Living next to the sugarcane on Maui has its ups and downs. The ups are having less neighbors, beautiful views, and the sounds of rustling sugarcane in the breeze. The downs are all the cane spiders, cockaroaches, mice, and other critters that feel our homes are an extension of the fields. BUT, they were here first, so we don’t complain much.
The major con to living next to the cane is when they burn the fields during harvest (see our post on sugarcane burning alternatives). This happens every 2 years, and this year (at least next to our home), they decided to have a green harvest with no burning. This means that they use bulldozers, tractors and cranes to handle all the harvesting without burning the excess foliage off. They’re doing this because burning conditions were never optimal during the time they’d planned to harvest here (too much wind, too much rain, etc…) So, lucky for us, we don’t have to worry about burning right next to our house. The dust we’ll be dealing with over the next 2 months is something else entirely though.
The video here shows the large machinery harvesting the cane over a period of 2-3 days. It’s a fun timelapse capturing the beauty of the landscape, all of their hard work, the sunset, and even a few rainbows! The music was done by our good friend Jonny Roundhouse. We hope you enjoy!
Nice video. I really wanted them move that big pile near the house. What happened there? 😉
Love the rainbows moving across the field and the mechanical giraffes in the distance eating away.
We need to move away from making artificial black snow on Maui. I don’t think that makes economic or environmental sense.
This is a very good post. HC&S has proven that they can make money and put more folks to work if the cane is used to make two products: Sugar and Electricity. Instead of burning the leafy crop in the fields it can be cut, bailed, dried and used to make electricity instead.
Yay, more green harvesting please!!!
Love it. I started to watch on my phone and switched to my iPad to see it better. Your commitment is inspiring. Thanks, Chris.
Nice video! I love the time lapse and of course the rainbows 🙂 Now, if only they were using electric or hybrid equipment!
Very nice. Wish they all could be like this.
Agreed. I guess they yield more sugar when burned, and it’s cheaper to do then manually strip the foliage.
There is no “manual stipping”. It’s cut, bailed, dried and used along with bagasse to make electricity.
We mustn’t put corporate profits over people’s health. The health of the folks on Maui subjected to the smoke and ash (Maui Snow), has been proven by thousands of residents to be bad for them. It’s bad for you and I even though we are not complainers.
Certainly here on Maui where we depend so deeply on tourist for our economy, this needs to be changed. I have researched this a lot.