SMITHFARMS
Smithfarms: Established in 1988 and on the Internet Since January 1999!
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Smithfarms: Established in 1988 and on the Internet Since January 1999! |
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Frequently Asked Questions
We do not have a store front and it is just Bob and me, so no, we are not set-up for visitors. Sorry. We live 2 miles up a semi-paved, one lane private road and we have to use 4 wheel every day. But don't be discouraged, there are many farm that want visitors. Go here http://www.konacoffeefarmers.org/farmTours.asp and you'll find over 40 farms that would love to have you. (I am the volunteer web person for this site, so I encourage you to check out our lists.)
There is no organic source of fertiliser in Hawaii. That being the case, all fertiliser organic or otherwise, needs to be shipped in. This of course increases prices dramatically and we could not afford to apply the adequate amounts of organic nutrition to our coffee trees that they need to remain vigorous, without pricing our coffee to the extreme and frankly, we could not make a living at all. sorry. Bob does weed whack the whole 5 acres and we try to be as organic as possible although again, we do use inorganic fertiliser. We also feel that the pollution caused in (fuel burning) transporting and manufacture is a trade-off. We want our plants to be totally healthy and fully nurtured and we want to remain in farming so we have made an educated decision to judiciously use the fertiliser we use. Our plants are HAPPY! We are careful and sustainable farmers. Our land was farmed by Hawaiians, pre-contact, and we respect the farming that occurred before us and respect the right to farm healthily after us.
FedEx has a drop box within 2 miles of our house so...you can track it. We roast the day before we send it. If the economics make sense to you, use FedEx. You need to know the difference in shipping between FedEx (example 5 pounds of roasted = $19.38 ) versus USPS Priority (example 5 pounds of roasted = $12.00) is so huge, please think about your options. We are always happy, really, to send it the way YOU want it! But we will not use FedEX to send packages to Alaska because of the extremely high price. Guess we'd almost be paying for the chartered FedEx flight:).  Do
you ship outside of the US?
Yes we certainly do! We have customers in Spain, Hong Kong, Poland, Canada, England, Japan, Taiwan, Canary Islands, France, The Netherlands, Norway, Denmark...etc. And Australia. If an International customer wants green coffee in an amount of 3 pounds, I heartily recommend the Global Priority Flat Rate Mail Envelope. It is a bargain. It will take 4-6 days (!) and cost $ 14.75 postage to most places or only $12.85 to Canada. "We
are very interested in many of your products for our stores, cafes, shoppes.
Please send wholesale pricing information (I have a business license I
can send to you) to..."
We are the farmers, my husband and I, of our 5 acre farm so we have given all our customers---the farm direct price. Everyone gets the same price even our own family members. Our coffee and Macadamias are the best and we sell everything from our site and it works out perfectly for us. First of all, I would be interested to know what "Kona" you bought? Old beans are junk beans.They are bitter because the oils are not stable and tend to decompose. Over roasting which used to be common, can ruin beans. They will taste close to charcoal. A 10% Kona Blend is junk too. You can't taste 10% Kona in a bag where the other 90% are unidentified whoknowswhat beans. There are so many things called Kona Coffee. Many are rip-offs of the real stuff. Good Kona is 100% Kona and fresh roasted and not burnt. It is actually considered a mild coffee. We have many customers who agree with us. We roast our beans to medium-dark, not burnt. It is chocolately and yummy. I think if you know and trust the farmer, you will have a better chance of having good tasty 100% Kona beans. FYI: I see farmers in Kona selling Kona that I would not drink. They just don't pay enough attention to details, or they have someone else doing their work. My husband and I work with the pickers, are the packers, and he does the roasting and pays attention to all details. Actually my husband is the only Kona farmer I know, who has his BS degree in Tropical Agriculture. I think it proves out. I just want to establish that there are different kinds of farmers--- even in Kona. Try a half pound some time and see if you don't agree. The 100% Kona green coffee you get from us is certainly Fairly Traded but the FT people do not come to Kona so we do not get that marque. The FT people assume that the US, and Hawaii is one of the 50 US States, already does things fairly-- as in paying the workers a good wage, which is true. We have a dedicated US Federal Department of Agriculture too with its own set of rules. We are also proud to be a Sustainable farm, ensuring this land can be farmed for many generations after us. We use no pesticides nor insecticides on our farm either. I believe the FT people are not as focused on that aspect. I also think one of the most important things about us at Smithfarms is that Bob has a college (B.S.) degree in Tropical Agriculture and that makes a lot of difference because he knows theories as well as practical solutions. Our farm is happy and healthy which is not automatic with the FT farms. I just want to assure you that we are very prudent farmers, even among Kona Coffee farmers and certainly amongst the world's coffee farmers. We believe our coffee is raised as carefully as it can be. We are proud of our end product and spend a lot of dedicated time on the details to get it there.
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