During the summer of 2020, a small food garden was started by a visiting farmer, on land that was part of Naalehu Ranch, aka Ulu Farm, aka Ka’u Valley Farm, locally also called the Chinese Farm. The visiting farmer was planning to leave, abandoning the garden. The OKK president learned about the situation and approached the farm owner, Eva Liu, about OKK harvesting the abandoned vegetables for the community. One thing lead to another and before I knew it, OKK was granted use of the garden area by Eva. This is the point where I came in.
Wayne Kawachi, OKK president, solicited the help of OKK volunteers to take over the garden site. Veggies that were harvested were donated to The Hub with the excess being offered at the Naalehu Farmers Market. As Wayne’s words tell it, there was a crazy amount of food! Carrots. Cucumbers. Squash. Lettuce. Chinese greens. Tomatoes. And more.
Over the period of the next month or so, Eva Liu offered more land for OKK to expand the size of the garden. She supplied free irrigation water and irrigation supplies. Next, she offered the use of one of her greenhouses, water included. And one more step— she allowed OKK to harvest fruits from her orchards. All of this Eva supplied for free for the Ka’u community. Marvelously crazy, no?
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