Lehuula Farms

MeloMelo is proud to feature Lehuula Farms!

Lehuula Farms is centrally located in the Kona Coffee Belt in Kealakekua.  You may have heard of this town as it is the subject of the 1933 popular song, "My Little Grass Shack in Kealakekua, Hawaii".  Kealakekua is translated as pathway of the gods and is one of the most significant cultural and historic places in Hawaii.  Settled more than 1,000 years ago, the bay offered a safe place for anchorage and an abundance of marine resources.  Early settlers cleared the forests and cultivated crops of sweet potato and taro.  As the social and political system of Hawaii developed in the 1600's the chiefs and priests established Kealakekua as one of the chiefly centers of Kona.  

ariel view of Kealakekua Bay

Lehuula Farms was started by Bob Nelson, originally a farm boy from the mid-west.  In the mid-1960's he moved to Alaska to study Wildlife Biology and after a long career with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game he moved to Hawaii with his wife Mae to become full time coffee farmers. 

the drive into the farm

Coffee was first planted on their land in the early 1900’s but the farm was abandoned sometime around the beginning of WWII.  The land was not maintained until the the early 1980’s when a couple bought it to turn it back into a working coffee farm.  They soon realized this task was more than they had bargained for and put the property up for sale in 1984.  Bob and Mae purchased their 3.8 acres in the spring of 1986 and began the arduous task of finishing the clearing process.

pulper

Many of their more than 4,000 coffee trees are 90 or more years old.  Much like grapes, older coffee trees produce a bean of exceptional taste.  Their trees are pruned with the Beaumont-Fukunaga method where all of the verticals on a tree and in a row are the same age, and each row of trees are a different age.  For example, one row contains trees with 1 year old verticals, the next is 2 years old, and the next row is 3 years old.  Looking across the field you would see a system of 1, 2, 3, 1, 2, 3 etc...  This system of pruning not only produces fantastic coffee beans but it is much easier for farmers to move through the rows to spread fertilizer, control ground cover, pick, etc...  

keiki trees planted next to mature trees

As the success and production of the farm has increased Bob and Mae brought on Brian and Amy Axelrod (also mid-western kids) to manage the business and operations of the farm.  The team has achieved great success as Lehuula Farms continues to produce award winning coffee.  This past year they were selected as finalist in the Kona Cupping Competition.  We are certain that you will enjoy this exceptional coffee as our February selection.

huge green cherry

coffee drying on the hoshidana

coffee ready to head to the mill