Kino'ole Market, Hilo

The Kino’ole Farmers Market in southern Hilo has a big advantage over other similar markets on the windward side of Hawai’i Island. It is situated in the parking lot of the State Employment Office off Kino'ole St. with ample parking space all around, and plenty of space for shoppers to stroll between the booths without feeling crowded. This is a big consideration when you live on the rainy side of the island and umbrellas are a necessary accessory!

At the Kino’ole market you can buy a wide variety of farm-fresh produce, baked goods, and horticulture products. There is a colorful selection of fresh vegetables and fruits; hot homemade soups; fresh baked breads and pastries; locally made taro chips and cookies; veggie and herb starts; and flowers and plants. A center tent is always set up for well attended weekly presentations of Chi Gong, a Chinese exercise meditation that is similar to Tai Chi. The tent is also used from time to time for workshops, lectures and cooking demonstrations.

Life-long gardener Margaret Krimm of Honaunau teaches Julia Rosenkranz about compost.

Over 85% of the food Hawaii islanders consume is being grown, harvested, processed, packaged, stored on, and shipped from the U.S. mainland and other countries thousands of miles away. We rely on our food to be transported to us on a daily basis. This immense international food system has offered us cheap and abundant food for decades. With rising fuel costs, many people are now asking if we can count on the current system to continue to provide Hawai‘i with a constant and safe source of nutritious and affordable food.

Mangosteen is known as the "Queen of Fruit."

Mangosteen is primarily consumed as a fresh fruit. The fruit is common delicacy and often referred to as the “Queen of Fruit” in Southeast Asia. The volume of production is increasing in Thailand and fruit is now being processed into value-added products such as jam, candy, and wine. In traditional communities, the fruit pericarp (rind) was used as an antibacterial agent and for curing diarrhea. The use of the fruit rind and or whole fruit as a medicinal/nutri­ceutical beverage has been a recent trend in western societ­ies. Mangosteen extracts and processed products have now entered the worldwide health food and nutritional supplement market. The timber, dark red in colour, is used when available in cabinet making and where a heavy durable wood is required.

Aloha!

Aloha!

If you haven't already done so, please check out the brand new Hawai'i Homegrown Food Network web site. Content from this newsletter and all past editions is posted there. Plus, the web site gives you new resources and features:

• An events calendar that is updated as new announcements come in, rather than only monthly in the newsletter.
• Brand new and archived events reports, publication reviews, featured organizations, videos & dvds, announcements, etc.
• A community page where you can find other people interested in local and sustainble food and interact with them.
• Site members (it's free to become a member) can submit events, reports, and announcements using online forms.
• And much more.

Master Cho mixes it up with research results, philosophy, and humor at the Feb. 26 - March 4, 2010 workshop in Hilo.

What if the best fertilizer was under your feet? What if you could make a product similar to EM and Bokashi simply and cheaply? Well, you can. It’s been happening in South Korea for decades and we have been fortunate to learn the basics here in Hawaii. Four years ago we bought a farm on the Big Island with soil that was flooded for more than seventy years with herbicides, fungicides, and arsenic: the usual arsenal of chemicals used by ginger, sweet potato and sugarcane growers. We were excited to be on land with soil, not just lava rock, common on the Big Island, but were immediately dismayed to see and feel the soil close-up: dry, lifeless powder, not a worm to be found. Our first crops struggled against weeds and pests. Then, a year and a half ago we were introduced to Natural Farming with Indigenous Microorganisms (IMO’s) and we are seeing amazing improvements in our soil structure and plant health. Wherever we put down our homemade, mycorrhizae-rich, “fertility drug” as my husband calls it, the soil regains its loaminess, tilth and structure, and the earthworms come in droves.