Nursery at Tropical Edibles Nursery in Captain Cook.Tropical Edibles Nursery is almost hidden as you drive down Mamalahoa Highway south of Captain Cook. Located just south of mile marker 108 on the mauka side of the road, it is an impressive little oasis of calm beside the busy highway below.

The 1200 foot elevation, one-acre property, owned by Kamehameha Schools, had been leased for many years to a Japanese meditation group which did most of the original landscaping, along with planting a rock garden and building steps for the steep slopes of their "Meditation Garden".

The new agriculture recognizes how deeply intertwined our practice of agriculture is with the functioning and meaning of civilization.[The following article is reprinted with the kind permission of She Grows Food, a website dedicated to promoting locally grown food in Hawai'i, particularly food that is produced by women. See http://shegrowsfood.com]

A very long time ago in what is now south-central China, a little remembered civilization arose – the civilization of Chu – whose influence we can still feel today, as far removed as we are in time and space from that land and people. The echoes of Chu have been the spiritual underground – the Da Vinci Code – of East Asian civilization for millennia; the influence of Chu can be seen in the philosophy of Taoism, which in turn inspired that global spiritual phenomenon – a hybrid of Taoism and Buddhism – called Zen.

Eva Lee serves tea samples to shoppers at Waimea Town Market.Eva Lee and Chiu Leong founded Tea Hawaii & Company with an overarching vision of putting tea front and center as a Hawai‘i grown specialty crop. The couple has been growing and processing tea for over ten years and currently engages in all aspects of tea production: growing, processing, marketing, and education. Their products include several 100% Hawai‘i-grown single estate whole leaf teas including, “Forest White,” “Volcano Green,” “Mauka Oolong,” and “Makai Black.” The first two of these are grown and processed by Lee and Leong and the other two were carefully selected to be sold under the Tea Hawaii label (with the source estate clearly identified). The company also processes finished teas for other growers to sell under their own label. Based on their prominent role in promoting Hawai‘i grown tea, Lee and Leong provide product development services for other Hawai‘i tea farms, including consultation on a customized product line for the specific teas others grow. Additionally, Tea Hawaii propagates tea varieties and sells plants to other farmers and advises on tea horticulture.