Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 31, Number 9, 1 September 2014 — Agritourism gaining ground at Kahuku Farms [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Agritourism gaining ground at Kahuku Farms

By Lisa Asato t's summertime at Kahuku Farms, and 13 people are scheduled to take today's tractor-led Smoothie Tour. As the last half

of the group arrives - two women from Kailua with five keiki ages 1 to 7 between them - tour guide Daniel Carol greets them: "Hi, weleome. Hello, ah, you got some caramel, lucky you! "Alright, it's a beautiful day," he chimes with a cadence perfect for children. "OK, so my name is Daniel. I'm one of the farmers. I'm going to be driving

the tractor today and we're going to be exploring this 125-acre farm. We were just talking about, we grow papaya, apple hanana, whieh we're going to learn a lot about today - two of our favorite things

in smoothies - also long eggplant and dry-land taro. Those four things grow in big fields on this farm to sell to supermarkets on the island." Kahuku Farms, whieh sits on five

acres of the larger 125-acre familyoperated farm, opened in 2010 as a venture in agritourism. And while it struggled in its early years, the business has turned a corner starting around two years ago, helped

by word of mouth and Japanese magazines that featured the business, said Kahuku Farms managing director Kylie Matsuda-Lum, who is part-Hawaiian and a fourth generation farmer. Offering tours, a farm cafe and "value-added" products such as its No. 1 seller liliko'i butter, it serves as the puhlie face of two farms run in partnership by Matsuda-Lum's calabash unele Clyde Fukuyama and her father, Melvin

Matsuda, who operate the 125-acre MatsudaFukuyama Farms in Kahuku, and Kahuku Farmers in Waialua on land leased from Kamehameha Schools. Matsuda-Lum's mom runs the office. At its ineephon, Mat-suda-Lum, her husband, Judah Lum, and her younger sister, Kalyn Matsuda, manned the cafe. Kahuku Farms now employs some 12

workers, about half of whom are full-time, Matsuda-Lum said. Her mother-in-law, Laurie Lum, does a lot of the prep and cooking for the cafe. Although the family doesn't

HO 'OKAHUA WAIWAI v EC0N0MIC SELF-SUFFICIENCY /

Kylie Matsuda-Lum, Kahuku Farms managing director, right, with her husband and operations manager Judah Lum and her sister, Kalyn Matsuda, who manages the cafe. Inset, from left, Clyde Fukuyama and Melvin Matsuda. - Courtesy photos: KahukuFarms

The farm offers a half-hour Smoothie Tour and an hourlong Grand Tour, whieh includes a smoothie or a sampling of fruits, respectively.

reveal revenues out of eoneein that they lead to a misperception of the company's bottom line, business was brisk on a recent Thursday, with some patrons speaking Japanese at the cafē, and multiple groups eating at overflow seating under a tent, whieh primarily serves for hosting visiting groups of students from preschool on up. "We do a lot of school field trips," said Matsuda-Lum, 35. "We really enjoy the young students that eome and visit, because they're so cute and at that age they just absorb so mueh." In the next eouple months or so, the farm is hoping to add a servicelearning program, "where people ean eome and work on the farm," she said. "We've been having different requests from individuals . . . and families and companies who want to eome and learn and do projects, get their hands dirty." The family ventured into agritourism with the help of the late Ali'i Chang and Lani Weigert of Ali'i Kula Lavender Farm on Maui. Matsuda-Chang's father, Melvin, had visited their Kula operation as part of an agriculture leadership class and liked what he saw. Matsuda-Lum says the family saw agritourism as a way to diversify operations, promote locally grown foods and educate others about where food comes from, as well as the nuts and bolts of running a farm, such as supply and demand pressures that affect pricing. Some fruits - because they're not the right shape and size, or because they have blemishes, aren't bought by stores. Instead of going to waste, some of that ean now be redirected for use in the cafē or their valueadded products, whieh are sold at the cafē, online, at the Kapi'olani Community College farmer's market and in stores in WaikM. "If we didn't have the cafē, we would have a lot of hanana waste," Matsuda-Lum said. "Now we take that, we make smoothies, hanana bread. We're now able to use all of that rather than throwing it on the side. So diversifying and value adding is an important part of the equation. ... It opens another market. Visitors can't take home a papaya, but they ean take home a jar

of papaya jam." The farm offers two types of tours, billed as tractor-pulled wagon rides. Tours begin and end at the farm's cafē, whieh showcases hydroponic lettuce grown 100 yards away. "Sometimes we've been at the point where we ran out of lettuce, so we run out there and cut a head of lettuce and bring it back to the cafē," says Matsuda-Lum, who has a degree in travel industry management from the University of Hawai'i-Mānoa. "It's niee to know that we're doing our best for that farm-to-table concept, using loeal. I think people really appreciate it, and they get it." The farm supplies the cafē with whatever ingredients it ean, and "if we can't grow it then we get it from our neighbors," Matsuda-Lum said. For example, hydroponic tomatoes are supplied by Green Growers, run by the Shintaku Family in Hau'ula. On a recent Thursday, Sarah Overend, a visitor from Sydney, Australia, eame with her husband, Rob, and children, Eve, 3, and Cooper, 10 months. Overend had heard about Kahuku Farms online and eame for the tour and luneh as an educational experience for Eve. "Because we live in the city, we want her to see how things are

growing, and that's important to us. So we're always trying to take her to farms to see where things eome from," Sarah said as her family sipped on smoothies, whieh are included with the half-hour Smoothie Tour. The farm-to-table experience was a highlight, too. "We really like that, especially when you're on holiday, you're often eating big meals, they're often greasy, and so it's just niee to go for fresh food," she said, recalling the half veggie panini and side salad she had for luneh, while her husband had the farm pizza and side salad. "Delicious," she added. "Love it." Matsuda-Lum said locals eomprised 95 percent of the business in the first eouple of years, but now it's half locals and half visitors. "Originally when we opened we thought it was going to be a visitor thing, not realizing there would be so many locals who would want to sit and go on a tour," she said. "It's just telling us that the interest is there in this type of operation, the farm fresh cafē, the healthy eating, the interest in learning more about agriculture. ... "As owners it tells us about the interest that is there, and that's really exciting." ■

j The cafe enjoyed brisk business I onarecentThursdayafternoon.- ' Photos: Lisa Asato

1 Papaya for sale at the cafe.