It was only an acre of graded land, and it didn’t look like much at all Tuesday. Tiny colored flags stuck in the dirt fluttered in the wake of a cool Hamakua breeze.
It was only an acre of graded land, and it didn’t look like much at all Tuesday. Tiny colored flags stuck in the dirt fluttered in the wake of a cool Hamakua breeze.
But the view from the site was by any definition a stunner: gently rolling hills of Guinea grass, tall ironwood trees forming the backbone of the property, a mango tree shading the upper part of a hill, and the deep blue of the Pacific off in the distance.
Once part of a sugar plantation, like so many other Hamakua expanses, the former monoculture site is brimming with potential.
Come Sunday, the flags in the dirt will be replaced by a full-fledged farmers market, the newest on the Big Island and the largest in Honokaa. Expect fresh fruits and veggies, mac nuts and jellies, and food stands serving up Thai food, Hawaiian-style lunch and gelato.
And this market goes one step further. It’s not just a place where farmers can come sell their products, it’s a place where they can come learn about farming itself.
“We are really excited to have a strong educational component to our market,” said Julia Meurice, who co-manages the new market along with Liza Franzoni. “It’s something that not too many other markets have.”
Every week there’ll be at least one educational event during the market, ranging from gardening demonstrations to permaculture and worm composting how-tos.
Meurice and Franzoni were hired in April as managers, and spent two months just doing research, meeting with other market managers across the island and reading up on best practices. Later in the process, they reached out to the Waimea-based Kohala Center for input.
“It’s a tremendous process,” Meurice said.
But the market is just one piece of a much larger puzzle.
It’s the first phase of Hamakua Harvest, an ambitious project that fosters the farming heritage of the district while looking forward toward sustainable agriculture. Eventually, the site at the intersection of Highway 19 and Highway 240 (Honokaa-Waipio Road) will become an agricultural hub, a place where farmers, residents and visitors alike can come to shop at the market, pick up a box of produce from a community-supported agriculture (CSA) program and learn about farming practices and Hamakua’s long history as a breadbasket of Hawaii Island.
As is only fitting, the idea started with the land itself, and the untapped potential of the site. And it was an idea so compelling that two different people came up with it at two different times.
Michael Gibson, executive director for Hamakua Harvest, had long thought the spot would be perfect for an agricultural hub, but the recession interfered with his early plans.
“You can do so much more than just a roadside market,” he said Tuesday. “You could really wow the world with this place, and doing something really excellent.”
Lori Beach, Hamakua Harvest administrative director, had a similar idea while driving by the site one day years ago, but that was before small-scale agriculture and a focus on locally grown products gained traction.
“It was way too early,” Beach said.
Now, she said, the timing is right.
The organization has a special use permit from the county for the farmers market, and a five-year lease on 30 acres of land from Kamehameha Schools. As long as benchmarks such as getting the farmers market up and running are met, Beach said, the lease eventually will become a long-term one.
Beach also is executive manager of the Hamakua Agriculture Cooperative, which helps farmers lease state land for growing. There are more than 100 farmers involved in the co-op, she said, and hundreds more who are not.
Hamakua Harvest is a way to support that group.
“Our intention is to help small family farmers — encourage and expand that, to provide educational resources, and also to lift up the community as a whole,” Beach said.
After the farmers market is established, the group will turn its attention to creating a demonstration orchard, where people can come see different varieties of crops being grown. Gibson said there will be 12 different types of avocado alone in the orchard, which will showcase “everything that grows here.”
Next up is the CSA program. It’s a partnership with the Hamakua Youth Foundation, helping local kids learn about farming by growing and selling their own produce.
The farmers market, demonstration orchard and CSA all are part of Hamakua Harvest’s nonprofit component. But there also is a for-profit LLC component in the works (the two are distinct organizations, Beach said, with distinct ownerships).
“We want to show that these sustainable growing methods work, and you can make money (with them),” Beach said.
To date, most of the group’s efforts have been focused on getting the nonprofit side up and running, but there are plans in the works for a commercial nursery, working farm and orchard, and a value-added processing facility.
Beach said she wasn’t aware of any other organizations that used the hybrid nonprofit/for-profit model or that were working to create an entire agriculture hub.
“It’s kind of taken on its own life,” she said.
“The thing that excites me is it’s a whole system, designed to be totally self-sustaining,” Gibson said.
The entire Hamakua Harvest project will ultimately take about $2 million to complete, Beach said. Tackling one element at a time makes the process of getting grants and loans more manageable.
“We had big visions at first,” Beach said. “We thought it would be done in a year or so.”
But the long process of setting up has given the Hamakua Harvest group a chance to maximize community outreach.
“We did a survey last year to see what everybody wanted, and we’re using that as our basis,” Beach said. “The farmers market seemed to be the best first step because it helps farmers and gets the community involved.”
People are expecting to see “a lot of farming activity,” Gibson said.
Hamakua Harvest dovetails with another ongoing project: the creation of a Community Development Plan for the district. The county has implemented CDPs, which rely on a community-created values and vision statement to guide future planning efforts, in other Big Island districts including Puna and Kona. A Ka‘u CDP is in draft form.
Hamakua’s CDP also is in draft form, and nearing a review phase. One of its objectives is to “enhance and promote local and agriculture … and related economic support systems.”
Hamakua Harvest touches on “many aspects of the community’s values and goals,” county planner LeAna Gloor wrote in an email to the Tribune-Herald. Those include its potential for entrepreneurial activities in addition to its promotion of agriculture, she said.
Brad Kurokawa, steering committee chairman for the Hamakua CDP, said the agriculture hub tied in with another key project aim.
“Creating gathering places for the community is something that was important,” he said.
“Hand in glove, it fit perfectly,” Gibson said.
“What came out of that was that the community really wanted to hold on to the agriculture lifestyle,” Beach said. “We’ve really been finding our way since then (for) how to make that happen because it takes time and money to get farms started.”
The Hamakua Harvest farmers market will be open 9:30 a.m.-2 p.m. every Sunday beginning this week (Sept. 6). For more information about the project, visit www.hamakuaharvest.org or email hamakuaharvest2013@gmail.com.
Email Ivy Ashe at iashe@hawaiitribune-herald.com.