Mauna Kea Oral History Appendix - Office of Mauna Kea Management

today. It’s a commercial corn, field corn and after he harvested the corn, there were loads
of pohä plants growing.
KM: Wow!
HK: And when I saw that I went to see that person, Mr. Payne. I told Mr. Payne, “Can I get in
your corn field that you already harvested I want to pick those pohä.” He said, “Go, right
ahead. Just report to my caretaker, how many bags of pohä you pick a day.”
KM: Yes.
HK: So my mother-in-law, her cousins, all helped me, every day we go and pick pohä by the
bags, by the bags!
KM: Wow!
HK: And I shipped ‘em out to Honolulu. That’s what I was doing. This lasted for four months.
KM: [chuckling] When no more pohä, no can work right
HK: After about four months I was approached by Parker Ranch. They sent a lady, Hartwell
Carter’s sister to come and see me, “We want you back on the ranch.” So I came back
on the ranch after that. The reason why they wanted me back on the ranch was to start a
Victory Garden for all the employees and residents of Waimea.
KM: Oh, yes.
HK: All of the Waimea residents were requesting a Victory Garden. They gave me a crew of
about six men to start. Any one wants a Victory Garden, we are to respond and prepare
a garden.
KM: So, in their yards like that
HK: Clear their land, get everything, soil preparation, took little time, and then we have to
fence it off because lot of…almost everybody has chickens in the backyard.
KM: Right, right.
HK: We established a Victory Garden to all those who requested. And I ordered all the
vegetable seeds, purchased by the ranch. And I make my monthly inspection of their
garden.
KM: Yes, yes, oh. This was during the war or…
HK: Just before the war.
KM: Oh, just before the war.
HK: In 1939, ‘40.
KM: Was that when you, you had just done the pohä for a little while, and then you went and
started the Victory Garden or the Victory Garden was first
HK: Victory Garden was after.
KM: Okay. That was quite a program, so that each of the families would have vegetables and
things that they needed yes
HK: That’s right. This is a community wide project you know, it’s not necessarily just for the
ranch families. The relationship between Parker Ranch and the community was just like
one happy family.
KM: Wonderful!
HK:
We even sacrificed one of our pasture lands that we plowed, tilled the land and we
planted Irish potato.
Mauna Kea– “Ka Piko Kaulana o ka ‘Äina”
Kumu Pono Associates LLC
A Collection of Oral History Interviews (HiMK67-050606) A:512