Ken Love speaks to a group of enthusiastic workshop participants in Kalaheo, Kaua'i on March 27, 2013.During the last two weeks of March, over two hundred island residents took part in a statewide workshop series to educate small-scale farmers and producers about adding value to their enterprises. The workshops, sponsored by the State of Hawai'i Department of Agriculture Specialty Crops Program, were presented by Craig Elevitch and Ken Love, Hawai'i Island locals and leaders of the sustainable food movement in Hawai'i.

The workshop, "Value-Added Innovation for Hawai'i Growers: Making the Family Farm Profitable" focused on ways to enhance locally grown and produced products in order to create more profitable and sustainable small agricultural businesses in Hawai'i. Workshops were held in Hilo and Kona, as well as on Kaua'i, O'ahu, and Maui, and registration was free of charge.

Tom Palusak, Produce Manager of Choice Mart in Captain Cook.When Tom Palusak started working as produce manager in 2007, he felt it was important that local produce was well represented in Choice Mart’s offerings. Many of the store’s customers are local farmers from the area, and it was only natural and appropriate to give customers the opportunity to buy local. Four years later, about 50% of Choice Mart’s produce comes from Hawai‘i farmers.

The second Puna ‘Ulu Festival 'Ulu a me Niu—Celebrating Breadfruit and Coconut!.

The second annual Puna ‘Ulu Festival took place Saturday, March 2, 2013 at Kua O Ka Lā Public Charter School in Puna. Over 2,500 people attended the event this year, which included many well-attended cultural practitioner demonstration, games, chef demos, a cooking contest, and much more.

See the captioned festival slideshow here.

Ken Love, of Love Farms, Captain Cook, South KonaKen Love has 35 years experience as an agricultural producer, processor, chef, and educator. His specialty is tropical fruits. Although Ken and his wife Margy sold their farm a number of years ago, Ken harvests fruits from several farms and sell dozens of tropical fruits, both fresh and in processed products. He has a number of test fields at the UH experiment station and manages other farms. Love’s policy is to diversify his markets, rather than relying on just one or two. His markets include a local produce distributor, supermarket, hotels, chefs, and direct to consumers at the farmers market and through Internet sales. By diversifying market outlets from low-end wholesale to high-end chefs, Love can usually count on selling all of his harvests, whether they are 10, 100, or 1000 lbs.