First Community Harvest Hawai'i: Local Food and Fun!
Well…we did it! Planning for the first Community Harvest Hawaii was an exercise in trust. We were planning a large community food event where we didn’t know anything in advance. Important things such as how much food we would have to work with, what kind of food, and how many people were coming to eat, were all unknown! But in true Kohala community fashion everyone pitched in, we had a LOT of food and everyone got to eat and enjoy.
The community contributed:
- 30 pounds of taro
- 80 pounds of pumpkin
- 4 pounds of green beans
- 500 pounds of citrus (oranges, tangerines, pink grapefruit, lemons, limes)
- 175 coconuts
- 50 pounds of avocados
- 47 pounds of vegetables and herbs (beets, chard, parsley, eggplan, dandelion greens, green onions, collards, kale, purslane, sweet marjoram, spearmint, lemon verbena, rosemary, thyme, basil, edible flowers)
- 5 pounds of cassava
- 53 pounds of bananas
- 30 pounds of guava
- 9 pounds of papaya
- 4 pounds pineapple
- 130 pounds of beef
We made Hawaiian stew, taro in coconut milk, beef stir fry, beet/carrot/cassava patties, picked beets, pipikaula, poke style smoked meat, guava jam, guava catsup, fruit sorbet, mixed juice, coconut milk, dried fruits, fruit salad, li hing mui grapefruits and fruit smoothies!
A crowd of about 70 people enjoyed the meal and we made boxes of fresh, local food that were distributed through the Kohala Senior Nutrition program and the Food Basket.
Community Harvest Hawai'i is the second Saturday of every month from 10 am - 3 pm at the Kohala Intergenerational Center (behind Kamehameha Park Gym in Kapa'au). The next Community Harvest Day is set for Saturday, August 13th. The focus for August is on Filipino Food. If you have fruits and vegetables you want harvested, or a skill or recipe to share, please call Carol Fuertes at 889-5391. Your excess fruits and vegetables can also be dropped off on Friday, June 12thfrom 3 pm – 7 pm or on Saturday morning between 8 am and 10 am. Learn more at www.communityharvesthawaii.org.
Andrea Dean, MBA, of Sustainable Initiatives works with communities, businesses and non-profits on initiatives that enhance island economy, environment and community. Andrea is also the Special Projects Coordinator for the Hawai'i Homegrown Food Network, and co-coordinator of the Breadfruit Festival at AmyGreenwell Ethnobotanical Garden on September 24th. (This report is reprinted with kind permission from Community Harvest Hawai'i).