Komohana Research and Extension Center, Hilo, Hawaiʻi · October 1–3, 2015

Natural Farming Symposium 2015

A day of talks and hands-on skill shares in Hilo, a day of panels, then farm tours and a film. 25 recordings: nine talks including Drake Weinert's keynote, six demonstrations on the lawn, eight panels, a short ceremony and hallway interviews. Every one is checked line by line and boiled down to what was made, what was measured and what was only told.

Read what it all adds up to →

Also on the record: Konkuk 2016

Topics microbes soil economics policy health taro culture food pigs scale protectors research biochar fermentation minerals school gardens Clear

5 talks on “protectors”

Dr. Hoon Park, John Caverly ·USA (Hawaiʻi) ·50 min

Microbes (IMO) by Hand: Squeeze Test, Keep It Under 120°F

Dr. Hoon Park and farmer John (very likely 'Ginger John' Caverly) teach the Microbes (IMO) method on the lawn: rice in a box, then rice plus brown sugar, then a pile of wheat mill run wetted with IMO-2 and Food (FPJ) water and checked with a squeeze test. A woman helper who is never named shows an IMO-1 box and talks about mill run supply. A second group gets the IMO-3 temperature rule and Master Cho's four jobs of IMO, Dr. Park tells how he drinks Protectors (LAB) for his stomach, and John says roots and microbes work together.

Found IMO-1 takes about three days here

economics food health microbes protectors soil

Richard Perea ·USA (Hawaiʻi) ·38 min

Fermenting the Weeds Bugs Won't Eat

Richard Perea, a farmer from Ocean View, Kaʻū, runs an outdoor skill share on fermenting plants from his land that bugs won't eat. He shows a Christmas berry ferment of rehydrated leaves, brown sugar and water that he drinks and sprays (the 'Biome Rejuvenation Juice' of the YouTube title; it is neither Cleanser (BRV) nor Cho's Food (FPJ)), plus a hydrosol and a vodka bark extract. Then he builds a 'wild grass fertilizer' from guinea grass, forest mulch, Protectors (LAB) and water, used at a cup and a half per 55 gallons.

Found Guinea grass stopped at the line where he sprayed guinea grass fertilizer

christmas berry food guinea grass health microbes pests

Dr. Hoon Park ·USA (Hawaiʻi) ·23 min

Protectors (LAB): 1 Part Rice Wash, 10 Parts Milk

Dr. Hoon Park shows a crowd on the lawn how to make Protectors (LAB) at a glass-jar table: sour rice-wash serum goes into milk at 1 part to 10, sits covered in the shade for five days, and the yellowish liquid under the curd is strained off and stored. He gives the 1:1000 spray rate, warns against spraying just before a fruit harvest, and tells how he drinks it himself, then answers questions on other milks, animals and the leftover curd. The last two minutes cut to another station, where an unnamed presenter recaps the recipe.

Found 250 ml of rice-wash serum into 2.5 litres of milk: a 10% (1:10) addition

fruit health livestock milk pigs protectors

Danielle Downey, Jen Rasmussen, Jenny Bach ·USA (Hawaiʻi) ·73 min

Wild Bees Gone, Hawaiʻi Farms Now Need Beekeepers

Three Hawaiʻi Island beekeepers answer a moderator's questions and the room's: the state apiarist Danielle Downey, treatment-free beekeeper Jen Rasmussen of Paradise Nectar Apiary, and Jenny Bach, who does hive removals and works in school gardens. They cover how the varroa mite (2008 on the Big Island) and small hive beetle (2010) wiped out most wild colonies, what that means for farmers who used to get free pollination, pesticide residues in hives, fire-ant baits, and what natural farming might do for bees. Nobody on the panel had data on natural farming and bees; one beekeeper had tried a lactic-acid brew of dead beetles as a repellent.

Found Varroa reached Oʻahu in 2007 and the Big Island in 2008

bees pesticides policy pollination protectors research

Dana Keawe, Ala Jellings, Gene Tamashiro, Alika Atay, Chris Chang ·USA (Hawaiʻi) ·81 min

Kanaka Farmers: Our Tūtū Already Farmed This Way

Five Kanaka farmers and cultural practitioners from Hawaiʻi Island, Oʻahu, Maui and Molokaʻi talk about how natural farming fits old Hawaiian practice, ʻāina, health and sovereignty. Alika Atay gives the most practice: the Hawaiian moon calendar, calcium phosphate at flowering, moving the Microbes (IMO) pile, mountain and ocean water, and keeping Protectors (LAB) off fruit. Dana Keawe describes IMO made at 9,000 feet on Mauna Kea for a native-plant nursery and IMO-infused biochar in a native forest restoration.

Found Hugelkultur beds sprayed with natural farming solutions broke down faster

culture health microbes minerals policy protectors