Display window at Kea'au Natural Foods.Tucked into a corner of the Kea'au Shopping Center, right next to Ace Hardware, Kea'au Natural Foods is a small but very clean, bright and extremely well stocked and organized store. It has been in the present location since 1996 and seems to have constant traffic passing through its doors.

The original store was founded in 1983 by Alex Beamer in a small shopping center that used to sit across the street from the present site, where the McDonalds is now located. Present owner, Wes Fujii was working as manager in the original store and bought it about 6 years ago. Wes is a full time hands-on store owner, and his wife Claudine, who recently retired as branch manager of the Hilo Library, helps with the paperwork from home. He tells me he considers himself the "gatekeeper" of the store, using strict standards for personally approving everything that is sold. He knows his customers trust him to sell them only products he feels are safe and that he would feel happy about giving his own children. The two most important guidelines for choosing products to sell have to be quality and safety.

Roy Honda of South Kona.Roy Honda, Farmer
Roy Y. Honda Farm, Captain Cook, South Kona

Roy Honda started farming in 1997, specializing in oriental varieties of tomato and cucumber. He is best known for a tomato variety he grows that is a favorite in Japan. Originally he grew this variety to satisfy consumer demand in the Hawai‘i market, and now it has become his signature crop. Other crops include bitter melon, lettuce, squash, papaya, beans, and myoga (edible ginger flower).

In our modern era of endless conveniences and luxuries, we take bananas for granted, but until about 1900, few Westerners knew of their existence and even fewer had eaten them. In fact, bananas were the first tropical fruit to be mass produced for North American and European markets. Imagine those first bananas exhibited at the 1876 Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition, wrapped in foil and offered for ten cents apiece! On the opposite side of the world though, in Southeast Asia and New Guinea, villagers had been improving local banana landraces for millennia! Indeed, the seedless banana was one of the world’s first domesticated food plants, at least seven thousand years ago, in the New Guinea highlands.

Learn how to pick or buy fruit, cook, and prepare wonderful breadfruit dishes!

This new cookbook is essential for both novice and expert breadfruit cooks. It covers how to select fruit that will have the best taste and texture for the dish you are preparing. Then it covers the most important ways to cook breadfruit to eat plain (like potato) or use in various recipes. Finally, it presents 20 recipes selected from the last 25 years of breadfruit cookoffs and cooking contests in Hawai'i, allowing you to pick a perfect dish for any occasion.

Order the book now from Amazon.com or buy it at Breadfruit Festival Goes Bananas on September 29, 2012.

Locally grown food has just gotten more affordable and accessible on Hawai'i Island with eight farmers markets now accepting EBT.

EBT (Electronic Benefits Transfer) it is what SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, formerly called food stamps) recipients use to buy food.

In addition to the Hilo Farmers Market and S.P.A.C.E. Farmers Market in Puna, the following markets are now accepting EBT: Maku'u Farmers Market in Puna, Hilo Coffee Mill Farmers Market in Mountain View, Kino'ole Farmers Market in Hilo, Volcano Farmers Market in Volcano and Keauhou Farmers Market in Kona. The Hawi Farmers Market in North Kohala will begin to accept EBT in October.

Beyond growing food at home, you can support homegrown food by patronizing local vendors at farmer’s markets.

There are many options for supporting homegrown food in addition to growing your own food. Here is a summary of some of the best ways to eat locally and sustainably grown food.

Buy or trade for homegrown food from your neighbors. Neighborly exchange of food is an integral part of local culture in Hawai‘i, inspiring a sense of cohesive community.

Volunteer to help a neighbor with their garden. Sharing work with neighbors empowers them and thereby benefits the community as a whole.