Grand Opening of the Ohana Farm Orchards' Produce Stand!

Real Life....

Turned into our logo!

 

OK, I finally finished the on-line store for our macadamia nuts and candy! Check it out at www.OhanaFarmOrchards.goodsie.com and if you see anything you like I have created a promo code good for a 10% discount until the end of November, Just enter "Grand10" at checkout! I also made this QR code if you'd rather scan it to go to the site!

We even got our business cards yesterday so I guess we're good to go. Check out our offering, we have even created a "nut of the Month" club, prefect for gift-giving or any foodies you might know. We look forward to seeing you in the store!

At last!!! Family is here and I BUILT A WEBSITE!

Layla and Carolina Arrive

OK, OK...it's been a month but..... family has arrive, Carolina, Layla and Shadow are here to stay and learning the ways of the farm... and the beach!

It seems like the best laid plans often go unfinished for one reason or another... a trip to town takes 5-6 hours by the time all our stops are made and we get something to eat... of course, we no sooner get started on something than realize we need something in town. I vow to work on the Farm On-line store and by the time everything is done for the day there honestly is either no time or no energy to sit down and do it!

Today I vowed to work on the website... I found I needed a website before I could work on the store (yet another setback), I thought it was a good time since John is redoing the kitchen conters today, and YEEEEHAAAWWW I did it! It is just a start and I will add to it once I get the store built but I am so proud to have it done! Check it out at www.OhanaFarmOrchards.com.

I am going to try and get the store done this weekend... I'm just not really technical so it is a struggle, but so rewarding when it is done! I'll make sure to let you know when it is done so you can see all of the great things we have been creating!

Let me know what you think!

Oh yeah, John and I are going to the Aloha Performinf Arts Center production of "The Toxic Avenger" tonight.... a little culture here on the big Island!

No Excuses... Well, Maybe A Few (Photo Essay)

OK, Ok, I know (and I've heard it from several sources) i have not written in FOREVER! The thing is, I had the best of intentions and everytime we did something I took pictures with the intent of writing about it and then more happened and then I took more pictures and then more happened.... you see how it went????
I dont even have a hope of getting time back to write becuase they don't "Do Time Change" in Hawaii.... no "Fall Back" time to get an hour, because afterall, even an hour would help... so I'm just going to blast you with pictures showing you what we've been up to (captions included) and start with my good intentions all over again!
WE REALLY HAVE BEEN BUSY! Honest!
The garden is growing, especially the tomotes, lettuce and eggplant.

 

Garden is growing like crazy!

Ippy with his little house!

The problem is, we dont really like eggplant that much.... the good news is little Ippy, the goat that you will remember I wanted BAAAAAAADLY, loves eggplant! And by the way, John built him a little house to be out of the rain, which we get a lot of in the summer apparently!

Elvis anyone!

I have been working on building an on-line store which I hope to reveal to you all soon where I can sell the 12+ flavors of macadamia nuts I have developed. I also got my first customer (you know who you are) and have been working on an order over 150 bags of those 12 flavors!!! To do that I have to harvest the nuts, shuck then, dehydrate then, crack them and then cook and package them so lots of time involved. I have been taking some pictures to the site, as well. Thanks to my friend Don for pointing my to goodsie.com where I am building the store!


A peek at the future on-line store

We had a couple of visitors, our niece Hayley and sister-in-law, Astrid for a couple of days. I took the opportunity to take then on a Mad Hatter's Wild Ride around the Island in a day! The day before that after John got off work we went kayaking just before it started getting dark. Great fun. We always try to do something on the weekend, mosstly to get me off the farm. The last few weekends we went to the Mai Tai Festival, the Donkey Mill Art Center 1000 Bowls Festival and the Parker Ranch Rodeo!

And, because I was not busy enough, I am taking beginner ukulele lessons as a rec department course..... so I have not had time to write!

OK, clean slate, I'm going to try and be better.... or at least post more pictures!

1000 Bowls Festival

Don the Beach Comber Mai Tai Festival

Labor Day Rodeo

Ukulele lessons

Hayley and John getting in the water



Astrid and Hayley at Kilauea





OK - It's been FOREVER!!

I am guilty on non-blogging! So sorry...so much has been going on, too. Let's catch up, shall we?

The McGoon clan in Colorado Springs

Since I last wrote John and I went to the mainland, a couple of days in California and a few in Colorado for my tri-annual family reunion... yes every three years the McGoon clan gathers in a differnt location to talk and gossip and visit and hug it out... and yes, I did say "McGoon".. what are you going to do about it?? All of my McGoon girl cousins and sisters agree we might have married just for a name change and we certainly didn't take back our maiden names when the occasion arose! Can you blame us? Here we were in Colorado Springs. This is my Dad's side of the family. It is funny, even only seeing each other every 3 years I feel so close to my cousins and they are all invited to Hawaii! Next reunion, 2015 in San Diego!

Nana, Kayla, Papa and Kirsten

I was so happy there as I got to get my hands on my grand-daughters and give them crazy hugs! How cute are these girls? Kirsten even slept with Nana and Papa because she missed us so bad! I am praying they come here for Christmas so bad!

Joan, Leigh, Renn (me), Dinah and Teri

We also had dinner with my girls, the Fab Five, thanks to our fabulous hosts Joan and Dave... a delicous dinner with everyone contributing but as always, the fun part was getting a photo we all liked... not possible I might add.. but I like this one. We are all so different and bring differnet things to the table, so to speak, but we get along great and our husbands do, too! Always a plus!

I also got to check in with Carolina, Shadow and my little Layla who were on an RV adventure before they join us here in Hawaii! Layla is growing so fast and was happy to show me her "sweet RV" and tell me about her adventures. We got to sit under "Balancing Rock" at the Garden of the Gods in CO and it felt so good to have her tucked up next to me and have her announcing she needed "Papa Time"! It was a whirlwind week and then back to the Island... too fast!

Ippy loves avocados!

Of course, once we got back we got to pick up out little Ippy, the goat! We are still getting to know Ippy as he is a little skittish. I tried making him goat treat from a web recipe but he doesn't care about them. Today I found he loves avocados... luck for us since we have 42 avocado trees! Check out his avocado mouth in this picture!

My garden is growing by leaps and bounds and I'll give you some pictures next time. for now i want to say I'm working on the Mac Nut Flavor menu and trying to figure out how to market! I took some with me to the mainland and got great praise! I make killer Mac Nut Brittle and have developed some nut flavors - Curry, Garlic Onion, Chocolate Glazed, Cinnamon Sugar, Tomato-Basil, Mai-Tai, Salt and Vinegar and more...now need to figure out marketing and such! Our lilikoi (passionfruit) to rippening like crazy so I've been able to make some yummy Lilikoi Jelly and freezing alot of juice to work with. I've even made a couple of sales!

I'm putting it out there... if anyone knows how to create a webpage which also has a shopping cart I'm willing to trade product for help in this area.. I promise you won't be disappointed!

Until my next post, Aloha, it wont be so long...let me leve you with these cute surfing dogs we saw Sunday at Hookena Beach!

Avocado What?

OK, not my typical post but I want to share this yumminess!



Avocado and Mushroom Flan

I was reading Martha Stewart Living the other day and they had this whole section of Pea recipies. Now, if I served John peas he would be a very unhappy boy...it harkens back to "Tuna Suprise Friday Nights" in a Catholic household... anyway, there was this interesting and pretty dish, "Pea Flan with Wild Mushrooms" and I got to wondering if it worked with peas, why not avocados?? The avocados are ripening so fast right now and it is making me crazy! so, I played with the recipe a little and gave it a go and ended up with this yummy dish, really light in texture and flavor and the mushrooms were great, too with lemon and scallions in them. I will sooo make this again. I'll post it on the recipe page at the link at the bottom of the blog!


Even though it is raining geckos and mongooses (not cats and dogs in the Islands) right now I wanted to share this great picture John got the other night, speaking of geckos, of our sunset and little friend you'll see in the upper left. when we turn on the livingroom light all the little bugs flock to the window and this little guy knew where to find his dinner!

Sunset Gecko

We are getting ready to visit the mainland for my family reunion in Colorado Springs and I cant wait to get my hands on my granddaughters!!!! I have been making food gifts to bring back from our macadamia nuts including the best brittle ever and lots of mango jam so I hope we will be welcomed with open arms (and mouths) everywhere we go! Can't wait to see people, I'm tired of talking to the turkeys (and no, I don't mean John)!

Mac Nut Brittle

Farm Update - Got Goat??

1st Raised Bed

Raised bed #2

OK, I haven't given a garden update in a long time but I have to say I'm left wishing I had inheirited my Dad's Green Thumb!The garden fortress seemed like a fix but not against the hideous slugs that wanted to eat anything that bloomed, the birds were still getting in under the net and the weeds were growing like, well.....weeds!!! So I got this catalog that was selling very expensive raised garden boxes (like we could afford the shipping on those!), and though I don't have my Dad's green thumb I do have my AMAZINGLY handy husband, who promptly said "no problem"...off to Home Depot and Lowes we went and yet another couples shopping trip and came home with all the fixin's.... of course we also had to buy the dirt to fill these bad boys since we don't just have dirt laying around on top of the lava rich soil..... let it suffice to say, I have a very long, long term time frame on our return on investment future here!! The plants are starting to sprout and so are my hopes of success! I've got zuchinni, beets, spinach, green onions, lettuce, green beans, eggplant, cucumbers, tomatoes and pumpkins started and I'm adding mustard and chollard greens! Fingers crossed the slugs don't learn how to climb and the netting keeps the birds out!!

Eggplant!

Goats for sale!

Little Ippy in the middle!

Now, I've been wanting a GOAT really baaaaadly! We've been watching this sign about a goat sale for weeks now as we drive to and from Kona town! Every time we drive past a yard with a goat I remind John I want a naaaaaanny goat! I reminded John the goat sale was TODAY when he got up and off we went... gotta love shopping together..... to check out these goats! Of course having a goat would totaly be in keeping with our philosophy of doing things we know NOTHING about, but farmers have to have animals, right? And those wild feathered rats (known as turkeys) don't count! Well, once we looked them in the eye we couldn't NOT get a goat so we bought "Ippy", how cute is he??? We are not going to bring him home until we come back from the mainland, but in 2 weeks we will have little Ippy down on the farm! Also, we will get Ippy a girlfriend in August or September when they have the females for sale.... we can't let Ippy be lonely!

Finally we have thought of the name for our farm, and I made this cute logo for us! Now to find out how to make it ours! Ohana means "family" in Hawaiian and since Carolina, Shadow and little Layla will be joining us in August on the venture that was important, it is orchads plural for the 3 different prchards, macadamia nuts, avocado and coffee!

Happy Birthday America!!



Waimea rainout

We had an ambitious day planned for our first 4th of July here on the Big Island! I usually avoid things like that because I truly hate dealing with crowds. We wanted to go to the rodeo up in Waimea, en head down to Waikaloa for the Rubber Duckie Races and see Ippy, the Big Island's hope for the new Food Network Star, emcee a cook-off, check out a craft fair and then head not Kona for the evening parade!
Well, we decided to stay at our condo in town the night before to get a 25 mile head start and woke up to beautiful sunshine. After our SPAM, fruit and toast we headed up to Waimea only to run into rain at the rodeo and we both agreed that was not how we wanted to start our day so off we headed to Waikoloa. The good news about the rainout was we got to Waikola and managed to get a great parking space, free goodie bags with duckies in them, adopted our duckies for the race (hope to find out the winners soon), see some entertainment and watch the food cook-off.


John and Ippy

Me waiting for parade

Our prize!

While the judges were deciding Ippy was asking trivia contests for prizes and when he said the next prize was a horseback ride for two John said he was getting it! Well, Ippy started saying, " when you are in a restaurant and have escargot..." up shot John's hand! Ippy looked surprised since he hadn't finished the question and thought John would guess wrong out of the blue since we had no idea where the question was going, BUT, John said "SNAILS" and lucky us, that was the answer to the question he would have asked!! So you can look forward to a future blog about horsebacks riding for sure! After have we took the shuttle to the Hilton for the craft fair and we got a new TIKI, for my newest collection I'm starting.... Back to watch the duck race and now we are in Kona town waiting for the parade at 5:30. They are having fireworks at 8:00, but we aren't sure we'll last that long.... We didn't.... Went home! The parade was almost 2 hours long and so a fun small town parade with everything from the Boy Scouts to the Governor of Hawaii. Happy Birthday America!

Pele's Magic Kingdom... Kilauea

Sunday we went around the Island, spending several hours at Volcanoes National Park. It was a 12 hour driving day but amazing, as always, with fantastic views everywhere.

After we left the park we headed into Hilo and aroubd the Hamakua Coast stopping by Akaka Falls!

We stopped at a bay that JP hiked down to and then for malasadas at Tex Drive In before heading home... long day!

Tonight John and JP have gone manta ray diving so I'm sure they are on a great adventure.... me, I'm slipping into a hot tub with a good book and enjoying to quite time!

Remembering My Mom with Aloha...

82 years ago tomorrow, June 6th my Mom was born. Even though she died in 2004 she is always in my thoughts, even more now that I live in Hawaii.  My Dad was in the Navy and we were stationed here from 1957-1960. I was young but still have my random memories and of course, my photographs. In remembrance of my Mom, I want to share a few photos from that time and a list of random memories...


Robin, Mom and me in our Fiat, named Suzy

-My mom was always very active and involved; she made shell jewelry and sold it, she was President of the CPO Wives Club, she was active in the Elks Club wives group.

Mom in black on the stairs at Elks Club

-When the huge tsunami hit in 1960 we were lucky to live on a hill... our house became a refuge for strangers and my mother opened our house to them. I remember a huge pot of chicken soup on the stove trying to find a way to feed everyone.

-My mom got a 3' carved tiki for Christmas and as a joke put a braided rope around it, like it was a necklace for the Jolly Green Giant, and "wore" it to bingo as a good luck charm!


This is me!

-My mom loved for us to be involved in local activities and had Robin and I take hula and Tahitian dance lessons. She made all of our dance costumes herself.


Mom and Uncle Joey

-My mom loved to be involved in the culture no matter where we lived. I can remember she was almost always wearing mumus which was very common attire then.

-My parents were loved by the community for all they did and the kind and loving people they were. They would do anything to help someone in need. When we left they had a big going away party to say "Aloha" to us and my Mom made us sailor costumes to wear and fixed our hair in rag curls!

New article about our Aloha party

Violet at the volcano

No matter how long she is gone, my Mom is with me always in my heart, I close my eyes and open my mind and she is there. I remember all of the things she did for me and my sisters and how much she sacrificed. She did not have and easy life, but she lived it with grace, and love, a sense of humor and a strong spirit. When my wind chimes ring, it is her talking to me...maybe she's complaining, maybe she's praising, maybe she's telling one of her endless stories.... but she's always singing. My mother, Violet Fouke McGoon, was an amazing woman and she will always be thought of with much ALOHA.

Happy Birthday, in Hawaiian is Hau'oli lā hānau (pronounced How-o-lee Laa Haa-now)

Another Lazy Day for the Farmer

John took another day off from farm work to take JP surfing down at Pine Trees Beach north of Kona. It sounded like he had fun and worked up an appetite so they stopped for linch before heading home!
You can see JP's first surfing effort here on the Big Island...

A Fun Time in Paradise

We have company! JP, John's second cousin, has come to visit us for 2 weeks from Denver. He arrived yesterday and we had a nice dinner at an ocean side resaurant, Humpy's, in Kona before heading to the house. We were blessed with an amazing sunset for him to watch from the lanai, watching the red ball slow drop from the sky and below the horizon before the night was black and the crickets started their chirpping.

This morning we got up early and loaded the kayaks into the truck and headed to Hookena Beach. The sun was shining, the ocean cooperated and we had fun paddling along the coast. the guys stayed out longer than I did but I came in and took a swim in the surface. Later we went to the Place of Refuge, a scared site which is now a National Park.

Check out our kayaking fun in the video below!

A Beautiful, Peaceful Place - St. Benedict's

John and I went to Mass this week at the closest Catholic church to us, Saint Benedict's Painted Church, in Honaunau, about 10 miles away. They have a 7:00am Sunday mass so we got up with the sun. St. Benedict's is an amazing church founded in 1899 and the interior was painted by a self-taught priest after the fashion of a gothic cathedral in Burgos, Spain. With the windows open, the birds singing and the beautiful views out the windows it is a restful, peaceful place. The congregation is small but friendly and as newcomers we were welcomed with handmade leis and asked to introduce ourselves at the end of Mass.
If you want to learn more this is their website: www.thepaintedchurch.org.

A quote from the newsletter, beautiful in Hawaiian:

O ke kea hemolele kou malamalama. Aole o Satana kou alakai.
May the holy cross be my light. Let not the dragon be my guide.