PUHI — There is a good show of support for farmers and locally-produced agricultural products each Wednesday and Saturday at Puhi Park Produce presented by the Grove Farm Company.
“I go to three markets a week — the Sunshine Market in Kapa‘a, the Sunshine Market in Hanapepe, and this one in Puhi,” said Marty Amaro of the county’s Office of Economic Development.
“And I spend money at all three because I can never have enough good produce. Today, I got some new things from Hanalima Bakery, too.”
Isobel Storch of Lanipo Farms, one of the nearly 40 vendors in Puhi Saturday, said she doesn’t have to make choices.
“I used to do the Sunshine Market in Kapa‘a,” said Storch, adding that she was able to also take in the Black Lives Matter rally following last Saturday’s market.
“But they changed it to Wednesdays. That’s the day I do the Kukui‘ula pop-up markets where they don’t allow my value-added products, just fresh fruit and vegetables.”
Among the crowd of shoppers, Daphne and Amber McClure of Moloa‘a Bay Coffee just completed their 14-day quarantine and were busy re-acquainting themselves with other vendors whom they dealt with during the days when the Kaua‘i Community Market was held across Kaumuali‘i Highway at Kaua‘i Community College.
“We spent the greater part of the COVID shutdown in Honolulu,” Daphne McClure said. “But we needed to come home. During the quarantine, they — the National Guard and the police — kept checking on us to see that we were staying isolated. It’s good to be out again.”
Margo Hashimoto was visiting the market for the first time after spending her time getting her home packed up for remodeling.
“This is my first time visiting the Puhi market,” Hashimoto said, picking up an assortment of goodies from Hanalima Bakery and discovering a fellow Kaua‘i Family and Community Education member.
“We just moved out of our house so they can remodel it. Everything had to be packed away in storage, and we’ll be out for more than a month while they work on the house.”
Matt Takata, considered a Puhi Park Produce “regular” by the Grove Farm monitors, said he loves to cook, and whatever he has extra he gives away.
Grove Farm started Puhi Park Produce in April after COVID-19 forced the closure of the county’s Sunshine Markets, the Kaua‘i County Farm Bureau-sponsored community market atKCC, and other farmers’ markets on the island.
Puhi Park Produce offers the island’s farmers, many of whom hold leases on Grove Farm lands, and fishermen, an outlet for fresh vegetables and fish that kept getting ready for harvest regardless of COVID-19.
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Dennis Fujimoto, staff writer and photographer, can be reached at 245-0453 or dfujimoto@thegardenisland.com.
