About Our Kona Coffee
Kona is a very special place. Our coffee-growing region is on the leeward (downwind) side of Mauna Loa and Hualalai. Because we're sheltered from the trade winds that typically blow from the northeast, we have little or no wind, predictable summer afternoon rains, and winter dry season. The winter dry season broken up by a few winter and early spring rainstorms (with snow on the tops of Mauna Kea and Mauna Loa). The drought-stressed coffee trees will bloom with each rain episode, in some years up to seven times.
In January and February, we're usually finishing up our harvest from the previous year's fruit.
Our next task is to prune and shape our trees to eliminate old branches and encourage new growth. Coffee fruit will only grow on two-year old branches. Flowering due to episodic rains happens between January and April.
In May and June, we'll go back and select the right branches from all the new growth. By now the midday clouds and afternoon rains are a near daily occurrence.
The coffee fruit grows rapidly during the late spring and early summer.
From mid-September to the end of the year we'll be harvesting every three or four weeks. The first fruit will begin to ripen roughly seven months after the first bloom. Each successive ripening follows at the same interval as the spring blooming.
Throughout the year we will be supplementing our soil with fertilizer to keep the proper nutrient levels. We mow roughly every four weeks to maintain our ground cover and keep grass and weeds from growing up into the trees.
Our Kona coffee belt is about 25 miles long and only about 1 to 3 miles wide. The coffee can be grown as low as around 800 ft and up to an elevation of about 3200 ft with most of the coffee grown at roughly 1500 ft.
About Our Farm
Our farm sits on 75 lush acres directly above Kealakekua Bay. Not only is the view stunning, but the cloud cover, rainfall, temperature, and soil conditions are just right. On clear mornings, we are treated to a view of over thirty miles of the south Kona coastline.
We have roughly 20 acres planted in coffee. The trees are about 8 years old. We're preparing another 30 acres for planting in the summer of 2007. When we grow to 50 acres in production, we'll be one the ten largest farms in Kona.
We will be germinating and transplanting about 20,000 new seedlings in our nursery. The young trees will begin producing their first fruit at three years old. They reach full production when they are five years old.
With good care and proper pruning the coffee trees can remain in production beyond 100-years old.
Our trees are planted in straight rows 12 feet apart. Within the rows the trees are 7 ft apart. This gives us 520 trees per acre. Grass is planted and mowed between the rows. This retains moisture in the soil, prevents erosion, and keeps weeds under control.
In the middle of our farm we've retained a native Hawaiian hardwood forest. These majestic "Ohia" trees tower nearly 100 feet above the coffee. Invasive plant species are carefully being removed from within the forest. We are also preserving watercourses, tree ferns, walking trails, and moss covered rock formations.
Rare Hawaiian hawks known as "I'o" hunt from the tops of tall trees.
We are a relatively modern and efficient farm. Our layout allows us to mechanize tasks like mowing, weed control, and fertilizing. For the most part, our farm manager is able to maintain the farm single-handedly. Extra help is needed to prune and harvest the coffee.
For now we take our coffee cherry to Kona Kulana Mill for pulping and drying. They give us coffee "parchment" in 70-lb bags for storage. We then take the parchment to Holualoa Kona Coffee Mill for husking, polishing, sorting, and grading. They return our "green" coffee in 100-lb bags, ready to roast when needed. Most coffee leaves Kona as green coffee.
