OV farmer in Hawaii inspires a nation

Today, the market boasts over 200 vendors who sell everything from gingerroot to bongo drums and on every Wednesday and Saturday from – dawn till it’s gone – the Hilo market is a busy, bustling place.

While local crafts, clothing and artwork are a big hit, the ultimate star is the food. Exotic fruits beckon hungry travelers, where local papaya can be snagged three for a dollar. Jack fruit, lychees, white pineapple and Vietnamese longan fruit are in abundance as well.

If you happen to get hungry while shopping there’s a variety of food available to enjoy reflecting the many cultures which make Hawaiian cuisine so varied and utterly fascinating (Vietnamese, Japanese, Thai, and Korean)— you can sink your teeth into just about anything.

Vietnamese spring rolls are offered alongside Japanese bento boxes featuring traditional sushi as well as local specialties such as Spam musubi, pad Thai and Hawaiian lau lau (pork wrapped in taro leaves).

Twenty years ago, Lam Hanh, a native of Vietnam, could never have dreamed himself as one day becoming a farmer in Hawaii and growing Vietnamese fruits and vegetables for sale at the Hilo Farmer’s and other markets on the islands.

However today, Hanh, a handsome man with a sunburned face, is just that— a highly successful and productive farmer and owner of a one hectare farm at the foot of a mountain on the most populous island of Oahu.

“Twenty years ago I could never have imagined I would one day settle down in such a wonderful location and become a farmer,” Hanh recently said.

“It just sort of happened naturally,” he said adding that it was completely unexpected and simple. He had been a farmer and an ice cream vendor in South Vietnam, married to a lady from Cambodia of Vietnamese origin.

Thanks to a guarantee from his wife’s family they moved to Hawaii. At first life in the islands was extremely difficult. They could not speak let alone write in English and he had no career.  

They took to street peddling and saved enough money to purchase a small plot of land from a man working in the mainland. Initially, Hanh and his wife only sold vegetables to the Asian community in Hawaii.

Later, he began to plant fruit trees including bananas, star apples, and jackfruits.

Hanh said he purchased seeds from Vietnam that bore him much fruit in all aspects of his life. Hawaii turned out to be a dreamland for cultivation, with its rich fertile soil and temperate climate of 20-33 degrees Celsius.

One of the trade secrets Hanh shared was that guise leaves is a favourite vegetable of Asian people in the US and growing it is very profitable. After each one-month harvest, the trees will leaf themselves. Therefore, he said, the time to plant guise leaves are often interleaved.

Hanh’s is an incredible rag to riches story that should serve as an inspiration to all Vietnamese this Lunar Year holiday season. Hanh nurtured his dream of becoming a farmer and worked hard and saved his money.

That’s a lesson all in the country should learn.

Han went from selling ice cream in South Vietnam to becoming a highly profitable and successful farmer of in one of the world’s great paradises, supplying Vietnamese fruits and vegetables to many of the world’s most fabulous markets.