A Visit to my Cousin’s Coffee Farm

By Sandy Hu

I come from a line of Kona coffee farmers on my mother’s side of the family. My grandpa and grandma Honda had a small coffee farm, as did many of my aunts and uncles. Today, my cousin Randall in Holualoa, Hawaii, is the only one carrying on the tradition.

Instead of a recipe demo for Video Friday, we’re visiting Randall’s farm and picking some coffee! To learn more about Kona coffee, read The Hawai‘i Coffee Book, A Gourmet’s Guide from Kona to Kaua‘i by Shawn Steiman, c. 2008, published by Watermark Publishing. And, if you ever visit the Big Island of Hawaii, enter the world of the immigrant coffee farmer with a trip to The Kona Coffee Living History Farm that vividly and authentically recreates the experience.

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Simply Delicious Macadamia Nut Cookies

By Sandy Hu

Growing up in Hawaii, we had a macadamia nut tree in our front yard. We’d wait for the nuts to fall, then remove the outer husk and get a hammer to crack the rock-hard inner shell. It took a lot of patience to line up one nut at a time, and to keep the nut in place long enough to connect with the brunt of the hammer. A traditional nutcracker was useless against the mighty macadamia.

My ever-resourceful mother figured out a more efficient method. She would corral the nuts in one layer in the base of a shallow candy box, put a piece of cardboard on top to hold the nuts in place, then whack away with a hammer indiscriminately. Eventually, all the nuts would yield their buttery meat.

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Gone Fishing

By Sandy Hu

Steve and I were considering a vacation to the Far East or Europe using airline miles later this fall. But in the end, we decided I needed a vacation now. I have been working nights and weekends for too many months.

As I thought about it, I realized that where I really wanted to spend my downtime was not on some foreign adventure, but in Hilo, on the Big Island of Hawaii, where I am from. Normally, I thrive on big-city vacations to cities like Paris, with its multitude of art museums, great restaurants and fabulous shopping.

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