Local Organic Produce

Local island grown small farm organic produce is becoming increasingly more common in our produce aisle here at Mana. It’s not only one of our main objectives but our customers are demanding it as well. Here we will look at a few of our own Maui grown certified organic local producers.

Makawao Mushrooms Rocky from Makawao Mushrooms was kind enough to give us an amazing tour of Maui's Only Commercial mushroom farm. They are a very sustainable farm using solar thermal and photovoltaic power as well as water catchment. They also use waste veggie oil from resturants that buy their mushrooms to power their svo boiler for sterilization of the mushroom substrate which is locally produced from by products "sugar cane baggasse and hardwood sawdust"



The mushroom farm is nestled in UpCountry Makawao with views from Kahului Harbour to Ma'alaea. The barns of the old Haleakala Dairy are now home to the only commercial mushroom farm on Maui. The Chenelle family has been raising varieties of the Oyster (Pleurotus Ostreatus) specialty mushroom since 2002. No, these are not the hallucinogenic kind – these are considered both a gourmet and a medicinal mushroom. And no, we don’t feed them bull…. and keep them in the dark! Indeed, our farm will be a surprise to most. We use a unique technique to grow clusters of mushrooms that look more like flowers...

Joel Gil Coca of Coca Farm in Kula is a great example of a small farm certified organic producer. He along with his family is working daily to raise vegetables for our island community. Hard work and long hours preparing soil, planting, fertilizing, managing insects and micro-life, sales, harvesting, packing, and delivery are just part of the routine. Coca Farm has been growing a large variety of very high quality items for us including: red leaf lettuce, green leaf lettuce, romaine lettuce, lacinato kale, green kale, swiss chard, green beans, Kula onions, beets, fennel, kohlrabi, green cabbage, red cabbage, napa cabbage, cilantro, cherry tomatoes, and strawberries.

Pictured here is Sal from Coca Farms in the Organic Strawberry field.

Hale Akua Garden Farm in Huelo is another up and coming certified organic small scale producer. At Hale Akua they are providing and educational service by offering useful organic gardening/farming classes to the community as well as to their wwoofer’s or Willing Workers On Organic Farms which are people from all over the world with diverse backgrounds coming to Maui to live, learn, work, and share in an agricultural experience. Hale Akua has been growing some diverse varieties of produce for us including: Beets, radishes, daikon, turnips, eggplant, green beans, yellow beans, parsley, cilantro, basil, baby bok choy, and bananas.

Kapalua Farms from Kapalua (West Maui) is wonderful model of a certified organic larger scale agriculture operation flexing and bending and adopting a more diversified approach to farming than the conventional hundred acre mono-cultures typical of most large farms. Kapalua Farms raise mostly organic pineapple but they are incorporating chickens and eggs, as well as a variety of tomatoes, eggplant, cucumber, lettuce, onions, lychee, and some citrus as well. They are now the largest certified organic farm I n the state of Hawaii and we are very fortunate to be able to keep most of the produce they grow right here on Maui.

Kumulani Farm run by Steve Wilson up in Beautiful Olinda has been growing organic produce for Maui for over 10 years. Steve Host’s the Annual Soil Conference put on by The Maui Aloha Aina Association (MA’A) at his farm each year. Kumulani produces: Kales, collards, Butter Lettuce, Romaine, Green leaf, Maui Onions, Squash, Cucumbers, and more. Crop Rotations, cover cropping, minimal tillage, farm made compost, Effective Micro-Organisms (EM), good balanced soil mineral management are important aspects of farming for this small certified organic grower.