Sustainable Initiatives by Andrea Dean

Something in me is Changing: Day 25- My Experiments with Food Truth- 60 Days of Eating Locally Grown


Today I needed to feel the earth and reach into the center of myself. Too much time on the computer connects me to others but leaves me feeling slightly disconnected from myself.


Some say that it takes 30 days to change a habit. I don’t whether that is true or not, but I can say that today, at day 25, I feel changed. My body feels great. I feel light. I feel comfortable in my skin. Good in my clothes. I was craving taro. My relationship with food has altered. I made a salad for myself and saw it as truly beautiful. And it tasted so good.


Despite all of this attention that I am placing on food at the moment, I am usually a very utilitarian eater. Eating is something that I do to maintain my body. In my spare time. Often while driving or working on the computer.


I think I eat a healthy, fruit and vegetable diet, but I fear that the slippery slope of bread and cheese dominate my diet more than I care to admit, or notice. I am so busy that I often reach for fast and convenient. Eating 100% fresh, not prepared foods requires more preparation time. Washing, cutting, cooking. Making fresh dressings and salsas. Pouring off the taro water multiple times. The term Slow Food definitely applies.


Am I so unusual? Eating 100% locally grown has forced me to hold up a mirror to myself to see what I have been eating. What I do in my mind and what I do in reality are two different things. I went to the CDC’s Fruit and Veggies Matter website and entered in my age, sex and level of physical activity and it popped out the following recommendation:

5.5 cups of fruits and vegetables a day is actually a lot for me. It is pretty hard for me to achieve unless I maintain a tight focus on fruits and vegetables. Not toast and eggs for breakfast. Fruit. Not a sandwich with lettuce on it for lunch. A salad, roasted vegetables. Not cookies and chocolate (that one hurts) and kashi bars for snacks. Dried fruit, fresh fruit. A cup of tea.


Last night my husband made a birthday cake for my son. I was not even tempted. Not even the haupia ice cream was as interesting to me as maintaining this feeling that I have. Clean. Clear. Full of energy.


There is disciple involved in this endeavor. But I am a strange lover of self imposed disciple. Wherever there is discipline I am learning and growing.

Abalone, Salt and More at Fish Farmers Market: Day 22- My Experiments with Food Truth- 60 Days of Eating Locally Grown


Join the Eat Local Challenge (Sept. 25 – Oct. 3) for a meal, a day or a week!


This afternoon I went down to the Fish Farmers Market at NELHA. NELHA stands for the Natural Energy Lab of Hawaii Authority and is home to a variety of aquaculture, renewable energy, science and educational ventures. The primary attractions are access to deep sea water (which is pumped up to NELHA) and abundant sunshine. Tenants grow abalone, hirame (Japanese flounder), shrimp, Kona Kampachi and probably more that I don’t know about. In addition to farmed fish, Bite Me! was selling wild caught ahi, mahi, ono and opakapaka. Sadly, the lobster tail and crab that Kona Cold Lobster was selling was imported from the mainland. Of course the best way to obtain lobster is to have some hunky man crawl out of the dark sea, lobster in hand. The lack of local lobster was made up for by the presence of Big Island Abalone. I have only rarely eaten abalone. The last time I thought I had abalone was at Roy’s. It was served with mushrooms and I thought I was eating the abalone, but it turned out that I was only eating the mushrooms and my friend had eaten all of the abalone.





My friend Guy Toyama stoked me out by giving me some Kona Sea Salt, which is also made at NELHA by dehydrating the deep sea water. It is a really delicious gourmet finishing salt- meaning you don’t cook with it, you add it on at the end.





Lotus Cafe’s Howie Simon was also at the market selling fresh pressed sugar cane juice with ginger and lime, lilikoi juice and heirloom tomatoes. The Lotus Cafe tries to be as local and organic as they can possibly be. Howie has been able to save money and provide fresher better tasting food by growing some of what they need and by processing their own coconuts.





I am not a meat eater, but the smell of the locally made Island Thyme Gourmet sausages was very tempting. Dan and Clare Bobo make the sausages from local meat, but they do use a small amount of non-local pork. Dan talks about how they can’t source local, certified pork. Which was surprising to me, given the prominence of pork in the local diet.

SPAM Flavored Nuts and Oil: Day 20- My Experiments with Food Truth- 60 Days of Eating Locally Grown


Today I went on a quest for macadamia nut oil and ended up taste testing nuts. The flavored nuts make great locally grown munchy snacks (except for the SPAM Nuts.) This is not for the purist- there is a light dusting of mysterious flavored power on the nuts. Honey Mustard, Wasabi (my favorite) and, of course, SPAM flavored.





I also scored the oil. I called the Hamakua Plantations macadamia nut company the other day to see if they had oil. The nice person in the visitor center told me that they carried Oils of Aloha mac nut oil and that they knew it was local because they sold them nuts. I called Oils of Aloha and they assured me that all of their macadamia nuts were from Hawaii. The oil was expensive- I bought a case and it was $7 a bottle, so I spent $84 on mac nut oil. In this case, buying locally grown is clearly more expensive than a non-local alternative like olive oil. I have no doubt that in order to pay the farmers fairly for the nuts, pay employees and make a profit- the oil has to $7 a bottle. Right now, local oil is a specialty item, not a commodity. Might we develop a local oil industry? Do we want to? Other possible local oil sources are coconut oil and avocado oil.

The Devil Made Me Do It: Day 19- My Experiments with Food Truth- 60 Days of Eating Locally Grown


There was a local beer tasting down at Lighthouse Liquors today (Lighthouse Deli is one of our North Kohala Eat Locally Grown participants!). Rebecca Villegas from Kona Brewing Co. came out to Hawi to conduct the beer tasting. I knew that the beer was not 100% local, but the Devil Made Me Do It! How good can a girl be? I stuck to the Pipeline Porter, because that was the most local of the beers that were on hand. (I only had a little, I swear!) The Pipeline Porter uses locally grown coffee, is brewed in Kona and was bottled from the tank into a growler. The other beers in the tasting were in bottles, which are brewed and bottled on the mainland. Kona Brewing utilizes a lot of local ingredients in their food and beers.

Eat Local Challenge Tips: Day 18- My Experiments with Food Truth- 60 Days of Eating Locally Grown


Join the Eat Local Challenge (Sept. 25 – Oct. 3) for a meal, a day or a week!


This is my second time doing an “extreme eat local challenge.” The first time I did it for 90 days and I was much more stringent- Hawaii Island only and NO condiment cheats! This time around I have expanded my geographic area to the State of Hawaii and am allowing minor cheats on oil, soy sauce, dressing in restaurants, etc… Today I am on Day 18 of my current Eat Local journey. Here are a few of my tips to help you get ready for the Eat Local Challenge.


1. Clean your Refrigerator
Starting with a good, clean fridge will help you be organized. Get rid of all that moldy stuff in the containers, eat what is edible, wipe the shelves.


2. Reconnaissance
Start in advance by scoping out the places you usually shop. When you put your eye to it, you will find locally grown food in your usual food store that you have never seen before. Taro in Foodland? Yes! Sweet Potatoes in Costco? Yes! Start to buy these things and put them in your nice clean fridge.


Now plan and map out some cool field trips that you want to take. An outing to the Farmers Market? A visit to a farm? A trip down a country road to a farm stand? A foray to the fish market? How can you incorporate these outings into other things you need to do? This may seem like extra work, but it will be worth it- you will meet some very cool people, eat some excellent food, and your life will be enriched.


3. Staples
They don’t call them staples for nothing! Begin to gather your basic staples, think starch: Taro, squash, sweet potato, breadfruit, corn, cassava. Then gather the next level: Milk, eggs and cheese. (We have Mountain Apple Brand milk at KTA on Hawaii Island. Do other islands have local milk?) I use goat cheese, I have not found a local cow’s milk cheese yet. Next are your oils and condiments: Locally produced macadamia nut and/or coconut oil and butter if you can find them. Local salt! Lemons, limes, tomatoes and herbs are your new best friends! They will be the basis for your dressings, salsas and sauces. In my experience, local veggies and fruits are pretty easy to find and can be grabbed as you go. You will also need to think about your proteins: not all fish is local- if you are shopping in the food store you will need to check if the fish is local. If you eat beef and chicken it will be a little research project to find local sources- which are definitely out there. Pork? Well…your cousin/uncle/friend the pig hunter is your source there.


4. Get Out Your Lunch Box
Still have that superman lunch box somewhere? Well, time to bust it out! If you can’t find it, a small cooler will work fine. Running out of the house to work without bringing ample food for the day is a big mistake when you are on an all local diet. However, if it is in your flow and your budget, you can eat out at a restaurant that is serving local food during Eat Local Challenge week. I usually pack a main course (squash, fish, greens), a major staple (like poi), and some snacks (fresh or dried bananas, mango.) A hard boiled egg is also a great thing to throw in the lunch box. Lack of preparation is the only reason for starving when you are eating 100% locally grown. If you are hungry it is probably because you didn’t shop, cook and pack food.


5. Fun Foods and Beverages
It’s not all about fruits and vegetables- find fun stuff! Honey, macadamia nut butter, cocoa, tropical fruits (all taken together, at times!) Since I have local milk, I make yogurt and custard, which I consider fun when mixed with any or all of the above.


There is also the interesting world of the local beverage. There is coffee, green and oolong tea, coffee cherry tea, mamaki tea, kokoolau tea, and honey mead. I keep hearing rumors of “My uncles lilikoi wine” or “My father’s jaboticaba wine,” but have yet to actually lay my hot little hands on any of these fine beverages.