LIHU’E – Brought to Kaua’i permanently with the idea that growing basil here during the winter and shipping it to Pacific Northwest restaurants craving the herb in the off-season was the way to quick cash, “Dove” Liddle quickly learned what
LIHU’E – Brought to Kaua’i permanently with the idea that growing basil here during the winter and shipping it to Pacific Northwest restaurants craving the herb in the off-season was the way to quick cash, “Dove” Liddle quickly learned what surviving farmers often learn in the same hard way.
There is no successful get-rich-quick scheme when you’re a farmer, and survival means regular adaptation.
The original idea was to grow the basil on Kaua’i, something that can be done 12 months a year, and make a killing shipping the herb overnight to mainland restaurants, especially during the winter when Pacific Northwest farms can’t grow basil.
That didn’t happen.
Liddle grows his basil without the benefit of pesticides or insecticides, organic without the benefit of an organic-certified-farm tag. And that has sometimes meant a swarm of grasshoppers has come in and overnight just about wiped out his whole crop.
It was the insect damage (remember that adaptation thing discussed earlier?) that rendered the leaves unsuitable for sale to local markets, so the idea of a value-added product made from the slightly used basil popped into his head.
And Green Cuisine Macadamia Nut Pesto was born. At $6.99 retail for a nine-ounce jar, the product is not cheap, but has been selling well, especially at the Princeville Foodland and at Banana Joe’s in Kilauea.
Apparently, Liddle has observed, visitors like the idea of a pesto with Hawaiian macadamia nuts (most pestos are made with pine nuts). The basil leaves unsuitable for store shelves because of appearance are perfect for grinding up for the pesto, he said.
The product is also available at all Big Save Markets, Waipouli Foodland and Papaya’s Natural Food & Cafe, where Liddle is produce manager. Beginning this Friday, March 8, the Papaya’s kitchen becomes the production facility for Green Cuisine Macadamia Nut Pesto.
The pesto carries a lofty price tag because the ingredients are expensive to acquire, especially the 100 percent olive oil, Big Island macadamia nuts and Parmesan cheese.
For the spatula-challenged, pesto is a sauce used in cooking, and to top pastas and other noodles, fish, shrimp, meat, or simply as a topper for a piece of toast. Basil is a versatile herb used in recipes including spaghetti sauce, and in baking and sauting, as a flavor-enhancer.
Basil grows fast and heartily in dry areas, and the Liddle family recently purchased eight acres in Moloa’a where the crop is flourishing, Liddle said. Usually, people who buy basil at the store use it to make their own pesto, with the aforementioned pine nuts, he explained.
Because of his native Oregon’s short growing season, Liddle saw the opportunity to grow basil year-round on Kaua’i, and accepted as gospel a friend’s calculations that shipping the basil overnight to Portland-area restaurants during Oregon’s winter would be a quick path to riches.
When that didn’t pan out, Liddle decided to get busy in his own way, taking a business-plan course through Kaua’i Micro, a business-development enterprise and small lender operating in Lihu’e through a program of Maui Economic Opportunity.
After completing the class, Liddle got a Kaua’i Micro loan he used to purchase jars, seeds, labels, and other items necessary to get started.
“Without Kaua’i Micro, I might not be in business today,” said Liddle, 32. Dual transitions onto new farmland and into a new kitchen caused production and processing gaps in the new year that are now behind him, with Kaua’i Micro flexible enough to offer him some interest-only-payment months until he settles in at Moloa’a and Papaya’s.
Loan proceeds also allowed him to get his recipe tested in Honolulu for the purposes of including nutritional facts on jar labels, as well as the all-important bar codes for automated checkout systems used at Foodland, Big Save and other stores.
He has also sold his pesto and basil at various farmers’ markets around the island.
Since it is a fact of life for farmers and others on Kaua’i, Liddle felt it important to point out that he supports other local farmers, including Wooten Organic Produce, from which he bought basil when his farm acreage was in transition.
He can grow about all the basil he needs on a half-acre plot, but likes the room to move that Moloa’a affords. The larger area means he can have various fields in various stages of growth, to mature at different times of the year, because harvesting a field means picking all of the basil leaves and rendering it useless as a basil source until the leaves regenerate.
Harvesting and production happen once a week every week, and with the additional acreage he can now plan to have an ongoing source of his product’s main locally grown ingredient.
Liddle lives in Kapa’a with his wife, C.J. “Raven” Liddle, and one child. The couple will greet a second child later this year. Liddle and his family had been annual Kaua’i visitors before deciding to move here permanently.
For more information on Green Cuisine Macadamia Nut Pesto, please call 635-5556.
Business Editor Paul C. Curtis can be reached at mailto:pcurtis@pulitzer.net or 245-3681 (ext. 224).