On January 23-24, 2010, Maui Aloha Aina Association presented a conference on "Culturing the Micro-Flora of the Body and the Soil" at Waiaha Farm in Holualoa, North Kona. Four experts presented at the conference, assembled from Acres USA and the Westin A Price conference held each year on the mainland.
Sweetpotato has a wide range of uses, including foods, beverages, medicines, ceremonial and household objects, fishing bait, and animal feed.
Foods. Sweetpotato is baked or steamed in jackets in ovens to eat as a carbohydrate. Cooked sweetpotatoes may be peeled, mashed, and mixed with water to form a paste. Raw, peeled sweetpotatoes may be grated and mixed with coconut milk and served as a dessert after wrapping them in leaves and baking. Young leaves growing near the apex of vines are cooked as greens, sometimes in coconut milk.
The International Organic Inspectors Association (IOIA) and Hawaii Organic Farmers Association (HOFA) will offer Basic Organic Farm (Crop) Inspector Training to be held January 25-29, 2011, (4 ½ days) and Process and Handling Inspector Training to be held February 1-5, 2011, (4 ½ days) in Hilo, HI on the Big Island. Registration deadline is December 12, 2010
If you are presently an organic inspector or are interested in becoming an organic inspector, attendance is highly recommended. The course is also appropriate for certification agency review committee members, county extension agents, regulatory agency staff, organic processors and industry activists in order to better understand the organic inspection and certification process.
In April, 2009, Dr. Ted Radovich, Extension Specialist at CTAHR's Sustainable and Organic Farming Systems Laboratory, became the newly designated Coordinator of the Western Region Sustainable Agriculture, Research and Education (WSARE) program. The WSARE Program annually offers several grant programs for innovative sustainable agriculture projects. Dr. Radovich is a strong proponent of research in organic growing methods and improving soil fertility.
The honey bee (Apis mellifera) is an important pollinator in Hawai'i. It was brought here first in 1857 and flourished in both wild and human-managed colonies. Many of our food plants rely on the honey bee for pollination to produce good crops, including macadamia nut, coffee, lychee, avocado, melons, and many more. Until recently, the honey bee has been relatively free of serious pests and diseases in Hawai'i, having been geographically isolated in the Hawaiian islands and protected by agricultural quarantine from new honey bee imports.
Those of us who begin to raise food as a positive choice rather than a necessity may not know the basics, like when to start, effective carrying styles, or the rhythm babies within a gardening day. We have not observed our mothers doing this work. As industrialized women, we are missing huge chunks of basic subsistence education. So what do we do?
