The Independent Voice
âBest Agricultural Newsletter in Hawaiiâ
Newsletter of the Kona Coffee Farmers Association
July 2020
PO Box 5436 Kailua Kona Hawaii 96745 USA
www.konacoffeefarmers.org             info@konacoffeefarmers.org
Contents:
Candidate Colehour Bondera
Buy Hawaii, Give Aloha Website
Surplus Green Coffee? Farmer Relief
Longtime KCFA Member Jim Hope Died
Worker Travel under Quarantine Conditions
Coffee Root-knot Nematode Webinair
NAFTA Expires on July 1st
Webinairs on Hawaii Coffee
SBA COVID-19 Relief Options
CDC Guidance for Ag Employers and Workers
Little Fire Ant ZOOM Presentation
TO Freeze or not to Freeze
Short Joke
Chetâs COVID Vacation
Editor – Clare Wilson
Colehour Bondera, Candidate for Hawai`i House of Representatives
KCFA made significant progress in the legislature this session. As the legislature meets again, we plan to keep up that momentum wherever and whenever we can.
At this time, we have a unique opportunity to improve our position in the Legislature. One of our own, KCFA President Colehour Bondera is a candidate for the House seat from District 5 this year to replace our friend Richard Creagan who is retiring from his seat in the House. District Five ranges through all of Kona and Ka’u – Na’alehu, Ocean View, Captain Cook and Kailua-Kona.
At our last meeting, your KCFA board voted unanimously to endorse Colehour’s candidacy. Please visit his campaign website at https://colehourbondera.com/ to learn more about him and his campaign. We’re sure that he would also be grateful for any help you can provide to his race for the seat including obtaining signs, banners and the like and/or volunteer time to help the campaign.
2020 PRIMARY ELECTION DATES
Last Day to register to vote in Primary Election: July 9, 2020
Primary Election Ballot Delivered: July 21, 2020
Last Day to Mail Ballot: August 3, 2020
Primary Election: August 8, 2020
–Submitted by Chet Gardiner, Vice President, KCFA
Buy Hawaii, Give Aloha website
Business Development and Support Division
Hawaii – Where life and aloha are part of the bottom line
Aloha,
We hope this message finds you well during these unprecedented times.
We know sales have declined. And that inventories have built up. To help Hawaii companies sell Hawaii made products, DBEDT is creating the Buy Hawaii, Give Aloha portal. At no cost to you, we will list your product on the Buy Hawaii, Give Aloha site. Please see the draft mock-up design here.
ABOUT BUY HAWAII, GIVE ALOHA
The One-Stop Site for Hawaii Products
The Buy Hawaii, Give Aloha (BHGA) website will be a portal that will facilitate shopping on your companyâs website. The BHGA portal site will only share information about your website and there will be no purchasing or transactions on the BHGA portal site.
The Buy Hawaii, Give Aloha portal site is open to all manufacturers and marketplaces of Made in Hawaii products with online shopping; however, only products that meet the requirements to be labeled Made in Hawaii set forth in §486-119, Hawaii Revised Statutes (HRS), may be posted on the BHGA portal site. Companies listing on the Buy Hawaii, Give Aloha portal site should have at least 75% of their total product offering being made in Hawaii, as per §486-119, HRS.
Your companyâs website must have the capability to take and fulfill orders online. All customer inquiries and communication will be directed to your company.
There is no cost to participate in the Buy Hawaii, Give Aloha portal site.
DBEDT will conduct a promotional campaign of the Buy Hawaii, Give Aloha portal site first targeting Hawaii consumers. Later, we will expand promotion to mainland and international consumers.
A soft launch of the BHGA website will be in early July, 2020. The official launch will follow in August, 2020.
HOW TO REGISTER
Submit one photo and a one sentence description of the featured product(s), a representative photo of your website, and attestation that the product meets the requirements in §486-119, HRS, using the online Participant Registration form.
Companies listing on the Buy Hawaii, Give Aloha portal site should have at least 75% of their total product offering being made in Hawaii, as per §486-119, HRS.
Once you submit your registration form, your listing will be reviewed and if approved, uploaded to the portal site. We will notify you via email when your listing goes live.
If you have any questions, please contact DBEDT by email at dbedt.buy@hawaii.gov.
Be sure to click here to register your business today!
Surplus Green Coffee? Farmer Relief
The Kona Coffee Farmers Association applied for and has received a $2,000 grant from the Hawai’i Department of Agriculture for COVID-19 Emergency Farmer Relief.
The grant money is intended to seed a fund that will be used to purchase green coffee from distressed member farms, roast and package that coffee as ‘KCFA member -100% Kona’ and sell it on line. The proceeds after expenses will be returned to the fund to continue the process.
At first, this fund is meant to help our most distressed members to market surplus green coffee in order to help finance the materials they will need to cultivate next season’s crop. In the long run, this fund is intended to eventually serve as a significant secondary market for many farmersâ products and serve as another member benefit for our association.
Please let us know if you have some green coffee you would like to sell and/or if you would like to volunteer to help the Association implement this effort. Email: Chet@cassandrafarms.com.
–Submitted by Chet Gardiner
Longtime KCFA Member Jim Hope has Died
Aloha to Jim Hope
In June the KCFA Membership Committee mailed a membership renewal reminder to Jim Hope of Hope Family Coffee Farms. In response we received the following from Jimâs wife, Pat:
Sadly, Jim passed away March 23. He was in an automobile accident March 15 and the impact of the air bag was too much for his 94 years, plus 6 months. He developed pneumonia and died, but he did not suffer for a long time.
He enjoyed membership in KCFA very much because the group really cared about keeping up the good name of 100% Kona.
Please give my regards to the association members and tell them we were proud to belong.
Sincerely,
Pat Hope
KCFA sends its sympathies and condolences to Pat and the Hope family. We recognize and appreciate the strong support Jim and Pat provided over the years to the protection of the name and reputation of Kona Coffee.
–Submitted by the Membership Committee
Worker Travel under Quarantine Conditions
Aloha Coffee Farmers,
I want to share Andrea’s Kawabata’s email about incoming coffee harvest labor and the essential worker exception. We all want a successful and Covid19 safe harvest season. Please follow these guidelines and set good expectations for masking, physical distancing, and sanitation during these busy months.
-Melanie -Melanie Bondera -HDOA CBB Subsidy Program
Updates from Andrea Kawabata,
Associate Extension Agent for Coffee and Orchard Crops
Volume 6-2, June 2020
Dear Growers and Friends,
The harvest season is upon us. Please stay informed about picker and labor quarantine regulations related to out-of-state travel and read through the email below.
From: DOD Covid Exemption <covidexemption@hawaii.gov>
Sent: Thursday, June 18, 2020 9:03 AM
Subject: Re: Question RE Workers and the Upcoming Coffee Harvest Season
Aloha,
Under the Governorâs June 10, 2020, Ninth Supplementary Proclamation, all travelers to Hawaii are subject to a 14-day mandatory self-quarantine except for those who are performing critical infrastructure functions in Hawaii.
Coffee farmers and farm workers are generally eligible for a partial exemption that would allow them to go to work. To apply for an exemption, please provide/supplement the following information:
Name of Each Traveler
Date(s) of Arrival
Date(s) of Departure
Place of Origin
14-day Travel History
Lodgings in Hawaii
Contact Number (for each traveler)
Describe in detail the nature of the critical infrastructure work
PDF copy of ID, credential, or document to verify purpose of travel to Hawaii
Once you send this information, your request will be reviewed. If granted, you will be allowed to break the self-quarantine to do your job. You will need to remain self-quarantined at all other times.
Mahalo
This e-mail is not an authorization, exemption, confirmation, or approval of any kind unless expressly stated above.
When performing any authorized activities, operations, or business â if any have been authorized â you must also comply with all social-distancing rules in the Ninth Supplementary Proclamation (June 10, 2020):
https://governor.hawaii.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/2006097A-ATG_Ninth-Supplementary-Proclamation-COVID-19-distribution-signed.pdf
Review County Rules:
Please know that county proclamations and orders may be more restrictive or permissive with the approval of the Governor. You should therefore also consult with county authorities about their requirements and restrictions on your activity or business:
Hawaii: https://coronavirus-response-county-of-hawaii-hawaiicountygis.hub.arcgis.com/
-Andrea
Coffee Root-knot Nematode Webinair
CTAHR is presenting a Coffee Root-knot Nematode Webinar on Tuesday, July 7, 2020 at 9:30am via Zoom. Register at https://bit.ly/37xf80c
–Submitted by John Koontz
FedEx Regulatory News
Be prepared NAFTA EXPIRES ON JULY 1st
Weâre reaching out to remind you that effective July 1, 2020, the United States, Mexico, Canada agreement begins (USMCA). NAFTA remains in place until June 30, 2020. This will be a hard transition date. Shipments that arrive in the US, Mexico, or Canada on July 1 will follow USMCA rules.
What does this mean for me?
If youâre shipping between these countries, USMCA may require new data elements. Learn what is required to make sure your shipments clear customs, receive correct duty treatment, and have the certification documents.
Where can I find out more?
Read the full article online in our Regulatory Alerts section. Also visit FedEx Regulatory NewsÂ
to get more information about the new agreement rules, new requirements to certify the origin of the goods, required Certification of Origin document options and new value thresholds.
–Submitted by Suzanne Shriner
WEBINAIRS ON HAWAII COFFEE
If you missed last week’s webinars on the Hawaii coffee industry, you can view the recordings here (https://hawaiicoffeeassoc.org/page-1771697). The HCA Webinar Series is provided as a free resource for association members and broader community. They have designed each session to provide important updates on the effects of the pandemic on the Hawaii coffee industry and on the coffee industry at large, as well as addressing other useful topics to inform our coffee professionals of changing trends and regulations. The topics include a CTAHR update on coffee research, how to get the best out of drip coffee, how coffee is scored in competitions, selling Hawaii coffee in a global market and more. Check it out.
–Submitted by Suzanne Shriner
SBA COVID-19 Relief Options
Read about the Small Business Administration COVID-19 relief options here: https://www.sba.gov/about-sba/sba-newsroom/press-releases-media-advisories/sbas-economic-injury-disaster-loans-and-advance-program-reopened-all-eligible-small-businesses-and
–Submitted by John Koontz
CDC Guidance for Ag Employers and Workers
The CDC has issued guidance on how to prevent and control COVID on farms. As farm operations vary across regions of the country, this template of action can be adapted to protect workers at your particular
work sites or in specific work operations.
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/community/guidance-agricultural-workers.html
Farmworkers are “essential”, and the state has special protocols to allow coffee workers in from the mainland. Let’s all do our best to ensure our farms are not transmission points for the virus, which could jeopardize this “essential” status. Speak with your crews and crew bosses about the CDC guidance.
–Submitted by Suzanne Shriner
Little Fire Ant ZOOM Presentation
On July 16 at 2:30, Heather Forester, Invasive Ant Extension Specialist with the Hawaii Ant Lab, will be giving an online (via ZOOM) presentation regarding LFA’s. Training will cover biology, prevention and detection, pesticide safety, and best management practices to treat for Little Fire Ants. The best way to lose your pickers is to have LFA’s in your trees….. More information to follow.
–Submitted by John Koontz
Flavor & to Freeze or not to FreezeâŠ
From July 2017 âThe Independent Voiceâ submitted by- Board Member Bob Kraus
We have had so many people tell us that roasted coffee beans should not be stored in the freezer. The web is full of similar recommendations. Based on the science of coffee roasting and taste, this appears to be misinformation.
If the only thing youâre interested in is whether to store roasted coffee in the freezer, Iâll cut to the chase here: You should freeze roasted coffee beans that you donât intend to use in the first few days after roasting. Store roasted coffee beans in air-tight (which also means moisture-tight) low permeability containers (glass mason jars are excellent). Why? Well, thatâs the point of this article.
In Part 1, we scratched the surface of coffee roasting chemistry. Now weâll talk briefly about the concept of flavor and ask how to preserve flavor.
Ultimately, it is our individual palates that determine whether we like the results of the roasting process. Presumably, youâll judge the result on the basis of the flavor of the coffee beverage of your choice. Weâll leave the tempting discussion about how the flavor is transferred to that beverage for another time. But letâs consider for a moment the perception of flavor. If you thought the chemistry of coffee roasting was complicated, just dig into the chemistry, biophysics, and brain science of flavor. The key point here is that the sensations produced by our taste buds and the aromas sensed by our olfactory receptors are inextricably connected to what we call flavor. If the olfactory component of food (think of curry or wine or coffee) is dulled or removed, the perceived flavor is entirely altered. And the last point to make here (oversimplified though it may be) is that the vast majority of compounds that we smell are volatile, that is, they are carried to our olfactory receptors in the air.
Therefore, to maintain the flavor of freshly roasted coffee, it is crucial that both taste and aroma components are protected. We need to carefully protect the volatile components that will evaporate out of the roasted beans, especially those we plan to use at some future date and we need to prevent unwanted chemical reactions (e.g. oxidation) from degrading flavor.
If youâre interested in digging into the sensation of âflavorâ a bit more, here are a couple of fun sites to whet your appetite:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH0072592
Now let us consider the question: how to best maintain the flavor of fresh-roasted coffee? The answer(s) are:
Drink the coffee as soon after roasting as possible. One caveat is that some people believe that roasted coffee beans should be allowed to ârestâ for a few hours because the most volatile compounds are not desirable flavor components and should be allowed to escape. Your call on that one.
Transfer the roasted coffee beans to air & moisture tight containers as soon as possible to prevent volatile compounds from escaping and moisture from being absorbed. This applies to coffee youâll use both sooner and later.
Any roasted coffee beans you donât intend to use in a few days should be stored (inside air tight containers) in a freezer to slow evaporation of volatile compounds and chemical degradation (oxidation). The rate of chemical reactions and evaporation of volatiles strongly depend on temperature and the colder you keep your roasted coffee beans the more you slow these processes. Thus a refrigerator is good and a freezer is better. Air tight containers also prevent the roasted coffee beans from absorbing flavors that may be floating around your freezer (remember, volatility decreases with temperature but is not eliminated).
When you remove the coffee from the freezer, only take out what you need, reseal the container and return it to the freezer. NOTE: Our burr grinder handles frozen coffee beans for 1 pot of coffee without problem and when ground immediately we notice no appreciable condensation on the beans or in the grinder. When grinding larger quantities of beans, it may be advisable to allow the beans to reach room temperature before grinding (inside a sealed container to prevent condensation on the beans).
âby Bob Kraus (Chemistry Ph.D.)
Short Joke
A man went to his psychiatrist and complained that every time he drinks coffee, he would get a stabbing pain in his right eye.
The psychiatrist said, âWell, have you tried taking the spoon out?â
–Submitted by John Koontz
Chetâs COVID Vacation
Your Vice President and long-time professional musician, Chet Gardiner has filled many of the long hours of Covid enforced isolation by finally spending time in his studio working on songs that he’s been wanting to record for years.
The project is ongoing but as a special treat for our membershipâs entertainment please enjoy these completed and mostly completed candidates for my next solo release.
http://chetgardiner.com/Chet2020.html
My good friend and frequent playing partner Solomon Choo provided the excellent harmonica bits and a couple of lead guitar tracks. The rest can all be blamed on me.
Any positive (or creative, constructive) feedback is welcome at chet@cassandrafarms.com
Please enjoy!
–Submitted by Chet Gardiner
Recipes Wanted! If any of you have coffee recipes that you would like to share, please submit them to the editor: clare@huahuafarm.com
LET US KNOW WHAT YOU THINK! >> Write to us. We welcome Letters to the Editor up to 150 words. We reserve the right to edit for clarity and length. Include your name and email address >> Email: info@KonaCoffeeFarmers.org with SUBJECT: Commentary.
