Sarasota Fruit & Nut Society
From Randy and Nancy Bruckner - October, 2005:
We are living out in the country on the Big Island about 10 miles south of Hilo. We actually live in a giant subdivision with 8800, one-acre lots. The nearest town is about 5 miles away. It consists of a school, library, 2 gas stations, a produce market, hardware store, post office, and grocery store. We go into town every couple of days, since we have no mail delivery. We found a new house on a one acre lot, but the ground is all lava. The front 1/3 of the lot they cleared and filled to build the house. They do this by filling with about 2 feet of big rocks, 2 feet to 6 inch diameter, and cover it with finer rocks, kind of like gravel. The back 2/3 of the lot is just brush, weeds, and lava. Yesterday at breakfast we noticed three sheep grazing out there.
Planting trees is really interesting. We use a shovel somewhat to dig the holes, but mostly a tool the Hawaiians call an o'o. This consists of a 6 foot long iron bar, 2 inches diameter that weighs about 30 pounds. Digging a hole entails lots of prying rocks out of the ground or breaking them, by using the o'o and slamming it into the ground. Once the hole is about 2 feet deep and 3 feet diameter, we then take some of the rocks and build a wall around the hole, so that we can have a partially raised planting area. The hole is then back-filled with topsoil. This is what we plant in (see the picture). We are still working on planting the front 1/3 of the lot. Currently have about 7 fruit trees in the ground; breadfruit, mamey sapote, lime, canistel, soursop, rollinia, as well as dozens of heliconias and gingers. We are also putting in patches of vegetables where we can find a good place in the rock. So far we have lettuce, tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, squash, and jicima. It rains here almost every night and early morning. The majority of days also are likely to have scattered showers. So far about 90 inches this year. This much rain, along with a temperature that stays between 60 and 85, creates incredible growth. Our breadfruit tree puts on a new set of leaves every 7-10 days. When we put in some squash seeds, they came up in two days. We realized early on that all seeds we plant have to be heavily mulched or the local chickens would get the seeds.
One of our main sources of fresh produce is picking it up along the roads. We keep our picker in the trunk of the car since you never know what you will run into on any day. There are trees full of fruit all over and we hate to see it going to waste on the ground. We have a freezer full of mango, avocado, and guava that were all picked along the roads. Lately we've been drinking nothing but guava juice since they're at the peak of their season. Also makes dynamite jelly.
We're really enjoying the local farmers markets, where you can get anything from tomatoes to a massage. Every town has a market, as well as several in the front yards of private homes. Of course there's all the standard produce, but we usually pick up a mamey or maybe some anonas for a treat. The variety is amazing -- many kinds of bananas and avocados, sappodilla, abiu, lots of Oriental cabbages, fern fiddle-heads, winged beans, long beans and daikon (a radish that's great pickled). In one market, we get papayas are 7 for $1. You know that new food pyramid the government came out with? I think we're way over the top on our fruit & veggie consumption!
Another favorite activity is a park on the coast about 3 miles from our house. We take our dog, our folding chairs, books, and water and just sit under the casaurinas and watch the beautiful waves roll in and hit the black lava. Quite restful and spectacular. I've attached a couple of pictures to give you an idea of what it looks like.
Front of House (1st pic)
Front Yard (2nd pic)
Tree Hole (3rd pic)
Makuu Park (4th pic)
Makuu Coast (5th pic)