PAAUILO — Tour guide turned vanilla producer Jim Reddekopp just wanted a place to raise his kids.
He ended up creating the first commercial vanilla orchid plantation in the United States.
Over the past 15 years, Reddekopp, his wife, Tracy, and their five children have turned Hawaiian Vanilla Co. into a thriving enterprise, offering tours of their vanillery tucked along the back roads between the 1,700- and 1,900-foot elevation on slopes above Paauilo, just outside Honokaa.
With a vanilla-inspired lunch served in a converted slaughterhouse, plus upcountry afternoon tea and vanilla presentation and tasting, the Reddekopps have created a model for agricultural tourism on the Big Island.
“People can live on their farms and live off the land and offer a unique experience to visitors, all at the same time,” Reddekopp said Monday. “How cool is that?”
The visitors during a recent tour seemed to enjoy the experience. About a dozen enjoyed the lunch, some of which Reddekopp prepared table-side.
“We’re a working farm. We work all day,” Reddekopp told the diners. “We stop work to make a lunch for you.”
Others joined the vanillery tour, learned how to make pure vanilla extract and sampled a dish of vanilla ice cream. Visitors that Monday were from California, Ontario and Japan, with a few locals thrown in.
“Everything was good,” said Erma Prinshaw, visiting from San Luis Obispo, California. “This is like trial and error. A lot of work. I could see why people have quit.”
The Reddekopps had a little help getting started. In the wake of the shuttering of the sugar plantations in the mid-1990s, the late U.S. Sen. Daniel Inouye convinced Congress to offer grants for people seeking to farm the old sugar lands. The Reddekopps got their land cheap, and the grant helped get the whole enterprise going.
Agritourism is a balancing act. Over the years, first the state, and then Hawaii County, began creating laws to ensure agritourism operations hewed tightly to agricultural operations, to avoid unrelated commercial operations from popping up and bothering rural neighbors. All-terrain vehicle excursions, so-called “garden parties,” and other nonagricultural uses especially irk rural residents such as Janice Palma-Glennie of Kailua-Kona.
“My concern is enforcement,” said Palma-Glennie, a frequent testifier on agritourism bills before the County Council. “Non-farmers try to use it as a way to make money in agricultural districts. The thing is, if there’s no enforcement, then it really doesn’t matter what the law says.”
Proponents such as the Hawaii Agritourism Association say the practice helps small farmers survive fluctuations in the economy and weather by providing a supplemental source of income that’s more reliable.
Opponents worry allowing more agritourism will pull farmers away from their primary occupation of food production, while increasing the value of agricultural land and, thus, neighbors’ property taxes.
The County Council has worked on versions of an agritourism bill for almost five years. The newest version, sponsored by Kohala Councilwoman Margaret Wille, will be heard by the council Planning Committee at 10 a.m. Tuesday in council chambers in Hilo.
“We’re all farmers here; we’re all trying to be sustainable,” Wille said Tuesday of her rural district. “Let’s support that and promote that in these areas.”
Bill 116 would create a “minor” agritourism classification to make it easier for small farmers to engage in a practice already enjoyed by large agricultural operations — giving tours to visitors, usually for a fee, and selling related agricultural and non-agricultural products at a gift shop. The bill proposes splitting agricultural activities into major and minor operations. Minor operations would limit annual visitors to 5,000, with a maximum 100 visitors per week. A major operation would be allowed up to 30,000 visitors per year.
Major agritourism operations would still need plan approval, while minor ones would not. Both types would be required to register and submit periodic reports to verify compliance.
Harden submitted a list of 32 suggestions for the bill, ranging from restrictions of allowed activities, improvements to health and safety and roads, reductions of neighbor impacts, increased enforcement and tax parity with neighbors.
Hawaiian Vanilla Co.’s Reddekopp was philosophical about the proposed changes.
“We’ve been doing this for 15 years. We’ve had to comply with every single law that’s come up,” he said. “I’m hoping others can look at the model — that they can live a lifestyle like this and raise their family.”
