The bright red lychees on the tree in front of me look like prickly Golf balls. On the hilly terrain of Poamoho Organic Farm also mangoes ripen in the light Wind, lemons, Papayas and figs swings. And right above me, hanging fat and heavy, a couple of Avocados. A true garden of Eden. I look from afar on the green-blue ocean that rushes to the North shore of the Hawaiian island of Oahu on the beaches. “A couple of hours on this island give you energy for the next 20 years,” says Wendy Gady, shows me the vast Orchards of the Farm. I pick up a lychee and taste: juicy, sweet and floral notes – much more aromatic than the canned lychees, which are served in many Restaurants. Taste of the Paradise?
Hawaiian Islands of Oahu and Kauai dream destinations in the middle of the Pacific ocean By Till Bartels
of Oahu, is 64 kilometers long and 42 kilometers wide, is one of the eight largest Islands of the Hawaiian archipelago, which forms the northernmost point of Polynesia. And the economically most important. The capital city of Honolulu is Waikiki Beach, for many the epitome of the Pacific holiday dream. Hotel after Hotel, in the beach bars, the guests vying for the best spot from the sun in the Pacific ocean, sink to see. Who makes the metropolis but behind, another of Oahu and the lush splendor of the tropics.
for a Long time, the fertile soil of Hawaii, the people here call the ‘āina has been leached by sugar cane plantations. But now it seems that this lush green patch of earth in the Pacific of people like Wendy Gady through determination and hard work has finally recaptured, with the goal to make it healthy.
“Keep the country country”
The Poamoho Farm, your trees would have been eternal times here, so that people can easy to you. But they were first planted 15 years ago. The certified fruit-growing is one of the answers to the question of the many Haiwaiianer: What about the hundreds of thousands of acres of Land, on which sugar cane was grown? The last mill closed in 2016. Hawaii imports 90 percent of its food, and the call for a diverse agriculture, with the help of the residents themselves can provide, will be louder.
From: “National Geographic Traveler” ,Bulletin of 4/2018 price: 7,50 Euro.
The Problem is on 0ahu particularly pressing. Around two-thirds of the 1.4 million Hawaiians live, and every year millions of tourists come. On the former-growing areas around Honolulu houses, shopping malls and Hotels are being built and with them the discomfort of the farmers, Hippies and surfers grows. More and more often, Keep the country country is to see your claim on stickers on cars: “” – ensures that our country remains rural.
the area of the Poamoho Farm is about three acres in size, the products are supplied to upscale Restaurants. The Farm is a success story for the life on the North coast and an example of what is called the Hawaiians malama ‘āina: respect for the earth. Wendy Gady you have been living here since she married a man from the area. But she grew up on a Farm in the US state of Iowa, and I know how important it is to respect the nature: “it’s important to Me to preserve the Land for future generations,” she says.
– meter-high waves at Waimea Beach
The sun has risen the next day, I with a mug of coffee in Hand along the beach stroll. I enjoy the peaceful mood. The delicate scent of blooming temple trees hangs in the air, and in the traces left by crabs in the Sand, sparkle, little Dewdrop. It will take hours, until the trippers come to the Sunset Beach and the Waimea Bay or at a Food Truck for a shrimp buns do. And to the surfers wait for the right Moment to ride on the often metre-high waves.
Actually, I wanted to keep to the Honu on the look-out, the green Hawaiian sea turtles, the paddling here is often through the water, but my gaze always wanders back to the Waianae mountains. The peaks glowing in the morning light, the deep Furrows of their flanks are filled with luminous Green. Above them, the Kaala rises, with 1227 meters, the highest mountain of the island.
Roadtrip in Hawaii island of Kauai: Green is not
Also, at lunch, in Waialuas Haleiwa neighbouring village, I can see him. Here the workers of the sugar cane used to live in farms. Today, the songs of Bob Marley from shops, blades are sold in surf boards. In the cafes there are healthy Treats like Smoothies made with acai berries. I’m sitting at the sale of the Red Barn stand Farm and talk with the owners, Milton Agader, 74, and Al Medrano, 62. Both have spent a large part of their working life on the plantation of the American fruit and vegetable group Dole Food Company in Waialua.
Though here since 1865 sugar cane had been grown, the industry came only in full swing, as of the beginning of the 20th century. Century, a railway line to the North coast, with Honolulu Association. The Jobs attracted immigrants from Portugal, China, Japan, and Korea, and the Philippines, they also shaped the culture of the island. “The whole economy depended on sugar,” explains Agader, who was born on the Hawaiian island of Kauai. “We have plowed, planted, water pipes repaired, cut cane, and drove the crop to the factories. It was hard work.” His buddy Medrano with a laugh. “Well, we were younger and stronger then,” he says.
Medrano came as a child with his widowed mother here from the Philippines. “Even before the plan closed days, we had pulled in our spare time and some vegetables,” he says.
organic farmers on the North coast of
Today, the parcels become the Twin BridgeFarms are from Agaders and Medranos. They extend over more than 120 hectares. There, the two brown to build-burned men and their helpers Corn, try for companies from the U.S. mainland in the cultivation of different varieties of potato and pull, moreover, the finest asparagus for Restaurants on Oahu.
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cows in the pasture of the Kualoa Ranch, Oahu
in the Meantime, the two men have it a little quieter. But you don’t look as if you were sitting at some point only in the rocking chair on the porch. The Red Barn Farm, we stood drinking our coffee, ist your latest project. They not only sell products from Twin Bridge Farms, but also of many other farmers in the area. “We want to strengthen the community of the North coast,” said Agader. “We hope that many more farmers.”
This may well happen, because it does a lot of things among the farmers of the island. During my week on the North coast, I meet a lot of other organic farmers. The Kahuku Farms by the descendants of Japanese sugar cane workers are operated. To their shady Sales I enjoy a Panini with Mozzarella and aromatic grilled vegetables. As I drive, I see on the road, the dragon fruit with bright red flesh of the Mohala Farms are sold. On the farm huts with straw roofs, in which the operators serve every evening a meal with ingredients grown on the farm. It is almost sold out. Young people from Hawaii come here to learn the Organic farming. Your work force you to exchange for meals and accommodation.
Back in Haleiwa, I’m supposed to meet with the cocoa farmers Seneca classes. We climb into his dusty truck and drive over a gravel road to his property, which is located about 150 meters above the city. There are yellow and red container hanging in the trees. Classes opens one of them and let me look into it. Big, wet cocoa beans dry and ferment, before classes, roasting them in a factory in Honolulu and to process chocolate in its brand Lonohana.
“This Farm has an exciting development,” he says, of the operation earlier in Oakland, California in a Café. “When I was here in 2009 started, I understood the concept of malama ‘āina hardly, I wanted to grow, especially cocoa.” However, the earth was exhausted, classes, and his staff plowed tons of natural fertilizer under the ground, until he recovered. “Over time I have realized that it is also my duty to ensure this spot of earth,” he says. “Because that will give it even if I’m already gone again. We produce cocoa, but we also create a forest, as he used to be here.”
market in Waialua
On Saturday morning I’m going back to Waialua to visit the bustling market of a cooperative. He is being held in front of a disused sugar mill. The members of tilling small areas, the Dole group of former plantation employees. I pass the modest homes, a sign that it glorifies Waialua still as the “home of the best sugar in the world”.
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The sign for the Farmers Market will also be arriving Japanese tourists
As I, is the small market is already in full swing. About a hundred people strolling around between a dozen or so stalls, on which varieties of Cabbage, Papaya and sorrel piling. At a Diner, they serve Poi, a dish roots from the traditionally important Taro, rice and chicken, grilled over wood from the Mesquite tree and with a savoury-sweet sauce. In the former sugar mill, there is a Store in the soap is made by Hand, next to someone from pieces small quirks on a surf Board, and, compared to the coffee beans are ground.
I eat a little something and then take a hike, past the Dillingham Ranch, a white-washed horse with a Polo field and one of the largest cocoa plantations in Hawaii. My Route starts out flat, but soon rises up steeply into the hills of the Waianae mountains. An hour later I’m standing at a lookout point and views across Waialua. I see the old chimney of the sugar mill in the foreground, in the distance, the rotors of wind turbines are turning, in between, an irregular checkerboard of fields where once sugar cane grew. On some overgrown Guinea grass, persistent weeds, many others maintained.
Aloha e, Aloha e, Aloha e
The next day, I’m moving in with Kahokulei’a Haiku, a spiritual healer who works as a Hiking guide. He was born on Oahu’s North shore and knows all the paths and hidden waterfalls. We start above the Waimea Bay, on the Ruins of the Puu o Mahuka Heiau, Oahu’s oldest Polynesian temple. Black volcanic rock framed the rectangular platform. “Waialua was an important place for the Rulers of old Hawaii,” says Haiku.
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One of the many waterfalls on the Hawaiian Islands
“most of the leaders of the tribe had a place here, in the valley of the mighty priest lived.” Before we go back, ask Haiku to me, to a traditional blessing. I speak to him, as he speaks to his ancestors and the goddesses and gods, and you say that we would like to thank you from the heart. We close with the Hawaiian formula, which means “with love”, we tell you three times, for the past, the present and the future: Aloha e, Aloha e, Aloha e.
Before I leave the North coast, I drive a path between fields in Haleiwa along, past the half-overgrown ruins of a Church from the 19th century. Century. In the cemetery next to many of the former workers of the sugar cane plantations are under simple stones and Crosses, buried. While I look around me, I hear sounds, I have become familiar: On one of the middle fields of the Mohala Farms, a tractor begins to roar, and somewhere in a field, laughing good-humored young workers.
From the English of Burkhard Maria Zimmermann. Appeared in “National Geographic Traveler”, Bulletin of 4/2018. There you will also find the service.
