11-10-2007, 09:35 PM
Lower levels rock. About ten years ago, a friend of mine bought 10 acres in Ophikao and asked if I'd come down to see what could be done with the place agriculturally.
"Shua," says I ... and off I went. This was a veritable sea of cane grass with a small but comfortable house set in the center. The grass, which was up to twelve feet tall ruled. We didn't have any conception as to how to approach the issue and I had to let it go because I simply didn't have the experience in tropical gardening to deal with it, since it was a completely different environment from what I'd been working with. Time flew by ... and about two years later I drove down to the spot to find that my friend had had five of the acres bulldozed. I couldn't believe it. Never in my life had I seen such a spot, and such potential. Anyway, the D-9, as an aftermath of the bulldozing, had left three hudge berms of soil and rock, and for the most part the cane grass had been pushed underneath in the process.
"Can I grow some stuff in those berms?"
"Kay," he said,
"What you want grow bra?"
"Don know," I replyed,
"But eyes going fine something bra."
Fast fwd. two months. The berms were raked out and made ready for planting and it had rained and the weather was perfect. Two trays of Large-leaf basil, about ten Chinese taro hulies and several buttercup squash went in the ground that day. I don't know what it is about Ophikao at three hundred feet but I think I'll probably never see such a miracle again. The basil plants grew to six feet with six to seven foot diameters and the stalks at ground level were as big as my arms, and we had so much basil we couldn't give it away. Basil bread, basil chicken, basil soup with jungle pork, frozen basil ... basil ... basil ... basil! And of course the taro, and no one, to this day, believes me when I tell them how large those bulbs measured ... so I'm not going to say ... but they were big! And the squash went crazy and had to be contained since it kept trying to cover the road. It was totally crazy and I enjoyed being a part of that experiment so much.
There's something special here, everyone feels it, everyone knows it and sees it manifested in their own special way. >Later on I'll be talking about the Nalo, since it seems we have our very own nocturnal flightless bird which hides away within the recesses of the lava tubes in the Wa Keli 'o' Puna ... and all the more reason for this area to become federally protected for generations which will come later.
~Aloha, JayJay
JayJay
"Shua," says I ... and off I went. This was a veritable sea of cane grass with a small but comfortable house set in the center. The grass, which was up to twelve feet tall ruled. We didn't have any conception as to how to approach the issue and I had to let it go because I simply didn't have the experience in tropical gardening to deal with it, since it was a completely different environment from what I'd been working with. Time flew by ... and about two years later I drove down to the spot to find that my friend had had five of the acres bulldozed. I couldn't believe it. Never in my life had I seen such a spot, and such potential. Anyway, the D-9, as an aftermath of the bulldozing, had left three hudge berms of soil and rock, and for the most part the cane grass had been pushed underneath in the process.
"Can I grow some stuff in those berms?"
"Kay," he said,
"What you want grow bra?"
"Don know," I replyed,
"But eyes going fine something bra."
Fast fwd. two months. The berms were raked out and made ready for planting and it had rained and the weather was perfect. Two trays of Large-leaf basil, about ten Chinese taro hulies and several buttercup squash went in the ground that day. I don't know what it is about Ophikao at three hundred feet but I think I'll probably never see such a miracle again. The basil plants grew to six feet with six to seven foot diameters and the stalks at ground level were as big as my arms, and we had so much basil we couldn't give it away. Basil bread, basil chicken, basil soup with jungle pork, frozen basil ... basil ... basil ... basil! And of course the taro, and no one, to this day, believes me when I tell them how large those bulbs measured ... so I'm not going to say ... but they were big! And the squash went crazy and had to be contained since it kept trying to cover the road. It was totally crazy and I enjoyed being a part of that experiment so much.
There's something special here, everyone feels it, everyone knows it and sees it manifested in their own special way. >Later on I'll be talking about the Nalo, since it seems we have our very own nocturnal flightless bird which hides away within the recesses of the lava tubes in the Wa Keli 'o' Puna ... and all the more reason for this area to become federally protected for generations which will come later.
~Aloha, JayJay
JayJay
JayJay