the labor are something that most people are not willing to do. .

This, and because many people prefer processed food and/or junk food. Yes, even in Hawaii. Go figure.

[TreeZoo]

For those of you who have animals, ie goats, chickens, pigs etc.. how do you manage to ever get away? Animals need daily care, food, water, letting them in and out of the pen and so on. Were you able to find someone you trust to handle the daily chores?

[hotzcatz]

We have livestock and we have house sitters when we go on vacation. When the house sitting is for an extended period in Hawaii, you can even get folks to fly over from the mainland for house sitting. When we are gone for over a month, there's a lovely retired couple who love to house sit for us.

True 'homesteading' where everything you need comes from the land doesn't quite work in Hawaii. Most parcels of land don't have everything you'd need, such as well water, enough trees for fuel, not enough soil for extensive cropping, etc. Most folks can't get enough affordable property to where they can start off with paid for land. If you're homesteading, you have enough trouble meeting your food and shelter needs without adding in mortgage payments. There's also little things like internet, transportation, things that don't grow well here like grains, medicine, pots and pans, yada, yada, yada.

There are a lot of folks, especially in Puna, who live a semi-homesteading lifestyle. There's also some 'planned communities' which are also trying to be self-sustaining scattered here and there, although most of them are in Puna since that's the cheapest land in the state.

Oh, and instead of bass, most folks put tilapia or catfish in their aquaponic systems. The other end of the aquaponics is growing vegetables. There's a few folks around who have them in their backyard. The systems aren't that noticeable since they're low and there's not much to see other than usually a stock tank with a flat of vegetables growing alongside.

[terracore]

"For those of you who have animals, ie goats, chickens, pigs etc.. how do you manage to ever get away? Animals need daily care, food, water, letting them in and out of the pen and so on. Were you able to find someone you trust to handle the daily chores?"

This "getting away" that you speak of... what is it?

Okay the tongue was a bit in cheek... but one can't move here, start a homestead, and then expect to ever get away until they've lived here long enough to make those bonds with people they can trust OR can fly in trusted individuals. In some circumstances it may involve the inability to leave until the homestead is in order (permanent fences / not temporary, after kidding season is over so no milking is required, etc).

The more successful the homestead becomes, the more complicated it is to get away unless you have a large ohana. But after you get here, your ohana grows.

[rhbj03]

100% self efficiency is a lofty goal; I don't plan to achieve that, nor do I need to do so fortunately. But I want to try to work toward that as much as possible because I just think it is fun to grow my own food.

If I can produce the major food items -- starch, meat, vegetable, fruits -- I think that'll already go a long way toward my goal.

And based on my partial experience, that doesn't seem too hard.

For the past 15 years, in my 1000 sqft of yard space around SF I have planted 10 fruit trees and some herbs. I haven't done much of any work besides watering and casually wrapping fruits in envelopes to protect them from squirrels/birds. Every year I lose about 1/3 of the yield to animals, but the remaining is more than what I can consume. My plan for my future fruit/vegetable/potato farming is to just plant a huge amount, maybe 1/4 acre each, and pretty much leave them alone. The bugs and birds can eat all they want; I think I should still have some left to eat.

With livestock I agree it is a 24x7 chore. I think I can only do that when I fully retire to Hawaii; and even them I'm sure there are many details I have to figure out at that time.

With regard to fish, I do plan to take some fish from the ocean; however freshwater fish is different from salt water fish. Salt water fish typically have stronger fibers and fewer bones and are good eating; but fresh water fish have very tender flesh that is really good also. I envision digging a 1/3 acre pond to grow largemouth bass for food and also provide landscaping and recreation benefits (fishing, boating). Again I don't intend to do too much with the fish; just gonna stock the pond then let them be.

These are my basic plan; your thoughts and critiques are welcome so I can make the plan even more perfect.

[terracore]

Ocean fishing here is easier said than done. If you are talking about hours invested versus protein out, I think raising your own fish is the better idea. Many people raise tilapia or catfish and use the water for aquaponics. The problem with raising fish is that you'll have to feed them. I know some people who have figured out how to do it without buying the food but it does involve extra work. Most people don't have ponds. There are few places on this island that have the type of soil that can hold water. It's cheaper to have an above-ground tank than it is to bring in heavy construction equipment to chip the rock away so you can install an expensive liner. A lot of people raise fish in catchment tanks (not the catchment tanks they use for human water, a separate one). A 10,000 gallon tank costs around $5k.

Your goals of growing starch, meat, vegetable, fruits is doable but your starches are going to be a little different. Monsanto loves Hawaii because we have 4 corn seasons each year, and there are instructions on the internet on how to grow potatoes in containers with high yield.Okinawan sweet potatoes do very well here, they are delicious and healthy, and the purple color is fun. A traditional starch grown here is ulu, also known as the breadfruit tree. We planted ours two years ago and it's big and healthy and should fruit during the next ulu season. Another good starch is plantain bananas but they are a feast-or-famine crop. You either have too many of them or you don't have any. Other vegetables and fruits will require a little more management. If you don't know what you are doing, you will waste a lot of time and money either trying to grow the wrong things in the wrong places or giving up in the battle against the pests. This particular subject is worthy of an entire library so I won't address it here. When you find your corner of paradise, what you will succeed in growing there will depend on where exactly your corner of paradise is. A few hundred feet in elevation or moving N/S or E/W makes a huge difference. And read up on the rat lungworm parasite. Anything that you grow can't be eaten raw unless you take a lot of precautions.

As far as growing meat is concerned, we started off with a few chickens and they forage almost all their own food. They convert venomous centipedes, outdoor roaches, and every other nasty bug and make them into eggs and more chickens. We have so many chickens now our freezer is full so we had to start canning them. We can't eat our way through the chickens as fast as they keep breeding. It is not free though, we do have to feed the flock some food (mostly just the layers) and sometimes provide medicine etc. We offset a small portion of those costs buy selling older layers and trade eggs for other things. Muscovy ducks and geese both do very well here and may not require you to feed them (depending on what is growing in your land). Depending on how it is prepared you could blindfold somebody and feed them muscovy duck and they will swear they are eating a beef sirloin steak. We also get wild pigs on our property, when we have freezer space they are also added to our menu.

[hotzcatz]

If you want a pond, check out properties between Hilo and Waimea. There's deep enough soil there that you can dig a pond. Either use a liner or there's a type of clay, I think it is, that you can get to make a pond with. Same stuff as they use for making fire bricks, I think. Someone once told me there's a place in Kawaihae where one can get it, although there's not much in Kawaihae.

[leilaniguy]

The clay would be Kaolin or Bentonite (The main ingredients in kitty litter). It is very expensive, and would take a lot.

[hotzcatz]

I think the people mentioned the bentonite clay as available somewhere in Kawaihae. I was thinking it would be nice for a small pond to keep some lilies and koi but it never got much past the discussion stage.

One nice thing with 'water features' is you can stock them with mosquito fish and the mosquitoes lay their eggs there, the fish then eat them and pretty soon, there's a lot less mosquitoes around than there used to be. Some friends at Southpoint have a big Chinese jar by their front door where it's out of the wind (easier for the mosquitoes to hang out there) and the jar is full of water plants and mosquito fish and they have no mosquitoes.

As for the OP, well, I doubt he's going to build a pond on a $5K property, but maybe someone else will.

Can freshwater bass even be brought into the state? I'm pretty sure there's some folks with some variety of catfish and I know there's several varieties of tilapia around, but I don't know of anyone who has bass. Not even any sun perch, which is a very common mainland freshwater fish. I've seen crayfish (crawdads) as well as prawns around, those can be tasty, too.