Maui Tours

That mean so much Lavender in bloom The scent of tuber roses Pumpkins and farms Up country Maui Sharing the beauty with friends… God is so great!     Marilyn Jansen Lopes http://mauicountryfarmtours.com 808 283-9131 @jamarilyn on Twitter http://Facebook.com/mauicountryfarmtours

I was so tickled when I got a tweet that my Twitter friend Lorraine was to be on Maui for 5 days and would love to meet me. I’d been following her awesome food blog Not Quite Nigella since 2009. She is highly creative and a total inspiration. She’s also gorgeous! I told her I’d…

It was an amazing day for Agriculture in West Maui at Piliani Kope Farm and Kaanapali Coffee Farms. The Coffee cherries were ripe for the harvest. Got a glimpse of the coffee harvesters in action and the abundant coffee cherries here ready to be transported to the mill for sorting, washing, pulping and drying. What a beautiful sight to see millions of MauiGrown Coffee cherries. Above we see cacao and the lovely Piliani Kope Farm where coffee is hand picked just as it is done in Kona for a hundred years. Greg Stille, President of Maui Coffee Association and The Hawaii Coffee Association, shows us the next node where a coffee cherry will bud on the tree. The land is rich in diversity and life. We’d love to share this with you…   ~ Marilyn   Marilyn Jansen Lopes http://mauicountryfarmtours.com…

Last week we took our guests to O’o Farm for their wonderful farm to table tour and lunch. We were met at the bottom of the hill by the amazing Richard Clark who planted everything on the farm. They grow everything from coffee, artichokes, asparagus, Chinese greens, lettuces, chard, cucumber, herbs, heirloom tomatoes, lemon hot chili peppers, cilantro, kohlrabi, nasturtiums, raspberry, strawberries, wild pohaberry, figs, kaffir limes and more. It’s an amazing experience to be surrounded by a working farm in such beautiful order. He was sophisticated, intelligent and passionate about the farm which is owned by Pacific O and I’o Restaurant in Lahaina. This basket of greens and red leaf lettuce, Chinese peppery greens, carrots, society garlic chives is ready to be delivered to Chef JJ for our lunch. JJ had prepared tofu that had been seared and sautéed for ninety…

The famed Maui Mokka, Red Catuai (Cat-Y-ee), and Yellow Caturra We’ll be sampling these coffee cherries on the farm tour at K`aanapali Fresh “A Culinary Experience” Saturday September 1, 9 AM- 12PM I’ll be giving the history of coffee from its origin in Ethiopia and migration to Yemen where it was first cultivated over a thousand years ago. Do you know how coffee was discovered?   That’s Jeff Ferguson above pictured next to a coffee harvester. It’s amazing how the rods spin among the coffee branches to shake the cherries loose where they fall into a hopper and an elevator takes them to the top to be transported by trailer to the mill. It’s an amazing story of betrayal, love and legends that have been made about whole crops being destroyed and a single plant creating the future plants of…

Getting ready to share Kaanapali’s Agricultural Beauty at #KFreshMaui on Saturday, September 1, 2012 9-Noon We’re hosting the Farm tour for 50 people, mostly media persons who have come to write about the Ka’anapali Fresh Culinary Event. James “Kimo” Falconer is responsible for resurrecting the farm and establishing the brand “MauiGrown Coffee” in 2003. He’ll be on the farm to meet everyone on the tour. Can’t wait to get Into the field and see the coffee trees ripe for harvest. We’ll be sampling coffee cherries in the Maui Mokka section of the Kaanapali Coffee Estates. Maui Mokka is gaining world wide recognition. These are coffees packaged and ready to ship at the MauiGrown Coffee Company Store in Lahaina by the famous Old Pioneer Mill Smokestack. There are four types of coffee grown on the 500 acre coffee estate. Red Catuai,…

The first Maui Coffee Festival will take place this Saturday at The Shops at Wailea. The Maui Coffee Association together with the Maui County Farm Bureau have been planning this event for months. Greg Stille, president of the Maui Coffee Association and president of the Hawaii Coffee Association says there will be tents near the…

One of our largest group tours was this private tour with fifteen passengers who arrived on Maui via Carnival Cruise. You never know what to expect so you have to be ready for anything. Two of the guests were slightly handicapped. One gentleman had fallen on his face during rough waters on the cruise ship. Another lady had swollen legs due to her medical condition so at the Lavender Farm they were kind enough to transport these two via the gator to our luncheon area down off the lower walking tour trail. This was no problem for us. Rick loves taking care of elderly folks and I’m an RN with 16 years experience. Though I’m only practicing once a year now doing Flu shot clinics, my background is in Emergency Room and family practice. My last position was at Hana…

A tour of the Lavender Farm in Kula, Maui is an agricultural adventure. In summer, as you approach the entrance, you begin to see thousands of grey mounds with purple stems bursting to the sky. Upon close observation you’ll see over 45 varieties of English, Spanish and French Lavender. Sweet English lavender has the long beautiful stems. French Lavender can be identified by the serrated leaf or French Braid like leaves. Spanish lavender has a peppery scent and buds shaped like pineapples or two bunny ears… The French varieties are most often used in culinary preparations. Lavender comes from the French word “lavage” and was used by royalty in ancient times to bathe. Hence, the lavender gives a sweet smelling scent to the bath and has many wonderful properties for the skin. It is a natural bug repellant, an antiseptic,…

As you can see, our celebration of Pies at Kula Country Farms was very popular… There were even more pies to follow these beauties. I was hoping for more pizzas and again didn’t get a chance to taste this one by @daniakatz because it’s difficult to eat that much pie! But it’s fun to see it all come together with everyone in their country spirit on Maui. There were some gorgeous two crust pies that I didn’t get close ups on, darn… it happens so fast with guests arriving… Putting out pies… Meeting, greeting, hugs, photos, talking story and all on a beautiful mountain farm overlooking the sea… look at these local strawberries from Kula Country Farms… @daniaedibleHI is responsible for putting the #MauiPie TweetUp together with Teena Monden of Kula County Farms here. I helped to tweet it and…