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Hookuaaina Rebuilding Lives From The Ground Up

Coming Home: Reflection From An Intern

Just like the process of hehi, stomping, and turning over the lepo to prepare a patch for the next cycle of growth, this new year brings with it new nutrients and abundance; excitement for what’s to come.

Lepo Lapa’au: ASA Reflection

This program has helped me in so many ways. It has helped me work better with my social anxiety, given me a space where I know who I can come to if anything were to happen and has made me hopeful for my future. The program has also flowed through me to my family.

The Power of Poi

My family had a banana patch in Maunawili for 40 something years. My dad was first generation in Hawaiʻi, born in Okinawa. Momi is the person who first introduced me to the poi from Hoʻokuaʻāina. She told me, “Audrey, you gotta have this poi cause it’s the best one on the island.” I go, “Yeah right. Poi is poi.” Then she brought me some when I went to the dentist, because she was my teeth-cleaner. I said, “Oh my god, this is out of this world!” So I started going to Hoʻokuaʻāina.

Makaluhi: Our Story

2020 marks the year we take a step back as an ʻohana and makaluhi. Literally translated makaluhi means tired eyes but in this case, we use it as an adjective to describe “a period of rest or feasting which follows a prolonged season of toil” (wehewehe.org). We have certainly toiled and there is much more that lies ahead, but we are purposefully taking this year to makaluhi – to sit back a bit and gaze with satisfaction at how far we have come.

The Luxury of Boredom

Here we are, already at the end of the first month of what promises to be another fantastic year. 2017 was a booming year for Hoʻokuaʻāina. During Christmas break, as a staff, we took a much-needed rest for 2 weeks from groups, harvest, production, and just all the normal day to day operations of our...

Confessions of a Recovering Fundraiser Coordinator

Life “after the fundraiser” fondly became referred to as ATF during the chaos of planning over the last couple months. Our staff could barely see the light at the end of the tunnel as our 10th anniversary first annual fundraiser approached and all of us, although excited, couldn’t wait for the preparations to be over and for our lives to return back to normal. Normal at Hookuaaina is a pace that I used to think of as crazy busy. Next to pulling off a fundraiser, it feels like a piece of cake! Hosting groups 5 days out of the week, managing a farm, producing poi, writing grants, having random people pop in all the time, raising a family, goats, chickens, dogs, cats, no problem! I even heard the words come out of my mouth “I would much rather write 10 grants than coordinate a fundraiser!” Never in a million years did I ever imagine myself saying those words.

Summer Time Blues

It’s that time of year again…. Dusting off backpacks, gathering supplies, haircuts, alarms, uniforms. It all begins to settle in that this short season of fun is about to end and everyone in my household walks around with their heads hanging low. I have to admit, Dean and I do it too. I often wonder...

OUR JOURNEY TO KALO

Since getting married over twenty years ago, my wife Michele and I have always had some type of garden. At one point we started growing kalo in our backyard for the luau leaf to make laulau and luau stew. It felt so empowering to grow our own and not have to rely on buying it....

A Season of Momona

I love this time of year. It usually happens around Halloween that we feel a distinct shift in season. The breeze feels different. It’s very olu olu or nice on the skin. It cools down a bit and makes you want to pull out your favorite sweatshirt and snuggle up in a cozy blanket. Okay, it’s still 77 degrees but it’s the notion of the shift that brings excitement in the atmosphere. It’s time to make a favorite soup and start preparing for the holidays. My soup pot has been working overtime lately. I love this!

One Journey Ends, Another Begins

On New Years Eve 2014, I sat down to reflect on the year. With great anticipation, I was ready for the new year to begin but wanted to take a moment to give thanks and grab hold of the treasures that should not be forgotten. My thoughts took me back to the beginning of this...

Core Fitness

Where do I begin? I have been extremely remiss in my postings of late. So I guess it is appropriate to start up again with an update on the state of affairs at Kapalai Farms after the wave of storms that we experienced this past week. Hail (the size of golf balls) did not make...

Earthen Ovens 101

One of my dreams, as we were developing Kapalai and learning an old style of living, was to build and learn how to cook in a wood-fired earthen oven. We have an abundance of trees many of which are invasive species and need to be removed. Eventually, our plan is to replace them with native...

Reliance

Webster’s defines self-reliance as reliance on oneself or one’s own powers, resources, etc. In my last installment, I wrote about our family’s attempt towards self-reliance. Writing about it stirred many thoughts that kept tugging at me. In my greatest intentions, I planned to sit down within a few weeks and share these thoughts. Here we...

Self Reliance

In my last blog, I shared an article on homesteading. It described, in a nutshell, the adventure that my family has embarked upon. This stirred many questions and I promised that I would elaborate. The goal for many homesteaders today I guess is to become more self-reliant. This was never our mission but in many...

Why We Homestead

The other night hanging out with friends, the conversation led to our recent change in lifestyle. After explaining how we compost our human waste and cook our food in a wood oven, one of Dean’s friends asked with a look of complete confusion, “How did you get into this?” As if to say, “You used...

We’re Blogging…

Well, after many have asked, “Are you journaling this?”, I have decided to finally set my pen to paper and start this thing called a blog. It is for no other purpose than to record the events of this extraordinary and radically out-of-the-box season of our lives. It is appropriate that I start on this...

Hookuaaina Rebuilding Lives From The Ground Up

Hoʻokuaʻāina is located in the ahupuaʻa of Kailua at Kapalai in Maunawili on the island of Oʻahu. Get Directions.

For more information about our programs or how you can get involved please contact us.

916E Auloa Rd.

Kailua, HI 96734

mail

P.O. Box 342146

Kailua, HI 96734

follow us

Hookuaaina Rebuilding Lives From The Ground Up

Hoʻokuaʻāina is located in the ahupuaʻa of Kailua at Kapalai in Maunawili on the island of Oʻahu.

For more information about our programs or how you can get involved please contact us.

visit us

916E Auloa Rd.

Kailua, HI 96734

mail us

P.O. Box 342146

Kailua, HI 96734

email us

Reach Us At:

info@hookuaaina.org

follow us

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Hoʻokuaʻāina is a 501c3 Non-Profit Organization

© Hoʻokuaʻāina 2020 All Rights Reserved | Terms & Conditions | Privacy | Site By Created By Kaui

Hoʻokuaʻāina is a 501c3 Non-Profit Organization

© Hoʻokuaʻāina 2020 All Rights Reserved | Terms & Conditions | Privacy | Site By Created By Kaui

Hoʻokuaʻāina is a 501c3 Non-Profit Organization

© Hoʻokuaʻāina 2020 All Rights Reserved | Terms & Conditions | Privacy

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