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Newsletter 18 - August 2010

Aloha!

In this edition, we continue with our farmer's market series by Sonia Martinez by highlighting the venerable 18-year-old, locally-grown Waimea Homestead Farmers Market. As a follow up to Jackie Prell's popular Natural Farming article that appeared in our March edition, this month Jackie contributed an article about making Natural Farming Inputs at home. Also, check out the report on Tim Lloyd's ingenious low-tech home gardening techniques workshop.

 

I addition to the calendar below, you can also follow events in a comprehensive calendar that is updated in real-time at the Hawai'i Homegrown Food Network web site. The Farmers' Market and Community Supported Agriculture page is also continuously updated.

We wish you the best in your local and sustainable food endeavors. Keep us posted!

A hui hou,

Craig Elevitch
Pedro Tama
http://hawaiihomegrown.net


Events

Saturday, July 24, 2010, 10:00am - 12:00pm, South Kohala
Composting Workshop

 

Saturday, July 24, 2010, 10 am – 2:30 PM, North Kona
Learn Aquaponics Now!

 

Saturday, July 24, 2010, 02:00pm - 04:00pm, North Kona
Composting Workshop

Sunday, July 25, 2010, 09:00am - 04:00pm, North Kona
Biochar for Self-Reliant Garden and Farm Abundance

 

Sunday, July 25, 2010, 01:00pm, Puna
At-Home Small Animal Butchering and Slaughtering Demonstration Class

 

Saturday, July 31, 2010, North Kona
Learn Aquaponics Now!

 

Saturday, July 31, 2010, 10:00am - 05:00pm, North Kona
Hawai'i Healing Garden Mango Festival

Sunday, August 01, 2010, 02:00pm, South Hilo
Slow Food Hawaii Mozzarella Workshop

Wednesday, August 04, 2010, 03:30pm - 05:00pm, South Kona
First Wednesday Coffee Talk - Cupping Your Coffee

Tuesday, August 10, 2010, 08:00pm, South Hilo
Natural Farming Monthly Meeting

 

Sunday, August 15, 2010, 09:00am - 12:00pm, Puna
Volcano Natural Farming Community Meeting

 

Monday, August 16, 2010 to Friday, August 20, 2010, South Hilo
International Workshop on Aquaponics & Tilapia

 

Monday, August 16, 2010, 07:00pm - 09:00pm, North Kona
Hawai'i Tropical Fruit Growers Meeting

From Saturday, August 28, to Sunday, August 29, 2010, Hamakua
Slow Food Hawaii Annual Waipio Campout 

Wednesday, September 01, 2010, 03:30pm - 05:00pm, South Kona
First Wednesday Coffee Talk -- Moisture Meters

Friday, September 10, 2010, 05:00pm - 08:00pm, South Kohala
Mealani "Taste of the Hawaiian Range" and Agricultural Festival

From Friday, September 24, to Sunday, September 26, 2010, Kaua‘i
20th Annual Hawai'i International Tropical Fruit Conference

From Saturday, September 25, 2010 to Friday, October 01, 2010, North Kohala
North Kohala Eat Locally Grown Campaign

Saturday, October 23, 2010, 09:00am - 03:00pm, Hamakua
4th Annual Hamakua Alive! Festival

 
 

View events calendar


Reports

Waimea Homestead Farmers Market
Waimea Homestead Farmers Market
For years, any time we passed by the Waimea Homestead Farmers Market site it was usually during a week day and the market was closed. A couple of months ago when we were on our way to the Kohala area on a Saturday, we decided to make a stop and check out the market. Two weeks later, a friend invited us to meet her at the market for breakfast. There is a breakfast tent she recommended and that is where we had a long breakfast while being introduced to some of her friends. The breakfast tent feels like the social hub of the market. Here you will find a bit of everything that is made fresh, including a delicious plate of Eggs Benedict. We have been back three times in the past two months!

Read more...


Master Cho (on left) instructs in IMO production at Hilo workshop.
Master Cho (on left) instructs in IMO production at Hilo workshop.
Natural Farming with Indigenous Microorganisms (IMO) is a method of farming using naturally occurring soil microorganisms that are deliberately collected and cultured. It has been practiced throughout Asia and Korea for centuries. It enhances soil fertility and plant nutrient uptake through the introduction and proliferation of beneficial soil microbes or mycorrhizae. The originator and founder of Natural Farming, Mr. Han Kyu Cho, has visited Hawaii several times and this practice is taking root, getting attention and support from the county and state as well as from many small-scale and commercial farmers.

Read more...


Tim Lloyd demonstrates the strength of a garden bench he made in a few minutes out of scrap materials.
Tim Lloyd demonstrates the strength of a garden bench he made in a few minutes out of scrap materials.
I must say I was more than a little skeptical. I had seen the flyer for the Self-Reliant Home Garden Techniques (June 16-17, 2010, Holualoa, North Kona) workshop with the photograph of the presenter, Tim Lloyd, standing on top of his “garden bench” (isn’t a garden bench something you sit on to enjoy the view and smell the flowers?) made out of a couple of pallets. I thought he might just be talented at balancing himself. And a pallet has lots of gaps between the slats—how would the soil stay in? And if it was lined with, say, plastic, how would it drain? Not to mention that the sides were only 3” high—what can you grow in 3” of soil, other than starts?

Read more...

 


Announcements

Demeter-certified coffee sought

Do you know any coffee growers that may be interested in wholesaling t, a majoro an American roaster and distributor? They would need to get Demeter certified.

Elizabeth Candelario, Marketing Director, Demeter USABoard Chair, Stellar Organic Certification Services
707.529.4412, www.demeter-usa.org
Join our Facebook fan page at: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Demeter-USA/115200118495672?ref=sgm

Call a Master Gardener!

Master Gardeners are volunteers at their respective Ag Depts in the local University across the country. We have an avid group of volunteers ready to answer your garden and plant questions right here on the BI. The Master Gardener office is located in the UH CTAHR office on Komohana in central Hilo.
The phone line is open Monday, Tuesday, and Fridays from 9am to Noon. Call 981-5199 with your garden questions.....


New CSA: Kuaiwi Farm in South Kona

 

HOFA-Certified Organic Veggies, fruits BE HEALTHY, EAT LOCAL. Baskets available weekly or bi-weekly ( every two weeks)  in the Kona districts.  Home Delivery from Captain Cook to Holualoa.  A typical basket will include:  Assortment of salad and cooking greens, plus one or two bags of other hardy veggies and fruits. We can work around allergies, and true dislikes to vegetables. We encourage our customers to try and taste these vegetables again, and check out new recipes.  Baskets can be personalized. Communicate with me by email about veggie and herb choices/preferences/dislikes etc.  Baskets $25.  Eggs $7/dozen extra (from our free ranging chickens fed on only certified organic feed and organic produce and organic nuts from our farm. NO GMO GRAIN; eggs are not certified organic).

Contact Una Greenaway, 33 years organic practices, 328-8888 or email, This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Other announcements


Specialty Crop of the Month

Local squash type grown at Ginger Hill Farm, Kealakekua.
Local squash type grown at Ginger Hill Farm, Kealakekua.
Whole fresh pumpkin and squash fruits are the primary product of commerce. Cooked squash may be canned or dried for storage. Seed can also be consumed. Flowers and tender vine tips of all edible types are sold and consumed as vegetables. Male flowers and vine tips provide a source of income for growers prior to fruits reaching marketable stage, although care should be taken to leave some male flowers as a pollen source for female flowers. Selective, judicial harvesting of young shoots should preserve and promote canopy development and is not expected to significantly reduce yields.

Read more...

 
 

 
 

Farmers' markets and Community Supported Agriculture (CSA)

 
Please visit our new comprehensive page dedicated to Hawai'i Island farmers' markets and Community Supported Agricuture.
 
 

Web Resources

New web site listings

Other web resources


Project Advisors

Amanda Rieux, teacher at Mala ‘Ai Culinary Garden at Waimea Middle School
Andrea Dean, project manager, How Hawaii Eats, Kapa‘au
Bruce Mathews, professor of Soil Science, UH Hilo
Deborah Ward, retired UH CTAHR extension agent and farmer, Kea‘au
Geoff Rauch, director of Know Your Farmer Alliance and farmer, Kapoho
Hector Valenzuela, vegetable crops extension specialist, UH Manoa
Jerry Konanui, mahi 'ai and educator, Pahoa
Joe Kassel, naturopathic physician and farmer, Holualoa
Ken Love, tropical fruit horticulture and marketing specialist, Captain Cook
Lyn Howe, director of Know Your Farmer Alliance and farmer, Kapoho
Mary Lynn Garner, Konawaena High School teacher and farmer, Kealakekua
Nancy Miller, marketing specialist and manager of Keauhou Farmers’ Market
Roen & Ken Hufford, Honopua Farm, managers, Hawaiian Homestead Farmers Market, Waimea
Ted Radovich, crop specialist, Sustainable Farming Systems Laboratory, UH Manoa

Supporting Organizations


Sponsors

 


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This newsletter is published by:

Hawai'i Homegrown Food Network
PO Box 428
Holualoa, Hawaii  96725  USA
Tel: 808-324-4427; Fax: 808-324-4129
E-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Web: http://hawaiihomegrown.net

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