Kohala Farm-to-Fork Tour
Taro growing at Palili 'o Kohala, a cooperative farm headed by David Fuertes.On Saturday, February 2, North Kohala Eat Locally Grown hosted a Farm-to-Fork Tour of three farms on Ho'ea Road. Lokahi Farm, Palili 'O Kohala and Sage Farms opened their gates to the North Kohala community and visitors from all around Hawaii Island for a taste of the agricultural scene in and around Hawi.
The tour began at Lokahi Farm, a tropical botanical garden and working organic farm where Richard Liebmann and Natalie Young are fusing farming with the healing arts. Our hosts led us through the farm's diverse plantings (crops include asparagus, dragon fruit, and horseradish) and showed us the farm's research plot of medicinal plants. We were amazed by the diversity of plants grown at Lokahi—from recognizable daily fare, to edible flowers and healing herbs.
We were treated to two tastes of the farm's prolific cassava crop: homemade cassava fritters with vegan pesto and a sweet tapioca and coconut pudding. Richard and Natalie also allowed us to sample dried ginger chips sweetened with fresh sugar-cane juice. It's a new product that the farm is developing! Our visit to Lokahi ended tea made of relaxing herbs from their garden.
The next stop on our tour was Palili 'O Kohala, a taro-growing cooperative project headed by David Fuertes. His project brings 10 families together to work their own portion of land and support each other during times of planting and harvesting. We learned about the Korean Natural Farming methods that Palili 'O Kohala uses to improve their yields, and were fascinated by the natural "potions" David feeds to the plants.
David shared with us that the cooperative plans to add more families on new land holdings, and will begin raising pigs in the near future. Through their expansion, they are working toward the North Kohala Community Development Plan goal to produce 50% of the food the community consumes. As an example, we snacked on steamed purple sweet potato, along with taro chunks cooked in coconut milk.
Vegetable fields at Lokahi Farm.Our final stop was Sage Farms, where Ben Nicholson led us through his fields while explaining his farming philosophy. His cover crop for the fallow rows consists of a variety of common vegetables and herbs (beets, kale, mustard greens, chard, basil, cilantro, parsley, etc.), all from his own seed. He explained that the added benefit of seeing what does well before it's plowed under is that he knows what that soil is ready to support. Among many bits of wisdom, he encouraged us to just keep putting seeds in the ground in our own gardens, to observe, and learn from the results.
Fara Boisvert had prepared a lovely spread of farm-fresh appetizers, which included three pesto varieties on tortilla chips, crackers and assorted jams. We were also offered Sage Farms' spring greens with lilikoi vinaigrette, along with fresh coconut water and lilikoi lemonade.
The North Kohala Eat Locally Grown Campaign and Sustainable Kohala will co-sponsor another Kohala Farm-to-Fork Tour on Saturday, April 6 at 'Iole. Keep up with events at www.foodhubkohala.org and join us as we continue to learn what it means to "eat local" in North Kohala.
Karla Heath, now back home in the Islands, is setting roots in North Kohala, and adventuring in the kitchen, the garden, and with her flock of ducks. She is Project Assistant at Sustainable Initiatives, combining research and writing with her appreciation for all things homegrown and handmade.