Featuring Workshops, Film and, of course, Food!

If you like FOOD—growing it, cooking it, eating it, and talking about it—the North Kohala Eat Locally Grown Campaign has something for you! Farmers, ranchers, hunters, and fisherman in North Kohala provide our community with so many unique and delicious foods. In conjunction with the Kanu Hawai’i statewide Eat Local campaign, the North Kohala Eat Locally Grown Campaign encourages you to seek out, cook out, eat out, eat in, and generally celebrate our local foods September 25–October 2, 2010.

The Keauhou Farmers Market has been active for almost 4 years and has a list of impressive vendors on its roster. Located in the parking lot of the Keauhou Shopping Center in south Kailua-Kona on the leeward side of the island, it has become popular with not only locals but many tourists who stay at the two large resort hotels nearby. Sponsored by the Kona County Farm Bureau, the market has strict rules about the origins of the farm produce and products sold, and stresses that value-added products must contain a large percentage of locally grown ingredients.

Okay, now I am excited. Why? In a word, "biochar." In his introduction to this July 25, 2010 workshop, Craig Elevitch said that biochar will permanently change the way we do agriculture. Yes, it could very well help save ourselves from industrial, high-input agriculture, helping to rapidly repair the soil damage our species has caused while sequestering carbon for a very long time. Organic matter that might otherwise contribute to mounting landfills can also be diverted to the biochar process.

New project announcement—Your input requested

The Hawai'i Homegrown Food Network is pleased to announce Ho'oulu ka 'Ulu, a project to revitalize 'ulu (breadfruit) as an attractive, delicious, nutritious, abundant, affordable, and culturally appropriate food. Please help us assess the Hawai'i Island community's interest in reviving 'ulu by completing a 5-minute survey by Sunday, September 12, 2010. Your survey response is important to help us get started in the right direction on this essential work (and you could win a prize).