Harvest!!

Our own bananas

Ritual of mahalo to Lono - with traditional white flag

We are harvesting -- which is appropriate! It is the season of Lono called Makahiki. Makahiki is a time of peace and recreation. It’s a time to celebrate the hard work of farming and enjoy the fruits of one’s labor.

Lono is the Hawaiian god of agriculture and rain. He appears in hoʻoilo (the wet season) as rain clouds and winter storms. Some poʻe kahiko (Hawaiians of old) describe Lono as the “akua poʻo huna i ke ao lewa,” or the god whose head is hidden in the dark clouds. The water he brings helps keep the land fertile.

Kale

All LIMES -- some are yellow

Recently we finished up our okra, cucumbers, tomatoes and squash, but have seedlings like broccoli ready to rotate in again. Pictured below are just some of the things we are harvesting now. We juice and freeze all the citrus and passion fruit and use it throughout the year. We do have our own lemon grass, thyme, rosemary, turmeric and ginger as well.

Passion Fruit/Liliko'i

Mexican spinach in front **

** You can't possibly see all the food in this corner of our garden. In the front we have Mexican Spinach that we grow because the traditional kind is too delicate for our heavy rain and intense sun. It can be used in juices (great greens) or salad or cooked. 

"Vine Potato" and Yams

Behind the spinach the raised bed has peppers and broccoli, The tall green plant on the left is one of our papayas. You can't see the pineapple patch with about 50 producers. Nearby is a tangerine tree, a tropical kind of cherry, a few still green tomatoes and a rambutan fruit which, like the cherry will take a few years to produce.

In our Hawaiian language class we have learned a beautiful chant (oli) of gratitude that you can hear by clicking on this link. Oli Mahalo