What is a Tropical Homegarden?

A traditional Tropical Homegarden (THG) of the Pacific Islands differs greatly from the raised bed or vegetable patch image commonly associated with temperate home edible gardens. A THG is a small-scale agroforestry land use system based on cultural traditions of subsistence living. A THG is in close proximity to a place of residence and tended to by the household members. Plants are grown for personal consumption as food, as well as for medicinal, ceremonial and construction purposes.

Over the years, there have been a plethora of outstanding exotic fruit books, starting with the Julia Morton classic Fruits of Warm Climates, Bill Whitman's Five Decades of Tropical Fruits, Harry Lorenzi's Brazilian Fruits and Cultivated Exotics and Bryan Brunner and Juan Rivero's Exotic Fruit Trees of Puerto Rico. Now we may have a new member to add to this group of "must have" books, Specialty Crops for Pacific Islands. Although it does not exclusively cover tropical fruits, the chapters for mangosteen, lychee, breadfruit and bananas offer some of the most comprehensive information you will find anywhere.

Big Island Farm Fresh Foods (BIFFF) is a new concept in Consumer Supported Agriculture (CSA). Brittany and Bodhi Anderson, while looking for safe food sources for themselves, had the idea of purchasing the healthiest variety of island grown produce and other food products they could find from small, individual farmers and producers and in turn offer them to subscribers through weekly deliveries.

The Mysore raspberry hails from Coorg in Karnataka, India. Dismissed as a thorny wild weed, no one would ever dream of cultivating it there. You would be laughed at if you had the temerity to make such a suggestion. But in picturesque Hawai‘i, the Mysore raspberry earns an income for small farmers and has a loyal fan following.

“It was the number one choice of 54 chefs here,” says Ken Love, president of the Hawaii Tropical Fruit Growers (HTFG) and the moving force behind the 12 Trees Project, an agricultural programme launched in 2005 which has boosted the income of small farmers.

Farmers in Hawai‘i’s Kona region grow one of the most expensive coffees in the world called Kona. It is their main crop but they hardly make any money out of it. Many farmers were abandoning their coffee farms, migrating to cities and selling their fields to developers. The 12 Trees Project sought to reverse this trend. It helped farmers diversify by growing unusual fruits which would find favour with buyers, chefs and consumers.