Some of us still remember when the kids in Kona had a different "summer" vacation, taking their breaks in the fall when most of the Kona coffee was at its prime and every keiki and kupuna hand in the family — and every Kona nightingale burro — was needed to harvest the ripe coffee cherries on the rocky volcanic slopes of Kona mauka.

Those slopes are home to the Big Island's "coffee belt," a 22-mile strip that has some of the most ideal conditions to nurture, grow and sustain onolicious coffee.

For more than a century, Kona coffee farmers have picked the beans by hand, nourished the soil and the crop and perfected precise growing, harvesting, drying and roasting techniques (all good, honest jobs for Hawai'i people) while also building reputations for some of the finest purest, gourmet coffee in the world.

Now, rather than protecting the Kona coffee trademark, we are giving away that history, culture and hard-earned reputation to coffee growers everywhere, as long as they blend in at least 10 percent true Kona coffee. Talk about false advertising!

The Kona coffee farmers have tried for years to convince the Hawai'i Legislature to only allow the prized crop to be called Kona coffee if it has at least 75 percent Kona-grown coffee in it, but the legislators always seem to have other priorities.

Farmers are now finding other ways to spread their message.

This year, the wahine farmers got up their courage and made a naked Kona farmer calendar. Yikes! It's actually tasteful as they duck behind farm equipment, cover their voluptuous breasts and expose their strong farmer arms with lei — made with fresh Hawai'i flowers, of course.

The women — who all sell 100-percent Kona coffee — have gotten quite a bit of notice and positive press for their fun and provocative Kona coffee supporting calendar.

Farmer Cea Smith said that champagne and a nice wahine photographer, Susan Dabritz of SeaPics.com, helped her lose her inhibitions in support of the cause. I met Cea Smith at her mother Annie Burns' funeral, and as we got to talking story about her mom's love of plants, animals, farming and Hawai'i, she humbly told me that she and her husband Bob, of Smithfarms, are longtime farmers of pure Kona coffee.

I buy it from them via the Internet and have it mailed to my home. It's the perfect gift for any occasion, or you can buy it to have a healthy gourmet treat for yourself and to support our local farmers.

Kona's climate and 'aina make for a perfect coffee. The rich volcanic soil is well-drained, steep and rocky, and the natural cloud cover that usually forms over Hualalai in the afternoon gives some shade to the coffee. While other places grow nurse-crop trees, like madre de cacao (the mother of chocolate), to shade the coffee plants, Kona has its own natural shade from the two great volcanoes towering above Kona: Hualalai and Mauna Loa.

As the French trademark their champagne or the great Bordeaux clarets or cognac, only this one area of Kona can produce the real thing. Every drop of the real thing is worth every penny we pay to reward the sweat, blood, tears and hard working living history of our Kona coffee farmers.

Becoming a pure Kona coffee connoisseur is easy: Look for 100-percent pure Kona coffee and buy, brew and drink only that.

Every November, the internationally famous coffee is celebrated at the Kona Coffee Cultural Festival, which lasts for 10 days. You can join and support our farmers and have some fun, too. Did you know that it's the oldest food festival in the United States?

You can learn about and purchase coffee or the calendar ($12 each, or less if you order in bulk and give to all your friends along with some pure coffee) at www.konacoffeefarmers.org or info@konacoffeefarmers.org.

Heidi Bornhorst is a sustainable-landscape consultant. Submit questions at islandlife@honoluluadvertiser.com or Island Life, The Advertiser, P.O. Box 3110, Honolulu, HI 96802. Letters may be published or distributed in print, electronic or other forms.