Day 9 Volunteer Sign Ups, The Southernmost Point of the US, and Coffee Divine

Today was another early mover, but not as early as tomorrow, more on that later.  But before we left, we christened our fearless head of household with a Hawaiian moniker befitting his condition.  I mentioned yesterday that Paul got some sun, well that's an understatement.  We decided that his Hawaiian name should be Chief He'a'oweeowee'o (which translates to Red Lobster). 

Chief He'a'oweeowee'o
(more affectionately, Chief Red Lobster)

Now we were ready to get down to town.  We needed to pick our volunteer t-shirts and check-in and confirm our assignment.  We are going to hand out medals at the finish line tomorrow from 6-9:30pm.  That should be really exciting and hopefully, based on Paul's friend Curtis' estimates, we may be there when he crosses the finish line.  After taking care of business, we milled about the expo a little bit and saw Ben Collins (a pro) and Tyler Butterfield (a 2012 Olympic triathlete), who were nice enough to give autographs and talk to the kids about triathlon and Tyler talked to us about his race in London.  We headed out of town after stopping for a quick lunch. 

Next stop was the Holualoa Kona Coffee Company.  It is south of Kona off of Hwy 180 up in coffee country.  The hwy is a narrow, curvy, two-lane road that leads up into the highlands.  The area really does remind you of Costa Rica or parts of Guatemala.  Coffee trees, exotic tropical flowers, banana trees, abound along the road as well as historic buildings in little one stop towns.  

  After passing it by the first time, signs are homemade and rustic in this area, and there is so much to see by way of scenery, that the one lane drive was easy to miss.  After making a second pass, we found it and drove up the driveway, past modest little homesteads, until we ended in the parking lot.  The air was thick with rich, roasting coffee smells and using our sharp powers of deduction, we knew we were in the right place. We were greeted in the parking lot by a woman, who was one of three people we saw working today.  This is a small enterprise, so the tour was self-guided and very up close and personal.  The structures we toured where rustic and primitive.  It was truly a small family farm, like the many types of businesses that built America, so long ago.  She gave us a laminated brochure that provided information on the process of the operation. But before sending us on our way, she gave us a few facts.  This company has an 16 acre orchard of coffee trees, with 800 trees per acre.  Each tree provides about a pound of coffee a year with the farm yielding about 12,000 lbs. a year.  The beans grow in long clusters along the branch and they ripen at different times, requiring pickers to to go over the trees several times a growing season.  The growing season is from August to January, then the trees are stripped of all unpicked fruit and they sit dormant for a month until the rainy season and then the cycle starts again.  Unbeknownst to me, the coffee tree is in the Gardenia family. The life cycle of a bean, begins with a very fragrant lacy flower, known as "kona snow",  which appears and lasts about 3 days, then the flower falls off and the bean is left. The bean is green, then eventually turns bright cherry red. The bean is then ready to be hand picked, and now all the signs we have seen that say things like "top $$$$ for cherry, or "cherry pickers wanted, top pay", makes sense. 

Ripe coffee beans

On our way to tour the rustic structures that house all of the machinery, we noticed a gaggle of large, surly geese. Maybe they were surly because I can only imagine the pay is chicken feed (I couldn't resist). Apparently, they keep the weeds at bay and provide homemade, organic fertilizer, if you know what I mean. 

Geese Brigade

Once the red bean is harvested it is taken to the pulping shed and weighed (pickers are paid by the pound) and put in the pulper.  This machine removes the red fruit, which is used for compost, and the bean (now called parchment) is soaked in a fermentation tank overnight.  It is then piped over a shaker to remove excess water and then put in carts carried to the drying shed, where it is spread out on the drying deck.  It must be raked frequently to ensure drying, otherwise it will mildew. This takes about a week and if weather does not cooperate, they put the parchment in a gas dryer that tumbles the beans.  After the drying process, the beans are funneled into burlap sacks and stored or taken to milling.  At the mill, the beans go through a 3 step process:  the parchment husk is removed, then the bean is taken through a grader, where the beans are separated by size and shape over several shaking screens, and finally, they go through a final cleaning which removes lighter and lower quality beans.  The larger beans are the top grade and lower grades cannot be labeled Kona Coffee.  These people are very serious about their brand.  There is a premium grade of Kona Coffee, called Peaberry and that only makes up about 5% of a farmer's coffee production.  As you can imagine, it's quite pricey.  Once the coffee is ready for roasting, there are two options:  drum roasting, the more traditional method, which looks like a commercial popcorn popper.  The beans sit in a round container while a spindle rotates, turning and roasting for about 20 minutes til they are done.  The other method is hot air roasting, where the beans are placed in an oven type contraption with a flue, so the smoke is released making a smoother, less bitter, flavor.  This process takes about 8-10 minutes.  The final step is packaging.  One pound of Kona Coffee goes for about $35!  This stuff is liquid Gold.   We picked up some souvenirs, and made our way on to our next destination.



Drying beans

Pulping Shed

 



 

 

Bean grader

Bean dryer

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hawaiian Garden Spider, Operation Manager :)

 

Coffee sacks

 

 

 

 

 

 

Beans ready for the mill

Drum Roaster

 

 

Air Dry Roaster

 

Bagging it up for market

 

Driving south on Hwy 180 until we picked up Hwy 11 again, we headed to South Point, the southern most point in the US.  It is even more south than the Florida Keys.  This hwy was narrow and curvy as well,  and it led us through lush tropical forests, which gave way to lava fields, remnants from long ago flows.  These flows cut swaths through the countryside down to the ocean.  The older flows have begun to be reclaimed by nature, overcome with vegetation.  The newer flows, show signs of life beginning with a lone tree here or there along the hillside.  After driving about 40 miles we found the road called South Point Rd, which surprisingly led us south.  We had just traveled through lush coffee country, lava flows, and then we found ourselves in beautiful rolling horse and cattle farm country.  It was stunning and I really could see myself living there!  Lava rock walls and primitive rusted, barbed wire fences lined the one in a half laned road.  Horses and cattle dotted the countryside, lazily grazing in the fields of this picturesque landscape. 

To the south was the immense, blue sea, to the north was the towering Mauna Loa.  It is a very windy area and the trees are all bent over, like an old man with osteoporosis, leaning toward the west.  There was also was a wind farm to the west on the large bluff that jutted out into the ocean.  We made our way down to an area that is thought to be where the first Polynesian settlers landed.  This area was also, at one time, a small boat launch and the rustic wooden hoists still cling to the edge of a 35 foot cliff.


 

Ahoy from the hoists  

 
 There were also a couple metal ladders that people use to climb back up, because well, it is a cliff diving destination, from what we saw today. I could see the allure, as I peered over the edge, the water was an inviting cool, translucent, turquoise blue. Just north of the edge, was also a giant open cavern in the lava field leading down under the cliff and opened to the sea. The opening up top, was about 10-20 feet wide and a few brave, or "medicinally inspired" souls (judging by their appearance, and the aroma wafting from their open vehicles) jumped down into the hole, letting the tide pull them out into the sea. 

Look out below!

View down about 25 ft to ocean

Yeah, looks like a good place to jump

Several fisherman were also hanging out along the cliff side, set up with tents and poles, their lines out in the open sea.  They had tied trash bags to their line, which acted like a kite, and pulled their casted line out into the deep water where tuna, mahimahi, and marlins frequent.  After taking a ton of pictures while listening to the kids cajoling each other to take the plunge (none did, much to my relief), we decided to see if we could find the green sand beach which was not far down the road.  The road to the beach is rutted and rough and only accessible with a 4WD.  Since we were driving a rental minivan, we would have to hoof it.  We found a makeshift parking lot and as we were heading to the trail, there were several 4WD's parked with locals hanging out.  They offered to drive us for a small fee.  Apparently, the trek is at least 45 minutes by foot and they were willing to cut us a deal and charge us only $10/person instead of the going  rate $15 a person.  As nice as they seemed, we weren't quite ready to fork over the cash, and they all looked and smelled like they had been partaking of the same wacky tobacky as the cavern jumpers.  So we gazed down to the sea, took in the moment, talked to a couple who had just returned and looked at their pictures of the green sand, and then got back in the car and made our way home.

Once arriving in Kona, we decided to grab a quick supper at McDonald's.  It turned out to be just the thing that satisfied August's cravings....Game 5 of the NLDS, Cardinals vs. Capitols was playing on tv and his beloved McChicken. We were able to catch the ninth inning and saw the Cards clinch a spot in the upcoming Championship series....maybe the they will make it to the World Series again.

Tomorrow is the long-awaited Ironman World Championship race.  We will be up at 4:30 and out the door until after midnight to see the final racers cross the finish line.  It should be an awesome day!