Robin Bonaccorsi

Positioned between Anahola and Kilauea on Kauai, Hole in the Mountain Farm has established its reputation primarily through the cultivation of the Kauai Sugarloaf Pineapple, a variety distinguished by its “white, creamy, soft, sweet flesh inside,” and notably “low acid” content, as described by owner Jude Huber. Originating in the fields of Lanai in the early 1900s, this particular pineapple is cultivated exclusively at this farm.

The farm’s genesis of growing the Kauai Sugarloaf Pineapple began with a mere eight cores of plants, from which emerged a process that Jude elucidates takes between 18 and 24 months for a pineapple plant to transition from top to mature fruit, despite external influences or efforts. Subsequently, each plant propels its own proliferation through the production of “a slip and a sucker,” which are propagation materials, thereby augmenting the initial eight plants to 32, and then progressively expanding further. Over approximately the last 15 years, the farm has seen an escalation from its initial plantation to nurturing about 500,000 plants in its soil.

Harvesting at Hole in the Mountain Farm is a practice nuanced with meticulous care and an intimate familiarity with each pineapple. In a markedly labor-intensive approach, differing from the practices of most commercial companies, Jude articulates how they “walk our fields every two days and harvest what I know to be perfectly right,” rather than adhering to the more common practice wherein a field is stripped once “20% of them [the pineapples]” are deemed sufficiently ripe. The pineapples are not merely crops to Jude, but she regards them tenderly as “my children.” Jude’s attachment and meticulous care for each plant might stem from her perspective that “the core is actually where all the beneficial nutrients are concentrated in any pineapple.”

Visitors to the farm are not mere spectators to the cultivation process but are also invited into a tangible and tasteful experience of the pineapples themselves. Upon trying, Lyndsey Haraguchi-Nakayama, host of the video segment filmed at the farm, validated Jude’s earlier description of the pineapple’s core being so tender and seamless with the rest of the fruit that “you couldn’t even tell” when you were eating it. Furthermore, visitors are not restricted to experiencing the farm’s produce solely within its boundaries, as Jude and her team also provide a service through which they can ship the pineapples, leveraging the fact that “pineapple is actually a flower,” to facilitate a reportedly “very inexpensive shipping rate.”

Despite an expression of aloha spirit and a gratefulness voiced by Jude, who thanked viewers and visitors for “supporting our dreams,” the farm represents more than a mere agricultural venture. It embodies a generation of evolving agricultural practices, a meticulous and childlike caring approach to cultivation, and a commitment to maintaining the purity and legacy of the Kauai Sugarloaf Pineapple.

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In the lush landscape of Kaua‘i, Hawaii, Moloa’a Bay Coffee, established in 1998 by John, Daphne, and Amber McClure, functions on a 15-acre plot, home to approximately 4,000 arabica coffee trees and an array of fruit trees. This family-run operation not only propounds a source of coffee but also adheres to a meticulous approach to production, encompassing hand-picking, on-site drying, roasting, and packaging in their Kapa’a facility. The plot, historically utilized for sugar/pineapple plantations and papaya farms, currently cultivates a blend of cacao and coffee, becoming particularly notable for its expansive product range which has come to include various cacao and chocolate products since the introduction of cacao trees in 2005.

The business operation and its multifaceted agricultural process, as elucidated by John McClure in a video interaction, stem from a foundational learning and development in both coffee and cacao production: “When we started, there was no one doing coffee in a big-time except Kauai Coffee, so we ended up having to do everything as an estate, which meant we had to learn from the ground up – first how to grow the coffee, how to process it, and roast it and package it. Then we started to branch out into cacao. It was the same thing; we had to learn from the very beginning how to do the whole process.” The synthesis of these two elements is not merely commercial but also procedural, as some processing methodologies utilized for coffee found applications in cacao production. Moreover, the farm employs a “custom coffee and cacao roaster.”

A secondary yet significant facet of the cacao production pertains to its health implications. Amber highlights the nutritional merits, particularly within their 70% dark chocolate: “Antioxidants – you read a lot about dark chocolate being good for you, and it’s actually true.” This chocolate variant is crafted purely from their cacao nibs and sugar, offering consumers an antioxidant-rich option. An alternative 60% chocolate integrates self-made cocoa butter and sugar, described as “very high-quality pure chocolate” with a notably rich profile. This punctilious approach to creating chocolate and coffee products typifies Moloa’a Bay Coffee’s dedication to providing quality, which seems to navigate beyond mere production, serving as an amalgamation of carefully honed practices and a robust understanding of agricultural procedures.

From harvesting and fermentation to meticulous crafting processes, Moloa’a Bay Coffee encapsulates a confluence of learned agricultural practices, nutritional mindfulness, and a methodical journey from raw materials to final products. This embodiment of dedication to quality and procedural meticulousness underscores the business’s integrity and the McClure family’s adherence to providing products that are not just consumable but embed a piece of the agricultural and familial ethos intrinsic to Moloa’a Bay Coffee.

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