Sustainable Initiatives by Andrea Dean

On January 8th local farmers came together with local restaurant owners who wanted to buy produce for North Kohala Eat Locally Grown Day (Sat., Jan 16th). The restaurant owners initiated the Buyer’s Market because they felt that a “face to face” buyer/seller market was important for community building, that meeting in person would help create new relationships with growers, and build upon existing relationships. And it worked! Produce was sold, new relationships were made, plans for the future were discussed!


Come to North Kohala Eat Locally Grown Day on Saturday, January 16th
-Restaurants will create specials using North Kohala produce, fish, and meats, and will incorporate as much North Kohala grown food as possible into their existing menus. Menus and signage will highlight the locals foods and farmers.
-Takata’s (our local food store) will be highlighting the local food they usually carry. In addition, Marc Kinoshita (Kukuipahu Ranch) has arranged for their farm to donate locally grown produce to Takata’s for that day and proceeds from the sales will go to the North Kohala Community Resource Center.
-The Hawi Farmers Market will have a “Made in Kohala” and “Grown in Kohala” tent on that day for local farmers (homesteads and commercial farms) to come and sell. They are also having a kohala grown plant give away.
-Kava Kafe will have a closing party featuring local Kava, local food and local music.
-Sushi Rock is having Studio 54- the after, after party!


Why are we doing this?
-Create more connections between local growers and local buyers, with an eye towards growing our local, sustainable, agricultural economy.
-Raise awareness in North Kohala about eating locally grown foods- the economic, health and community benefits. To ultimately create more local consumer demand for local foods.
-Support local restaurants and markets: Bring people to North Kohala on that day and encourage residents to eat/shop locally on that day.

Restaurant/Market Participants
Bamboo
Sushi Rock
Kohala Coffee Mill
Luke’s Place
Kava Kafe
Pico’s
Fig’s Mixed Plate
Hawi Farmers Market
Takata’s

In this podcast I interview Tom Baldwin. Tom and his wife Shannon Casey own Uluwehi Farm, a permaculture farm in North Kohala on the Big Island. Tom talks about what permaculture is and how it helps farms and homesteads to be more productive. Tom just got back from a trip to Australia where he sat at the feet of the permaculture master- Bill Mollison, the founder of the permaculture system. Tom will be sharing that new knowledge and his permaculture farm experience in January when he is co-teaching a Permaculture Design Certification course with Craig Elevitch and Nik Bertulis, the course starts Jan 5th.


If you are an itunes user, you can subscribe to my podcast through itunes and receive automatic weekly updates. Or you can listen below:

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Check out my article The “Cool Factor” Bonds Youth and Farming in the November-December issue of Ke Ola Magazine.


The article is about the Uluwehi Farms / Hawaii Youth Agriculture Project CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) in North Kohala. The project is growing food and farmers.


One of our “green businesses” in Hawaii is farming, but the high cost of land and inputs, and the low cost of imported food, have driven many farmers off the land. It is generally agreed that in order to re-localize our food production we need to have more farmers, and that means making farming an attractive and financially viable career option for our youth. Dashiell Kuhr of Uluwehi Farms / Hawaii Youth Agriculture Project / The Kohala Center (growing food and farmers takes many hands!) is one of the people helping to foster agricultural entrepreneurship among youth on Hawai’i Island.


Related Links:
North Kohala Food Forum
Hawaii Island School Garden Network
Hawaii Homegrown Food Network
Podcast on the Kohala Center’s Food Self-Reliance Program

Check out my new story in this month’s Innov8 magazine (the Go!/Mokulele in flight magazine) about The Natural Step framework.  The Natural Step is a framework/process that helps companies and communities plan for sustainability.  The County of Hawaii just adopted The Natural Step as it’s framework for sustainability planning.

In this podcast I interview Tyler Mongan, Founder and Publisher of the Honu Guide- a guide for sustainable living in Hawaii. The Honu Guide is a resource book that is published once a year. The Honu Guide features well written articles on sustainability issues in Hawaii, and has a coupon book and resource directory that links people to green goods, services and organizations. Their distribution model is also innovative- organizations can sell the guide as a fundraiser for their organization. Schools take note- the Honu Guide is much healthier than a Krispy Kreme doughnut fundraiser! As a green business owner and writer- I think the Honu Guide is a great way to get the word out about my work.


If you are an itunes user, you can subscribe to my podcast through itunes and receive automatic weekly updates. Or you can listen below:

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Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 10:37 — 2.9MB)