For nearly five years we at the Hawai’i Homegrown Food Network have written about, photographed, given workshops on, sponsored festivals about, and generally promoted and advocated the growing, selling, buying and eating of local, sustainably grown food.

In presenting “sustainable farming” to our readers and viewers, we’ve featured organic farmers, biodynamic gardens, permaculture trainings, and when appropriate, traditional Hawaiian agriculture and the value of integrating ancient Polynesian farming methods with contemporary, scientific sustainable agriculture.

Sarah Ili with Hawaiian chili pepper water, seedlings and peppers.Hawai’i Homegrown Food Network (HHFN) correspondent, Rachel Laderman, met with Sarah Ili and talked with her about the chili pepper water she makes. There are many variations of this popular Hawaiian condiment. Sarah’s version is very straightforward – and very delicious. Sarah lives in Pepe’ekeo and works as a substitute teacher, then shares her all-local Hawaiian chili pepper water with family and friends.

HHFN: What goes into your hot chili pepper water?
Sarah: You use Hawaiian hot chili peppers (has to be that kind), limu kohu, and Hawaiian sea salt with red clay, which is called alaea.

HHFN: Does it have health benefits?
Sarah: Yes, it is good for iron, and the limu kohu has iodine. The alaea is good for strengthening and cleansing. It also replenishes your salt.

Honolulu Gourmet Foods restaurant at Paradise Palms Café on the University of Hawai‘i Mānoa campus serves locally grown prepared food at reasonable prices.Balancing being a mom and business entrepreneur, Jill Lee built Honolulu Gourmet Foods upon the counter-mainstream model of sourcing locally grown ingredients and making her products exclusively in Hawai‘i. “The cost of doing business is high in Hawai‘i. At the end of the day, am I proud of my products and our steady customer base confirms that there is a market for high quality, Hawai‘i-made products,” explains Lee.

Grazin’ at Kuahiwi Ranch

To be honest, I’m not so interested in food – as a commodity or a resource or even as a way to feed those who are hungry. What I mean is, I’m not so interested in the numbers – numbers of calories, pounds of product consumed, percentage of locally produced products, and so on. All of those are necessary and useful numbers. I have to pay attention to numbers because I have to produce so many pounds of beef each week in order to meet my customer’s needs consistently, or my business fails. So, I’m not saying that numbers are unimportant. Far from it. But the numbers are not what interest me, what keep me going day after day.

OnoPops produces a variety of flavors depending on local ingredient availabilty.

In 2010 brothers Josh Lanthier-Welch and Joe Welch established OnoPops, whose flagship product line consists of ice pops made from local and organic ingredients. Profoundly inspired by the patela tradition of ice and milk-based frozen pops in Latin America, the brothers based their product line on a marriage of the Mexican patela and Hawaiian regional cuisine. The result is an endless range of creative flavor combinations that changes continually based on which ingredients are available from local sources.