Farmers market wonderful finds

July 28, 2012

Farmer's market day! Saturday is when the Kapiolani Community College farmer's market happens. This is across the street and down a bunch of hills to a lower parking lot on the campus. It is always fun to go there. Why? Because in addition to the regular fruits and vegetables there is always live music, food vendors and a variety of tourist stuff. Bus loads of tourists are brought from Waikiki and other areas to the farmer's market. Because of this, there are vendor stalls for a lot of Hawaiian grown products like Kona coffees, macadamia nuts, Hawaiian grown chocolates and more. So it is not your normal farmer's market. There are also tons of plants including orchids, succulents, and a huge variety of cut flowers.

So I woke up early this morning and talked to Romi for a few minutes. She was headed out to snorkel from a catamaran. I headed on down to the farmers market to spend a bit of time looking around. First stop was my favorite bread/bakery stall. I got 2 baguettes this time, one sourdough and one rosemary. I got them sliced as always and talked to the baker for a bit. Then I went to a fruit and vegetable vendor. I got a bunch of fresh basil, a bunch of fresh cilantro and a dragon fruit! Dragon fruit is also called pitaya. I found out that you chill then then cut in half and eat with a spoon. I haven't tried it yet but I will tomorrow! The fruits themselves are just beautiful.

It was very crowded but I walked through the rest of the vendors. There were some lovely cut flowers. I took some photos so I could share. Susan - I hope you enjoy the flower photos. I always think of you and your lovely plants when I see all of these.

Here is one of the chocolate vendors.They grow the cacao beans here in Hawaii. Hawaii is the only state in the US where cacao beans are grown. I have NO IDEA. I have found out recently that chocolate manufacturers are often located in the Ivory Coast area. Cacao farms and chocolatiers in this region use a variety of unethical labor practices including slave labor, purchasing children and adults from the slave trade and working people to death. The large companies selling mainstream chocolate such as Nestle, Hershey's and M&M/Mars buy their chocolate used for their candies from these areas. Now I personally have no problem with children working. Not every child is able to not work in the world. However, I do have a problem with slavery, working children and adults to death, etc. Estimates are that 200,000 children are forced to work against their will in cacao farms in West Africa (UWire article here) which I am NOT ok with. CNN did an article and video on this which you can view. There is a lot of information on the unethical labor behind chocolate. To combat these unethical practices Fair Trade or Direct Trade chocolate is the ethical choice to purchase. I appreciate Romi and her undying love and academic interest in chocolate helping point some of this out. I have done some searching online and this information is correct. If you have an interest you may want to learn more about this problem. So here is a local vendor, Malie Kai Chocolates, who grow and produce "ethical" chocolate.

There was also a stall there with "Master Gardeners" from the University Botany department. They have an "Ask the Expert" program where volunteers go to the farmers markets to answer plant questions, sell seed packets and identify plants for people. These are mostly retired and current faculty. If they cannot help identify a plant, help with a question or problem there is a contact page for the University to get further assistance. Really difficult plants to ID are referred tot he "Plant Identification Class" who spend the course identifying and learning about plants that people have called about. I was asking them about the interesting succulent I have at home and have not been able to identify. They asked me to take a picture of succulents that are similar on sale at the farmers market. So these are the photos I took. The top one is a bit like my plant. Same leaf shape but not ever in this arrangement. The second is just one I liked.I am quite fond of succulents. I hope mine at home are not dead. :(

This was on the table of the vendor who sells the hydroponic lettuces. He floats them in fish tanks. Pretty neat! I never imagined such a thing.

There was also a vendor there who was selling some of the more exotic and unusual fruits. The first is bali salak, also known as snake fruit. This looks a lot like a fig but the skin of the fruit has a texture just like a snake. Seriously, it is scaly and looks JUST like snakeskin. They were giving samples and it was sweet and crunch, kindof like pineapple but not as sweet.

 This is jakfruit. There were some there that looked huge to me. However, there was a man next to me that said these were very small compared tot he ones they grow. Wikipedia says they can grow to be 80 pounds and 3 feet long! I didn't get to try this but it looked interesting!

I found a vendor who sells gourmet sea salts and Hawaiian grown sugar. They are called 4 J's Hawaii Inc. I got some Hawaiian Chili sea salt and some Kiawe Smoke sea salt. Kiawe (pronounces kee-ah-vey) is similar to mesquite but is a sweeter flavor. I tastes these and they were very unique so  wanted to bring/send some home to share. They also had flavored Hawaiian cane sugars. They had samples of plain old Lipton tea sweetened with these sugars and they were FANTASTIC. So I got one of each: the Pineapple, Lychee and Mango. I had some of the pineapple and mango and they were great. Can't wait to try the lychee. They gave me little printed recipes for each of the products as well, though you can find them online. I'm looking forward to using these and sharing them!

The same people also sell food. I decided to try something different and ordered the mini seafood combo which was a salmon tofu patty, a shrimp and crab tofu patty, a scoop of brown rice, and a salad of organic mixed greens with their homemade creamy oriental salad dressing. I didn't eat it till I was home and settled but it was good. I LOVED the salmon tofu patty and the shrimp and crab patty was ok but not fabulous. The salad dressing was GREAT.

My ankle was hurting quite a bit by this time so I decided to head home. I barely made it up the hill. My ankle was hurting so much I had to stop several times and let the pain decrease so I could keep going. I made it home and put my items away and have spent the rest of the day off my ankle. It hurts even being off it but not as much. It just has to last a few weeks more before I can pamper it and stay off it for it to heal. So here is my haul for the day, I didn't purchase much since I didn't need a lot. I also got a POG (Passion-Orange-Guava) juice drink to have with my food. I usually mix it with water.

I spent the afternoon reading, playing a bit of DDO online with Rob while it was raining here, then napping. Basically staying off my ankle and relaxing. I want to try to go snorkeling tomorrow but it will depend on my ankle. trying to be nice to it while still enjoying my last few weeks here. I purchased my return plane ticket today. I will be posting my return itinerary in another post. I will leave here Monday, August 13th evening and be home Tuesday, August 14th at about 4:30. So I will be returning to Lexington on my birthday!

A hui hou, (Goodbye, until we meet again)
~Melissa