SOFT's second lecture series on "Food Movement" hosted the following notable guests: Mr. Steve Carey, from Whole Foods, Ms. Vivian Best, the founder of Give it Fresh Today, Ms. Lisa Zeman, the founder of Oahu Fresh, Ms. Lynette Larson, General Manager of Kokua Market, and Dr. Kimberly Clark, from Just Add Water.  

The lectures were lively with key take aways solutions to incorporating local produce from area farmers to build an increasing food independent Hawaii.   

Bottom line we learned that we have some hard working folks in our community that support hard working farmers and want to see our future farmers succeed.   

Week 4/25 lecture

Week of 4/18 Lecture!

Round two! check out the speakers for this week!

The SOFT Lecture Series

As part of our mission to increase awareness of sustainable agriculture movements in Hawaii, our group is in the process of trying to put together a three part sustainable agriculture lecture series with a panel discussion.

The series is once a week for three weeks, with each week focusing on a different aspect of sustainable agriculture.

The categories are:

--Farm to table

            Focusing on the connections between the farmer and food service/the consumer

--Food Movement

            Focusing on the distribution methods of locally consumed foods

--Sustainable movement building

            Focusing on the movements that are taking place locally to improve sustainable practices

Noelani is growing up!

We are always proud of our Noelani first graders, and as we wrap up anther successful year of our partnership, we are happy to share some of the work they are doing on their own.

Our first graders ask the best questions!

Before we wrap up the semester with the final harvest, feel free to check out the work they have been doing to promote sustainable agriculture on their own:

Check out the Go green, grow and buy local website

Or, they adorable and informative Podcast

I am always happy to see these little wiggling worms when planting, our soil is healthy due in large part to the compost that we add before every planting.  The quantities of worms living in our beds is an example of this.  We planted three 20' beds in both pole and soy bean last week.

Grading limu into our compost beds.  Hawaii is making the best out of a bad situation by removing this invasive algae from our harbors and beaches, farmers, after a thorough rinsing have found it to make a good composting material. 

16 Feb 2013:
Gabe and J. knock out some weeding on our 100' beds come the beginning of April we are going to have plenty kale, tomato, cilantro, and much more.  This semester we are lucky enough to have 2000 additional square feet of growing space just need more volunteers like J. as well as the continued presence of Gabe our dedicated leader.

16 Feb 2013:  Andrew transplanting Bunchy Top resistant bananas to larger pots.  He and Gabe propagated them from two varieties that Gabe has planted either on campus or in Waimanalo get with either for the variety and definitely let them know if you are interested in purchasing one in the future. 

Spring 2013 Semester

So SOFT is well into the Spring 2013 semester and we are still chugging along.  In the next two weeks we will get some more photos published on our blog, in the meantime the following are some of the activities that we have been up to in the past month.

Jeana C. is working hard to secure SOFT some funds so we might purchase of a pick-up.  We need the pick-up primarily to maintain John M's good work on the food waste/ compost project, get our produce to our weekly sale and eventually expand our footprint to our Waimanalo plots more regularly.

Noelani Elementary 1st graders have planted their herbs and vegetables in one of our 100' beds under the guidance of Nate O.

We have started tomato seedlings in portions of two other beds and Andrew D. went shopping for some kale and collard green transplants to go in their as well.  Popcorn seed was also started and some seed trays have been seeded with pole beans, if all goes well we will have plenty of stuff growing in all the 100' beds by the middle of March.

Gabe's chickens are starting to produce eggs, although the production is low.  We expect them to start earning their keep real soon, or else we might have to do a Fried Chicken Day, and hope to get those eggs out at the weekly produce sell.

Gabe and Andrew started about 100+ banana cuttings and already we have  over a dozen keiki emerging and soon ready to sell and plant.  Get with Gabe if you are interested in your own banana tree at home.  Gabe can give you the details concerning Banana Bunchy-Top Virus (BBV) resistance or not and the varieties he has.

We still have bees they live in our fruit orchard which has some new additions from late last semester.

All in all we are busy and are always looking for new members and volunteers to keep our vegetable beds looking good.

Our standard weekly meeting is held from 1200 to 1300 every Friday in St John 209.
Our regular workday is every Saturday from 0900 - 1700.
Our produce sell for this semester is Wednesdays from 1100 - 1300 in the Sustainable Courtyard next to Kuykendall.
 
Nate N.