Is small farming profitable?

[David D]

Hey Hotzcatz,

Here is a site with alot of info: http://www.hawaiifruit.net/

Good Luck!
David D

[Hotzcatz]

Our farm plan was approved yesterday so we will actually have a farm! Yay!

The final farm plan is a symbiotic citrus tree/bee situation. I'm suspecting there will be more profit from honey and sooner than from the lemons, but we will see. So now I get to go beat up on guinea grass, plant wind break, set out some citrus trees and go trap some bee swarms.

There is still a bit of paperwork to do and we have to get a key to the gate, but the dig in the dirt part of farming may start as early as next week!

Anyone have any spare bees?

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"I like yard sales," he said. "All true survivalists like yard sales."
Kurt Wilson

[hpp4me]

Congratulations! You're doing what I hope to do in retirement.

This has been a fascinating thread. I have learned so much from all of your posts. That 12-crop value added document is a gem.

I wonder, has anyone had success with cacao in lower HPP, down by the ocean? We are at about 70 feet elevation.

[Hotzcatz]

There are a few cacao trees growing in a sheltered location at about that elevation along the coast. I suspect it is the specific location as much as the elevation.

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"I like yard sales," he said. "All true survivalists like yard sales."
Kurt Wilson

[asly]

I love infused honey, we do a lavender infused honey and can fetch a pretty good price for it. Do you have bee keeping equip already?

And then, I dreamt of Hawaii... http://crazypineappledream.blogspot.com/

[Hotzcatz]

How does one infuse honey? Just soak the lavender in the honey and then strain it out? That would be an interesting thing to try. I'm kind of planning to make comb honey, but there's always liquid honey around the comb so it would be an interesting combination of lavender honey and non-lavender honey when the comb was cut.

I've got a bit of beekeeping equipment. Two smokers, a custom bee suit (sounds fancier than "home made" don'tcha think?), a hive tool and several traditional Langstroth type hives. Those consist of two brood boxes, two medium supers and four shallow supers. I don't have any extracting equipment so the traditional hives are a bit hard to deal with.

I'm looking into going into top bar hives since those seem a lot easier to work on a low tech level. There's all sorts of oddball lumber around here, I should be able to figure out how to build a top bar hive or two out of what's on hand. The top bar hives are also supposed to be healthier for the bees since they can make the size of comb they want instead of being constrained by the size of the foundation provided in the frames. Apparently smaller bees, which is what they become when they make their own comb from what I've read, have less problems with the varroa mite. Also taking the bottom out of the hive lets any mites cleaned off the bees fall to the ground, so these will be bottomless top bar hives, I think. We will see how they end up. My plan (we will see if it works) is to make a few top bar hives and then put a swarm lure inside and see if bees appear. I've also ordered a swarm trap for another method of bee acquisition.

We are still working on the paperwork on the farm. It may have expanded to one and three quarters of an acre so now there will be more room for experimentation.

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"I like yard sales," he said. "All true survivalists like yard sales."
Kurt Wilson

[asly]

When we infuse our honey we heat it ever so slightly, add the lavender buds, let it cool and steep, then reheat ever so slightly again, and then strain out the lavender. You can do this with any herb or edible flower, I've used lemon balm before and rose geranium too. You don't want to heat the honey up too much however as it destroys the good stuff honey is all about and can give the herbs an off taste as well. So, we heat just enough to make it runny and pretty warm, enough to steep it.

I tried to keep bees for a while at our WA farm, but now we spend the better part of the year in MT and it's a lot of effort here with the cold weather. So, we purchase our honey here from local apiaries.

We also process and package in a rented commerical kitchen. Luckily the local bee guy her in MT has his own commercial kitchen as he's already packaging his honey for commerical.

Lavender grown on Maui is so floral and fragrant, as I'm sure it is on the BI. I bet it would be a yummy treat should you decide to do that.

And then, I dreamt of Hawaii... http://crazypineappledream.blogspot.com/

[Hotzcatz]

I think once we get the land prepared enough for planting things I'll try lavender again. So far I've managed to kill it every time I try to grow it. I would think it would do well here since rosemary (which looks like a very similar plant) will grow into a small tree here.

The paperwork part of the farm is finally done. Now we just need physical access to the farm. There is a locked gate we are getting a key for, then we can go actually start some real farming! Yay! Actually, though, at an acre and three quarters, I think it is more like an overlarge garden.

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"I like yard sales," he said. "All true survivalists like yard sales."
Kurt Wilson

[Devany]

Talk to Tom Sharkey. Either go by his coffee shop (Hilo Sharks) or see him at the Wed. Faremer's Market. He has a plantation and knows a lot about where Cacao growing. He has a class every few months where you learn how to grow, harvest, crack, ferment, dry, roast, & make chocolate. I took it last month and it was awesome. I am growing cacao at 75' directly on the ocean.

quote:

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Originally posted by hpp4me

Congratulations! You're doing what I hope to do in retirement.

This has been a fascinating thread. I have learned so much from all of your posts. That 12-crop value added document is a gem.

I wonder, has anyone had success with cacao in lower HPP, down by the ocean? We are at about 70 feet elevation.

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Aloha au i Hawai`i,
devany

www.myhawaiianhome.blogspot.com
www.eastbaypotters.blogspot.com

[Devany]

Asly, that sounds so cool! Bring some of it when you come... I will trade you for a piece of ceramic art.

By the way, our magazine, Edible Hawaiian Islands had a great article on the Maui Lavender company last issue. I can scan it and e-mail it to you. It was not one of the articles chosen for the online edition of the magazine.

quote:

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Originally posted by asly

When we infuse our honey we heat it ever so slightly, add the lavender buds, let it cool and steep, then reheat ever so slightly again, and then strain out the lavender. You can do this with any herb or edible flower, I've used lemon balm before and rose geranium too. You don't want to heat the honey up too much however as it destroys the good stuff honey is all about and can give the herbs an off taste as well. So, we heat just enough to make it runny and pretty warm, enough to steep it.

I tried to keep bees for a while at our WA farm, but now we spend the better part of the year in MT and it's a lot of effort here with the cold weather. So, we purchase our honey here from local apiaries.

We also process and package in a rented commerical kitchen. Luckily the local bee guy her in MT has his own commercial kitchen as he's already packaging his honey for commerical.

Lavender grown on Maui is so floral and fragrant, as I'm sure it is on the BI. I bet it would be a yummy treat should you decide to do that.

And then, I dreamt of Hawaii... http://crazypineappledream.blogspot.com/

---

Aloha au i Hawai`i,
devany

www.myhawaiianhome.blogspot.com
www.eastbaypotters.blogspot.com