Fun at the Dillberg’s Farm December 26, 2012

In early November we visited Dillberg’s Farm. The Dillberg ‘ohana attends our Hanapēpē site and we were very fortunate that we were invited to visit their 5 acre farm. This was a great way to start off our “We Live Healthy” unit.

Aunty Summer, Olive and Violet greeted the staff and our families on their property filled with many different fruit trees. We were able see a variety of trees such as apple banana, mango, papaya, macadamia nut, coconut, orange, star fruit, avocado and many more. Keiki and caregivers were allowed to pick and taste the ripened fruit.

One fun activity was feeding the egg laying hens! The keiki were able to fill the bowls with chicken feed and some fresh papaya. They also showed us where the hens go to lay their eggs. On that day, there were 3 eggs waiting to be picked up.

Another favorite was seeing the geese. They have 2 friendly geese, one male and one female who were “honking” all the while we were there. Aunty Summer showed us one of the eggs that the goose laid and compared it to the chicken egg. The goose egg was much bigger and is equivalent to at least 3 chicken eggs. Goose eggs are laid every other day unlike chicken eggs that are laid daily.

Sweet potato is used as ground covering and the Dillberg’s challenged our families to help find any sweet potatoes growing. We all tried but had no luck! Our keiki helped with planting seeds in their garden by first turning the soil with ground coffee grains and then planting lettuce and cilantro seeds.

At the end of our tour we snacked on watermelon, bananas and papayas. Fresh coconut water and soft coconut meat was also offered to our families to try. It was a FUN filled day for all!