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Ka 'Ohi Nani Farm -- Featured CSA

Written by Sonia Martinez | 27 July 2011

Steve and Lark Willey at Ka 'Ohi Nani Farm in Waimea

“Ka ‘Ohi Nani”meansThe Beautiful Harvest, and Ka ‘Ohi Nani Farm in Waimea is very aptly named. Tucked into one of the many little lanes near Pu’u Kapu, and just off the main road on the Hamakua side of Waimea, the farm is as beautiful as the name implies. Owners Steve and Lark Willey are as dedicated to beauty as they are to the fruit of their labors.

The first sign of beauty in the garden is a six year old rose vine covered arbor entryway that serves as the portal to the official ‘garden,’ fields, and farm buildings. After parking we walked to the recently finished processing shed. Outfitted with a center table, shelving, counters, and sinks with running water, this is where all the produce is first brought to be cleaned and packed for distribution. 

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Hawai'i Homegrown Bites

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Beginning Organic Beekeeping Begins!

Written by Andrea Dean | 26 July 2011

Jenny Bach of Bee Love Apiaries co-taught the class with Richard Spiegel of Volcano Island Honey Co.

The Beginning Organic Beekeeping class taught by Richard Spiegel and Jenny Bach started on Saturday, July 9, 2011, with a new crop of 17 people—all enthusiastic about learning to work with the bees. The class meets every Saturday afternoon from 1 to 5 pm in July.

Class attendees are backyard gardeners and small farmers, most of whom are interested in keeping bees for pollination of trees and vegetables. Many people on Hawai‘i Island have reported noticing a decline in macadamia nut and fruit tree production that is attributed by horticulturists to  the loss of wild beehives. Wild hives have begun to decline as a result of the varroa mite bee parasite and other bee pathogens.

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Written by Colleen Carroll | 26 July 2011

Church of the Pacific Food Pantry Gives Away More Than Food (Part II)

"The first thing we give away is aloha, then love, then food." John Burkhouse, Po’oku Community Garden Coordinator.

Farmers from the north shore of Kauai bring food and plants for the Church of the Pacific food pantry.

It’s been just six months since I last visited Po‘oku Community Garden (see story here) and the garden has grown up to match the vision of its hardest workers, Gabrielle Pla and John Burkhouse. Several fantastic boons have fallen in the path of the garden -– garden angels they might be called. The first is Kevin, a former participant in the pantry who now dedicates his time to creating an organic garden filled with abundant, sustainable produce. Kevin takes the Kaua‘i Community College Growing Food Seminar Series and uses the Po‘oku Community Garden to employ new ideas from the class topped with his own gardening know-how. He is a big advocate of companion planting and uses plants that help each other out to get the nutrition they need. For example, he grew corn for the pantry and planted pole beans at the end of the season allowing them to ramble over the dying stalks and use the old corn as a prop while they decompose. Corn is a heavy nitrogen user and beans will put nitrogen right back in the soil.

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The University of Hawaii CTAHR has released six new extension publications on tropical fruit written by Ken Love and Dr. Robert Paull. The publications cover Rollina, Abiu, Jackfruit, Jaboticaba, Soursop and Bilimbi. Each includes a recipe and nutritional information as well as a cost of production analysis from Dr. Kent Fleming.  They are designed to help growers utilize small niche market crops enabling greater sustainability through diversity. Download the publications here. Hard copies of the publications will be available at the Hawaii Tropical Fruit Growers Conference held Sept. 9 to 11 in Kona and at extension offices around the state.

EXTENSION-LEVEL SUPPORT FOR INCREASING FARM INCOME AND PRODUCT DIVERSITY
 
NORTH KONA, HAWAI'I -- From Bamboo to Black Pepper, Cacao to Coconut and Tea to Taro -- Specialty Crops for Pacific Islands provides detailed cultivation, value-added, and marketing information for 27 of the most important specialty crops for Pacific Islands and other tropical locations.
 
Specialty crops provide a rapidly growing economic opportunity for innovative farmers and gardeners who are interested in diversifying their products. The book provides insights into sustainable cultivation and processing techniques for local and export markets with an emphasis on innovating production methods, postharvest processing, and marketing.
 
The producers of Specialty Crops for Pacific Islands have published two previous books on related subjects -- Traditional Trees for Pacific Islands and Agroforestry Guides for Pacific Islands. The new book promotes high-quality food, fiber, and healthcare crops grown in diverse agroforestry systems with an emphasis on providing small farms with opportunities for local consumption and commercial sale.  The book is illustrated with over 940 color images and each chapter highlights a different crop. Specialty Crops for Pacific Islands highlights producers from throughout the Pacific and shares their experience -- both their challenges and successes.
 
Specialty Crops for Pacific Islands is a reference book for gardeners and small farmers in the Pacific and throughout the tropics who are interested in new economic opportunities from specialty crops. The new resource book will be released July 2011 and covers 27 important specialty crops, value-added processing, enterprise development, accessing unique markets, sustainable local food production, economic and ecological viability, multi-crop agroforestry systems and local systems with export potential.
 
Visit http://agroforestry.net/scps/scpsbookpi.html for further information and to place a preorder for the book at a special price through August 3, 2011.