Ho’olehua Family Has Big Dreams for New Homestead

By Paul Hanley, Community Reporter

“First, I like to make sure we are 100 percent sustainable island-wide and encourage young farmers to farm, to work their ‘aina,” said Courtney Galam.

Courtney is following her own advice. She and her husband Cliff started farming in 2021, when COVID threatened barge service and food supply chains to the island and were temporarily cut.

“We started planting just to feed our family,” said Courtney, “but the harvest was too abundant, so we started to share with neighbors. We would deliver door to door or leave it by our homestead gate with a ‘free’ sign. Later we started to sell to Maunaloa General Store and Kualapuu Market.”

At their new farm site in Ho’olehua, they have set up a wind tunnel filled with neat rows of cabbage, tomatoes, eggplants, onions, and peppers, all thriving. A top priority is to hook-up water before they expand the farm, with plans to add breadfruit, guava, citrus trees and mountain apple, as well as pigs, and chickens by the end of the year.

“We are still waiting for a water hookup,” said Cliff. “For now, I am bringing in water in 55-gallon drums. And water everything by hand.”

Each of the couple come from longtime Molokai farming families. Cliff’s grandfather, Johnny Keohuloa, known as Johnny Pineapple, was an early homesteader known for having the biggest and healthiest vegetables.

“After the pineapple companies left,” said Cliff, “my grandfather was the only one who continued to grow pineapples in Ho’olehua, on his 35 acres.”

On Courtney’s side, great, great-grandpa Jack Noble Iaea, operated Greenthumb Nursery in Mana’e – the first nursery ever on Molokai.

“He had a green thumb for everything, and everything he touched grew and everyone on the outside wanted what he had,” said Courtney. “Another big motivation in my life was my uncle ‘Dan’ Iaea Sr., who just passed on Feb. 15 at age 80. He was a long-time farmer who raised pigs, flowers, fruits, and vegetation. He sold pigs statewide and also worked at the Hawaiian research cornfield before working at Monsanto. I remember as a little girl always running up to his pig farm to see him. He let me help feed his pigs and wash out the stalls. I remember how humble he was and how neat he kept everything. I love and miss you, my uncle!”

Cliff has been involved in several farming ventures.

“On Maui I had a ti leaf farm in Hana and sold to all the hotels for plate decorations and leis. We sold thousands of leaves for hula skirts to Merry Monarch every year.”

Courtney and Cliff would like to add you-pick pikake and plumeria for lei making, and to someday offer lei making workshops.

“We also offer starter plants to help other farmers and gardeners grow their own food. And one other goal is to grow corn to make our own chicken feed.”

When Cliff was in high school, he used to play sports. When the Molokai Farmers travelled to other islands they would sometimes be ridiculed.

“Molokai was always the underdogs, and they called us dirty farmers. I was ashamed to be a farmer,” said Cliff. “Now I’m proud. Farmers are the foundation!”

“The problem is that most of our farmers are getting old,” said Courtney, “and with very few left standing we need our young people to learn farming and get planting, bringing sexy back in farming. We want to see people plowing their land, establishing their own farms, and flourishing together. It used to be that from mauka to makai everyone had their role, and food would be bartered. We weren’t dependent on the government. We should get back to that if we want to live long and sustain our families for the long run.”