Kealia Site Visit

Craig Elevitch, agroforestry expert and author, joined us on our tour of the Kealia site today.  Mahalo, Craig, for sharing your time and knowledge with us!

Together with two other semi-finalists, we met up near Pukaana Church with Kamehameha School's land manager for the South Kona area and toured the site.

Ti leaf lock

Pukaana Church parking lot with Craig

Mrs. Green Thumb, aka Yong-Ae Kekuewa, walking the fence line

One of the many wild coffee trees on the property

Mahalo to Perry for showing us the Kealia property.  I think we have more questions than answers at this point...  The property has plenty of potential, but will require a lot of work.  I'm also rethinking our initial strategy of going exclusively with ʻulu on this lot, as the rainfall here is not ideal. 

After touring the Kealia site, we headed down to Honaunau for lunch, much of which came from Mom's garden. 

Craig watching on as Mom gathers the salad for lunch

Fresh from the garden, this lettuce is a leafier form of romaine.  So good!

Star fruit!  This tree was planted by my brother back around 1986 or so.  We forgot about it for years.  It's a major producer now!

Star fruit flowers

Dad picking star fruit for Craig to take home

Little cacao

Here's a larger cacao pod in Mom's garden.  She's started processing her own nibs.

Lilikoi (passion fruit) flower.

Young lilikoi fruit on the vine.  Mom makes a number of value added products with lilikoi, including a yummy butter.

Lunch is served.  Big Jake's BBQ brisket and Mom's Korean hot sauce in a lettuce wrap with cress, daikon and cucumber (all grown by Mom).  Yummers!  And, Paleo diet friendly.

Mom helping Craig with his first wrap.  I think we'll call this the Korean Kona Paleo Wrap.

Thanks, Craig!  We enjoyed spending the day with you in Honaunau.  Hope to do this again real soon!