December 2007
Did you know that there are 200 different varieties of avocado grown in Hawaii? Just ask farmer Ken Love of the Love Family Farm in Kona. Ken is working with the UH College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources (CTAHR) and the Hawaii Tropical Fruit Growers Association to conduct some research to determine consumer preference and the KITV Morning Show helped to spread the word.
 |
Farmer Ken Love brought more than 500 lbs. of several varieties of avocado from Kona to Honolulu to conduct taste tests at the weekly Farmers' Market at Kapiolani Community College, but before the taste test, he informed KITV Morning Show viewers about the avocados grown in Hawaii.
 |
| KITV's Dan Meisenzahl shows the difference in sizes of two types of avocados. |
|
Ken Love also conducted taste tests with several prominent Honolulu chefs to find out what varieties they preferred. The results of the surveys will be distributed in a few months. Ken been farming in Kona for about 25 years, primarily tropical fruit, a lot of unusual tropical fruit. Including the farms he looks after, its safe to say he's growing 100 types of avocados (out of 200 registered types in Kona), 25 types of Bananas (out of 50 on the Big Island) and over 100 other exotic tropical fruit from Abiu to Yuzu. Ken is president of the West Hawaii Tropical Fruit Growers, Treasurer of the Hawaii Agritourism Association and active with the Kona Pacific Farmers Cooperative and agriculture committee chair of the American Culinary Federation Kona-Kohala chapter. He spent 30 years as a globe-trotting photojournalist and maintains an office in Japan (for 25 years) where he works to sell Kona Coffee for the farmers coop and more than 100 products produced with Kona grown tropical fruit. He teaches about tropical fruit and how to produce value added products at Hawaii Community College- West Hawaii Center Culinary Institute of the Pacific. Here is a link to publications authored by Ken: http://www.hawaiifruit.net/avopaprs.htm |
