Maui Farmers Union United October Meeting Agenda

Here is the agenda for the October Hawaii Farmers Union United Meeting.

This Tuesday we have a very special guest attending who will speak to the "Future Prosperity of Hawaii....."

Make it a point to be on time for this presentation at 6:45.....with Q&A

Dinner will be at 6:30 sharp.

Maui Farmers Union United Meeting

Tavares Center Pool Room Oct. 25, 2011

Tuesday nite doors open 6:00pm

Dinner opening circle 6:30 pm sharp

LocaVore Potluck & Produce Swap

Share your Maui Abundance for dinner...

Bring something you grew and go home with someone else's produce...

Great Business donations to go home with from DTE, Hawaiian Moons, Whole Foods, Mana Foods, Maui Bio-Char, Greenleaf Farm.

(If you have a business that wants to donate a prize to the cause please contact Melissa at) windspiritm@mac.com

Meeting Agenda

6:30pm-7:00pm- LocaVore Potluck Great Meal!!! Be creative and

add to the abundance, your the event!!!

"Its all about growing, sharing and being nourished by our food"

6:45pm-7:00pm Special Guest- Future prosperity of Hawaii
7:00pm-7:10pm Chefs Corner-Suki Bergeron-Squash in season

7:10pm-7:20pm Produce Scoop-Ryan Eareheart - Mana Foods

7:20pm-7:30pm Astronomy in Agriculture- HarrietteWitt-

www.passengerplanet.com/

7:30pm-7:45pm MFU Website Update- Lehua VanderVelde

http://mauifarmersunionunited.weebly.com/

7:45pm-8:00pm Education- Greg Hopkins- Making Compost

8:00pm-8:30pm Member Input- Share Ideas & Direction

8:30-pm-9:00pm Member Network/Meeting Pau

PRODUCE SWAP:

Bring your home grown farm produce, seeds or plant starts to share and swap with others.

"Remember its all about celebrating our communities food"

MauiPonics Experiments in Aquaculture

While my MauiPonics version of Aquaponics may not feed the world, or even a family, the on-going knowledge is great. 

It is also interesting and the sound of the water cycling, quite soothing.

 Still trying to figure out the whole nutrient issue, but at about 15 inches, this cucumber was a surprise to me.

I never really let lettuce go to seed before and I would not have recognized my lettuce gone to seed (by the cucumber above) as the one I got from an aquaponics workshop below. I did get a few dollars worth of my own seed out of it.

Various experiments going on with plants, fish, ebb & flow systems using water and air pumping.

Maui Farmers Union United September Meeting

Maui Farmers Union United Meeting (Advocating for the rights of our small farmers)

Tavares Center Pool Room Sept. 27th

Tuesday nite doors open 6:00pm

Dinner 6:30 pm

Our State President and NFU facilitator will be present.

The Maui Farmers Union United meetings are a LocaVore Potluck & Produce Swap

Share the Maui Abundance of what you prepare and grow!!!

Sign up for membership and get a free meal* tonight!

$15-Individual Non Voting Member

$30- Individual Voting Member

$75- Ohana Membership up to 4 Voting Members 

*Normally there is a $10 charge for non members and $5 for members if unable to bring food and want to eat. It's potluck, so bring a dish to the meetings and you eat like royalty for free. Where else can you get a huge variety of locally grown and produced foods, prepared with the love and passion that Maui's farmer's, gardeners and people put into these meals. It's all about the food, so while you can pay, sharing your food with neighbors is always so much better. 

Please bring a locavore dish exhibiting to our mainland guest on how we value our locally grown food.

Helping the Maui Farmers Union United through their generous and consistent giving back to Maui are the following merchants and people. Support them when ever you can. 

Support the Maui Farmers Union United tonight and you may go home with some of the following goodies: 

Gift cards from DTE & Hawaiian Moons

Basket of local produce. Mana Foods, Whole Foods!

Basket of produce from Greenleaf Farm Marta & Bill

Feather Meal- Crop Production Service

Bio Char- Maui Bio Char

Large Jackfruit- Whispering Winds Bamboo

This is a trash free event please bring your own eating and drinking vessels.

Meeting Agenda
6:30pm-7:00pm- LocaVore Potluck Great meals!!! Be creative and

add to the abundance,your the event!!!

"Its all about growing, sharing and being nourished by our food"

6:45pm-7:00pm Evening Agenda-Vincent Mina - www.MauiGrown.com
7:00pm-7:10pm Chefs Corner-Chef Jason Skandunas - Maui MacroBiotics-(Jan. 2011 article on MauiTime)

7:10pm-7:20pm Produce Scoop-Ryan Eareheart - Mana Foods

7:20pm-7:30pm Astronomy in Agriculture- HarrietteWitt -

www.passengerplanet.com/

7:30pm-7:45pm Education- Jenna Tallman - Making Bokashi

7:45pm-8:00pm State of the State HFU - State Board of Directors

Report on our Strategic Planning session on Kauai

8:00pm-8:10pm MFU Website- Lehua VanderVelde

http://mauifarmersunionunited.weebly.com/

8:10pm-8:40pm Member Breakout Groups - Legislation, Education

and Cooperation.

8:40-9pm Meeting Pau

PRODUCE SWAP:

Bring your home grown farm produce, seeds or plant starts to share and swap with others.

"Remember its all about celebrating our communities food"

I thought this presentation by Charlie Price on aquaponics was a good place to start this page. He runs through all the aspects and thoughts around an aquaponics system.

Water, Cool Clear Water.

I was reminded of the song from a commercial or Disney show or something that the words were "Water, cool clean water". With a meeting that the DLNR is holding tomorrow to take input on a company that wants to take water from wells on it's Wailea property and ship some to Japan or at least off Maui, I tend to wonder why Maui doesn't ever seem to have a plan that is comprehensive and looks at all the angles.
Issues about having water for Mauians is one thing, but the issues extend into the depletion of the aquifer and the infiltration of the brackish salt water. This process could destroy a system that has taken lifetimes to achieve in nature.
In addition, we have only a few wetlands left that are part of the natural water filtration systems that make water available to Maui.
Granted not all of them are as obvious as the rain forest, but marshlands like Kealia Pond, Waihee, the areas behind Longs in Kihei, Olomalu, what was once Lahaina and Kanaha pond are examples that have been disturbed, destroyed and have further plans under way to alter.
The Kanaha Wildlife Sanctuary is a protected area under the national wildlife protection. For some reason a medical building seem to be a good choice to build in an industrial tsunami zone that would require the removal and disturbing of the Kanaha Wetlands, but they plan to put work into the Waihee wetlands to make up for it.
That doesn't seem right to take one away for any reason.

I spent time documenting the water run-off canals from their beginning in the Kahului industrial park, all the way to the edge of Kanaha Pond and on into the ocean.
Combinations of various tilapia, mosquito fish and a lot of snails abound. Today I even caught a foot long algae eater that obviously was released from someones aquarium.

If nothing else, I will have dozens of pictures before it changes to an after.

The are many good movies with dire warnings out and all good movies that should be watched. I thought this old 1953 movie on water was pretty interesting and between the music and the narration it was classic. It's a bout 10 minutes long and easy watching. Leave a comment and let me know what you think. Mahalo.

Evan Ryan, Maui Farmers Union Does Compost Tea Demo

Evan Ryan, is also a great landscape gardener/farmer and member of the Maui Farmers Union board. For the August meeting, Evan did a detailed demo on making Aerated Compost Tea. There are some open question points around the inputs required and how they can be more locally sourced. Maybe an opportunity for someone on Maui. Please leave comments if there are any points around making or using compost tea on your plants. Video testimonial would be great, submit what you have and I can approve it to display. Or if you have a youtube or video site with more, please let us know.
Mahalo & Aloha.

Jim Hall

P.S. Evan Ryan puts on edible landscape and other workshops pretty often. Check him out on Facebook.