Supporting local farmers is easy thanks to new online programs

QUESTION: How do you navigate buying local produce?

ANSWER: Because I don’t have a traditional background as a chef, it has made me more adventurous.

When I first got started, I was scrambling to farms all over the island — whatever small growers I knew, trying to pick up their produce each week. But it’s really difficult for a chef to be doing that even though it’s also very rewarding to be able to have a direct connection with the farm. Fortunately, now there are two organizations collecting — doing what I was doing but making it easier for chefs. They’ll post what is available from different farms, and they’ll show up at your cafe.

Q: What are the organizations?

A: The two organizations I use to get my produce are Farm Link Hawai‘i and O‘ahu Fresh.

Q: How do they work?

A: For both of them, they aggregate from a bunch of growers on the island. They’ll go and collect from these farms to distribute the produce to restaurants and cafes each week.

At Farm Link Hawai‘i, each week farmers go online and post what they have available that week. You just order it like online shopping, except it’s produce and it’s super fresh. I order all of my produce that way, and it arrives at the cafe.

Q: Can individuals use these programs?

A: You can’t use Farm Link just yet, but right now you can use O‘ahu Fresh.

O‘ahu Fresh uses a CSA box, which stands for community-supported agriculture. What you can do is you can subscribe to a month or two of their vegetables. You can add on eggs or bread, too.

When you get the box, it is a total surprise. You don’t know at all what is going to be in it. There is also an accompanying newsletter and accompanying recipes.

Q: How do CSAs work?

A: You are sort of buying into a share of the farm and helping to support the farm. They are harvesting whatever they have available that week, or they may even be growing based on what number of shares they have. It exposes you to a wider variety of what is seasonal and available.

Q: Do you save money when buying local produce?

A: For the most part you aren’t saving a lot of money.

If you go to the farmers market and you’re buying what is abundant that week, avocado or lots of kale and greens, the price difference isn’t significant.

We aren’t saving money on the produce itself. The eggplant, the price per pound, would be a dollar more instead of mainland eggplant. But it’s the mission of our business to support local and help create the most sustainable food system; as small as we are, that’s really important to us.

I try to supplement it by foraging customers’ yards who have ulu and jackfruit and other ingredients that they want nothing to do with.

Q: What about when you are gathering food for yourself?

A: I grow different produce in my garden, or I forage. I don’t have time to garden. I would say I don’t work on my garden at all. My roommate and I put some squash in the ground, and we ignored it and we got probably 100 pounds of squash.

Herbs are a given. Herbs are so expensive. But they require very little care when you garden. Cassava, you can put that in the ground and ignore completely, and it will thrive.

Q: What tips do you have for foraging in Hawaii?

A: There are a lot of resources available now about how to forage safely in Hawaii. There is a book by Sunny Savage called “Wild Food Plants of Hawaii” that is out now that identifies specific local plants and gives suggestions for recipes.

Slow Food O‘ahu also gives walking tours both in nature, like at Tantalus, and urban Honolulu. You can walk through town and see what you can pick, and it’s free.