Ag tour presents a taste of Molokai

Perhaps a testament to the Friendly Isle’s best kept secret, many more residents than tourists took the first ever Molokai agriculture tour last Saturday in conjunction with the fourth annual Molokai Chamber of Commerce Food and Business Expo. The half-day bus trip featured five unique agricultural producers, most of them local entrepreneurs.

The Nov. 4 tour brought the group of 30 to a plumeria farm, Coffees of Hawaii, L&R sweet potato farm, Ala Ekahi Salt farm and Beach Boy hydroponics farm.

With one last glance at the hulking adobe house, the group piled into the bus and left for lunch at Hotel Molokai. The day ended with the huge Food and Business Expo at Lanikeha Community Center. The building could not even fit the throngs of visitors on Saturday afternoon.

There was standing room only to watch some of the top chefs in Maui County demonstrate how to make food with fine Molokai ingredients. Local entertainment from Moana’s Hula Halau, Darrell Labrado, the Hawaiian Immersion Class and Pili Pa`a kept the crowd jumping between food demonstrations.

Booths lined the walls for visitors to sample and purchase local fare, including beeswax candles and surfboard wax by local keiki Tabitha Kaneshiro. Coffees of Hawaii was on hand with Mocha Mamas and Molokai High School art classes sold student pottery as a fundraiser.

The fourth annual event was organized by the Molokai Chamber of Commerce with help from the Maui County Office of Economic Development, Hawaiian Telecom, Maui Land and Pineapple, Maui Electric, Goodfellow Brothers, Island Air, Young Brothers Ltd. and American Savings Bank.