The Greenhouse gets a Double Blessing

Every WEdnesday we have a volunteer day up at our Greenhouse (3361 Omaopio rd in Kula from 10-4pm).  Having this site has truly made our entire project a sustainable one, because not only are we able to grow our own starts for all of our community and school gardens, but we are able to have a teaching space, and we are able to reward our amazing volunteers with free workshops and classes as well as free plant starts and seeds to take home.  We now give away "Plant Bucks" to all of our volunteers which are redeemable for new plant starts from our nursery.

This caught the attention of a wonderful healer that is known as White Eagle...who came to bless our Greenhouse operation a few weeks ago.  It was a beautiful blessing, and it helped us to stop for a moment to really reflect upon just how profound of an impact we are making on this island.  We are not only planting 18 gardens this year but we are literally giving away 1000 plants each month out into our community, and training the future growers and farmers of tomorrow.  And we are getting community back together- working towards a common goal- and a common vision that is bigger than just food security.  It beyond sustainability.  It is REGENERATION....not only regenerating lands and schools, but regenerating communities and jobs, and inter-generational sharing and communication.  It is regenerating our community as a whole.

Sometimes I get so busy with the project that I forget just how profound it all really is.  This month we had a film crew show up to document our progress.  Dr Pang from the Health Dept came up, and Mayor Arakawa came to take a tour of the Greenhouse, and we may even begin a few fruit trees for his neighboring land.  All in all, I am just so grateful for this amazing community that has made it all possible.  For Raj and Ami for gifting us the Greenhouse, for our dedicated volunteers Lehua, Shawn, Lauren, Tara, Tricia, Jayanti, Matt, Genie, London, Heidi...who show up with a smile on their faces week after week.  Mahalo nui loa for everyone who has made this project what it is.  

The film crew from the CPPW comes to interview Dr Pang

Talking about creating a sustainable business plan with the Mayor

Raj and Ami Schoor gave the Mayor a tour of the Kona Red and Bioponic Phytocuticals facilities along with the Greenhouse

Cole Santos and Tui Anderson from the Water Dept helped lend a hand to the Native Plant section of the Greenhoue

Taking a break from filming to get a laugh in

Checking on all the babies

Everyone hard at work...be careful- Matt has that look in his eye :)  aaand he has a hose in hand.  

The "teenagers" of the greenhouse...growing strong

Lauren has been one of our most dedicated volunteers- thank you for sending her our way Mary Bailey- she has been such a light in the Greenhouse

Seeds of hope

one of our ORIGINAL volunteers Shawn who has been one of the most humble, dedicated and kind of all of our volunteers!  There is really no way to thank you enough Shawn for your big heart, and for bringing a smile to all of us each Wednesday. 

Lehn Huff the Maui School Garden COordinator planting new starts of Sweet Potato and helping me to organize the Greenhouse

Bruno from Eco Island Supply has been a tremendous help in the Greenhouse and is such a wealth of knowledge- We hope to collborate with him more in the future to bring the community more free classes and workshops

Matt Lane...

Jayanti is our Fruit tree specialist and has been getting a fruit tree nursery going onsite

 Thank you to our amazing volunteer ohana...who has planted literally thousands of wishes out of this greenhouse.  And a special thank you to White Eagle for blessing the space and each one of us, to Mayor Arakawa for taking the time to visit our Greenhouse, Joe Bergeron and Laura Marie for the beautiful photos, Lehn Huff from the Maui School Garden Network, and Paris Nabavi for so graciously gifting us so many wonderful seeds.  It has been a joy to watch this project evolve and grow with so much possibility. 

The Greenhouse

We have been gifted a beautiful Greenhouse space to use on Omaopio Rd in Kula by an amazing man named Raj Schoor and his son Ami.  Raj is a healer among other things, and has a line of medicinals as well as the infamous Kona Red- a super-antioxidant rich drink made from the coffee cherry.  Raj is a healer in the truest sense of the word, he opens his doors every Tuesday and Thursday from 1pm until dark...open to the public- all by donation and he sees dozens of clients daily.  He shares the same generous spirit when it comes to the gardens project.  He just wants to green this island.  He wants to make organic-locally-grown nutrient rich food available to everyone on the island, and wants to do so without charging a penny.   Just when we thought that there could not be another heart of gold so pure- we were contacted by a man named Paris Nabavi, owner of Cilantros in Lahaina, who heard about the School Garden Project, and wanted to offer to be the seed benefactor for all of our school gardens on the island so that we always had access to good-organic seed varieties.  We are so blessed to have had such kind-generous people come into this project.  And, in honor of paying their kindness forward we now give away 500 free food-starts every month to all of our volunteers.  Because of Paris Nabavi, Raj and Ami Schoor and all of our amazing volunteers we are able to literally start thousands of plant starts each week that will go out into the schools, low-income communities, and home gardens throughout this amazing island.  Mahalo nui loa for everyone who has made this possible.

Paris Nabavi from Cilantros - our angel seed benefactor for all of the school and low income gardens on the island- Mahalo nui loa Paris!!!

Giving a dose of BMW (Beneficial Mineral Water) to the plants

Our amazing volunteers: Amber, Heidi and Meghan at the propagation Station

Bruno from Eco Island Supply in Haiku surprised us with  a compost tea brewer, a sample of IMO's (Indigenous Microorganisms) and Humus at the greenhouse.  So grateful for the generosity of our neighbors.  

Steve and Lehua have been some of our most dedicated volunteers showing up week after week with knowledge, a smile, plant starts and cuttings to share, and an amazing willingness to help support this project.  I am so grateful for you both!  Mahalo for all of your dedication and love that you have so generously given to this project. 

Alex working hard at our pot cleaning station.  We use a lot of donated pots, and this is one station that I find to be really important in keeping everything clean and hygienic and not spreading disease or fungus to other plants through the pots.  We use a cleaning mix right now that has either 1 part bleach to 10 parts water, or a hydrogen peroxide mix.  We are testing out more natural methods of using IMO's and Lacto Bactilis and Grape Seed Extract as a cleaning agent.  Let me know if anyone has any success using a natural product. 

Waylon and Bruno starting our terracing out front.  The vision here is that we can get some root stock, and seeding plants started outside that we can consistantly be able to take cuttings of, while intermixing vegetables and herbs that can be used for our stone soup.  

The Beautiful Chrissy Kapoor helping to weed and plant up our walk-in to the greenhouse. It is so wonderful to have Chrissy's calm centering energy at the greenhouse.  She is a phenomenal yoga instructor at the Wailuku yoga studio- and we hope to begin doing a 20 minute yoga session with her after our workdsays each Wednesday at the Greenhouse. 

The terrace plantings begin....lemongrass, basil, beneficial flowers, comfrey, pidgeon pea,  papaya, rosemary and thyme go in first.

All of our greenhouse garden goddesses starting new seeds and starts

Working with a smile

Julia from the Ritz Carlton came to volunteer- and share her green-thumb with us this week

We found a group of kittens in the compost pile

In good hands

We are working with donated dirt- and unfortunately it is pretty bad quality material ...but beggars can't be choosers...so we started amending it by small loads today with the Kona Red Compost which is just teaming with mycorhizal and beneficial microorganisms.  We will also begin weekly sprays of compost tea and worm castings until we bring  life back into this soil. 

This week we are planting a garden at the homeless Resource Center, and the site needs a miracle.  Literally we are creating a garden in an old drainage ditch full of sand.  There is NO soil- and so I gathered together our amazing volunteers to hold intention and put some hope and love into our plants that will be planted into the grounds of the Resource Center.  Every little bit of love helps.