JOIN THE MOVEMENT
TO REGENERATE NORTH SHORE AGRICULTURE LANDS & INCREASE LOCAL FOOD PRODUCTION
Our mission is to increase local production and consumption of fruit tree and canoe crops in our North Shore community to reduce our reliance on imports. We advocate for farming in a way that honors the understanding and practices of stewards from the past, while cultivating the health and well-being of this generation and those to come.
We start all of our work with a 2 hour consultation, which includes an in-person site visit and a write-up of recommendations, along with a soil fertility test to identify any pH or nutrient imbalances. Learn more about our services and how we can work with your farm.
Farm Planning & Design services
Planning & Forecasting: We use agroforestry design software to estimate crop yields and revenue, based on various design scenarios and markets. Design scenarios explore options for high or low density plantings of tree crops and successions of mid-term crops. Revenue is estimated based on scenarios of density and estimated retail and wholesale pricing for specific crops. This information can be used to explore basic break-even and return on investment (ROI) scenarios using estimated installation (start-up) and operation costs.
Site Plans & Design Services: Our technical services and collaborative design process enables you to make informed decisions on the best placement, orientation and spacing for your orchard, windbreaks, farm access roads, irrigation, water storage, post-harvest structures, farm worker housing and other important farm infrastructure. Our farm plans account for past land use, identify general erosion and drainage concerns and identify viable areas for your crops and livestock using soil lab testing, site-level topography, soil health assessment and other technical services.
The design process is intended to produce a site plan, an orchard design and present the steps necessary to prepare the land for installation services. As part of this process, we generate a propagation list or plant order to secure your tree crop varieties, windbreak trees and shrubs, ground cover and other inter-cropping plants. Following the design process, we provide estimates for phased installation projects outlined in your farm plan.
Orchard & irrigation Installation
Land Prep and Installation Services: We install orchards using agroforestry principals. Our orchard designs typically focus on the main tree crops of avocado, mango, ʻulu and citrus. We use native plants and ʻfunctional plantsʻ as windbreaks and ground covers, which are ideal for our North Shore growing conditions and soils, attract pollinators and ‘beneficials’, serve as a living mulch and restore on-farm nutrient, water and ecosystem services.
Our nursery carries over 20 varieties of avocado and citrus and a large variety of mango and ʻulu varieties to ensure year-round production and early-season harvest for your markets. Grafting services are provided to fill custom-orders for varieties that are outside our inventory.
To ensure the successful establishment and management of your orchard, we often install ʻtree cagesʻ and recommend the installation of fertigation, soil moisture monitoring and water storage systems.
Infrastructure Installation: Irrigation design services start by calculating a water budget and irrigation zones for your orchard blocks, windbreaks and other growing areas. This information, along with field measurements of your existing flow rate and pressure from your water source, are used to design your system. As part of your irrigation design, we identify the need for back-up water storage and pumping systems, risers, controllers/timers, filters and back-flow preventers, pressure release valves, and appropriately sized main, sub-main and lateral lines and emitters to meet the water demand identified in your irrigation plan. Soil moisture sensors and fertigation systems can also be added to improve the efficiency of your automated irrigation system. We build and install your irrigation system during or following the land prep phase. Although most of our planting installation services are phased, we often install your full irrigation system at one time, to ensure water is available to all viable agriculture land identified in your site plan.
farm Management Plans & maintenance services
Farm Maintenance Services: Our annual soil and crop maintenance services ensure the health and development of your crops and investment in your soil. Our annual packages start with a 3 month intensive treatment to address any current pest, disease or nutrient imbalances, followed by monthly or bi-monthly maintenance visits. We use OMRI-certified, organic products and Korean Natural Farming (KNF) microbial solutions and soil amendments. Building crop and soil health through a comprehensive management system improves the abundance and quality of your crops, improves the tilth and nutrient cycling ability of your soil and can proactively reduce pest and disease pressure.
Regenerative Management Plans: A well-organized farm enables you to grow healthy crops in a way that is enjoyable. Farming involves a lot of tasks from prepping new growing areas and restoring soil health and nutrient cycling, to selecting main crops, planning crop rotations and inter-cropping, projecting sales, identifying opportunities to collaborate with other local growers, securing markets and buyers, setting-up irrigation and managing crop nutrients, pest & disease, water use, and drainage.
Outdoor Spaces, Green Design & Workshops
The Farm Art Project & Workshops
Working with the land creates beauty and provokes inspiration. We love sharing the creativity that people feel from being out on the land and working with their hands in our farm art studio and with elements from the land itself. Our Farm Art Project is an effort to bring local artist out to the farm to create ‘landscape art pieces’ and natural building projects. We demonstrate these projects through our farm design and natural building workshops. These workshops will demonstrate how to clear and re-purpose the use of invasive trees and waste streams, work with our local clay soils to form earthen plasters and structural components to build hardscape features on your farm such as pathways, accent walls and shade structures. Join these workshops to start designing your own edible landscapes, living archways, arbors, shade-structures and other outdoor living features.
Join our Korean Natural Farming workshops hosted by our partner, Hawaiʻi Indigenous Natural Agriculture (HINA) to work with others in our community to source, make and apply your own fertilizers, microbial solutions and soil amendments. These workshops teach a comprehensive system for proactively managing pest & disease by optimizing plant and soil health. Participating in these cohort-based workshops connects you with a greater movement to regenerate Hawaiʻi farmland, reduce reliances on imports, and foster a commitment to our communities to growth healthy food.
Outdoor Spaces & Green Design
Our plant packages, hardscape and natural building products can be used to create outdoor living spaces. We partner with natural builders and suppliers to design and install living privacy walls, shade structures, outdoor kitchens, farm-to-table and other outdoor spaces, along with pathways, water catchment and simple agriculture conservation systems to manage surface water and erosion. Check out our plant design packages, workshops and partner building services to begin creating outdoor living spaces and green infrastructure systems on your farm.
We work alongside families and community groups stewarding farmland by co-developing plans for regenerating soil; removing invasive vegetation; planting native windbreaks and ground covers; trenching and installing irrigation systems; growing custom orders for grafted fruit trees; and setting-up maintenance and monitoring services to maintain crop health and productivity. We aim to support new farmers and stewards on agriculture lands and prioritize working with those with family or multi-generational ties to āina in our community.
Working with North Shore farms and our partners, we aim to create a regional example for import substitution of avocados and mainland starches, by increasing the consistency of the local supply of avocado, citrus and ulu fruit and cultivating relationships with North Shore markets, buyers and community feeding programs.
How WE WORK
Fruit Production Goals
Help us reach our collective production goals to plant 1,950 ʻulu trees, 2,080 mango trees, 3,120 avocado trees and 3,120 citrus trees on North Shore agriculture land over the next ten years. These goals are based on planting out an estimated tenth of the agriculture land recently sold on the North Shore.
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Regenerating Lands & Starting Farms
We help design and manage projects for removing invasive vegetation, reducing compaction layers, and improving the cycling of nutrients, water and carbon through the use of cover cropping, perennial ground covers, mulch and soil amendments. These practices build soil organic matter and improve soil properties, leading to better soil moisture retention, less flooding and overall healthier and more productive crops.
Our farm-level plans help new farms actualize the vision for their land and communicate action plans with farm mangers and crews.
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Plants for Your Regenerative Project
We keep a large inventory of plants that control erosion, rapidly generate biomass, break-up compaction layers in the soil, provide a source of ‘living mulch’, add deep carbon and stable nitrogen to the system and serve as ‘in-field windbreaks’ to reduce evapotranspiration. Many of our plants are native and selected to be multi-purpose and ascetically appealing.
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Growing nutrient-dense & improving soil health
Our wholistic nutrient management plans and maintenance packages build soil health and boost plant immune responses to pest and disease. We also design systems to empower our clients to generate their own on-farm soil amendments and fertilizers using natural farming and other methods.
Make a donation.
Please consider donating to support our mission to set and track food production goals for our community, regenerate former cane and pineapple land, and contribute towards our ‘Farmscaping’ Apprentice program.