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Previous "What's New" announcements
What's New! (April 8, 2013) Time marches on and it is already April. I don't know where the time goes. We have been catching up on some maintenance and such lately. Jonathan and his dad, Chalmers, have been working on the coffee dryer to make it easier to run. We did some orchard maintenance as well. As I mentioned last update, we replaced all of the above-ground irrigation drip lines with a newer kind. The old ones were getting beat up by UV and feral pigs and were just too worn out to keep repairing. The new lines have high-tech drip emitters that are already embedded in the line every 12 inches and include check valves are are pressure-regulating. Cool stuff. We were sad to learn that our Dosatron (the fertilizer injector we use to fertigate the orchard) has passed on. It was 13 years old and a discontinued model. It died a quiet death last Wednesday. So the new replacement Dosatron arrived this morning. We will be taking it out of the box and hooking it up, maybe this afternoon. Good thing we have a math major and two engineers here to calibrate it and determine the appropriate run times for the zones. We had another minor bloom of Kona Snow last week. Quite a few of the trees are getting heavy already with green cherry. We really need to prune our monkey pod trees that are within the orchard but I'm not sure we will get that done this year. Coffee needs lots of sun to put on fruit, but also shade is good to keep the trees from drying out. The monkey pods are beautiful large trees that provide shade but right now ours are a bit thick and low. So a pruning to raise the canopy would be good. The coffee trees under the monkey pods are very healthy but don't produce much fruit if they are in shade all day long. Happy Spring! We completed replacing all the irrigation tubing in the entire orchard last week. The old poly tubing had been in the orchard for twelve years and after sun damage, feral pigs chewing on it and just age, we were spending a lot of time on repairs. So we consulted with the NRCS (Natural Resource Conservation Service) branch of the USDA and got their recommendations. We are using a fancier product that has pre-embedded drip emitters that compensate for pressure differences. We also attached screw-on caps to the end to prevent pigs from pulling them off, but we can still easily flush the lines when necessary. Jonathan's father is visiting right now and he enjoys doing projects around the farm. The two of them are working on dismantling, cleaning and refurbishing the mill equipment. His visit is prompting us to get these things done a little earlier than usual so this year we will be ready for the harvest season in plenty of time. We have had several very large blooms this Spring so far and another small one is coming on right now. The bees are buzzing. We hired a crew this week to do some weed control also. We have switched our fertilizer formula to the recipe we use in the flowering and growth phases. So mostly we just watch the trees and berries grow.
What's New! (February 22, 2013) Time for Rest and Growth This time of year is a breather for the farmers and for the orchard. The 2012 harvest season was very busy. The weather last year was great for the coffee. The rain and sun patterns early in the year conspired to make almost all of the coffee ripen at once in October and November instead of the more normal pattern spread out over several months. That was quite challenging to get everything picked on time and processed. It made for some long work days for us and for the crews who help us. This year we have done something different than in the past. We used to combine all the coffee from the season's pickings into one big batch to take to the dry mill. This past holiday season we finished out all the of the previous year's crop early and began dry milling this year's in smaller lots. We have been taking around 1000 pounds of parchment at a time to the mill. That is enough to efficiently take advantage of the gravity table and other equipment that keeps our quality high. We have been very pleased with the comments from the miller that our green coffee is some of the highest quality coffee he has seen in Kona. Recently the coffee has been pruned and mulched. We will complete more clean up of the orchard in the next weeks. It is always a shock to see the tree rows after the pruning is complete. They seem so thin. We know that they will put on their foliage and grow new verticals in no time. We have already seen two fairly large blooms. Now is a great time to get into the orchard with all that extra space and do some upgrades to the irrigation system. We will be replacing all the surface drip lines this year. We can also take the opportunity to put out ant traps and pull some weeds. Wait. Didn't I just say it was time for rest. Guess not. :-)
Our Valentine promo code has been extended through President's Day. 14% off using the code VALENTINE2013 at checkout. Now expires Feb. 18. What's New! (February 4, 2013) 2012 Harvest is Pau Pau is a Hawaiian word meaning done or finished. We had a great season and all our harvesting is completed for this year. Our yield was slightly above average for our orchard and the trees are ready for their annual break. The pruning crew arrived this morning and will spend the next few days removing the oldest verticals on each tree in order to give the new young verticals the space and sunlight to grow strong for next year's production. This also stimulates the trunk to add shoots, called suckers, that will become the new verticals in the future. It has begun raining a bit in the last week and so the trees are a bit happier. We expect that our next warm, sunny day after this rain will trigger a big flowering that we coffee farmers call Kona Snow. And so begins the cycle of orchard life all over again. Valentine's Day Special We have a little something to keep you warm this winter as Valentine's Day approaches. A special deal for you or your valentine.
What's New! (January 8, 2013) Hau'oli Makahiki Hou! We can't believe it is 2013 already. Hope your holidays were all you had hoped. Ours was very busy which is great. We had a round of picking in December and expect to do one more small round this month. Then it will be time once again to prune the orchard. We had some minor but widespread damage to the irrigation lines recently due to feral pigs. Our farm is fenced around the perimeter, but these wild pigs are smart and wily. They found a couple places to dig under. It has been very, very dry here with little to no rain in the month of December and the pigs are looking for water. We irrigate at night and they come in and bite off the emitters and bite through the poly pipe itself. We had a little bit of rain followed by more sunny days. That triggered our first flowering of 2013 a couple days ago. It was a surprisingly large bloom and the whole orchard is abuzz with bees. We have patched it up and blocked their entry but one of our next major tasks after pruning will be replacing the surface lines of the irrigation system. We rely very heavily on the irrigation system since we use it to do our fertilizing. The system was put in over 12 years ago so it is time to upgrade the lines anyway and use better technology. Pruning, weed control, resetting traps for ants and berry borer, dismantling and cleaning the wet mill, power washing the drying deck, lots to do to finish out the 2012 harvest season. Mahalo Nui Loa We want to thank all of you for helping to make the holiday season of 2012 our best and biggest ever. We hope you and your gift recipients are enjoying our 100% Kona Coffee and sharing it with friends and family. We love to hear from you and your feedback is much appreciated. You can always email us your comments or share with us on FaceBook.
What's New! (November 23, 2012) Makahiki Farms Holiday Newsletter Nancy and I send you our best wishes for a joyous holiday season from Makahiki Farms! We hope that you will take a few moments to catch up on what is new at Makahiki Farms, and consider how our 20% Off Holiday Discount can help simplify your holiday shopping this season. Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, Cyber Monday, Here on our web-site use the coupon code KonaHoliday2012 to save 20% on all of your product purchases through the end of the year. In addition, this year we are offering FREE SHIPPING via USPS Priority Mail to US addresses for orders of $75 or more (after discounts). We have reusable grocery totes with our logo on them. Buy one of our 6 packs and get a logo tote bag for FREE. For the ultimate in simplicity we offer gift certificates that can be purchased online, and redeemed online, by phone or in-person.
Makahiki Farms is pleased to offer 100% Kona Extra Fancy Coffee (the largest and highest quality beans) at a great price as a three-pack. You save $4.50 off the regular price and you can combine that savings with your holiday coupon. A great deal that makes a great gift. Farm Update Our 2012 harvest is nearly done and the picking crew just finished a large round of harvest this week. The yields are looking to be right on target for a great year. We have already milled and graded some of this year's of parchment and we are pleased that the grades of green coffee and the quality are looking spectacular. Extra Fancy and Fancy are at our typically high percentages of the total crop.
We only roast your coffee once we receive your order. We typically roast within 24-48 hours and often ship the same-day or the next day at the latest. Guide to Roast Levels Sunshine roast is what we call our American roast; it is the lightest roast we have and has been cupped by experts (Coffee Quality Institute Q-Graders) to reveal citrus (lemon-lime) notes up front with a chocolaty finish. Medium roast is a bit darker where the beans are a solid brown color but without an oily sheen. Our most popular roast is the Medium-Dark which has just a few drops of oil on the bean; it might be called a City Roast or City Plus. Our Dark roast is not as dark as a French, more like a Full City; the beans are still brown but most have an oily sheen with the oils influencing how it tastes as well as giving it a somewhat creamy mouth-feel that lots of folks like. Mahalo and Aloha! We look forward to sharing our coffee with you this holiday season and throughout the New Year. Please take advantage of our 20% Off Holiday Discount and let us help simplify your shopping list! We hope that this holiday season is peaceful and enjoyable for you and your family and friends. Mahalo! |
Keep reading "What's New 2012" Keep reading "What's New 2011" Keep reading "What's New 2010" Keep reading "What's New 2009" Keep reading "What's New 2008" Keep reading "What's New 2007" Keep reading "What's New 2006" Keep reading "What's New 2005" Keep reading "What's New 2004" Keep reading "What's New 2003"
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In recognition of the coming of Spring and April Fool's Day, we are offering 10% off on our 100% Kona Coffee and logo merchandise. 
Sending the warmth of aloha,
Fresh-roasted 100% Kona Coffee from our single-estate farm is our passion and our pleasure to share with you and your family and friends.
