Maui

Tonight’s guests at Slow Food Maui‘s Taste Education series were Anthony LaBua and Maleta Van Loan of Maui Preserved. They’ve created a wonderful brand that supports local farmers and inspires creativity in the kitchen. Their first product, a Hawaiian Chile Pepper Sauce was created in 2010. They established their commercial kitchen in Haiku and since then have developed a line of products including spicy pickled pineapple spears, pickled beets, onions, Pohole (fiddlehead fern shoots), pickled strawberries, pineapple Thai Chili spread, and a Mexican Gherkin pickle. They acidify with either apple cider vinegars or a green tea brine. Mexican Gherkin was bright and crisp. The Pineapple Sweet Thai Chile spread had some heat and was delicious. Anthony talked about chef inspired products, sustainability, the demand for local food that could be preserved, food security and keeping the culture alive with new…

The Joy of Country is having flowers in our life every day… Fresh picked lavender… Petunias at Kula Country Farms… Did I say Lavender? Sweeping vistas… Earthy rich soil… Horses… Babies We love Country and sharing Maui’s Agricultural Beauty Marilyn Jansen Lopes http://mauicountryfarmtours.com 808 283-9131 @jamarilyn on Twitter

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…

  I know it’s been a while but here we are with a beautiful visual of our recent West Maui Coffee Tour. I was asked by Stephanie Hua of @lickmyspoon to share our West Maui Coffee Tour. She was here for the Kapalua Food and Wine festival and she will feature us on her blog….

April 19, 2012 Dania Katz, Chef and farmer James Simpliciano and Chef Jenna Haugaard made their dream come true… They created the first Kupu Maui Pop Up brunch event at Ali`i Kula Lavender FarmInspired by other Pop Up restaurants in Honolulu like “The Pig and The Lady”, Dania was determined to pull it off on…

   The thought of lavender conjures images of purple fields sloping on a mountain looking out to the sea…    The feeling is relaxation, one of lavender’s most potent properties. It directly affects the central nervous system. The benefits of lavender are more than wonderful.   Just being near acres of lavender, drinking…

Philadelphia Flower Show  Big things are happening for Ag-Tourism at this very moment. Did you hear about the largest flower show in North America happening right now in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania? Its the Philadelphia Flower Show and the theme is Hawaii. The Maui Visitor’s Bureau arranged for over a dozen booths to share the Aloha to an expected 300,000 visitors over nine days at this huge event. Our Dania…

Here at Maui Country Farm Tours we visit the farms on Maui. It is so beautiful and inspiring to meet with farmers and learn about Maui’s agricultural beauty. We hope to inspire many young people on Maui to pursue a dream in agriculture contributing to the future of Hawaii. The land is changing and small…