Waimea farmers Mike and Tricia Hodsen want to see more of their North Hawaii neighbors take up farming again.
Waimea farmers Mike and Tricia Hodsen want to see more of their North Hawaii neighbors take up farming again.
So the couple, the owners of Wow Farm, began applying for grants to create a program to help their Waimea Hawaiian Homestead neighbors learn the intricacies of greenhouse growing. With five grants in hand, and microloans in place for the 14 Native Hawaiian families enrolled in the Farming for Working Class program, the Hodsen’s are progressing toward that goal.
“We’re building farmers in Waimea,” Tricia Hodsen said Tuesday. “This community was a vegetable and fruit community We need to revive that.”
The Hodsens’ vision includes teaching people how to farm in such a way that the greenhouses the farmers use are mostly automated, freeing the farmers to work regular jobs, as well as grow and sell produce. The grant program covers all but $2,000 of the costs associated with leveling the land, building and equipping a greenhouse, planting and cultivating the seeds and teaching the farmers how to balance their books and sell and market their produce. Hodsen said she and her husband wanted to make sure the families signed up to participate are fully committed to the year-long program.
“They are going to think twice about not missing any training,” because they are making payments on the loan, Hodsen said.
The Hodsens partnered with the Council for Native Hawaiian Advancement, which developed the microloan program, CNHA President and CEO Robin Puanani Danner said. The organization also worked with Bank of Hawaii for the loans, for which the families will pay less than $100 a month to repay.
Hodsen said her family is not taking payment for the work they are doing to run the program. They committed 40 hours a month — working two 10-hour days, two weekends each month — to help the families get their farmers up and running.
They have asked the participating families to “pay it forward” next year, by each helping another family learn how to farm. The Waimea Hawaiian Homestead has more than 115 5-acre lots, only a handful of which are now being used for farming, Hodsen said. The leases were assigned in the late 1970s, and many of the lessees are now in their 60s, 70s or 80s. They may not take up farming, but their children or grandchildren might, she added.
Wow Farm, which sells its organic produce at the Waimea Hawaiian Homestead Farmers Market, as well as four farmers markets on Oahu, now has 39 green houses on 10 acres, Hodsen said. But it didn’t start that big, she said. They began their farm with just one greenhouse, then two, then four, slowly working their way up to the number they now have.
“I started off just like them,” Hodsen said.
The program has been going for about three months. The Hodsens have brought in chefs from some of the island’s resort restaurants to inform the new farmers what kinds of produce they regularly purchase. The farmers have homework, too, Hodsen said. They have to learn about the best kind of soil for the types of produce they choose to grow and how to best cultivate those plants, she said.
So far, the farmers have shown lots of enthusiasm while learning, she added.
“They’re so ecstatic,” she said.
Mike Hodsen is also president of the Waimea Hawaiian Homestead Association.