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The Last Harvest

HC&S offseason

PUUNENE — In the part of the Hawaiian Commercial & Sugar Co. mill where the process begins to break down sugar cane stalks, millwrights are working on a piece of equipment that will run around the clock once the harvesting starts. Called the knife, it has no blades but a ...

A last blessing

PUUNENE — After photos were snapped and the crowd of shaka-waving workers cleared out, Hawaiian Commercial & Sugar Co. employees Brady Borg and Donnie Tablang stayed behind, absorbed in a discussion over the leafy green stalks of cane that had been cut for Tuesday’s season-opening ...

Tournahaulers

Sixty tons of sugar cane stalks smolder in the dinosaur’s massive belly as it lumbers into the intersection and briefly spans all four lanes of highway before disappearing into the island night, tail end wobbling as it goes. Found only on Maui and soon to be extinct, the 14-foot-tall, ...

At the wheel of a Tournahauler

My most vivid memory from the first day I drove a Tournahauler has nothing to do with rumbling down a cane haul road. It was watching a cattle egret swallow a rat nearly as big as itself. “Naw, it’ll never get that down,” said the driver sitting next to me in the towering cab. “Too ...

Maui Brand

PUUNENE — Large amber-colored sugar crystals pour into containers like glistening jewels carefully handled by Maui Brand workers at the Puunene Mill. The label, owned by Hawaiian Commercial & Sugar Co., is well-known for its distinct appearance and natural taste, adding a ...

Feeling the burn

PUUNENE — Fermin Domingo points his gas blowtorch out the window of his dusty red truck and ignites the dried sugar cane. He then methodically drives 20 feet to light another stack of cane, then another and then another. Domingo and two other “fire boys” from Hawaiian Commercial ...