Woof Woof!

Woof Woof! was Originally Posted on June 8, 2008 by

The past two days I have been an exhibitor at CoffeeFest here on the Big Island. CoffeeFest is a trade show for people in the coffee industry.

This is the first time the convention was held in a place which grows coffee. Although the show was a great success, we did not have the crowds that would have shown up on the mainland.

Our Kona Coffee Farmers Association booth looked great and we offered tastes of many different Kona Coffee offerings for various farms. However, as of Sa turday night we had sold very little coffee. That may change by the end of the show today, as with conventions, many attendees wait until the last day to purchase things.

One thing we loved at the show was the gelato which is similar to ice cream. Our booth ws sampling a Kona Coffee Liquor, which by the way, tasted great with or without the gelato!

We DID sell a *TON* of calendars though and many of them were autographed! The calendars are called “The Naked Truth” and depict real female Kona Coffee Farmers in the buff. We have received much press about the calendar and our supply is almost exhausted and we will have to print more. Even Borders locally sold out the first day! Yes, the calendar is tastefully done enough for Borders to carry it.

http://starbulletin.com/2008/06/08/news/story06.html

If you want to see the calendar, go to http://KonaCoffeeFarmers.Org and there is a write up currently on the homepage.

I have to work today at the condos so I’ll leave it up to others in the organization to man the booth.

The weeds and brush are getting very high again on the farm. If I had the house and ohana in better shape I might take in a woofer (someone who works on organic farms in return for a place to stay). Although I’m not organic, generally it is possible to find people to help in exchange for food or a place to stay. Imagine people who want to travel the world but don’t have or want to spend a lot of money. They might come to a place such as Hawaii, pull weeds or help build a fence, and in return get a place to live for a couple weeks. The farmer might negotiate a room, food, use of a bicycle, us eof a motorcycle, etc in return for a number of agreed upon hours of work. There are organizations which match workers and farmers.

I hate to pay $1200 or more to have the farm mowed by someone else and cannot afford $30,000 for a tractor and mower. I also cannot keep trying to use Roundup to kill weeds and I can’t carry the backpack for any length of time due to a shoulder problem. Perhaps I just need some goats :-) Anyway, because I’m not organic, it somewhat limits the woofers I could get, because many work on the farms specifically because the are organic. The name Woofer comes from the idea of Working On Organic Farm (WOOF). As I say. not all workers are that critical on the organic part, but it would help me if I was organic.

Also, my friend Sandra was able to sell all of her puppies and I’ll be changing her website yet again to remove the current group of photos. If you are really quick, go to http://AlohaLabradors.Com and click on Puppies. Perhaps I’ll move that page over to a “Previous Litters” page. I don’t know yet what she would like to do.

Aloha for now.