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.

Well…we did it! Planning for the first Community Harvest Hawaii was an exercise in trust. We were planning a large community food event where we didn’t know anything in advance. Important things such as how much food we would have to work with, what kind of food, and how many people were coming to eat, were all unknown! But in true Kohala community fashion everyone pitched in, we had a LOT of food and everyone got to eat and enjoy.

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.

For one day every week an incredible abundance of food and good people come together to be sure that their community on the north shore of Kaua‘i is fed. For this group it’s not important who you are, how much or how little money you have. No one is standing there to check your credentials and decide if you need food. All you need to do is show up and share in the generosity and hospitality of the Church of the PacificFood 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.

Even though hundreds of potential new crops have been introduced to Hawai‘i during the past 200 years, few continue to be economically sustainable for family farms. This is due to the relatively high cost of labor, land, and materials in Hawai‘i, which gives an advantage to cheap imports. One way family farms can remain economically viable is to vertically integrate their operations, i.e., grow, harvest, process, package, and sell in ways that add value to their products. When planned and executed well, the time, effort, and resources put into adding value can increase profits along with revenue.