Building local, sustainable food communities on Hawai'i Island
• Find others for buying, selling, sharing, and learning | Farmers Markets
• Empower yourself and your community to become food self-reliant | Reports | Newsletter archive
• Learn about VICTree™ Gardens—HomeGrown Food Forests | Register your interest
It's all free and abundant, so dig in!
"The Ho'oulu ka 'Ulu Project.“
Ho'oulu ka 'Ulu is a project to revitalize 'ulu (breadfruit) as an attractive, delicious, nutritious, abundant, affordable, and culturally appropriate food which addresses Hawai'i's food security issues. It is well known that Hawai'i imports about 90% of its food, making it one of the most food insecure states in the nation. Additionally, since the economic downturn of 2008, many families lack access to affordable and nutritious food. We believe that breadfruit is a key to solving Hawaii's food security problems.
On March 21st the Holuakoa Gardens and Café in Holualoa hosted a Spring Equinox Slow Food 5-course dinner that used only locally sourced food. This meant foregoing bread, rice, pasta, and olive oil, among other dinner favorites. About 95% of the food was organically grown.
If you happen to be in Na'alehu on a Wednesday or Saturday morning, a stop at the Ka'u Farmers' Market is a must. The small community market is run by the non-profit organization Ka'u Mainstreet, and has been going strong for 8 years. "It all began on the first Saturday in December, 2001, when the Main Street Board met with four local farmers and arranged to set up stalls in Wai'ohinu park," said Ka'u Mainstreet president Marge Elwell.
Those of us who begin to raise food as a positive choice rather than a necessity may not know the basics, like when to start, effective carrying styles, or the rhythm babies within a gardening day. We have not observed our mothers doing this work. As industrialized women, we are missing huge chunks of basic subsistence education. So what do we do?
at Annual Hawai'i Sustainable Education Initiative Fundraiser
On the evening of December 10th the Hawai'i Sustainable Education Initiative (HSEI) held its Third Annual Fundraiser in our one-room school house in downtown Honoka'a amidst children's toys, student artwork, musical instruments, desks, chairs, overflowing bookshelves and a teacher's very messy desk. Over a hundred friends, parents, and students descended onto the scene to applaud student musical and hula performances, participate in a silent auction and sale of students' arts and crafts, listen to homegrown music, and most of all, whet their appetite and satisfy their stomachs on a complete locavore dinner.
The honey bee (Apis mellifera) is an important pollinator in Hawai'i. It was brought here first in 1857 and flourished in both wild and human-managed colonies. Many of our food plants rely on the honey bee for pollination to produce good crops, including macadamia nut, coffee, lychee, avocado, melons, and many more. Until recently, the honey bee has been relatively free of serious pests and diseases in Hawai'i, having been geographically isolated in the Hawaiian islands and protected by agricultural quarantine from new honey bee imports.
