The Weekly Eater: Hawaii garden connection spells victory for local restaurants

COVID-19 is forcing society to reinvent itself as a matter of survival. The specter of scarcity on par with the Great Depression has brought back another relic of that era, the victory garden.

The National War Garden Commission, formed in 1917 as the U.S. entered World War I, coined the term “victory garden” in an effort to prevent widespread starvation here and abroad, as farm fields of allies in Europe became battlegrounds. The commission called on patriotic Americans to grow food wherever they could to create self-sufficiency during both world wars, so by 1944, an estimated 20 million victory gardens were producing more than 40% of all the fresh fruits and vegetables consumed in the United States.

Over time, the growing number of dual-income households and a need for convenience overshadowed the will to garden, and lawns — when they weren’t paved over to make way for monster homes — were more likely to be taken over by ornamental than edible plants.

During the early days of the pandemic — as the precarious nature of food supply chains on an island became apparent — the most forward-looking among us flocked to garden stores, emptying their racks and shelves of seeds, soils and planters to ensure we could feed ourselves should markets ever close.

In the kitchen of Mugen, chef Jason Yamaguchi was thinking the same thing, that he also needed to grow his own fruits and vegetables to serve the restaurant’s clientele.

>> PHOTOS: Mugen partners with Waimanalo farm

For more than 30 years, the farm-to-table movement has seen chefs working closely with farmers to grow ingredients specific to their needs. The push for sustainability also had some kitchens producing their own food, from a few trays of micro greens used as garnishes, to larger-scale gardens, for example, at the Prince Waikiki hotel, and honey-producing beehives at the Hyatt Regency Waikiki Beach Resort.

Restaurants connected to farms have the advantage of controlling their supply chains and keeping costs down, such as at Olena Cafe, which grows the turmeric and ginger that go into its food and drinks.

AT MUGEN, Yamaguchi partnered with Yogarden Hawaii’s Paul Izak to grow items he had trouble getting when the pandemic began disrupting supply chains. Yamaguchi said the last straw came when three shipments of Tokyo turnips he had ordered were blocked by the state’s Plant Quarantine Branch over questions of how surrounding root vegetables had been treated. Other basic items that were hard to get included bananas that are too perishable for vendorsto want to carry at this time, blood oranges and Okinawan spinach.

By July Yamaguchi was planting his own organic turnips, as well as pattypan squash, habaneros, chives, shiso, lavender, long beans, kale, eggplant and basil. Tomatoes and Tokyo negi are coming.

Prior to the partnership, Izak had focused on ginger and turmeric, annual crops that he markets locally and nationally. Gooseberries (poha) and edible hibiscus also grow well on the property, and a project growing Madagascar and Tahitian vanilla plants may bear fruit soon.

Yamaguchi said time issues prevent most chefs from growing their own ingredients, but with service reduced to takeout at his restaurant, he has time to get his hands dirty working at the Yogarden’s Waimanalo farm at least twice a week, planting and harvesting.

Because he’s able to build a menu around farm production, he’s able to grow 80% of what he needs for the small, upscale restaurant, and his produce costs have gone down 75%.

He’s also been able to use more parts of the plants in creative ways. “Most people don’t know that carrot tops have a lot of flavor, but by the time I would get them, they would be wilted. You could try perking it up in water, but that’s not likely to happen.”

Now, he’s able to have ingredients prepared and out the door within hours of harvesting them.

Along with the good, he’s had brushes with the reality of feral chickens digging up plantings, and he said he once came face to face with three large wild boars tempted by the vegetable beds.

“I had just gotten out of my car when I saw them and they looked at me. We had a moment, but luckily they decided to leave.”

When it comes down to a choice of whether he prefers to be at the farm or in the kitchen, Yamaguchi said it’s an even 50-50.

“I like the creativity of being in the kitchen, but I like the feeling I get when I’m at the farm. There’s something about being in the fields that makes you feel alive.”

S&S THAI KITCHEN might not exist today if it were not for a 3-acre family farm that, since 2012, had been supplying produce — mainly bananas and papayas — to restaurant distributors and farmers market vendors.

They had a problem moving some produce that was still fresh and consumable, but were considered too unattractive to appeal to consumers.

Co-owner Veerasak “Jason” Vongphrachanh had no intention of being in the food service business — he had gone to school in Thailand to become a social worker — but having grown up in Laos with a culture of no wastefulness, he decided to launch a food truck in 2015 to make use of the ingredients the family couldn’t sell.

He had a couple of years of experience working in restaurants, and spent a lot of time enhancing his cooking skills via online tutorials.

In 2016 he became a vendor at Shiro­kiya, and S&S’s first full-service restaurant opened at Discovery Bay in 2018.

This year, the family moved the operation to Kapolei’s Ka Makana Ali‘i mall.

Some of the farm’s initial crops — bananas, papayas, eggplant, cucumbers, long beans and squash — have had to make room for more of the plants the restaurant needs, such as mint, green onions, tomatoes and sour tamarind.

Vongphrachanh said he wishes he could grow sweet tamarind, but the plant does not fare well on the farm.

To date, the farm supplies 70% of the restaurant’s needs. Vongphrachanh said he will always have to buy carrots, broccoli and cabbage, and he sometimes still has that problem of overabundance.

“That’s when we make a gift to customers. Here, have some bananas.”

Nadine Kam’s restaurant reviews are conducted anonymously and paid for by the Star-Advertiser. Reach her at nkam@staradvertiser.com.