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Published: March 8th 2006
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Long Ears Coffee
There you have it. It was a beautiful morning, 78 degrees and virtually cloudless. We met the Scott's friend, Penny, at a nearby restaurant and headed to "Long Ears" together, a renowned coffee plantation owned by Wendell Branco, in the Honoka'a congregation. About ten years ago, he retired from the Waimea fire department and took up the hobby of growing coffee per a friend's suggestion. He's known for his aged coffee, a noticeably popular choice discovered quite by accident - he stored more coffee than he was selling at the time, and after trying the aged coffee quite some time later, he decided its unique, low-acid flavor would take off. His judgements were correct; his famous aged coffee is now in high demand and is served by the elite restaurants of the islands. His coffee plants surround his humble abode - his 80 year old mother-in-law sits under the overhang (oxymoron?) separating the split beans from the whole beans and again from the beans that need more time to ripen. On a side note, the Scott's told me awhile ago about a sister in their congregation with alzheimer's... Kathy was holding Thomas while he was sleeping and the sister told her she could put him
Coffee sack
Me and my bag fascination... down if she wanted, and kathy said she'd just hold him until he woke up... so of course, a minute later, she asks again if she wants to put him down, and again and again. Kathy thought maybe she was just really concerned about him being held or something, lol, but they noticed a pattern. So anyway they neglected to tell me
who it was... So i walk in and meet her, Bettiemae Johansen is her name. "I live in Maui", she told me. I thought it was odd that she lived in Maui and decided to seperate coffee beans for fun on her vacation to this island. "Where are you from?" I told her North Carolina, and i went into this whole long deal about how it was cold when i left and how i'm glad it's warm here and so on and so forth. She told me to grab a chair. I sat down... "So where are you from?" Oddly enough i didn't connect anything yet - i was like alright, she's obviously distracted, clearly she
forgot where i was from. So i told her again. When she asked a third time, i looked over at Penny, who
Bettimae
Diligently seperating beans. "Where u from?" was smiling ear to ear and quickly changed the subject. Then it finally dawned on me that this was the sister they were talking about all along... So the fourth time she asked, i told her i was from Sweden. No i'm kidding, that would be horrible... but she is the sweetest lady there ever could be and i really enjoyed meeting her. Brother Branco's company is named "Long Ears" after his prized mules. Don't ask me exactly where they fit in, but i'm convinced they do
something with the coffee. They drink it, for all i know, but definitely
something. It was very cool to see where coffee came from and the process it goes through to end up as how we know it. After that, we stopped by a local honey farm where the only white honey in the world is harvested. Apparently it's harvested before the honey crystallizes on the comb and without heat or something... the flavor is entirely different. They had about seven different flavors of the white honey... i liked the passion fruit kind and the ginger kind... very unique. Yes, i could probably go on and on about honey, but i'll spare you
Wendell Branco
The guy who started it all... all. The meeting was interesting. Kathy gave an excellent talk... her householder was a little late because cows were crossing the road and she had to determine if they were her cows or her neighbor's cows. haha, only in Waimea does this happen... Then i thought this was cool... a blind brother delivered the final part on the school tonight. He went blind late in his life and had no desire to learn braille... His wife reads him each paragraph and the corresponding question until he can memorize it, and then he has the microphone carriers call on people with their hands up to comment. I was so fascinated, he totally memorized a twenty minute part and carried it off as if he were reading from the material. And i hear he used to conduct the bookstudy as well. Can you imagine his wife? She willfully studies with him several times a week so he feels comfortable enough to have a group discussion. I thought it was the coolest thing in the world. Anyway, i spoke to him and his wife afterward, and they're the sweetest, most humble people you could ever imagine. Except for that lady in the beginning
Banana Fran
Standing under bananas in branco's yard. who i said was the sweetest,lol. Oh well.. i had a good day. And i was thinking too, i'm totally not living the life of a tourist in the month i'm here... i'm genuinely experiencing everything as if i were a local, and i think it's the coolest thing in the world. Gah, except for the blind brother who gives talks, i said HE'S the coolest thing in the world. For real he is. Anywayyyy ive been taking it easy and taking advantage of unique opportunities as they come and just becoming familiar with the area. I'm picking up on the the local speech habits and becoming accustomed to the local food (except spam. did i mention i do not like spam?)... i can see the same sunrise and sunset and the same array of stars each day with as much pleasure as the first... there's no traffic... everybody's friendly.. i can honestly say i love it here. It's gonna be so hard to leave this place, as much as i miss home. But it's definitely a place i'll never forget. Ok i just finished telling u i'm not living the life of a tourist, and we are going to
Flowaaa
This was at the honey farm. Forgot what it's called but it looked cool enough for a picture :) the Hilton tomorrow and Thursday. lol i do hear it's an experience not to miss though and i am sooo looking forward to it. I think if you go to www.hiltonwaikoloavillage.com there are a few pictures of the grounds... Beautiful place. So we're staying Wednesday and Thursday... Friday we're shopping in Kona, Saturday we're going to my new favorite beach - black sand at Mauna Lani 😊 ...Sunday after mtg isn't planned yet, and Monday we're finally going to the volcano. I've never had a month to go by so fast!! I'll put up the pictures i have, i think there's more on Dave's camera that i'll put up once he loads them... hope you enjoy... talk to you soon! xoxo Fran
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