Ka'u Coffee Mill Blessed

Father Joel blessed Ka`u Coffee Mill, with owner Edmund C. Olson following. Photos by Geneveve Fyvie

 

   The blessing of the Ka‘ū Coffee Mill brought some 300 people to Keaiwa along Wood Valley Road above Pāhala in January to celebrate the new mill, agricultural park and hydroelectric project. John Cross, who manages both the Edmund C. Olson Trust lands and the Ka‘ū Coffee Mill, said the visitor center and mill were built for all the Ka‘ū Coffee farmers. Not only the Ka‘ū Coffee Mill coffee will be sold at the visitor center, but boutique and award-winning coffee from individual farmers will be sold there, with the first brands displayed being those of Bull and Jamie Kailiawa, Leo Norberte and the Ka‘ū Coffee Growers Cooperative.

Visitor center at Ka`u Coffee Mill
will be open within a month.

      Cross pointed to the Ka‘ū Coffee Mill staff, mill supervisor Lee Segawa, administrative assistant Brenda Iokepa-Moses, coffee consultant Richard Loero, contractor Bob Taylor and others who helped put the operation together. Demetrius Oliveira gave the opening prayer. Father Joel sprinkled holy water around the facility. The band Keaiwa and Keoki Kahumoku provided music. Miss Ka‘ū Coffee Brandy Shibuya performed hula.

Bull and Jamie Kailiawa serve free homemade food at the blessing. 

      Attendees enjoyed Hawaiian food by the Kailiawa family and fresh vegetables all grown on Olson Trust and Hester lands in Ka‘ū.
“Not too often do you find me speechless, but this finds me close to that,” said state Rep. Bob Herkes during the ceremonies. He praised the Olson Trust for building the mill for local coffee farmers to process their beans and save the time and cost of driving them to Kona and Hilo mills. Herkes descends from a great-grandfather who came to Hawai‘i from Scotland in 1898 and built the first water pipe in Ka‘ū. “Not a flume, a water pipe, and it was made of wood,” he said. Herkes applauded Edmund C. Olson for “taking abandoned sugar cane lands and putting the people back on the ground, working in agriculture.”

Rep. Bob Herkes at the recent blessing
of Ka`u Coffee Mill.

      Sen. Gil Kahele told the people attending the event that he promotes Ka‘ū Coffee every chance he can, serving it at his office in the state Legislature and displaying a Ka‘ū Coffee Mill bag on the wall for everyone to see when they enter his office. He said he has followed the plight of displaced sugar workers from the closing of the sugar company to their journey starting their small coffee farms.
He said Ka‘ū is a special place to him, that his uncle was a fisherman and his grandmother was from Hīlea and Honu‘apo and that he spent summers in Ka‘ū as a child and became good friends with Thomas Kailiawa. He said he is so proud to see the success of Kailiawa’s son Bull and noted that Ka‘ū has the top-rated coffee in the United States. Kahele described Olson as a “good guy” for investing capital in the economic development of Ka‘ū.

County Council member Brittany Smart and state Senator
Gil Kahele promote Ka`u Coffee.

Keiki visit with donkeys packing Ka`u Coffee.

      County Council member Brittany Smart praised Ed Olson and the coffee farmers for all their hard work the last 15 years since the sugar plantation shut down.

Kathleen Kam autographed cards bearing her artwork.

Visitor center at Ka`u Coffee Mill
will be open within a month.

      Ka‘ū Coffee Mill is also a place of art, and Kathleen Kam was noted for her original murals of the land, the wildlife and the people of Ka‘ū. Two murals are completed in the visitor center, and another one is in progress. Four paintings of native birds are on display. A giclee print of Ka‘ū Coffee with nēnē, the Hawaiian state bird, was presented to Hawai‘i Volcanoes National Park Superintendent Cindy Orlando to be placed in the regional headquarters of the National Park Service in San Francisco. Graphic artist Tanya Ibarra was recognized for developing the Ka‘ū Coffee Mill logo. The Pāhala Plantation House crew, under the direction of artist Kathleen Kam, created a sculpture of locally grown vegetables for display. Local woodworker Michael Worthington created koa cabinetry for the visitor center, and the crew from sister company Hāmākua Macadamia Nuts designed the retail space. Until the grand opening later this year, the visitor center will remained closed to the public but all Ka'u Coffee Mill coffee and products can still be purchased online at www.kaucoffeemill.com.

Ed Olson presented a giclee print of
Nene & Ka`u Coffee to Cindy Orlando.