Today I planted another plantain, but on the Kona side at Ken Love’s tropical fruit orchard. This is the first time I planted something off our farm this year. It was definitely a new experience creating a hole in the ground by pulling out rocks. It reminded me how spoiled we are on the Hilo side. On the Kona side there is not much soil to work with and it is a precious resource! About a foot in I started to find some soil accumulating between the rocks. I planted the plantain with three 5 gallon buckets of soil mix. Since it is much hotter and drier in Kona I made sure to give the plantain a lot of leaf mulch at the base. Wow, what an honor though, to plant something at Ken Love’s!
I’ve been having a lot of fun at Ken’s farm and nursery this year. I learned so much from the tropical fruit master himself and from other Hawaii tropical fruit growers, master food preservers and volunteers. It’s too bad we are on the other side of the island I would be hanging out there more often! A big mahalo to Diane who attended my chocolate workshop a while back, she picked up a bunch of chocolate bars! She is a fan of the 70% dark chocolate made with coconut sugar.
Originally posted on 2021-12-18, part of the daily planting journal behind Ha’a Chocolate’s food forest on Hawai’i Island.