Lahaina Lani - Dispatch 3

Its been a few days since my last entry so I have many things to report. First is a good, inexpensive lunch place called Da Kitchen. Da Kitchen offers a mix plate lunch that is the rage over here in HI. With locations in Kahului and Kihei on Maui, the food is fantastic, the portions huge, and the chicken...organic! I've been many times now and am sure will go many more.

Last Friday was possibly my most perfect day on Maui. I went with many family and friends to O'o Organic Farm for lunch, followed by the Ali'i Kula Lavendar Farm, and finished the night at the Feast at Lele luau (that features fresh organic produce from O'o Farm).

If Friday was my most perfect Maui Day, Saturday was my second most perfect. I spent the bulk of the day doing restoration work with Maui Cultural Lands (MCL) in the Honokowai valley. My specific tasks included removal of invasive grasses and coffee plants. It certainly wasn't an easy job but it was a great honor doing it as the valley has some of the oldest archaelogical sites in the islands. The taro patches and house sites that are several hundred years old stretch up the entire valley and are truly breathtaking. I found the project through the Pacific Whale Foundation volunteer on vacation page, but now that MCL's website is up you can find out much more on their own site.

Last but not least in this dispatch, Sunday was a great day for good finds too. I made another trip to Savers in Kahului and found some great local Maui retro t-shirts and some even cooler vintage mini vases [above]. And the last sustainable find of the day...a 'soft sculpture' nene by two local Tutus (Hawaiian for "Grandmothers")[above]. Being a conservation biologist and all, I like to support conservation projects whenever possible so the fact that this purchase goes to help out nene conservation Hawaiian Volcanoes National Park is an added plus.

Maui Mana - Green thinkers and farmers

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!

Maui mana - A day of flowers and fish

I spent the most of the day updateding my blog and getting my fancy new Seanslist pages up and running. The Seattle and Maui pages are getting there but still need a lot of work. But it's fun and I love, Love, LOVE putting things like Seanslist together. Hope you enjoy and please DO send me any items that you think should be on the lists. I'll get started on other cities soon. After lots of updating, I started out to tour some of the gardens at the hotels and resorts along Ka'anapali beach in preparation for the book and website I'm going to start called Corporate Gardens. Basically, the project entails visiting the gardens of companies and organizations, as well as learning about some of the corporate social responsibility efforts. Today we visited checked out the Whaler (the condos where we're staying), the Westin, the Marriott, and the Hyatt. Although the Whaler and the Mariott gardens were beautiful, I have to say the gardens at the the Westin and especially the Hyatt were really outstanding. Along with the actual gardens, I'll be keeping a close eye on design of pots and other unique elements of their efforts so the pic to the left is a sneak preview. We had lunch at the Westin's 'Tropica' restaurant where I was pleased to find a lavender vinegrette made from lavender from the Kula farm we'll be visiting on Thursday.

All the garden touring lasted most of the day so by the time we got back in it was time to Dinner. I was excited to visit Pacific'O, one of James McDonald's three restaurants in Lahaina that include I'O and Feast at Lele. Chef James' restaurants all feature local fish of course, but also greens from their own organic farm called O'o Farm that we'll be touring on Thursday. I had the KONA WINDS fish preparation: fresh fish (I chose Mahi Mahi) seared with house spices, served over wilted O'o Farm grown arugula and bean sprouts. Topped with warm avocado, Maui onion salsa, goat cheese, macadamia nuts, and soy bacon vinaigrette. Needless to say, the food and service was INCREDIBLE at Pacific'O, I only wish I could try each and everything on the menu.

We were so stuffed after our dinner we had no choice but to go for a walk. Luckily, it was another awesome evening in Lahaina. Even luckier, the Pacific Whale Foundation store was still open. Being a conservation biologist and all, I was psyched to get a little shopping time to support one of my favorite conservation organizations. I got a very cool t-shirt with a PWF whale design and an cap that I may never take off I love it so much.