Sustainable Initiatives by Andrea Dean

Food From Friends: Day 7- My Experiments with Food Truth- 60 Days of Eating Locally Grown

Today food was falling from the kind hands of friends.

Jeff Johnson from Ohia Fields Farm (on facebook here) read in my blog about my “Condiment Cheat Clause” and came to the rescue by sending me some Green Tomato Ketchup. From the Ohia Fields Farm listing on Local Harvest, “We are committed to following our dream of helping the Big Island move toward food independence by providing affordable and healthy food for the local community.” Right on Jeff and Miliana Johnson! Thanks for providing a healthy, locally made product for me! I can hardly wait to visit the farm and purchase some of your locally grown veggies, meats and eggs. I don’t normally eat meat, but in the context of this experiment and because your sounds so good, I just might give it a try.

Eddie Pollock picked up a dozen eggs for me from Karl Toubman and Kathie Pomeroy’s place. Eggs are pretty important to me right now. They are a major protein source and the glue in taro patties, pies (and I use that term loosely), and custards (a dessert that can be made with all locally grown ingredients.)

And as if that was not enough abundance for one day…my neighbors Joe Ayers and Collen Nevins sent green beans, cherry tomatoes, green onions and a green chili home with my son for me. The green beans were crisp and delicious, the tomatoes juicy and the chili hot.

I steamed the green beans with some corn and drowned it in Hula Cows butter. My husband made an opihi, green onion and tomato dish that was surprisingly savory.

Mangoes: Day 6- My Experiments with Food Truth- 60 Days of Eating Locally Grown

Mango, the most divine of all foods. Who needs other local foods when there is mango? Really!

I can only arouse your appetite for divine fruit. Why don’t you get busy and take a bite?- Paramahansa Yogananda

The Fruit of Prayer

The fruit of silence is prayer
the fruit of prayer is faith
the fruit of faith is love
the fruit of love is service
the fruit of service is peace.
– Mother Theresa

An excerpt from Autobiography of a Yogi by Paramahansa Yogananda

Our way now led east through sun-baked rice fields into the Burdwan section of Bengal. On through roads lined with dense vegetation; the songs of the maynas and the stripe-throated bulbuls streamed out from trees with huge, umbrellalike branches. A bullock cart now and then, the rini, rini, manju, manju squeak of its axle and iron-shod wooden wheels contrasting sharply in mind with the swish, swish of auto tires over the aristocratic asphalt of the cities.

“Dick, halt!” My sudden request brought a jolting protest from the Ford. “That overburdened mango tree is fairly shouting an invitation!”

The five of us dashed like children to the mango-strewn earth; the tree had benevolently shed its fruits as they had ripened.

“Full many a mango is born to lie unseen,” I paraphrased, “and waste its sweetness on the stony ground.”

“Nothing like this in America, Swamiji, eh?” laughed Sailesh Mazumdar, one of my Bengali students.

“No,” I admitted, covered with mango juice and contentment. “How I have missed this fruit in the West! A Hindu’s heaven without mangoes is inconceivable!”

I picked up a rock and downed a proud beauty hidden on the highest limb.

“Dick,” I asked between bites of ambrosia, warm with the tropical sun, “are all the cameras in the car?”

“Yes, sir; in the baggage compartment.”

“If Giri Bala proves to be a true saint, I want to write about her in the West. A Hindu yogini with such inspiring powers should not live and die unknownlike most of these mangoes.”

Half an hour later I was still strolling in the sylvan peace.

“Sir,” Mr. Wright remarked, “we should reach Giri Bala before the sun sets, to have enough light for photographs.” He added with a grin, “The Westerners are a skeptical lot; we can’t expect them to believe in the lady without any pictures!”

This bit of wisdom was indisputable; I turned my back on temptation and reentered the car.

“You are right, Dick,” I sighed as we sped along, “I sacrifice the mango paradise on the altar of Western realism. Photographs we must have!”

The road became more and more sickly: wrinkles of ruts, boils of hardened clay, the sad infirmities of old age! Our group dismounted occasionally to allow Mr. Wright to more easily maneuver the Ford, which the four of us pushed from behind.

“Lambadar Babu spoke truly,” Sailesh acknowledged. “The car is not carrying us; we are carrying the car!”

Our climb-in, climb-out auto tedium was beguiled ever and anon by the appearance of a village, each one a scene of quaint simplicity.

Saturday September 11th 2010
Fundamental: the farming functions of Nature
Sunday September 12th 2010
Advanced: the farming function of Humans

Presented by Drake
Hawai’i native trained by world renowned experts in Natural Farming.

Zero Waste Picnic lunch bring your own food and utensils.. Be prepared
to explore around outside in the sun. The Fundamental session is a
prerequisite for attending the Advanced session.

$10 donation is appreciated to fund further learning series
To register log on to www.localgarden.us any questions call 889-5641

Butter, baby: Day 5- My Experiments with Food Truth- 60 Days of Eating Locally Grown
It’s a good day on the local foods front when one scored LOCALLY MADE BUTTER! I saw local butter on Vivienne Aronowitz’s Eat Local Week Menu Ideas, but I didn’t know where to score it. A fortuituos meeting with Mala’ai Garden leader Amada Rieux brought me to the butter. Amanda led the way to Tropical Dreams Ice Cream at the Lalamilo Farms lots where I met Kevin Cabrera of Sandwich Isle Bread Company (No I didn’t eat the bread, although, believe me, I wanted it BAD). Kevin’s wife Kay Cabrera is making the butter, brand name Hula Cow, with Tropical Dreams. Tropical Dreams, by the way, makes delicious ice cream from cream from local dairies and local fruit! What better way to enjoy this creamy butter but on fresh local corn? (I admit I did eat a big glob off a butter knife first, it’s that good.)





You can buy the butter in Waimea on Saturday at the Parker School Farmer’s Market, Tuesday afternoon at Kekela Farms (down Mana Road on the left) and if you catch someone there at the Tropical Dreams office at the Lalamilo Farm Lots.

Sweet and Dry: Day 4- My Experiments with Food Truth- 60 Days of Eating Locally Grown


Solved the problem of the local buzz today when some friends gave me some mead- sweet, dry and rose. I will report back when I imbibe. I also scored some homemade lilikoi jam and a huge taro root. Not having bread or crackers is a bit of a challenge, I am dying to put the lilikoi jam on a cracker! Anyone have any kiawe, ulu or taro flour?


The biggest challenge I am having so far is really one of preference, not of availability of food. There is plenty of local food available- and a wide variety at that- but what I want is another story. Sure, I can have poi with honey for breakfast, but will I continue to do that? Unlikely. I will probably go back to toast. That being said, eating no processed foods makes me realize how eay it is to slip into a diet that has way too much bread and pasta going on. I am feeling great- lighter and stronger.


What I ate today:
-Mountain Apple brand Eggs Omelet with kale, Hamakua mushrooms, Puna goat feta, basil and green onions
-Carrot-ginger soup
-Opihi
-Crabs
-Spinach salad
-Mango
-Steamed Soybeans
-Cucumber with goat cheese
-Sautéed Eggplant