• Exotic Flower
  • Moonlight Blue
  • People Circle
  • Green Leaf

Community Gardening Kaua'i Style

alt
"Grow Your Food, Grow Your Future"

Sylvia Partridge moved to Kaua`i eight years ago, and is best known for her musical talents with two CDs out–Heaven is Waiting and Walking Home. She joined the Kilauea Community Garden to learn the answer to her question, “Where does my food come from?” Sylvia, like many of us, has easily navigated through the food pyramid, creating hundreds of meals, while maintaining a distance from the origins of the food on her plate. Today she has set about changing that. By immersing herself in the soil of Kauai’s north shore she is learning to distinguish between the weeds and the small papaya plants that she hopes will soon be lining her breakfast table with their fruit. One of Sylvia’s greatest pleasures is spending time with the other gardeners. “They are inspirational. They come here with a deep seated passion for the garden, the plants, and the land.”

Continue Reading

Print Email

Coffee—Specialty Crop Profile

Shade grown Kona coffee.
Shade grown Kona coffee berries.

The coffee seed, referred to as “bean,” is processed, roasted and brewed for beverages. The roasted beans and brewed coffee are also used in candies, desserts and savory dishes. Many uses for the fruit, seed, and by-products can be found. The fruit pulp can be dried and used to make tea, which contains caffeine and antioxidants. The fruit pulp is high in nitrogen and potassium and is used, fresh or composted, for fertilizer and to add organic matter to the soil. The parchment skins also add organic matter and are used as mulch in coffee orchards and around other plants.

Continue Reading

Print Email

Newsletter 27 - May 2011

Aloha!

Last week our subscriber list grew past 1,000 subscribers. We're very pleased with the slow and steady growth of the Hawai'i Homegrown Food Network.

Continue Reading

Print Email

The Taste of Freedom

Everything is connected
"Everything is connected...The solution to these problems can be found in your gardens and the plates you fill with the food you grow." (photo from Mala`ai: The Culinary Garden of Waimea Middle School)

A talk given by Tane Datta on March 26, 2011, at the first Localvore Dinner at the Keauhou Beach Resort, sponsored by the Kona County Farm Bureau.

Freedom

There just may be a connection between the thousands of people in almost every Middle Eastern country willing to die for freedom and self-determination, and the localvore movement in Hawai’i and other parts of the country.

The obvious connection is that our demand for oil has greatly contributed to the strength of oil tyrants of all political ideologies. The production and transportation of food create a significant portion of our oil demand. Our food system accounts for over 15% of our total energy use. To put this in perspective, on the mainland each person uses the energy equivalent of 400 gal of gasoline a year for the food they eat. It has got to be much more to get food to Hawai’i.

Continue Reading

Print Email

The Mid-Week Market at Anna Ranch

Mid-Week Market at Anna Ranch, Waimea.
Mid-Week Market at Anna Ranch, Waimea.

The Mid-Week Market at Anna Ranch opened in mid January of this year and it has already become a destination as well as a landmark. Located on the grounds of Anna Ranch in Waimea, in just a couple of months the market has almost filled to capacity. Vendors are selling locally-grown fresh produce, coffee, fresh baked bread, refreshing fruitsicles; Peruvian tamales and made-on-the-spot French style crepes from Le Magic Crepe Pan with fillings of your choice; Nancy Botticelli is offering beautiful handmade cards, another vendor has colorful homemade aprons in several styles as well as locally produced honey; and ‘The Orchid People’, Jennifer Snyder & Bob Harris, have a beautiful display of their blooming plants. 

Continue Reading

Print Email

Mala'ai School Garden Students Grow Herbs for New Iced Tea

When chef/owner Edwin Goto opened Village Burger Waimea a year ago, he staked his culinary reputation on a personal belief that the most delicious, wholesome foods are grown close to home.  His tiny fresh-from-scratch restaurant boasts a “low mileage” menu and even posts the miles to the farms and ranches that provide fresh hormone-free beef, locally caught fish, lettuces, tomatoes, mushrooms, strawberries, breads, and more.
Continue Reading

Print Email