I was beginning to wonder if it was ever going to rain again. The past two days I have traveled over the saddle road from Hilo to Kona and then back again through the districts of South Kona and Kau. I was so saddened by the extreme dryness that prevailed everywhere I looked. The land and the plants seemed to be cast in ghostly gray, as though the color of life had been sucked out of them and left in stillness. I saw a few cows and horses in the dried out pastures and wondered what they possibly could find to eat.
As I came over the crest of Volcano, back to Hilo, it was if a paint brush had colored everything green. I immediately wanted to swoop up all the animals I saw scrounging for the smallest morsel of food, and relocate them to these lush green windward meadows, knee high in emerald grass.

I felt for the farmers and ranchers, who can do little for their crops or animals when the weather turns to cloudless skies and drying winds. For an extended period of time now, this current drought is negatively affecting many areas on the Big Island. How do our farmers and ranchers make a living when the weather gods are not co-operating….and how does that relate to what local food is available for people to buy?

This is the essence of this fall semesters’ research in whosyourfarmer.info
I am going to talk with some of the local farmers on the Big Island, who grow or raise their products and market them at open markets. I will ask them to tell me their story of being a farmer and to talk about the relationship they experience in growing and selling their products directly to the consumer.

I almost feel guilty, and yet so thankful, because as I write this, sitting here in Puna, the sweet, sweet sound of rain is coming down…what we have come to call a ‘real rain’….replenishing my spirit and the spirit of the land.

This entry was posted on Sunday, October 10th, 2010 at 1:26 am and is filed under Reflection. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.