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Pau Hana Friday for Nov. 23

By on November 23, 2012 in Pau Hana Friday

NEWS:

Garden Island Range & Food Festival

Island Breeze made with rambutan at Kalapaki Joe's Lihue. Daniel Lane photo

Island Breeze made with rambutan at Kalapaki Joe’s Lihue. Daniel Lane photo

Last Sunday, the Garden Island Range & Food Festival showcased locally grown and made food. As the farm chair, I wrote about sourcing produce for the hyper-local event last week. About 350 visitors and residents showed up and ate food that 13 farmers, 5 ranchers and Kauai Shrimp donated, and 14 restaurants cooked. Kauai Coffee was there as well as The Right Slice and Lappert’s Hawaii. Salty Wahine Hawaiian Gourmet Sea Salts were uses in some of the dishes and they donated blends for the chef’s gift bags. Aunty Lilikoi also donated variety packs for the chef’s gift bags.

Students from the Culinary Arts program at the Kauai Community College received first hand education by top chefs by helping them prepare. Two students won $1,000 scholarships and got their picture taken with the mayor. We had a display table filled with local fruit, vegetables, orchids from Orchid Alley Kauai and meat from A`akukui Ranch that we auctioned off and procees are going to the Kauai Food Bank just in time for Christmas.

It was a Zero Waste event. All the participating chefs provided biodegradable plates, forks and cups, and kids from 4H made sure guests put their trash in the proper receptacles.

“All the recyclable waste is in a pile mixed with wood chips and fungal spores,” says Joseph Dunsmoor of Zero Waste Kauai. “I am doing an experiment on how well a fungal cold compost will break down the material, especially the forks and spoons. It will all break down to arthropod manure before next year and I will share the results.” Continue Reading →

Pau Hana Friday for November 9

By on November 9, 2012 in Pau Hana Friday

NEWS:

The Market

Koloa Sunset made with Koloa Dark Rum. Daniel Lane photo

Koloa Sunset made with Koloa Dark Rum. Daniel Lane photo

The Market at Common Ground in Kilauea has made some changes. Everything in The Market is eco-friendly and with that goes education. “Our goal is to share why we choose these amazing eco companies,” says market manager Stephanie Montanez. “We share what is different about each company’s products and what sets them apart from conventional products. Everything in our Market enhances life, preserves the Earth, supports local (97 percent of our vendors are local), and changes the paradigm of how people relate to shopping. Ultimately, we want to expand the awareness of why it is important to shop from this new perspective.”

2013 tours and workshops include chef Rodman teaching children in a school setting about eating healthy. “We are expanding our offering of knowledge by becoming a community hub and a resource for information, classes, workshops, tours,” says Montanez. “All to be centered around conscious eating, healthy lifestyles, agricultural knowledge, and Hawaiian herbal medicine.

Montanez owns the skin care company Palaau – The Healing Touch of Plants. Palaau has acquired land at Common Ground, as well as manufacturing space. “My goal with my land will be to create a endemic, indigenous (as well as other botanicals) native hawaiian herb garden that supplies botanicals for Palaau,” says Montanez.  “My dream is to preserve this lost art and the profound wisdom and ways of Laau lapaau (healing with Hawaiian medicinal herbs), the mana o, the seeds, and the experience of the intangible.” Continue Reading →

Pau Hana Friday for November 2

By on November 2, 2012 in Pau Hana Friday
To those on the east coast, we offer our aloha and this Coconut Painkiller made with Koloa Rum and served at Merriman's. Daniel Lane photo

To those on the east coast, we offer our aloha and this Coconut Painkiller made with Koloa Rum and served at Merriman’s. Daniel Lane photo

NEWS:

Common Ground

This Saturday Common Ground is hosting a wedding ceremony and reception for a couple from Brooklyn, NY.  Originally a party of 20, they are now only traveling with nine adults and two children because many family and friends were effected by the storm. Thankfully, no one was injured, but due to the storm, folks couldn’t make travel arrangements.

As an extension of the aloha spirit from Kauai, Common Ground is waiving all cancellation and change fees and is refunding a chunk of their money. On the night of the wedding, there will be a special, intimate dinner setting to make their party seem less empty. Cheers to everyone at Common Ground, way to share that aloha spirit!

Akamai Juice Co.

Last Friday, Hot Shots and Wellness Shots from Akamai Juice Co. became available at The Garden Cafe. Now, Noni shots have been added to the Wellness & Hot shot menu at The Garden Cafe. “It’s a really great combo,” says Cas Schwabe Lutton of Akamai Juice Co. “A wellness shot or hot shot, followed by the Noni. I think they have a special price if you buy two shots. It used to be hard to find raw, organic noni nectar on island. I think the goat cheese peeps and I are the two biggest.” If anyone has organic lilikoi for sale, email Cas at akamaikauai@gmail.com.

According to the website HealthySteps.com noni is: Continue Reading →

Kauai Pau Hana Friday for October 12

By on October 12, 2012 in Pau Hana Friday

NEWS

Kauai Kunana Dairy

Today's Pau Hana Cocktail is a Poipu Cooler from Brennecke's Beach Broiler. Click picture for recipe. Daniel Lane photo.

Today’s Pau Hana Cocktail is a Poipu Cooler from Brennecke’s Beach Broiler. Click picture for recipe. Daniel Lane photo.

 

Our friends at Kauai Kunana Dairy shared this good news with us.

“Finally, after three administrations and years of pleading, we are going to be able sell our value added farm products at the Kauai Sunshine Markets!  Look for our stand at the Kapaa Wednesday Sunshine Market and, hopefully, at the Koloa Monday Market.  Under the new market rules, qualified, bona fide value-added food products that contain 50% Kauai grown farm ingredients will be available for sale at all County Sunshine Markets.  All vendors are being required to reapply for market permits and have their applications reviewed to affirm that they are really farmers and not re-selling produce from Costco or another middle man. (Yes, sadly, this is all too common!)  A huge shout out to Derek Kawakami who introduced the legislation while he was on the County Council and to Councilmember JoAnn Yukimura for her support and work in initiating the first Sunshine Market in 1978! 

Another happy note is that our fellow farmers, Ned and Marta Whitlock received approval for their Special Use Permit from the Kauai Planning Commission to begin construction on their farmworker housing once the other county agencies have reviewed their building plans!

We presently have an overabundance of Certified Organic arugula, chard, and vine-ripened cherry tomatoes in our garden. Louisa also has a very limited edition of her select mold-ripened aged cheeses.

Ryan is making a killer mango lemonade juice drink lightly sweetened with agave.

That’s it for now, back to the garden!

SAY NO TO GMO!”

The Wooton Family Continue Reading →

Kauai Culinary Tour – October 19

By on October 11, 2012 in Culinary Tour
Stephanie Krieger of Nani Moon Mead. Daniel Lane photo

Stephanie Krieger of Nani Moon Mead. Daniel Lane photo

Word from the honeycomb (instead of grapevine – geddit?) is that we may be in for a special treat on our tour next Friday. I just got word from Stephanie Krieger, owner and brewer of Nani Moon Mead. She has a bottling scheduled for that day, so we’ll get an insider’s look at how it’s done. This doesn’t happen all the time, we just got lucky! Just like fruits and vegetables change with the seasons, so do our tours. Each tour is completely unique. Not only have we have worked with these producers to offer a tour that you can’t experience on your own, the tour changes based on what is happening right now. And right now, Nani Moon Mead will be bottling mead! I do hope she’ll make her Winter Sun Margarita for us again.

There will also be different fruit to sample at the farm, as we are easing from hot summer temperatures and dry climate to cooler temperatures and wetter days. The farm portion of our culinary tour includes a generous sampling of what’s in season, and right now that includes star fruit, dragon fruit, mangos, citrus, and passion fruit.

The whole tour is a food lover’s dream. But most of our guests say the cooking demonstration and four-course lunch is their favorite part. What makes this really special, is that we start the day at chef Higa’s personal garden. Our guests get to meet this very busy chef, ask him questions, and see what he grows to use in his menus at the Marriott.

Chef Higa has created a special four-course lunch menu for our tour, and it’s made from local ingredients. His laid back style and easy laugh invite our guests to ask questions while he cooks lunch. I have learned tips such as the best way to remove water from tofu, and how to get a good sear on pan-fried noodles. Of course, each course is delicious!

We still have some spaces available for next Friday, and with the bottling addition, it’s sure to be special! It’s a little cooler this morning, so I expect the weather next Friday will be perfect. If you are interested in attending, please visit our Kauai Culinary Tours page.

Aloha!

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