Homeokahalu’u Farm received the Agroforester of the Year award from the Kona Soil and Water Conservation District in 2014. The award represented 10 years of hard work by Angelica Stevens and her husband, Richard, to revitalize her parent’s 9-acre farm.
Homeokahalu’u Farm received the Agroforester of the Year award from the Kona Soil and Water Conservation District in 2014. The award represented 10 years of hard work by Angelica Stevens and her husband, Richard, to revitalize her parent’s 9-acre farm.
Angelica’s parents, Richard and Roswitha Fowler, came to Hawaii in the late 1960s and first settled on a sailboat in Alawai Harbor on Oahu. They moved to Holualoa in the mid 1970s to raise their children, Angelica and her sister, Andrea, and in 1985 they bought a Kamehameha Schools farm lease. Angelica graduated from Konawaena High School in 1988 and moved to California, and then to Germany for work. Her parents continued to harvest the coffee crop, though both also worked off the farm. Ten years later, when they needed some help, Angelica returned from her travels to offer assistance.
“I learned farming by the seat of my pants and by getting a lot of dirt under my nails,” Angelica said.
She also attended alot of classes and workshops to help hone her farming skills. In one, she learned about the services offered to farmers through a variety of U.S. Department of Agriculture programs and she started working with the Natural Resources Conservation Service to create a farm conservation plan and map out steps toward full compliance on the Kamehameha Schools lease. Though it took more than 10 years to accomplish her goal, the 2014 award indicated that the farm had come a long way.
A lot of transformations took place over those 10 years. In 2004, Angelica married Richard Stevens, a local history and writing professor, a knowledgeable champion of native Hawaiian plants, and author of “Tropical Organic Gardening – Hawaiian Style.” He imbued his love of native plants into Angelica and they started planning ways to fit native Hawaiian plants into the diversity of Homeokahalu’u Farm.
At the bottom of the drive onto the farm, you can see the progress they have made toward diverse planting to establish an agroforest. Among the lower coffee trees you’ll find natives like pili grass, ilie’e, aweoweo, hoawa, uhiuhi and alahe’e.
As I walked the land, Angelica was a constant source of fascinating information on the uses of many of these native plants. She laughed as she held a sticky ilie’e flower to her earlobe, asking if I liked her Hawaiian earring.
The aweoweo, she reported, is an amaranth relative that makes a great hedge.
“We eat the aweoweo leaves steamed like spinach. They are packed with protein and you feel full eating just a handful of the steamed leaves,” she said.
During our walk, I was definitely impressed by the wide variety of plants, both native and non-native, but also by Angelica’s enthusiasm about the on-going project and her dedication to sustainable practices.
She pointed out, “We are always thinking of ways to reduce our inputs and reuse what we can.” A good example is the recent introduction of animals to the farm. Her sheep, goats and donkey happily eat all the grass she weed-whacks or pulls from the fields.
“Our little grass compactors then give us fertilizer for the farm,” she proclaimed as she was feeding them the results of her morning weeding.
Angelica remarks, “On this farm we use or reuse everything. Hardly anything goes to waste.” Even the large monkey pod tree is used to fix nitrogen in the soil while providing tasty pods for the animals.
In addition to establishing an agroforest on the land, Angelica and Richard are committed to following practices that conserve water, soil, clean air, and cultural artifacts. They also follow organic gardening practices.
Angelica prefers to use natural rather than chemical remedies to combat issues like Chinese rose beetle attacks. When she found the rose beetle practically defoliating her new cacao trees, she sought an integrated approach to controlling them. Her research found that companion plantings of hops deterred rose beetles. She also discovered that the native a’ali’i was a close relative of the temperate hops plant and decided to try companion planting a’ali’i next to cacao. In doing so, she discouraged the Chinese rose beetle and the cacao seedlings are now developing new leaves.
In 2016, Angelica and Richard completed several contracts with NRCS, and are currently tending the inter-planting of 400 native plants among their coffee trees. Although they still harvest and sell coffee, Angelica considers lilikoi their main crop and she collects fruit every day to sell to the local distributor, Adaptations. In keeping with her sustainable practices, they have left most of the original Christmas berry trees on the property to use as trellises for the passion fruit vine. Their dedication to maximizing the use of space in their crop land is obvious with the overstory of lilikoi and an understory of squash intermingled with their coffee crop.
In the interest of growing a good plant protein source Richard and Angelica discovered that the Peruvian peanut, sacha inchi, did well at the farm. The seed or nut of the vine is loaded with fiber, antioxidants, and omega fatty acids as well as 9 grams of protein per serving. When roasted, it has a flavor similar to peanuts.
Other interesting features at Homeokahalu’u Farm are the plants growing in their tea garden. They use noni fruit and the leaves from the loquat trees to make tea as well as the native mamaki and ko’oko’olau. Cranberry hibiscus adds a touch of color to this garden and produces tasty leaves for tea-making.
The upper 5 acres of the farm are still being restored with new plantings of pineapple, cacao, and wiliwili going in and the on-going transformation of the coffee orchard to serve as lilikoi trellises.
Just last year, Angelica and Homeokahalu’u Farm were selected to participate in a program through Farm Corps Hawaii. The AmeriCorps program funds experienced farmers to teach new and young farmers skills that support farming in the local community.
Angelica’s love for this farm in evident in her continuing energy to make improvements. Many of the practices she employs can offer positive examples for other Kona farmers.
Diana Duff is a plant adviser, educator and consultant living in a dryland forest north of Kailua-Kona.