Haiku was the starting point of our adventure today. We met with Rob Parsons, former Environmental Coordinator for Maui County and current mastermind behind Maui Time Weekly's The Rob Report, a weekly column on environmental issues on Maui. Rob is truly a fountain of information on sustainability topics. Even more important, he's active both in his journalism AND in his turning out for county council and other important meetings to bring attention to the issues.
Next stop was about a half hour drive to Kula to check out the O'o Organic Farm which provides organic greens and produce for the very well known and respected Lahaina restaurants Pacific'O, I'O, and Feast at Lele. Wow, what an experience! A beautiful hillside organic farm, stunning view, great people, DELICIOUS FRESH ORGANIC FOOD, and lots of great information on organic farming...both at O'o in particular and generally too.
Chef Sean Christensen (above left) and Richard, the Farm Manager (above right) did a great job telling the story of O'o Farm which was started up about four years ago by restaurant employees, the proprietors and head Chef James McDonald. Richard actually used to be one of the restaurant employees before he headed up the hill to run the farm. Nowadays, Chef Sean heads up the Thursday lunches at the farm and restaurant employees continue to come up to the farm to help out and get their hands into the may greens and other produce grown for the restaurants in Lahaina. They do a great educational tour and then there is of course, the meal. Ah yes, the meal. Incredible fish, lots of fresh salads, some organic Bonterra white wine, and even some dragonfruit and chocolate desserts to finish it all off. 
The last stop today was at the Ali'i Kula Lavendar Farm which happened to be about 5 minutes up the hill from O'o Farm. I'd happened to meet their business development director, Lani, on the ferry to Molokai earlier in the week so I was really excited to check out the farm. The lavender happens to flourish on the dry hillside so since they don't need a lot of water and don't need to use pesticides and fertilizers, they've been able to be another great model or sustainable agriculture and sustainable business. And then there's the view...fields of lavender looking out over a territorial view of Maui from 3,000 feet. Nice, very nice!
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