Ryan Pointer

Tropical Flowers Express, located in upcountry Kauai, functions as a cultivator and distributor of a variety of tropical flowers and foliage, with owners John and Theresa Gordines steering its operations for “a little over 25 years.” Rooted in the notably damp terrain of an island known for its significant precipitation and robust vegetation, the farm maintains a posture of providing floral products that traverse local florists and national borders alike.

The Gordines, through their quarter-century in the industry, have crafted a path wherein their offerings — such as “vibrant Heliconias” and “red ginger” — are not just indigenous or habitual inclusions in local florists’ ensembles, but are also components of gift boxes shipped “all over the continent in the United States.” The couple affirms their farm’s operational scope, specifying, “We sell to our local florists. We ship tropical flower gift boxes all over the continent in the United States, and we do two farmers markets.”

Visitors to their farm would encounter fields dedicated to specific florals, such as a significant expanse “down here below” that is committed to the cultivation of red ginger, which is underscored by John as “one of our most popular flowers” due to its year-round blooming quality. Additionally, their portfolio includes a flower dual-named as “a French kiss” and “a red Indian head,” distinguished not merely by its visual appeal but by the edibility of “the true flower of this plant.”

Diverging from common tropical flora, the farm also hosts Protea plants, the cultivation of which is described as “very unique to Kauai” given the scarcity of growers on the island. This deviation signals an intent to present a diversity in their floral offerings, addressing a wider swath of preferences and applications, particularly in an industry that John and Theresa hint is woven tightly into the socio-economic and cultural fabric of the locale, with the assertion that “the floral industry brings in the second most amount of revenue in the state of Hawaii.”

The farm appears to embrace the philosophies and practices of both heritage and commerce, employing traditional symbology with offerings like tea leaves, recognized as “a symbol of good luck and offering here in Hawaii,” while also ensuring that their products, even when shipped across the continental United States, reach their destination “in two business days, even to the east coast of the United States.” This balancing act persists as a thread through their narrative, encapsulating both an adherence to cultural norms and an acknowledgment of the requisites of modern business operations.

Intriguingly, while Tropical Flowers Express delivers across the U.S., the experience it curates is deeply rooted in its physical locale. This duality of both serving and representing the particularities of its geographically isolated and ecologically distinct origin presents a narrative that’s not merely about flora but the transferal of a specific, place-bound essence to varied locales nationwide.

Theresa and John Gordines, through their hands-on involvement in the cultivation, curating, and distribution processes, underscore a narrative where the vibrant and disparate blooms of their farm serve as conduits — both tangible and symbolic — of Kauai’s lush, tropical environment to doors across the continent. Their story unobtrusively weaves through the threads of commerce, tradition, and ecology, providing a glimpse into an enterprise that’s as much about perpetuating and sharing the tangible attributes of their locale as it is about navigating the pathways of a modern floral business.

Tropical Flowers Express Website | Facebook | Instagram

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.

Kaua‘i Sugarloaf Pineapple Facebook | Instagram

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.

Moloa‘a Bay Coffee Website | Facebook | Instagram