Hans was born in Berlin and spent his early professional life in the German Luftwaffe. He resigned his commission and became US Citizen in 1971. Graduate School (Claremont), University teaching and administration turned into 30 years in Los Angeles County, and included a decade as management consultant and software developer. An avid SCUBA diver for many decades, Hans had made frequent trips from L.A. to Kona for SCUBA safaris, and pretty much knew since 1982 that he wanted to live here.

Marsha, with her MBA from Columbia University in Finance, was, and still is, working as software developer specializing in accounting software applications for her clients from Atlanta to New York and Los Angeles. She is Microsoft certified everything, and is earning the money that Hans spends on building and running the farm.

It took twenty years of thinking, and a year and a half of study and learning, before we decided to buy 8 acres of jungle to build a Kona Coffee farm "from scratch". Hans had written a software program comparing all available data of 40 different properties in the Kona Coffee Belt. He interviewed 20 farmers, and interned with two of them before we knew that this is what we wanted to do long-term -- AND that we would be able to do it well. We were, and still are, wagering our lives’ savings, and all of our labor and psychic resources, to first start the farm and coffee business, and then to make them successful.

Kona’s chronic shortage of reliable and affordable agriculture labor made us realize that the farm would have to become, in essence, a one-man-operation. The farm can’t afford employees. We often use the help of temporary and voluntary farm interns, members of the international WWOOF program (Willing to Work On Organic Farms).Those good people are a true blessing to us, although motivating and training and supervising takes significant time and effort. But basically, we are mostly it: Marsha earns, Hans spends. And who is managing all of this? Well, our daughter Karen of course. Karen Johanna Lyman Eckert is now four years old, and she actually owns the place (just ask her).

David and Sarah Lyman were among the early Christian Missionaries to the Kingdom of Hawaii. They arrived in Hilo in 1832 from Boston, founded a school, built a church. Their house was the first (and is now the oldest) wood-frame structure on Hawaii. Today, the Lyman Mission House and Museum in Hilo tells their story and that of Hawaii. We named the farm after David and Sarah, because they are Karen’s sixth generation grandparents.

Lyman Kona Coffee Farms has a great location in the North Kona Coffee Belt. Our coffee growing conditions are ideal, our processing methods meticulous. We have two separate irrigation systems to give our tree the water they need, when they need it. At 2100 feet, we have a rare bonus of breathtaking ocean views. We have also built, and are operating, a four room, four bath BnB – the Mango Sunset Bed and Breakfast Inn. When Hans is not sitting on the tractor, he produces breakfasts for our guests or conducts Coffee Tours for them. When Marsha is not managing her clients’ accounting software systems or trying to keep up with Karen, she helps keep the place attractive.

Lyman Farms has about 3200 Coffea Arabica trees of the Kona Typica variety. We planted them in a 6 x 12 foot pattern so that we can use a tractor for mowing or foliar feeding. A "hog wire" fence keeps wild pigs from chewing up our water lines. For all of our years, we have been employing exclusively 100% organic practices: No pesticides, No herbicides, No petro-chemical fertilizers. We have gigantic mulch piles, we are composting; we are whacking, mowing and pulling weeds. We have planted cover crops. All of this is a lot more work and is more expensive than conventional farming. Hans frequently questions his sanity (as do all of his happily retired friends). We have also planted over 50 different types of tropical fruit trees, vines, and bushes. We have an organic herb- and vegetable garden. We expect to reach fruit independence in a couple of years. Of course we are also raising our own coffee seedlings (for replacements) in our nursery and cacao trees for chocolate experimentation.

We have our own state-of-the-art “wet mill” to process all of our coffee, our own 1600 square foot sun-drying deck, our own climate controlled storage container, and our own coffee roaster. Now our trees have reached full productivity. We are doing all of the processing, drying, storing, roasting and selling of our own product alone, here on our family farm.