Aliʻi mushrooms growing at Hamakua Heritage Mushroom Farm.Thirteen years ago, Bob and Janice Stanga bought property in the Laupahoehoe area of Hawai'i Island with the idea of creating a niche food for island chefs raising either mushrooms or edible snails. Mushrooms won and The Hamakua Heritage Mushroom Farm became a reality.

The enterprise started small and eventually grew to fill a 16,000 square-foot production building that houses their own sterile tissue culture laboratory, incubation rooms and six indoor growing rooms. The facility is equipped with automated specialty mushroom cultivation equipment and climate control installations, and is where they produce a variety of mushroom species of exceptional quality.

Tim Head presents information about how to grow and harvest coconut trees at All About Coconut Day, April 13 at the Intergenerational Center."Grow your own future" was the theme of a coconut day program attended by sixty people at the Intergenerational Center in North Kohala on April 13th. The three-hour event offered information, demonstrations, a slide show, exhibits, coconut snacks, coco water, songs, dances, drumming and plenty of community networking about how to plant and use coconuts. Tim Head and Carolyn Mondress, co-chairs of "Coconuts for Kohala" led the event and Forrest Arnold served as group facilitator.

Peter Risley uses French Intensive methods on his farm and was named Farmer of the Year this year by the Mauna Kea Soil and Water Conservation District.On Saturday, April 6, the North Kohala Eat Locally Grown Campaign partnered with 'Iole Hawai'i to bring the Farm to Fork Tour series to the historic Bond district of North Kohala. The Hawai'i Institute of Pacific Agriculture (HIP Ag), Risley Farms and ʻŌhua O Nā Kiaʻi No Nā Keiki O Ka ʻĀina invited the Kohala community, Hawai'i Island residents and visitors to tour -- and taste -- what's growing at 'Iole.

Tom Palusak, Produce Manager of Choice Mart in Captain Cook.When Tom Palusak started working as produce manager in 2007, he felt it was important that local produce was well represented in Choice Mart’s offerings. Many of the store’s customers are local farmers from the area, and it was only natural and appropriate to give customers the opportunity to buy local. Four years later, about 50% of Choice Mart’s produce comes from Hawai‘i farmers.