This is one of my columns that first appeared in the Hamakua Times of Honoka'a about 8 or 9 years ago...and I feel that it is still relevant...in fact, maybe more so now...
For many years I have been standing on any soap box available and telling anyone who will listen to plant edible gardens instead of large expanses of expensive lawns of grass in their yards that just sit there looking pretty, but costing huge amounts of money for fertilizers, weed killers and endless hours of mowing for no return…except just a pretty lawn.
Edible gardens can be as beautifully landscaped as any traditional ornamental gardens and provide the bonus of food grown by your own hands and you have the advantage of knowing exactly what went into growing that food.
I’ve been passing such a garden for several years on our way to and from a friend’s house up on Waikea Uka and have always wanted to stop but for some reason or another never did…until recently when I spotted “the farmer” working in his garden.
Ronald Kudo is an interesting and unassuming man who will tell you right out he was never a farmer; his parent’s were, but Ronald was never interested and preferred to play, drink and gamble. The family owned 10 acres of land ‘back in the day’ and his father kept cows, planted coffee, bananas and other crops, mostly for their own use.
Through the years, pieces of the land were sold and after his parents died, Ronald inherited the land that was left, which is still a very large piece of land and the house on the property.
Standing in the yard one day about 20 years ago, and looking at all the rocks in the front of the house, he just started to wonder what he could grow to make the large front yard look nicer. He loves colorful flowers and decided to try to his hand at growing some.
Not having paid any attention as he was growing up, he started not knowing exactly what to do, but he realized that the rocky front yard needed all the help he could give it, so he started moving rocks out and bringing in some of the rich soil from where the cows had been kept for years and mixing it all in.
Soon he had neat rows of colorful flowers and he started adding a few herbs and vegetables to his growing garden. After his retirement, the garden became his ‘place to go’ and he started spending more and more time weeding, planting and harvesting. Gardening gave him a sense of self and a way to give some meaning to his life; an awakening.
He doesn’t always have the same things growing, but through the years I’ve noticed besides the multi-colored petunias, portulaca and day lilies, several varieties of tomatoes, beautiful lettuces, and huge heads of cabbage; beans, rows and rows of onions, some squashes, sweet potatoes and he usually plants watermelons after March. He shares his harvest with his daughter, friends and neighbors.
At one time, I remember seeing beautiful rows of multicolor zinnias mixed in with the vegetable plantings.
On the day of my visit, I also met Ronald’s wife Jean, who joins him while working in the garden, but when asked, she said she mostly weeds and leaves the planting to him.
There are a few chickens that come to visit his garden from neighboring yards; he welcomes their presence since they will scratch and eat some of the harmful bugs and leave nice fertilizer behind.
When I commented about how beautiful and healthy his garden looked his response was “When you’re at peace with yourself your vegetables sense it and they thrive.”
As a parting gift, Ronald gave us a beautiful head of cabbage, bunches of green onions and some of the sweetest lettuce we’ve ever eaten.
Simple Cabbage and Carrot Slaw
This is a simple slaw and the dressing is quite healthy.
I like to slice the fresh cabbage in very thin slices then cut again to make the pieces bite-sized. I 'shave' the carrot off with a vegetable peeler. The dressing is Greek yogurt with honey and white vinegar. Just mix amounts to taste.
