PUHI — Residents overflowed the campus area set aside for the 14th Annual Kaua‘i Garden Fair Saturday at Kaua‘i Community College. “The Garden Fair is a special time when we have an opportunity to interact with the tremendous variety of
PUHI — Residents overflowed the campus area set aside for the 14th Annual Kaua‘i Garden Fair Saturday at Kaua‘i Community College.
“The Garden Fair is a special time when we have an opportunity to interact with the tremendous variety of people who fit under that large tent called agriculture,” said Melissa McFerrin, executive administrator for the Kaua‘i County Farm Bureau, a major sponsor of the event.
People mingled and browsed through rows of tents representing more than 40 vendors offering everything from food and refreshments to produce, seedlings, fruit trees and decorative plants and accessories to enhance gardens around the island.
“This is a pre-cursor for the farmer’s market the Kaua‘i Community College is planning to offer,” said Helen Cox, KCC chancellor. “This is very exciting to see this many people interested in agriculture.”
Sandi Kato-Kluke, a Farm Bureau member manning the information booth, said this year’s garden fair was an ideal way to get feedback from vendors interested in being part of the planned Saturday morning farmer’s market.
“The Farm Bureau and KCC are planning a partnership to run a Saturday Farmer’s Market that will feature locally grown produce and value-added products,” Kato-Klutke said.
She said there appears to be a great interest in the market, but as a key to sustaining the event once it is launched, surveys were being taken so once the event is open, it doesn’t result in just one tent of vendors.
“We need to make sure the vendors can continue to offer product and not just come on a one-time basis,” Kato-Klutke said.
The long-term goal is to help support Kaua‘i’s agricultural community with a new centrally located market that will feature high quality produce, plants, meat, fish and dairy.
Sara Bowen of the East & West Kaua‘i Soil & Water Conservation District said “value added” could be seen at the Saturday fair when the Hanalei Taro & Juice Co. lunchwagon made its debut after being fitted with solar panels made possible through a grant.
“This wagon can go anywhere,” Bowen said. “The solar power releases it from having to have a generator or an electrical source to plug in.”
The offering of vendors at this year’s fair, described by fair-goers as one of the biggest, could be broken down into commercial, nonprofit informational and educational. Commercial vendors offered a variety of goods ranging from food for immediate gratification to tools and accessories needed to produce a home garden.
“The annual garden fair is one of the largest gatherings of green thumbs on Kaua‘i and a great way to share the bounty of the island first-hand,” McFerrin said.
Fair attendees spanned all age levels and one of the new additions to this year’s event was the inclusion of the Kaua‘i and Kapa‘a high schools’ agricultural programs. Students from the Kaua‘i High School Future Farmers of America program shucked and inspected ears of corn that were available for consumers to purchase.
Joining the Kaua‘i Farm Bureau, the event was sponsored by the University of Hawai‘i, College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources, the Grove Farm Company, the KCC Office of Continuing Education and Training, Growing Greens Nursery, Crop Production Services, M. Kawamura Farm Enterprises, Syngenta Seeds, Pioneer Hi-Bred, and Hawaiian Orchid Source.
