Here at Regenerations Botanical Garden in Kilauea what once was a guava plantation is transforming into a variety of small farms serving the local community. Paul Massey is testing various crop growing methods, opening up plots for the community, helping businesses adopt school gardens, training students to be farmers and educating the public on a weekly radio show. Soon they will have a shadehouse for plant propagation, growing, and food washing.
At SOS Farms, Kelly and Yuichi Sato (a wife-husband team) have a one acre organic farm with vegetables and free-range chickens. They provide an "eat local" service, in which customers order a basket of goodies online each week. They can provide other locally grown products in the basket such as honey, mushrooms, and bread. Their business is so popular, they have a waiting list of customers!
Just down the road apiece is Kaua'i Fresh Farms with an amazing complex of air conditioned shadehouses for cucumbers, tomatoes, cherry tomatoes and lettuce. Marcel Peerson explained how their facility operates with computerized settings. While it is not a 100% organic farm, they use organic pest control methods as much as possible. Kaua`i Fresh Farms sells to restaurants, hotels, farmers' markets and grocery stores like Foodland and Big Save. Soon the 100 KW photovoltaic system will be up, helping them save energy and lowering operational costs.
Finally, we ended our day and trip with a visit to Common Ground, a non-profit organization, that facilitates growing/living sustainably. The Garden, a restaurant at Common Ground, serves delicious and beautifully presented food straight from the farms and ocean around us. The menu is built around the crops and changes seasonally (a farm-to-table menu). We heard from legendary Jack Gushiken who knows more about water systems in the area than anyone else. And before going home, we practiced facilitation and recording techniques. It was an exhilarating 4 days on nani Kaua`i!
No comments:
Post a Comment