USDA Announces Reimbursement Transportation Cost Program Payments and New Signup for Geographically Disadvantaged Farmers and Ranchers in Hawaii and the Pacific Basin. Contact: Diane Ley, State Executive Director for Hawaii and the Pacific Basin, (808) 441-2704. For complete announcement CLICK HERE.

Brynn Foster displays one of the taro products she has developed over the past few years.Brynn Foster started her personal voyage to develop healthy food products from indigenous Hawaiian crops in 2005. As a young mother, she was dedicated to finding healthy foods for her children. Motivated by a lack of commercially available teething biscuits free from refined sugar, diary, and gluten, Foster’s first product was a taro-based teething biscuit.

Harvest for a Marketless Monday, left to right in a circle (sort of): cane syrup, jackfruit, eggs, daikon, dried coconut, lilikoi, bananas, lime, yakon, sweet potato, air porato, orange, avocado, blue corn, peanuts, and papaya.

I moved to Hawai'i Island close to three years ago, straight from a desk job in a small city in the northwest U.S., to my lifetime dream of learning to live off the land. My kids were mostly grown, and I was disillusioned with the effectiveness of my job as an environmental health educator. I had a new partner who shared my desire to go "back to the garden." But unlike me, Dan had planned ahead and owned 20 acres off-grid along the Hamakua coast of the Big Island.

Renn and John Giblin and Shad Bennett of Ohana Farm.At an elevation of 1300 feet in Opihihale (near Captain Cook in South Kona) you will find Ohana Farm Orchards: 16 rehabilitated acres of 650 producing macadamia nut trees, 650 coffee trees that have been recently 'whipped into shape' and 42 Sharwil avocado trees, among other things.

Owners Renn and John Giblin, their daughter and son-in-law Carolina and Shad Bennett, and granddaughter Leyla have been taming the land and farming since they moved to the island in February 2012, a mere year and-a half ago.