Nature Study When You Travel - Kona Coffee Farms

Vacation nature study is a great way to learn more about the natural beauty and richness of a new place. We always try to include learning in our travel time and Hawaii affords some unique opportunities.

Especially for coffee lovers. Which I am....a lover of Kona coffee.

We visited two coffee farms on the Big Island of Hawaii and were able to tag along on a coffee tour at both places. The first farm was Mountain Thunder and we drove up the side of the mountain/volcano to try out their organic coffees. We met up with the tour and the first thing the guide showed us were the coffee trees.



Did you know that coffee continually blooms from February to October...at the upper elevation of this particular farm? You can have blossoms, green cherries, and red cherries all on the same branch. You harvest the berries when they are red so with coffee there is no one time harvest, it is a continual process.



We picked a few cherries ourselves, opened them up and tasted the sweet, slimy inside around the bean. There are normally two beans in every cherry (when there is only one round bean it is called a "peaberry"). The red skins are not wasted. They either compost them or make them into "Kona Red" which is a product rich in antioxidants. We were able to taste Kona Red tea and it was light and tasty.


Can you smell the heavenly aroma of coffee beans roasting? We were able to observe the whole process from bean picking to roasting at Mountain Thunder. Afterwards, we tasted coffee, sipping the steaming cups and delighting in the heady fragrance of the,100% Kona coffee. I chose a package of whole beans to bring home and enjoy here in California plus a box of dark chocolate espresso beans (haven't cracked the box yet...waiting).



Here was the resident cat at Mountain Thunder.....she looks like she needs a cup of the good stuff.


We also visited a coffee farm lower down in elevation. Greenwell Farms is a popular tourist stop and they were geared up for lots of tasting there. This was our second visit but our first time touring the farm. We were able to actually walk out and see the rows and rows of trees.



Here we saw the beans as "parchment" where they are drying in the sheds. They pull back the sliding roof and stir the beans. It was amazing how much work goes into a coffee bean to make my little cup of coffee. I know one of my readers is also a lover of Kona coffee and she drinks Greenwell Farms Chocolate Macadamia Nut Coffee (Hi Ellen!) but I am in love with their Chameleon Blend Kona Coffee. 


One last photo especially for Tricia over at Hodgepodge. Can you believe the size of these hydrangeas? These were along the road near Mountain Thunder and I thought of you when I saw them...had to stop to take a photo.


We really enjoyed the coffee farms on our trip but that was not the only opportunity we made for nature study related activities. I will post soon about our ocean adventures.

Owen Jones and the Ornament of Savage Tribes

Illustration: Savage tribes Ornament from Owen Jones The Grammar of Ornament, 1856.

As part of Owen Jones 1856 publication The Grammar of Ornament a section dedicated to the ornament of 'Savage Tribes' is included. In fact, the first chapter and first three colour plates of the book belong to this section.

It is interesting to note what exactly Jones considered to be 'Savage' as opposed to civilized. He was quite specific as to the definition as all the images and text of the chapter concern themselves with cultures spanning the Pacific Ocean, with decorative pattern work from Hawaii, Fiji, Tahiti, New Zealand and New Guinea. What is more interesting however, is that although Jones did make certain references to Pacific Islanders being at 'an early stage of civilisation', a phrase which he repeats often throughout the first chapter of the book, he is on the whole positive and admiring as to the level of the craftsmanship that was used in order to produce the decorative work he displays in his book.

 Illustration: Handle of a Paddle illustration from Owen Jones The Grammar of Ornament, 1856.

However to be fair, throughout the nineteenth century there was a large amount of inbuilt racism and cultural snobbery that helped to fuel and perhaps more importantly legitimise the various European empires, but sometimes we can mistake a title such as Ornament of Savage Tribes, as perhaps a harsher slur than was meant. Jones was a product of his time and was no doubt indoctrinated into the ideals that European culture played in the grander picture, or at least as far as Europeans were concerned. However, Jones was relatively analytical for the period in his description of the ornamental works of 'Savage Tribes' and probably saw the chapter as an interesting stage within the context of human decoration. This does not change the fact that the chapter was firmly placed at the front of the book, strongly implying that Pacific Island culture and its decorative work was a forerunner to that of the more sophisticated work of cultures that followed in later the chapters of the book.That the sequence eventually led to Europe, which dominated the last five chapters of the book, was probably not a coincidence.

Illustration: Head of a New Guinea Canoe illustration from Owen Jones The Grammar of Ornament, 1856.

Today we might well find it puzzling that cultures in different parts of the world and from different periods in time could be placed in the order of importance that suited a particular continent of people, namely Europe. We would now see, or hope to see, that all human cultures have added their own significant elements to the greater human culture, all are legitimate and all should be judged as equal no matter whether they created palaces or lived in tents, produced reams of literature or had no written language, produced delicate porcelain or decorated bark.

 Illustration: Head of a New Guinea Canoe illustration from Owen Jones The Grammar of Ornament, 1856.

Owen Jones book is an interesting example of ideas and theories that are set within their period along with all the illogical and irrational elements that go to make up that time frame. No one is ever able to extract themselves entirely from their own cultural era and we should always be aware of this when flicking through the pages of books such as Jones The Grammar of Ornament.

Illustration: Side of a New Zealand Canoe illustration from Owen Jones The Grammar of Ornament, 1856.

Further reading links:

The Grammar of Ornament: All 100 Color Plates from the Folio Edition of the Great Victorian Sourcebook of Historic Design (Dover Pictorial Archive Series)
The Grammar of Ornament
Grammar of Ornament: A Monumental Work of Art
Unity of Heart: Culture and Change in a Polynesian Atoll Society
Maori and Polynesian, Their Origin, History and Culture
Polynesian Crafts
Making a Hawaiian quilt (Polynesian arts & crafts series)
Hiapo: Past And Present in Niuean Barkcloth
Polynesian Barkcloth (Shire Ethnography)
Tifaifai and Quilts of Polynesia
Hawaiian Applique
How to Weave Hawaiian Coconut Palm Fronds