Mike Riley of Volcano Tea Garden in Volcano shows his tea plants, which are growing together with native forest trees.

Tea is the most widely consumed beverage after water. It has a cooling, slightly bitter, astringent flavor. The three most common types of tea are black, green, and oolong. There are also some less common types such as white and yellow teas and compressed teas (e.g., puerh), as well as numerous flavored and scented teas. All of these teas have in common that they use the leaves of the same plant, Camellia sinensis, but they are processed in different ways.

Sam Choy's Kai Lanai was filled to capacity for the Rancher's Dinner.On Friday, February 28, 2014, Chef Scott Hiraishi, Executive Chef of Sam Choy’s Kai Lanai Restaurant, presented an outstanding Five Course Plus menu in appreciation of the many ranchers, farmers and purveyors that supply their kitchen with island grown bounty. Besides the farmers and ranchers present, the invited guests to the party included media and friends. All guests received a beautiful wooden handled steak knife engraved with the event name and restaurant logo and a ‘feed sack’ full of goodies.

Certified organic ginger commercially grown in Hamakua, Hawaii.

Ginger is used throughout the world as a spice or fresh herb in cooking and a variety of other value-added products including flavoring in candies, beverages, liqueurs, ice cream, baked goods, curry powder blends, sauces, and various condiments. Ginger is also used in traditional medicine to treat several ailments including nausea, motion sickness, migraine, dyspepsia, and to reduce flatulence and colic. Young rhizomes that are harvested early are also used in pickles and confectionery.

A large percentage of open pollinated papayas contain genetically modified DNA.Do you know if your papaya trees are GMO? I thought I did. I thought that since I raised trees from organic papaya seeds from a seed exchange or health food store, they were pretty certainly non-GMO. But I wasn’t positive, so last February I attended a “Seedy Saturday” workshop that included free testing of papaya trees. I learned about papaya genetics, cross-pollination, and how to ensure you grow non-GMO. And I learned that at least 6 of our roughly 50 trees were GMO.