Community Harvest Hawaii takes an idea intrinsic in Hawaiian culture - that of preparing and sharing food together - and creates a process that makes use of food that is currently going to waste in our community.

During a monthly “Community Harvest” day, community members are invited to bring their abundance from home - lemons, limes, tangerines, avocados, mangos, banana, etc.- to the Kohala Intergenerational Center to be processed. Local experts will be on hand to help facilitate the processing and preserving of the food, including freezing, canning, pickling, smoking, fermenting and dehydrating. The community will then enjoy a feast, everyone gets to take food home, and raw and processed food will be distributed to the community through the Food Basket and the Senior Nutrition Program. Local harvest teams will also be available to harvest fruit for Kupuna or other community members who would like assistance with harvesting and are willing to share their excess with the community.

This farmers market is a bit different from any other on Hawai’i Island for a couple of reasons. First, it is located on a farm; and second, there are only two vendors . . . but don’t discount it because it's different. This market opens every Tuesday and Friday from 2 to 5 in the afternoons -- perfect for both weekly and weekend shopping -- and supplies an abundant variety of its own farm-fresh vegetables. Plus goat cheese, coffee, honey, fruits and vanilla beans from other producers. 

Making friends with the neighborhood bullies

I'll tell you a secret: find ways to use the power of "invasive" plants and your life will get easier. This little article is intended just to get the conversation going.

Cane grass (Elephant grass, Pennisetum purpureum): We see the stuff all around, and it mostly brings to mind the thought of abandoned, underused land. In Puna, the papaya fields lie fallow in cycles of several years, and cane grass is usually the primary invader. This plant makes a thick, impenetrable barrier up to twelve feet tall. Cane grass grows readily from nodes, and seasonally disperses wind-blown seed. I have looked at cane grass as an annoying invasive plant pest...until I didn't.

The Ho’oulu Community Farmers Market, located on the grounds of the Keauhou Beach Resort/Outrigger Hotel, is a laid-back mid-week market. Opened only since last October on the hotel’s luau garden site, the Wednesday market hours are from 10 am to 3 pm. This market is sponsored by Na Wai Iwi Ola, a non-profit foundation that perpetuates Hawaiian customs and history, and by the Keauhou Beach Resort/Outrigger Hospitality Program. It focuses on vendors who sell only locally grown produce and fruits, coffee, macnuts, honey, eggs, preserves and other value-added products, as well as local artisan crafts.