North Kohala Community Plans For Food-Self Sufficiency

Projected consumption in North Kohala at 50% food self sufficiency.Native Hawaiians in pre-contact days produced enough food in North Kohala to feed a population of 30,000. Today, we have a population of about 6,000 and we import some 85% of our food. North Kohala is a community with an ambitious goal and we are creating a community-based strategic plan to achieve that goal.

The North Kohala Community Development Plan (CDP) states a strong desire to “Keep Kohala, Kohala.” As a historically agricultural community, part of “Keeping Kohala, Kohala,” is the strong community that results from the sharing and bartering of food and animals from individual homesteads, and the gathering from the mountains, gulches, and ocean.

Margaret Krimm holds up a photograph of her backyard being leveled by a bulldozer before she started her garden.

Getting to know the environment where you live is the best way to begin the process of growing food. Knowing about your soil, rainfall, elevation, wind direction, and other environmental conditions will help determine what to plant and what might need to be done to improve conditions for plants and animals.

Soil

Soils vary tremendously across the island, from sandy clays to coarse soil in lava rock. A soil test can help determine the nutrients available in your soil. The USDA also has detailed soils maps that can help determine your soil type.

Volunteers spent Earth Day reviving the grounds of the Kohala High School Ag Program.

For 30 years Uncle David Fuertes was the agriculture teacher at Kohala High School. In its glory days the ag program made $25,000 per year by growing and selling its own products. The program emphasized entrepreneurship and leadership skills, as well as agricultural skills. They had a greenhouse, certified kitchen, four acres of vegetables and animal pastures. Many of Kohala’s leaders today were students who were mentored by David in the Hawai‘i Future Farmers of America (FFA) program—including High School principal Jeanette Snelling, and Adriel Robitaille, the new Ag teacher. After attending college it was Adriel’s dream to come back to Kohala and to revitalize the ag program. That dream is now becoming a reality.

Nitrogen fixing plants have the ability to grow in poor soils and provide a source of nutrient-rich organic matter.

Part 2 of a 2-part series.  For Part 1, click here

This part continues the presentation of in-depth information on nitrogen-fixing and dynamic accumulator plants.

Diversify the Leaf Litter to Aid Nutrient Cycling

Research has shown that diverse forms of litter on the forest floor aid nutrient cycling in the litter layer and topsoil. Diverse litter provides for better decomposition and diversity in the decomposer food web. Therefore, using various kinds of mulch and planting plants that provide diverse kinds of litter will improve self-renewing fertility.