Growing up in Pearl City, I vividly remember passing Sumida Farm on Kamehameha Highway on trips to and from Pearlridge Center. Of course, back then, I didn’t know much about the watercress farm. I just recognized (and remembered it by) that iconic grass shack in the fields.
Never did I imagine that one day, I’d see the inside of that grass shack.
Sumida Farm is almost 100 years old. It was founded in 1928 in ‘Aiea, and is a fourth generation family-managed and -operated business. Sumida Farm is Hawaiʻi’s largest watercress farm, as it grows and harvests more than 200 tons of watercress annually, representing more than 80% of Hawaiʻi’s local watercress supply.
The farm’s land is a long-term lease with Kamehameha Schools, according to general manager Kyle Suzuki, who runs the farm with his wife, Emi, who is the fourth generation of Sumidas to manage the farm.
“We don’t own the land; that’s a question a lot of people have,” he explains. “We’re stewards of the ‘aina; it’s important for us to take care of this land and represent what this area used to be, too.”
Sumida Farm doesn’t offer tours to the public, but does allow school field trips to visit. Aloha State Daily was invited with an influencer/media group to tour the farm and learn more about watercress.
The farm is around 11 acres, according to Suzuki. He says many people often ask why the farm is located “in the middle of the city.”
“Everything was farmland before — sugarcane and pineapple plantations,” he says. “With urbanization and development — when Pearlridge Center came up — high rises grew around the farm. The farm was always here; everything else kind of changed around it.
“When Pearlridge was being developed and this was going to be part of Pearlridge, my wife’s grandfather — with his friends and community — fought the developers and they were able to keep the farm here,” he adds. “That’s why they have two sides of Pearlridge that’s connected with the monorail because the farm is right in the middle.”
The watercress is literally growing in fresh water; it comes from Kalauao Springs, according to Suzuki. Unlike potatoes, carrots and other plants that grow in the ground — where they get their nutrients — watercress is different.
“People who drive by don’t always know we’re a farm, and if they do, they don’t know what we grow,” he says. “We have a couple inches of water that flow across the entire farm. Watercress doesn’t get its nutrients from soil. We have a pebble bed; watercress is right on top, it doesn’t root itself deeply. It’s getting all of its nutrients from the fresh water springs itself.”
People often ask if they can grow watercress at home. Suzuki says that, while watercress can be put in a cup and it might root a little bit, it won’t grow because it needs a constant supply of fresh water.
“This is all spring water (on our fields); it’s not from a well, it’s not city water where we turn on a faucet,” he says. “This is spring water that flows every day. We estimate about 5 to 7 million gallons of water every day is flowing across the farm. Our growing conditions and our water are so unique.”
After the water flows through the farm, it's recycled through a sprinkler system that is used as a form of pest control; there is a pump at the bottom of the farm, according to Suzuki.
While watercress grows all year long, March to June is prime watercress season, due to the beginning of longer days. Suzuki says it takes watercress about six to eight weeks to grow, depending on the time of the year.
“Right now, it’s cooler and a less humid climate,” he says. “If it’s humid, that stunts watercress’ growth; if it rains hard, that can make it hard for it to grow. If we look at the length of sunlight we get across the year, our days are a little bit longer each day. That’s what creates the ideal growing climate and why our fields are full, green and bright right now.
“We grow our watercress to maybe about a foot and a half,” he adds. “The stems are thicker; people expect that crunch, that bite and spice that our watercress provides.”
Restaurants often add watercress specials to their menus to support watercress season, and grocery stores usually have a good supply of watercress during this time as well. While watercress is available year-round, during the hotter summer months like August or the shorter winter months like January, watercress takes a little longer to grow, Suzuki says.
From an aerial view, the field has a grid-like structure. Each patch is about 900 pounds of watercress, according to Suzuki, who says that field workers harvest about three patches a day when it’s busy.
“Our field workers work shoulder to shoulder,” he explains. “They harvest the watercress by hand the same way that they were harvesting it in 1928. They cut it from the root, clean the excess leaves off, put the Sumida Farm twist tie on it, load it up in the wheelbarrow and take it to our wash house. Orlando handwashes all of the watercress; he washes more than 200,000 pounds of watercress a year.”
Suzuki mentions Orlando Galiza celebrated his 34th work anniversary on the farm last year, and many of the farm’s employees have been there for 10, 15 or 25 years.
“They’re really the most important part of our farm,” he says. “We’re fortunate that they like working here. On the outskirts of our watercress patches, each one of our field workers gets a plot of land that they can farm and grow whatever they want to, which is a great, mutually beneficial thing. It allows us to maintain the outskirts, but also a lot of our field workers don’t have space to garden where they live.”
Speaking of workers, the tale behind the farm’s iconic grass shack is related to a former employee. Suzuki recalls how, in the ’70s, his father-in-law and his wife’s grandfather leveled the land with a one-degree slope from top to bottom so the water would flow evenly across the farm and they could easily put in the pathways to get the watercress in and out.
“When they did that, one of their workers had a garden here, and they had to take over it,” he says. “They said, ‘Let’s build him a little hut, a little grass shack, so he has some shade where he can hang out, because we’re taking his space.’ He doesn’t work here anymore, but the grass shack stayed.
“It’s like a visual landmark for the community,” he adds. “It’s more than just storage, but our field workers conveniently use it that way.”
After the watercress is harvested and hand washed, it’s put in a vacuum chilling machine. The process creates a vacuum chamber, removes excess water and brings the core temperature of the watercress down to about 40 degrees. Suzuki says the process takes between 8 to 10 minutes.
“Our watercress might come out of the fields at about 70 degrees,” he says. When we wash it and it’s damp, it could get warm quick. It would wilt and go bad; the shelf life would not be great. Watercress needs to be fresh and it needs to last; that’s what this machine does.”
Watercress is sold in 30-pound increments to Oʻahu-based business or to those on Neighbor Islands.
“We don’t sell direct to consumers, and we don’t ship outside of Hawaiʻi,” Suzuki says. “It’s important to us to make sure that everyone who wants access here (in Hawaiʻi) can get it.”
While some store-bought watercress is thinner, Sumida Farm’s watercress is known for its thicker stalks. The farm also sells lēkō, a younger varietal of watercress that is more delicate, milder in taste and less spicy. Lēkō is grown and harvested in limited quantities and is only available by special request to select partners of the farm, according to Suzuki.
“Lēkō is the Hawaiian word for watercress,” he says. “It’s a little shorter and the stem’s a little thinner. Some people don’t love how spicy watercress can be, so this is a good introduction (to it). All of our distributor partners have the ability to sell this; we’re starting to see it more on restaurant menus, which is great.”
As long as watercress is kept cold, it lasts for a couple weeks, according to Suzuki. Watercress should be stored whole in the fridge with stems facing the back, in order to prevent its leaves from freezing. For longer storage, wrap the watercress loosely in a damp paper tower and put it in a plastic bag before refrigerating it. To extend its freshness, you can also put watercress’ stalks in a large bowl filled with water (to about one-third the length of the stems).
“We always recommend eating it when you have it, but if it ever looks like it’s drying out or a little more limp, put it in an ice bath and it’ll come back,” he says. “If you’re not going to use the watercress right away, wrap it in a damp paper tower and put it in a Ziploc bag, stick it in your crisper and it’ll stay fresh.
Watercress has many health benefits. It was declared to be the healthiest vegetable by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which gave it a perfect nutrient density score of 100 out of 100. It’s high in vitamins A and C; the latter is especially beneficial for supporting the immune system and collagen production. Watercress is also a good source of calcium and potassium, while its antioxidants reduce inflammation and oxidative stress.
When schools or other visitors come to the farm, Suzuki says they often share different ways to eat or utilize watercress.
“When most kids come to our tour — we’ll have about 40 kids at one time — maybe one or two have tried watercress before,” he says. “(Our farm chef) Elijah makes a really good watercress cream cheese dip and he does a watercress ginger lime soda. When the kids get to walk the fields, they can see how watercress is grown and then they get to eat it.”
While watercress stalks — known for their crunch and bite — are often added to stir-fries and salads, watercress leaves can be used for purees in soups or sauces, used for salads or garnishes, or they can be sauteed with other vegetables. Sumida Farm’s blog also features recipes that showcase watercress in a variety of ways. Recipes range from ‘ahi and watercress poke to watercress corned beef hash and avocado watercress hummus.
You can look forward to fun collabs by Sumida Farm that are designed to promote watercress season. The business recently partnered with Kailua-based ice cream shop Please Come Again to create a unique flavor — watercress ginger lime sorbet — that is available for a limited time.
“We had them out to the farm, and Elijah served them a watercress ginger lime soda,” Suzuki says. “They really liked it and were like, we could make a sorbet out of this. They have ice cream flights, where you can do four scoops. The watercress flavor is the perfect one to add to a flight because it’s unique and different from the other ice cream they have. We launched it in early March and they will have it until they sell out.”
Sumida Farm also has an upcoming collaboration with Hana Koa Brewing. While details can’t be fully released at the time of our interview, Suzuki says it’s something they’re excited about.
“The classic way to eat watercress is pork watercress soup or watercress salad, but we like pushing into different ways (of using it), just to showcase how versatile watercress is,” he says.
Supporting local farms like Sumida Farm goes beyond buying and consuming a product (in this case, watercress). Customers can share their knowledge of watercress with friends and follow the farm on social media to start, according to Suzuki.
“We always teach our visitors — especially the kids — when you’re supporting local, you’re supporting all of our field workers, farmers, partners and vendors,” he says. “People don’t always realize how much food is shipped here. If anything ever happened, it’s important for the island to be able to grow food. A farm like ours is one way to be able to do that.
“It’s more than a family farm; it’s a community farm,” Suzuki adds. “There are so many different partners that have supported the farm over the years. We’re hoping that, when we do that 100-year anniversary, we’ll have a series of events that celebrate that with the community. We wouldn’t be here without the community support.”
CONTACT
Sumida Farm
98-160 Kamehameha Hwy., ‘Aiea
808-488-4517
sumidafarm.com
Instagram: @sumidafarm
Kelli Shiroma Braiotta can be reached at kelli@alohastatedaily.com.
