For two days a week, for the past four weeks, Shinobu has been attending a professional course in Food Preservation. After every class and sometimes over the weekends, she was either in the kitchen working on her projects or studying hard into the night. This was her first time taking a class in English but with determination and a strong desire, she was able to persevere and learn the course materials and expand her vocabulary at the same time. That is what her given name means after all. (忍, "endurance/perseverance/patience" - Wikipedia )
Today was her last day and exam. Proudly we want to announce that Shinobu is now a certified "Master Food Preserver". This is a title conferred by the Hawaii Master Food Preservers and lets consumers know that the person preserving the food has been trained in proper food safety handling and preserving to industry standards.
For those that aren't aware, besides the Kona coffee growing on our farm, we have many tropical fruit and nut trees such as Macadamia Nuts, Jack Fruit, Ice Cream Bean, Apple-Bananas, Mangos and more. However, due to strict agricultural laws, it isn't possible to ship fresh fruits outside of Hawaii. Properly preserved foods on the other hand are able to be shipped out of Hawaii and so we're looking forward to sharing these literal fruits of our labor with the world. We're very excited about what the future holds and you can be sure, whatever it is, it'll be tasty (and safe)!
