Envisioning The Future And Sustaining A Legend At Sumida Farm

What do you do when you’re all of the sudden tasked with taking on the household farm?

Locals understand it because the farm with the little grass shack subsequent to Pearlridge. Sumida Farm, a 95-year-old watercress farm on Oʻahu, that almost all locals toured in elementary faculty, is bordered by the retail shops, eating places and parking plenty of Pearlridge Heart on three sides and {a partially} completed Honolulu Rail Transit Mission, that hovers above busy Kamehameha freeway on elevated tracks, on the fourth. The distinction between vivid inexperienced rows of watercress towards a backdrop of a shuttered Sears constructing with trains capturing by the sky for intermittent testing appears to be like like one thing straight out of Blade Runner.

How has a farm within the heart of a shopping center sustained 4 generations? Emi and Kyle Suzuki, who took over in March 2020, are figuring that out now, as a result of with every era a brand new iteration of the farm is born.

Positioned within the central city of Aiea, Sumida Farm produces most of Hawaiʻi’s watercress. The important thing to the farm’s vitality is its freshwater springs.

“The water’s very pure and chilly as a result of it is coming from underground,” Kyle Suzuki defined. In a traditional water cycle, rain cascades down the mountains and filters by its pores gathering in underground aquifers earlier than shifting out in direction of Pearl Harbor.

“There are cracks within the aquifer the place this water pushes up. We’ve a few dozen of these throughout the farm, which might be drunk straight from the supply.”

With 5-7 million gallons of water a day flowing from the aquifer, by means of the Kalauao Springs, the farm can maintain 3-4 inches of water throughout 10 acres. This ecosystem powered by water and solar is alive with native and non-native fish, geese and birds, and naturally watercress.

“When the employees are harvesting, you’ll see the egrets following behind them on the lookout for fish and crayfish, to allow them to seize them,” Kyle Suzuki mentioned.

The farm has labored with the College of Hawaiʻi to conduct water high quality assessments and located that, not like wild watercress that grows close to rivers or streams, this watercress just isn’t in peril of being contaminated by poisonous runoff. The farm manages pests by spraying recycled spring water over the fields to knock bugs off the leaves.

1st Technology

The Sumida household immigrated to Oʻahu within the early 1900s from Hiroshima, Japan. They settled in a city referred to as Aiea the place they labored on a dairy farm and in sugar mills and pineapple plantations, till 1928 when Emi Suzuki’s great-grandparents Makiyo and Moriichi Sumida leased a 5-acre parcel of land from Kamehameha Faculties (Bishop Estates) to plant greens for his or her neighborhood, who was residing totally on packaged imported meals. Finally, the Sumidas realized that watercress grew the perfect within the farm’s wetland setting–initially wetland taro patches– and determined to focus all their efforts there.

2nd Technology

Over time the farm expanded to 10 acres. When Emi Suzuki’s grandparents Masaru and Norma Sumida took over, they leveled the multi-level terraced farm and laid a pebble mattress down, in order that the spring water might stream extra evenly all through the sector. Her grandfather additionally created tile pathways between the watercress patches for the employees to stroll on. These paths additionally enabled them to make use of wheelbarrows as a substitute of carrying the harvests out by hand.

Initially the farm was a part of a cooperative with over a dozen different watercress farms within the space, however within the Seventies many shut down on account of both dried up wells, land improvement or a pest referred to as the diamondback moth, which had the flexibility to decimate total fields. Kamehameha Faculties supposed to pave over Sumida Farm to start its third section of Pearlridge Heart. Masaru Sumida lobbied native legislators and rallied neighborhood supporters. He fought relentlessly towards the true property large till he gained. In the present day, solely Sumida Farm and one different watercress farm nonetheless exist right here.

Masaru Sumida perpetuated the thought of the farm as a social gathering place. He was the primary Hawai’i Farm Bureau Federation President from 1959-1966 and the founding father of the Aiea Boat Membership, which nonetheless meets often on the farm. Emi Suzuki was lately on a neighborhood podcast referred to as “What Faculty You Went?” The host of the present reminisced a few time within the Nineties when he walked to the farm to test it out whereas having his tires modified at Sears. He mentioned he ended up spending all the day, hanging out and having beers with Masaru Sumida till midnight.

“That’s the expertise most individuals have on the farm,” Kyle Suzuki mentioned.

third Technology

Emi Suzuki’s mother and father have been born and raised in Aiea and met as younger adults, learning the identical topic for his or her PhDs. Her dad’s youthful sister, Aunty Barbara Sumida was the one to take over the farm subsequent. Educated by Norma Sumida, Barbara Sumida ran the enterprise aspect of the farm as Basic Supervisor and President for over 30 years, whereas her brother David Sumida ran operations and hosted all of the Elementary Faculty excursions.

“It’s the perfect advertising and marketing that the farm ever might have achieved,” Kyle Suzuki mentioned. “All of those persons are coming again and saying, ‘I keep in mind my favourite tour was Sumida Farm and that’s why I’ve a connection to the farm.’”

4th Technology

Emi and Kyle Suzuki grew up in Washington, the place Emi Suzuki’s dad, Stephen Sumida, went to school. They dwell in Seattle the place they’ve youngsters and company jobs. Neither Emi, her siblings or her cousins had ever helped on the farm as children, however in 2018 Emi and Kyle Suzuki spoke up, expressing curiosity in finally taking on the farm upon retirement.

What began as a 7–9-year plan changed into a crash course in a single day when in January 2020 Barbera Sumida was identified with an aggressive type of mind most cancers. When Emi Suzuki acquired the information, she was on the primary flight out. Barbara Sumida did her greatest to elucidate tips on how to do issues like pay taxes and handle payroll and distributors, however with mind most cancers impacting her reminiscence it was close to unattainable. Inside six weeks of her analysis Barbara Sumida handed away.

Emi Suzuki returned to Seattle and flew again to O’ahu along with her household in March. It was the final flight to O’ahu earlier than Hawai’i Governor David Ige declared no extra flights into Hawai’i on account of COVID-19.

“We didn’t have a transition plan in place in any respect,” Kyle Suzuki mentioned.

For the following 12 months and a half, the Suzukis have been out and in of quarantine touring forwards and backwards between O’ahu and Seattle, residing on the farm and education their women just about.

Sustaining

Due to the farm’s devoted area crew, the Suzukis already had high quality employees in place to handle the land.

“Probably the most useful useful resource of our farm is our area employees, “Kyle Suzuki mentioned. “A few of them have been right here 25 plus years.”

Watercress grows year-round in Hawaiʻi, however March by July when the times get longer, and the nights are cooler, is its most bountiful season. The sector employees work shoulder-to-shoulder harvesting every little thing by hand, the way in which they’ve since 1928, pulling up one-pound bunches, trimming off the decrease yellowing leaves, tying them into bundles and placing them into wheelbarrows to move to the wash home. The trim is then pushed again into the earth the place the watercress reroots itself and grows once more. No seeds wanted.

“It is an attention-grabbing connection to the previous,” Kyle Suzuki mentioned, “as a result of all of this watercress is coming from watercress that was already right here earlier than. I believe over time we’ve had a number of adjustments, however generally this watercress selection has been right here for many years and a long time.”

His understanding is that they obtained the watercress initially from Florida. It’s an Asian selection which is thick and tall and takes 6-8 weeks to develop, relying on circumstances. When it’s time to harvest, the sector employees spend seven hours a day harvesting a number of patches throughout the farm.

All 12 of the sector employees are from the Philippines the place they grew up farming. The 76-year-old man, who strikes tons of of kilos of watercress to the wash home to rinse it a day, has labored on the farm for 25 years. Every employee has their very own plot of land across the perimeter of the farm to develop their very own meals.

“It really works for us whether or not they promote it or eat it themselves,” Kyle Suzuki mentioned, “as a result of it helps us keep the land.

Along with the 12 mini farm plots situated close to a flowing spring surrounded by wild kalo (taro), tomatoes and papaya bushes that anybody can take pleasure in, it’s also vital to the Suzukis to pay their employees a livable wage.

“When our farm does nicely, we all the time try to handle our staff, to allow them to afford to comfortably dwell right here as nicely,” Kyle Suzuki mentioned.

The Way forward for Sumida Farm

Emi and Kyle Suzuki handle the enterprise aspect of the farm from Seattle, touring forwards and backwards about as soon as a month. In 2022 they prolonged the farm’s lease for an additional 30 years, put in a brand new vacuum chilling machine and employed the primary non-family operations staff member to ever have labored at Sumida Farm.

Part 4.0 of the farm additionally features a consulting chef and a social media supervisor to carry the farm’s picture into trendy occasions. Emi Suzuki has made media appearances and Kyle Suzuki leads excursions for native cooks and restaurant employees. Earlier this 12 months they hosted college students from the College of Hawaiʻi’s GoFarm AgBusiness program to show future farmers concerning the enterprise of farming and conduct a hands-on workshop within the area.

“We don’t consider ourselves as a household farm, we consider ourselves as a neighborhood farm,” Kyle Suzuki mentioned.

Consulting chef Kamalu Chris Fujimoto, a current graduate of the culinary arts program at Kapʻiolani Group School, postponed his profession within the restaurant trade to be taught extra concerning the components of his Hawaiian heritage. Along with working with different non-profits and farms in Hawaiʻi he creates recipes for Sumida Farm reminiscent of watercress guri guri (a Hawaiʻi model ice cream), watercress dip and a watercress-ginger-lime syrup he makes use of in cake and soda.

Sumida Farm’s watercress is heartier than most varieties discovered on the remainder of the US continent, making it superb for soups, stir-fries and stew, and even as a pleasant crunch in salads. The staple watercress dish in Hawaiʻi is watercress soup made with both salt meat (salted beef brisket) or pork (often pork bones or ribs).

“I believe it is actually cool that cooks now say they care the place their components come from,” Emi Suzuki mentioned.

The farm with the little grass shack subsequent to Pearlridge

How does the farm maintain going after 95 years, from a time when all that surrounded it was farms, rivers and mountains to the age of concrete buying facilities, outlasting Sears, Monterey Bay Canners, Circuit Metropolis and Mattress, Bathtub and Past? The reply lies in 4 generations of land stewardship, neighborhood farming and by no means forgetting who the land belongs to.

“What my dad was actually adamant about,” Emi Suzuki mentioned, “was that we’re solely a small a part of historical past as a result of all of this was Hawaiian farmland approach earlier than us.”

As for the grass shack, the story goes that one of many older area employees as soon as had a backyard there. Feeling dangerous as a result of they have been going to must take away his backyard to increase the watercress area, Stephen Sumida constructed a bit of shack as a replacement, in order that the employee might relaxation within the shade.