KOLOA — After learning that a popular South Shore fruit stand is permanently closing next week, some long time customers have started searching for ways to save it. “If anything, we need more of this on Kaua‘i,” Waimea resident Kapua
KOLOA — After learning that a popular South Shore fruit stand is permanently closing next week, some long time customers have started searching for ways to save it.
“If anything, we need more of this on Kaua‘i,” Waimea resident Kapua Janai said yesterday. “Every neighborhood should have its own little produce stand.”
The West Kaua‘i Agriculture Association established the stand on Po‘ipu Road in 1997 after the McBryde sugar plantation went out of business.
Its month-to-month lease from Alexander & Baldwin Inc., one of the island’s largest landowners, will not be renewed, according to Lihu‘e resident Clyde Yoshimori, who collects the money and pays the bills for the 2-acre lot. He added that a notice was sent out letting the tenants know they had 120 days to vacate.
The association plans to remove the stand today, he added, although the sellers have until the end of February. A tarp-covered frame houses the tables where lettuce, tomatoes, grapefruit and more are sold.
“I’m sure there will be a lot of hands willing to put it back up, but probably not too many to break it down,” Yoshimori said.
Consuelo Dela Cruz, an elderly Kaumakani resident who has worked at the stand three days per week since the late-1990s, said she and the other handful of workers plan to set up a tent to get through the last week. She said she found out last month about the plan to close the stand.
Janai said that almost every Sunday for the past five years she has bought organic vegetables and fruit from Dela Cruz, whose brother grows some of the produce for the market.
“We like continue to have fruit stand here in Koloa,” Dela Cruz said. “If they like us move away, there should be another location if possible.”
It is uncertain where the workers will go after the stand closes. But what is known, according to Yoshimori, is that this final day has loomed overhead from the beginning.
The association formed because the sugar plantation shut down, he said. Agriculture lots were set aside for some of the workers to farm and the stand was set up as a place to sell what they grew, he added.
“We understood the day was coming,” Yoshimori said, referring to the plans to develop the land.
There has been some effort to acquire a place to relocate the stand along the Koloa Bypass, he said, but nothing has materialized to date.
“We would like to stay, but this is an agreement we’ve always had,” Yoshimori said.
Janai talked about the possibility of circulating a petition to keep the stand at its present location, which has room on a gravel parking lot for a dozen vehicles or more.
“It’s a good location, but I don’t think we can hold onto it,” Yoshimori said.
All spaces were full yesterday as a mix of locals and visitors shuffled in and out with bags full of fruit and vegetables. Janai bought a sack of avocados, limes, lettuce and tangerines for $5.
“We need to keep local color, local agriculture,” Janai said. “Not everything on Kaua‘i should be destroyed for the ultra rich and their new developments.”
The developer and landowner could not be reached for comment at press time, but Yoshimori said he understands the plan is to build workforce housing on the property.
“Anything’s possible,” he said.
Janai feared the Garden Island was abandoning its namesake.
“This is something of the old Kaua‘i that’s being lost,” she said.
The stand provides local produce at reasonable prices, Janai added, which reduces the amount of food the island must import.
“We’re going in the wrong direction,” she said.
• Nathan Eagle, staff writer, can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 224) or neagle@kauaipubco.com.
