Sonia Tastes Hawaii

Kele and BISS

The Big Island Self Sufficiency or BISS Group in Yahoo was started in November 08 with the purpose of  members helping each other develop some level of essential food production in our own yards and farms.  The group was founded by Gerald DeOreo or Kele, as he is known. 

Kele is a remarkable person and quite interesting to talk with.  He has worked in the airlines business, has been a symphony orchestra conductor, a disc jockey with his own classical music 'pirate' radio station and a banana farmer until a crippling accident nipped that last in the bud about 5 years ago.

After the accident and rehab, Kele moved into town and proceeded to turn a little piece of property into a 'farmette', where he grows dozens of different banana trees, papayas, sugar cane, pineapples, herbs, chile peppers, assorted citrus trees and many ornamental plants....all of this in a 1/4 acre piece of property with a house and double carport.

(Photo of Kele taken in FL just a few years ago)

A previous post about my first visit to Kele's 'farmette'

Early in the life of the group, Kele suggested members get together to meet, socialize, talk story and share a potluck meal.  The first one was in March of 09 and a precendent was stablished.  The group now meets 4 times a year on the Sunday closest to the Winter & Summer Solstices as well as the Spring and Autumn Equinoxes.

(Photo) Three long tables hold the food and some of the smaller plants and seeds to be shared)

The group has met mostly at Kele's place, but has also met at Kolekole Park and at the home of one of the members.  The size of the group at these get-togethers average 17 members with this last one attracting 25!

Besides the shared potluck meal, members also share plants, cuttings and seeds.....and since we're all environmentally responsible, we bring our own reusable dishes, flatware, napkins and drinkware.

(Photo) Lucy, Pat, Steven & Ginny aka Rusty

 (Photo) Mike, David and Kele

 
(Photo) Liz, Michael, Linnette, Ron and Laura with back to camera
 
  
(Photos) Terri, Peter & Eric; Ginny & Steven looking over some of the plants to be shared; Doran & Lee

(Photo) Facebook 'friends'... Liz, Laura, Sonia & Lucy - photo by Pat

I first met Liz several years ago, before she moved to the Big Island through Freecycle & my own Hawaii Yahoo group - this is our first 'in person meeting'.  I met Laura at the very first BISS get-together; Sonia is, of course, me.  I met Lucy about a year or so ago when I was introduced to her blog by someone else and this is also our first 'in person' meeting!.  Besides the BISS and other connections, we are all Facebook friends.

Lucy has her own blog called LavaLily where she has posted photos taken in Kele's yard last Sunday.

BISS now has over 190 members.  Most of them here on the Big Island, but a few are scattered in some of the other islands, the mainland and even one in Mexico.

How Does My Garden Grow...? update

I haven't done a garden update in a while....At this time everything is looking good!

Thank goodness the wild pigs haven't found us this year...(I know... I probably just jinxed it!)

 

Overview of garden - the total space of the garden is probably no more than 10 feet wide and about 30 to 35 feet long.  This is not counting the areas where we have some bananas, papayas and the Surinam cherry tree planted.

 
I like to mix colorful flowers with the herbs and veggies, some are edible and some are not.  We have two types geraniums (red and salmon), zinnias, mini-daylilies, two kinds of nasturtiums, snapdragons (pink and yellow) and orange and yellow marigolds.  The lavender blooms above with darn background are rom the garlic chives.

At this time we have plenty of dill, which is blooming profusely.  I cut some dill and saved in freezer baggies in the freezer to use as needed.

The strawberry bed produced a couple of dozen strawberries this first year and the bed is overflowing.  We need to either move them to a larger area or divide and share!

Our Roma tomatoes are producing steadily and we have harvested at least 15 or 20 already.

 
The lettuce mix is glorious and the nasturtiums keep on blooming.  Salads of lettuces, tomatoes and nasties are being eaten often.

 
The eggplants are now showing little fruit and this one plant is full of blooms and has 4 little eggplants showing.

 
The Malabar spinach vine is lush and prolific...I keep plucking leaves and it keeps growing.

 
The cherry tomato plants are huge.  You can't see them in this pic, but they are loaded with little green tomatoes.

Besides all of the above, we continue to harvest also Okinawan and Dawn Dewa (Moluccan) spinaches; we have plenty of sweet basil and a new planting of Thai basil.  The purple basil is there but not doing, much.  We need to move it.

We just planted a new rosemary besides the 4 older plants, which are beginning to show a new lease on life as well as the little bay/laurel plant which the pigs had destroyed...it is now showing new leaves!

The parsley is lush, the thyme and sage are thriving and we moved some of the Cuban oregano to a new place.  We have two different mints planted...Peppermint and Spearmint.

We haven't had enough rain this year, but so far I haven't had to water twice a day, as I had to in previous years...but the little evening and night rains we've had have been just enough to keep everything lush and green.

....and this is how my garden grows today!

Afternoon at Kahua Ranch

The post at Facebook said:

AFTERNOON AT KAHUA RANCH - MAY 29th, Noon to 3:30pm

LUNCH: $15.00 Includes: Paniolo Beef Stew, Salad, Sweetbread

ABOUT KAHUA: Meet the staff and learn about the Ranch
TOUR: Free Tram Tour - Experience beautiful Kohala!
ATV DISCOUNT: ATV rides for only $35!! (Normally $105)
This event is for our Twitter and Facebook friends--to celebrate our first two months on Twitter and FB and to say mahalo for "following" and "liking" our pages!
Please RSVP by calling Hawk Hawkins at 808 882-7954 to book your reservation...and then SHARE to let all your Twitter and FB friends know about this special Afternoon at Kahua!
Learn more about our ATV Adventures here: http://www.kahuaranch.com/activities/atvadventures

 

 

We hadn't been to the Kahua Ranch in several years so decided this was an opportunity not to be missed.

 

After meeting our friend Chef Olelo pa'a Faith Ogawa for breakfast and a couple of hours at the Waimea Homestead Farmers Market (see the previous post), we drove up the mountain to the Kahua Ranch (pronounced Kahu'wa). 

 

 

The word kahua has several meanings; place of emcampment is one of them and stories tell of the time when Kamehameha used the area to train his warriors.  Kahu'a is also the name of a star in Hawaiian.  Whatever the meaning, Kahua is a beautiful working ranch!

 

 

After welcoming everyone and explaining a little bit about the ranch, a paniolo lunch of Kahua Ranch beef stew was served.  The original cowboys who came to Hawaii to teach locals how to ride, rope and herd cattle were Mexican vaqueros and called paniolos by the Hawaiians, meaning

españoles, or the' Spanish ones' and the name stuck, so a Hawaiian cowboy is a 'paniolo'

 

 

 

Rolling hills, the ocean, and on that day, a fairly clear view of Haleakala (House of the Sun) in Maui, are the views to be seen from the 'paniolo deck', the meeting and eating area.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After lunch, the guests who had signed up for ATV rides were given an orientation and safety talk and off they went over hill and dale to explore the ranch.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The rest of us were taken on a tram ride around the ranch with John Richards as our very knowledgeable tour guide.  John was born on the ranch and his family has owned it since 1928!

 

 

 

Photo: Early cowboy bunkhouse.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The tour included a stop to visit the quaint little chapel which was put together on that site using two little buildings from other sites.  Inside the chapel there is a mural painted by Jean Charlot of a Nativity scene or crèche with the original models being actual people who lived on the ranch at the time.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Louis Henri Jean Charlot (February 8, 1898 - March 20, 1979) was a very well known muralist who was born in France and studied with Diego Rivera in Mexico before coming to Hawaii. The Isaacs Art Center Museum & Gallery in Waimea has some of his works.  Charlot was also a professor at UH-Manoa (Honolulu) where several of his murals can be found.

 

 

The Nativity at the Ranch was painted in August 1953 as a memorial to Ronald von Holt who appears in the right foreground as the kneeling cowboy.   Von Holt, along with Atherton Richards were the original founders of the Kahua Ranch.

 

Photo above: Flower border around the chapel

 

 

Besides cattle, the ranch also raises sheep and horses.  We also saw some Kona nightingales (donkeys) during our tour.

 

I heard a couple of days ago that Kahua Ranch is planning another event, possibly for July.  If you're on Facebook, 'like' their page so you can receive notices of when it will be.

Kahua Ranch on Facebook page.  If you're not on Facebook, what are you waiting for?

 

A hui hou, Kahua....until we visit again!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Waimea & Kohala Day

Last Saturday we had planned to attend the "Afternoon at Kahua" event at the Kahua Ranch in the Kohala Mountain area.  We also had received an invitation to meet for breakfast by our friend Chef Olelo pa'a Faith Ogawa at the Waimea Homestead Farmers Market, so we decided to make a day of it.

We 've passed the Waimea Homestead Farmers Market countless Saturdays, but usually on the way somewhere else and had never stopped.  I was glad to have made a deliberate trip to visit this time.

We ran into several friends and other people we knew there and Olelo introduced us to some of her friends.  The market is very colorful and as usual, it was busy.

You can find veggies there we don't usually see at the Hilo markets such as the artichokes and broccoli.  Flowers were everywhere!

While there I went crazy buying more plants for our edible garden and a few veggies.  I wanted to buy goat cheese, but had not planned ahead to take a cooler and since we were spending the hotter part of the day at the ranch, decided to pass.

I bought another really nice and full rosemary plant, a bit different from the others I already have and also a variegated marjoram, a peppermint and a spearmint plant.  At another booth I got some beautiful marigolds in three colors and some zinnias in an assortment of colors!

We wanted to buy some beautiful little blueberry plants but were told that the plants need too many hours at a lower temperatures than we ever get in our area, so passed them up for now.

We got some beautiful beets and plantains and Olelo made us a gift of two cute little pumpkin squash which I plan to stuff before I cook them.

Breakfast was a surprise.  An outdoor tent with several tables and chairs where you can sit family style.  Olelo ordered an omelet which she had them 'drown' in sauce.

Anthony and I both ordered the Eggs Benedict!  A delicious surprise at a farmers market!

After walking around a bit more and Olelo signing the two of us up for a cheese making class in Waimea on July 11, we said goodbye and headed off to the ranch.

Mahalo, Olelo...we had a very good time!

The Kahua Ranch visit is worth a whole post so will wait a couple of days to share it

I will be doing a more in-depth feature of the Waimea Homestead Farmers Market ss part of a series on Famers Markets of the Big Island I'm writing for the Hawaii HomeGrown Food Network.  Look for it in a couple of months.

Volcano Adventure

No...this is not about trekking all around our live volcano, but it is about a visit one recent day to the village just outside the Hawaii Volcanoes National Park and the gift shop/art gallery inside the park.

There must be something about the volcano that attracts so many talented artists to live in Volcano Village.  They seem to sprout all over the place! 

I had heard about a show "The Artful Taste of Volcano" - Fine Accouterments of Dining, a Tableware & Related Treasures show by local artists and artisanas which was going on at the Volcano Arts Center Gallery and we decided to make an afternoon of it. 

We first stopped at Ira Ono's Volcano Garden Arts Gallery & Cafe for lunch and a little eye candy in the beautiful gallery & gift shop.

Just walking around the grounds is a treat. 

Little vignettes dot the beautifully landscaped property, which is also home to Ernest, the pigmy goat....

and a huge and gorgeous Chinese blue and white porcelain tea pot in the traditional style with rattan wrapped handle.  If this tea pot disappears, I hope Ira does not come looking for it at my place (I collect blue and white Oriental porcelain tableware)

The Cafe is pure charm.  Open, light and airy and just a little step from the gift shop and gallery. 

You can walk around and shop while your food is being prepared.  On the day we visited, our server was Dena, a charming and friendly young woman who also prepared our delicious food!

I chose the 4 Cheese Spinach Quiche Combo which included my choice of soup and a bright looking garden salad.  Anthony chose the Sandwich, Soup & Salad Combo which gave him a choice of either Egg Salad or Artichoke Hummus Pesto Sandwich...he chose the latter.

My soup was the 'Moon soup', a delicious and tasty clear broth with mushrooms and sea weed.  The sea weed did not taste 'fishy' at all.  It was lovely!  Anthony chose the Curried Mixed Vegetables.  The veggies were pureed in the broth.  Also delicious!

Be sure to ask for their blend of iced tea.  On the day we visited the blend consisted of mint, pineapple, Island Breeze and Hilo Sunrise, which Ira gets at the Hilo Coffee Mill Store.  Delightfully refreshing!

After our delicious lunch, we drove into the Volcano National Park and headed for theArt Center Gallery located inside the park grounds.

Pottery, handblown glass, wood, textiles and paintings were on display in the gallery room with a bit of spillover in the next room.  One of my weaknesses is anything to do with tableware and the serving of food and I found the show irresistible.

Below is just a sampling of the beautiful items on display.

The drive down the mountain was pleasant in the late afternoon sun and a perfect ending to a fun day!