Archive for March, 2011

Let’s hear it from the farmers series: Dan tells all…some

Saturday, March 26th, 2011

How can you really tell all there is to know abour being a farmer? How can you tell others how ‘to see’, with knowing what is important in the non-verbal world of plants telling you they are hungry, thirsty, diseased, virused? How much time is there to respond to the plant’s needs, immediately, soon…..too late?
Dan is one of the those special people that know plant language. He can spot a critter on a plant from a mile away…….like microscope vision! Of coarse it helps when you are a young farmer with good eyes and a keen sense of affinity with plants that produce food. I think he is a wizard with plant /seed selection, always on the lookout for the strongest , the most deliscious, the most plentiful varieties to grow. And grow he does….organic ginger, organic tumeric, tomatoes, peppers, squash.

Between watering cycles one day, I had the opportunity to sit down with Dan and ask him a few questions, starting with what motivated him to become a farmer (he’s a young farmer in his 30’s who is a full time farmer)). “Lazines…hahaha”, was his off hand reply. His background in agriculture stemmed from growing up next to an agricultural community in southern California, where citrus and pomegranit grew. His neighborhood friends families had farms. Now those areas are all concrete and buildings he said. Dan paused and then refected, ” Eventually I gravitated to farming because I felt it fit into my attitude towards life…I enjoy plants, they don’t talk back, I can pick my favorites and cull the rest.” There was a lot of humour during this interview which I took as a balancing mechanism to the seriousness of farming because as Dan put it, ” Get ready to fail, there better be more reasons to want to be a farmer than money because there’s a million things that can go wrong in growing plants.” I asked him if he introduced himself as a farmer in social situations. He said, “It depends who I’m talking to. There is a connotation of ‘hippiness’ if you say you are a farmer, sometimes I say I’m an Agricultural Technician.” ………….to be continued

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Let’s hear it from the farmers series:’Preci’

Saturday, March 26th, 2011

Rain or shine, you can find Preci selling a variety of produce, colorful and fresh, heaped up on her market table every Sunday morning at the Pahoa Farmer’s Market behind Luquin’s restaurant. Finding time to sit down with her to ask her these interview questions was not an easy task. Preci has a full time job at Pahoa School during the week, she is a part-time farmer and sells at the farmers market on Sunday.
If I get to the market at 6:30 am, I’d find Preci unpacking heavy produce boxes from her truck to the market stall, setting up her tables and arranging the produce as a beautiful display so her customers have an easy time seeing what’s available to make their selections.
Market customers come in waves. In the early morning when the market place comes alive with vendors and customers, around 7:00 am, a stream of customers make their way to Preci’s vegetable stand to pick up their regular weekly selection of fruits and vegetables and peruse the table to see ‘what’s new this week’. Later in the morning things slow down a bit, there’s no one around then a few minutes later Preci is swamped again, being asked questions, weighing and wrapping up produce, collecting monies, and recording sales. By the end of the sales day…around 1:00 pm….Preci eventually gets to sit …eat some lunch …talk story with the other vendors then start the packing up ritual.
Early last December, before she packed up that day, Preci and I had a chance to sit for awhile to have this interview.
She said her parents made their living as farmer’s in the Philippines. They had chickens, pigs, goats, and grew rice and tobacco. So Preci first started growing things as a child along with her family. When she came to Hawaii as an adult, she and her husband continued to farm a few things ( about 10% of their income), not on a full time scale as her parents did.
Presently she grows wing beans, long beans, squash, pumpkin and papaya, which she sells at her market booth. The other produce she sells comes from other farmers on the island and from other sources. She grows her vegetables with a little fertilizer but no herbicide or pesticides are sprayed, because she said, “because we eat it.”
The hardest part is controlling the weeds.
When I asked her why she still farms, because both her husband and she have jobs in the school system and in construction, she said she likes to raise some of her own vegetables and have a little extra income from them. Mostly she sells at the market but also small restaurants buy produce from her, thereby supporting her
farming endeavors.
In wrapping up this interview, l asked this last question: “Do you consider yourself a farmer and what is your definition of a farmer.” She replied, “Yes, because I grow things to eat, I am a backyard gardener, growing things in co-operative ways like in the Philipinnes. A farmer is someone who tends to a crop.”
Thanks for doing all that you do and for growing food Preci! Aloha

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Let’s hear it from the farmers – interview questions

Saturday, March 26th, 2011

Interview questions for whosyourfarmer.info research project: Fall 2010 20101023

Date of interview: _______________________ Location of interview:________________________

Aloha! I am a student in the Communication Department at the University of Hawaii-Hilo. I am doing an independent study, researching numerous farmers growing/raising food in East Hawaii County and asking them what challenges they experience as farmers and as sellers of their products at open markets. In the Spring semester of 2010, I created my web blog whosyourfarmer.info to be interactive with anyone interested in the dialog of raising food, raising our awareness of farmers and raising communication between farmers and food consumers.

Thank you for taking the time to be interviewed!

Please let me know the following before we begin the interview :

1.Do you wish for this interview to remain anonymous?

2. If the answer to question #1 is no, then would you agree to any of the following? :

a) Agree to be interviewed with or without an audio recorder:
print name_________________________________
signature___________________________________
dated______________________________________

b) Agree to be interviewed with or without a photo taken:
print name_________________________________
signature___________________________________
dated______________________________________

c) Agree to have ____________photo __________audio posted on my blog:
print name_________________________________
signature___________________________________
dated______________________________________

3. What kinds of food crops do you grow for the farmers markets ?
___ fresh vegetables, fruits, nuts

___dairy (milk, eggs, cheese)

___prepared food (cooked food, honey, jams etc.)

___other________________________________

4. When you sell food, at farmers markets, in your observation, rate what your customers care about .

[ On a scale of 0 to 5 ( 5 being the most important)]

a) how the food looks 0 1 2 3 4 5

b) where the food is grown 0 1 2 3 4 5

c) how the food is grown 0 1 2 3 4 5

d) who grows the food 0 1 2 3 4 5

e) price of the food 0 1 2 3 4 5

f) freshness of the food 0 1 2 3 4 5

5.What methods of communication do you use and find effective in getting information to your customers about the food you sell at the farmers markets?

(ex. talking, signs – with general information, labels – detailed information, other methods of periodic advertizing)

6.In your observation, what questions do your customers ask the most about your products?

7.From what area do you consider ‘ locally grown ‘ food to come from? [ Mark one ]

___ grown in the district

___ grown in the county

___ grown in the state

___ grown in the country

8.What is your ‘definition of a farmer’ ? What motivated you to become a farmer?

9. Is your farm a family business? If yes, who in the family, is involved in your farming operation?

10. Are you a full time farmer?
If not, approximately what percentage of your total work week is devoted to farming and selling
your products at farmers markets?

11.What government agencies or other groups have you found to be helpful and supportive in your farming experience and why?

12. What aspects of farming would you advise someone to consider, who is interested in becoming a farmer?

13. Demographics of person interviewed : [ please circle one in each section of a, b ,c]

a) gender : _____ female _____ male

b) age _____(18-30) _____(31-40 ) _____ (41-50 ) _____ (51-62) _____(63-70)____(71 +)

c) household income _____ (up to $30,000) _____ ($30,000 to $60.000) _____ ( $60,000 to $ 80,000)

_____ ($80,000 plus)

d) race [choose one or more]:
_____ American Indian or Alaskan native/ __ Asian/ ___ Black or African American /___Native Hawaiian/ __Pacific Islander/ __ White / __ Other

e).zip code ____________________

I appreciate your interest in my research project.
You can read more about it on my web blog : whosyourfarmer.info

Thank you!

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