LIHU‘E — Ed Kawamura is an agricultural entrepreneur, but also has a fun side at his farm and garden retail location near the Pua Loke subdivision here. “We bought it for him to use in parades, but he hasn’t ridden
LIHU‘E — Ed Kawamura is an agricultural entrepreneur, but also has a fun side at his farm and garden retail location near the Pua Loke subdivision here.
“We bought it for him to use in parades, but he hasn’t ridden it in one yet,” said Ed’s son Daniel, one of the Kawamura family that is at M. Kawamura Farm Enterprises.
“We were on a trip to O‘ahu and found this golf cart for sale. We bought it and a friend on O‘ahu did the rest.”
The golf cart has a vague resemblance to its former life on the greens, but has been outfitted with oversized wheels for mud, alloy rims, chrome-brush plating, and a re-do of its steering wheel and beverage containers.
“The motor is still the same,” Ed said. “It’s a gasoline-powered engine and still runs good.”
One of the features of the customized cart is the special name plate, “Kawamura Farm.”
That message is carried a step further as the familiar KFE logo is emblazoned in the center of the custom steering wheel.
“We didn’t know how it was going to turn out,” Daniel said. “Our friend does this on O‘ahu as a side business and we just left the cart with him.”
Ed said the cart wasn’t with them at the Garden Fair last Saturday at Kaua‘i Community College.
“This is supposed to be a garden fair so had some of the Maruyama motorized garden tools and some Husqvarna motorized tools like the chain saws and stuff instead,” Ed said. “If they want to see the cart, they have to come to the shop.”
The customized cart that is enjoying new life as a go-fer at the farm- and garden-supply shop is joined by a motorized sit-down mower by Toro.
“This one is about the 1960s or 1970s vintage,” Daniel said. “We have it here because it still runs. It just needs new tires and some other parts, but people can see just how tough this riding mower is. We even have a walk-behind mower that still is the original blue-and-yellow color before Toro adopted the familiar red.”
Ed said while some of these motorized things are fun, it still needs gas, and he points out the “No-Spill” gasoline container he uses to store and move gasoline not only for the cart but for other motorized tools as well.
“We have to take care of the air,” Ed said. “When they started putting ethanol in the gas, it started to absorb moisture from out of the air. This new can not only helps the environment by keeping the gas in the container, if you knock it down, it won’t spill. And, it’s American made!”
The Kaua‘i County Farm Bureau and the University of Hawai‘i College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources hosted the 15th Annual Garden Fair last week on the front lawn of the Kaua‘i Community College.
Ed Kawamura was there, but his cart was (and is) sitting in the shop.
