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Hi'iaka's Healing Herb Garden : Newsletter index : 2007 News : Spring 2007
Spring 2007 Newsletter
Announcing "Playshops"
March 31 marked the first presentation of a "Playshop" that I am happy to be part of. Along with Bob and Melissa Bogle and Janelle Honer of Josanna's Organic Garden, we held a successful event with seven official participants. Dubbed "Aphrodisiac Cooking With Galangal Ginger," we made delicious dishes with this Thai ginger and other fruits and veggies from the garden. I demonstrated how to make my "Pele's Passion" massage oil and then we all enjoyed our fabulous lunch. I'm looking forward to being part of more Playshops in the future.
Bob supervises while Janelle and participant Sharon wash veggies for our lunch:
Spring Has Really Sprung
Maybe it's the great weather we had early in the spring, but I can't remember seeing the trees in such blooming profusion in previous years! If the hard rains hold off for just a little while longer, we should have bumper crops of mangoes, avocados, macadamia nuts (for the first time!), and you should see the dozen or so pineapples that are forming on our year and a half old plants.
Mac nut flowers:
An Early Newsletter
I usually send this Newsletter on the last day of the season it's about. But this quarter, I will be very busy, beginning very soon. My Saturday classes are hopping; June 16 is the Seed Exchange at Amy Greenwell Garden; the 23rd I'm holding a workshop with Master Gardener Laramie Treviņo; and the 28th a student arrives from North Carolina for a 2-week "Live and Learn at the Garden" Internship. Details inside!
YOU Can Help Keep a Serious Invader Out of Hawaii
Little did I realize when I began writing my book in 2004 that I would become so passionate about invasive species and the threats they can pose to Hawaii's fragile environment. This time, it's the Guam brown tree snake, which has been successfully kept out of Hawaii due to an interdiction program on Guam, run by the US military. But this program was in danger of being cut May 31 because of the war in Iraq. The Air Force has since secured funds to continue it through September, with promise that the Navy will also get funding.
This snake has eradicated 9 of Guam's 12 bird species, it causes frequent power outages when it climbs power poles, and it has bitten 200 people, including infants when snakes slither into cribs. The island's thriving poultry industry has been devastated because the snake eats eggs and chicks. Many dogs and cats have also been lost. U.S. legislators did not feel that the expenditure of $2 million a year was warranted to prevent an environmental catastrophe, and viewed the funding as "pork barrel spending." It is imperative that this highly destructive and dangerous snake not be introduced into Hawaii and other locales (it stows away on aircraft and cargo ships). Please write your representatives regarding this very serious matter.
Upcoming Classes
A busy summer is in store!
June 9: Noni Needn't Taste Nasty, at the Garden. 10:00-12; $15 per person/$25 for 2.
June 16: Amy Greenwell Garden FREE 5th Annual Seed Exchange, where I will have a table and sell my book and herbal goodies.
June 23: Lava Flow Gardening, at the Garden, with Laramie Treviņo. 1:00-4:00; $25 per person/$40 for 2.
June 28: Haley Saunders arrives for a 2-week "Live and Learn" Internship.
June 29-30: Pacific Cultural Wellness Festival in Kona, where I will speak ("Noni Needn't Taste Nasty") and hold fort selling books and herbal products. Learn about it at www.pacificculturalwellnessfestival.org.
On July 21, I will be offering my "Noni Needn't Taste Nasty" workshop at the Amy Greenwell Garden in South Kona once again. I held it there two years ago and we packed the house, so I'm hopeful that this time it will be just as fun and successful. $20; 9:00-noon.
July 28: you guessed it! My popular "Noni" class at La`akea Permaculture Community near Pahoa. $20; Call (808) 443-4076.
August 4: Hawaiian Paradise Park Community Festival, where I'll have a table and sell my book and goodies.
August 11: "Essentials of Herbalism" at Amy Greenwell Garden. $20; 9:00-noon.
A New Family Member
My tenants Shane and Camille became the parents of a puppy on Easter Sunday. Her name is `Awa (pronounced "Ahh-Vahh" which is the relaxing Polynesian plant also called kava kava) and she probably has some terrier and rottweiler in her, but is basically a "poi dog." She's 3 months old now, very smart and of course, painfully cute! I miss my dear old Peaches greatly (he passed March 22), so this new, frisky face helps to fill the dogless void.
Shane holds Awa when she was tiny:
May's Workshop Participant Was a Delight
Mahalo to Carolyn Saunders, from Dearborn Michigan, for attending my 3-Day "La`u Lapa`au: Secrets of the Hawaiian Healers" workshop. We studied plants in the Garden and made products, gave an offering to Pele and Hi`iaka at the Hi`iaka crater in Volcanoes National Park, and had many great meals together. She fit right in and had a great time.
A Wonderful Field Trip to Waimea
On May 10 a group of us ventured to Waimea to visit and learn about the University of Hawaii's field trials of green tea. Together with the US Department of Agriculture (and others), they are conducting field tests and researching markets for beginning an industry in Hawai`i that will develop a "unique Hawai`i tea product into a regional brand utilizing small field and processing technology," according to promotional literature.
Station Manager Milton Yamasaki led us on a walking tour of the beautiful fields where several varieties of tea are being grown without pesticides or herbicides. He later showed us the processing facility, which contains sophisticated equipment used to process the tea into either green or black tea. www.hiiakas.com/june-2-green-tea.asp
WWOOF volunteers and owners from Josanna's Garden and Hi`iaka's gather next to the beautiful field of green tea. But we coastal dwellers were cold at that higher elevation!
To order Super Simple Guide to Creating Hawaiian Gardens, visit Amazon.com or www.authorhouse.com.
Subscribe to Our Quarterly Newsletter
Here's an example of what a printed newsletter looks like (Volume 8, Number 1, Fall 2006):
Subscribe to Our Quarterly Newsletter Keep in touch with our Quarterly Newsletter! $12.00/ 1 year or $20.00/ 2 years, including postage. |
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