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Newsletter 54 - August 2013

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Aloha!

You may have noticed that your local farmers market is a bit quieter than usual this time of year. Summer is the time when many Hawai’i residents like to travel. This is a reminder to enjoy and support the local farmers markets wherever you are. If you are home in Hawai’i, please remember to kokua your local farmers market to keep it going through the summer months.

Craig Elevitch and Pedro Tama
for the Hawai'i Homegrown Food Network
http://hawaiihomegrown.net
visit us on Facebook

Breadfruit tree in South Kona.


Events

Sunday, July 28, 2013, 02:00pm - 05:00pm, Hilo
Let's Grow Hilo Edible Landscaping Beautification Day

Sunday, August 04, 2013, 10:30 – 11:30 am, Hamakua
'Tour & Taste' at Hamakua Mushroom Farm                                         

Tuesday, August 06, 2013, 08:30 – 04:00pm, Kaua'i
Sprout Hawaii: Cultivating Hawaii’s Next Crop of Artisanal Producers

Thursday, August 08, 2013, 08:00am - 06:30pm, Maui
Sprout Hawaii: Cultivating Hawaii’s Next Crop of Artisanal Producers

Saturday, August 10, 2013, 08:00am - 06:30pm, O'ahu
Sprout Hawaii: Cultivating Hawaii’s Next Crop of Artisanal Producers

Tuesday, August 13, 2013, 06:00pm - 08:00pm, Hilo
Hilo Natural Farmers Monthly Meeting

Monday, August 19, 2013, 07:00pm - 09:00pm, North Kona
Hawaii Tropical Fruit Growers Meeting

Sunday, August 25, 2013, 02:00pm - 05:00pm, Hilo
Let's Grow Hilo Edible Landscaping Beautification Day

Sunday, September 15, 2013, 09:00am - 03:00pm, Kaua’i
Breadfruit Festival Takes Root

Friday, September 27 To Friday, October 04, 2013, All Islands
23rd Annual Hawaii Tropical Fruit Growers Conference

Friday, October 04, 2013, 06:00pm - 08:00pm, South Kohala
Mealani's Taste of the Hawaiian Range

From Saturday, October 12 To Sunday, December 15, 2013, Puna
Designing For Sustainability and Food Security

Monday, November 04, to Wednesday, November 06, 2013, Puna
Community Cup Tea Hawai'i Tour

Saturday, November 9, 2013, 08:30am - 12:00pm, South Kona
Breadfruit—from Tree to Table Workshop

Saturday, November 23, 2013, 11:00am – 05:00pm, Hilo
3rd Annual Honey Festival and Honey Challenge

Every Tuesday. 09:00am - 12:00pm, Puna
Hands in the Earth Practicum

Every Thursday. 09:00am - 12:00pm, Puna
Permaculture Classroom & Field Studies

View events calendar


Reports

Learning to Eat from the Land

Learningtoeat Laderman image003Harvest 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.

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Healthy taro products by Voyaging Foods

CI0A1224-CElevitchBrynn 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.

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Farmer Feature – Ohana Farm Orchards

OhanaFarmOrchardsShadRennJohn2Renn 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.

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Farmers' Markets and Community Supported Agriculture (CSA)

Visit our comprehensive directory of Hawai'i Island farmers' markets and Community Supported Agricuture.

Announcements

USDA Announces Transportation Cost Reimbursement

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.

Hawai'i Organic Food Industry Survey

The Kohala Center today launched a series of online surveys aimed at soliciting input and feedback from various sectors of Hawai'i's organic food industry. The surveys are accessible online at http://www.laulimacenter.org/organic_survey.htmlthrough Friday, August 2. The surveys are part of an initiative to determine the feasibility and potential roles of one or more organizations or agencies that would effectively support the growth and vitality of Hawai'i's organic industry. The initiative is supported by a grant from the Hawai'i Department of Agriculture. Farmers, producers, distributors, retailers, consumers, and agricultural professionals are encouraged to participate in one or more of the surveys. Participation is voluntary and anonymous. Data collected from the surveys will influence the development of solutions and recommendations to strengthen Hawai'i's organic industry.

New Organic Pastured Broiler Chicken Farm

Punachicks Farm is happy to announce that we will be raising organic pastured broiler chickens for the Big Island community. We are trying to fulfill a need that we saw for more local, wholesome alternatives to factory farmed supermarket chicken. Our first batches of whole dressed broilers will be available for pick up at our farm in Keaau on August 24 & August 31. We plan on having them available on a consistent basis (twice a month) after that. Our chickens are raised in small groups in portable pens that are moved daily to fresh pasture, so that they can enjoy green grass, bugs, fresh air, and sunshine. We believe this is a much better model than that used on confinement "factory farms", including "big organic" brands available in the supermarket. We raise and slaughter our chickens respectfully, which produces a very high quality product. One taste and you'll be hooked! Please visit our website www.punachicksfarm.com  to use our online order form, or email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Free Value-Added Guide for Hawai'i producers

craigkenA free 58-page guide entitled, Adding Value to Locally Grown Crops in Hawai'i: A Guide for Small Farm Enterprise Innovation is now available. Because of the high cost of labor, land, and materials in Hawai'i, family farms are only economically sustainable if they can produce high-quality products that are valued above cheap imports. This guide helps growers add value to all aspects of their farm enterprise and offers resources for further developing their strategies. "If you cherish the farming lifestyle and want to keep farming, you have to make your farm profitable. This guide goes a long way towards showing how to escape from the fatal trap of commoditization by adding value for the consumer," observes Dr. Kent Fleming, an extension economist who has developed numerous cost-of-production spreadsheets for the University of Hawai'i and other organizations worldwide.

New Hawai'i Agribusiness Guide Published

CTAHR and the Oahu Resource Conservation and Development Council have just published a basic guidebook for starting or improving your small farm business.  Called the Hawai'i Agribusiness Guidebook, it provides an overview of fundamental tasks for small farm businesses, especially in the area of finances, marketing and regulations.  For a free downloadable copy of the 94- page guidebook, Click Here.


Web Resources

This month's web site listings

Other web resources

Supporting Organizations


Sponsors

Hawai'i People's Fund and the Hawai'i Community Foundation

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Founding sponsors

Hawai'i County Resource Center, a program of the County of Hawai'i Department of Research and Development. Hawaii Agricultural Development Program in partnership with the Big Island RC&D Council.

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Agroforestry Net

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This newsletter is published by:

Hawai'i Homegrown Food Network
PO Box 5
Holualoa, Hawaii  96725  USA
E-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Web: http://hawaiihomegrown.net

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