Well, the time has come for a long overdue update on the farm! Ever since we started out in 2011 it’s been a full steam ahead labor of love to keep our garden growing, our chickens laying and our little Farmily working together smoothly and with joy. There have been so many twists and turns to this journey and so many lessons learned along the way! I appreciate so much the continued interest everyone has had in our endeavors and I decided it was finally time to commit to this blogging business to keep everyone up to date with the happenings at Ka ‘Ohi Nani Gardens.
So first perhaps, a (not-so) brief synopsis of the last decade: We started out very simply, with some chicken tractors to reclaim the lawn and create garden bed space, a small nursery for fruit trees and veggie starts, and a rotating cast of friends that started out as work traders and quickly became family. Over time we expanded the garden to roughly 4000 square feet, increased our poultry flock to over 30 birds, and started a CSA program that fed over 10 families. All while also working full-time at off-the-farm jobs in order to keep up with the rising costs of living on Kaua’i and be able to invest further into the farm. It was exhausting, to say the least, but it was life!
The Garden circa 2018, Lunaya (our favorite garden helper) with the future farm stand in the background
Off-the-farm endeavors for Zoli included diving deep into residential landscape design, using her background in permaculture in combination with her creativity and passion for beautiful design. Zoli has worked with Seascapes Nursery for over 7 years, designing, drafting, and installing over a hundred projects. She also became a certified arborist specializing in agroforestry systems, tree identification, tree risk assessment, and maintenance strategies for orchards. As of 2021, Zoli is now fully self-employed as a Landscape Designer and Consulting Arborist, working closely with Seascapes as well as other local contractors for installations and maintenance projects.
In addition to landscape design, she also moonlights as a professional fire performer! Working with Kalalea Fire since 2011, Zoli has performed at events all over Hawai’i as well as been a part of the Burning Man Fire Conclave and worked with legendary artists such as Dead & Company, Arashi, and Big Freedia.
Zoli (center right) performing with Kalalea & Hawai’i Fire Artists for the Burning Man Fire Conclave
Adam and Zoli got together in 2014 and his support has been instrumental to the continued growth of Ka ‘Ohi Nani gardens. Since 2015 he has been developing his skills as a woodworker and now owns and operates one of the island’s premier cabinetry shops, Kauai Fine Woodworking. Crafting gorgeous home interiors, custom furniture, and more. With Adam’s talent for fine craftsmanship and knack for business, Kauai Fine Woodworking is quickly becoming the top choice for luxury homes.
Zoli & Adam in their natural habitat.
Interior cabinet project by Kauai Fine Woodworking
Flash forward to 2020 and the Covid19 pandemic threw quite the wrench in all of these various ventures. Adam and Zoli had planned to get married in May of 2020 and have since had to postpone to an undecided future date. With the closure of farmers’ markets on the island, our CSA shares sold out overnight! And while the rest of the world was on pause, both the landscaping and construction industries on Kaua’i were booming. These factors combined with the everyday stresses of living and working communally on the farm lead to some serious burnout on all fronts. At the beginning of 2021, we decided to take a break from the market garden and fruit tree nursery and reassess our systems. Over the years we have relied heavily on volunteer labor to keep everything running, providing housing and garden abundance in exchange for work on the farm. While this system has brought so many amazing people into our community, expanding what we affectionately refer to as our “farmily” it became apparent that it’s not the most sustainable way to run things. While providing housing and local food is still a core value for us, the transient nature of the work-trade system is challenging to manage in the long term. We realized that for this to work, we need to have a stable team of committed farm partners with real equity and a stake in our continued success. We are still in the process of designing and implementing this new system.
We also shifted our focus to upgrading some of our farm infrastructures. We built two yurts for living spaces, an outdoor kitchen, a structure for a future farmstand, and have made several other improvements. We are also now proud parents to a small flock of runner ducks! We still have quite a few projects left to finish, including a luxurious outdoor shower, a new fence for the garden and chicken run as well as a new post-harvest produce washing and packing structure. The list of improvements often seems never-ending but we are doing our best to tackle projects during our somewhat limited free time. As it turns out, balancing the demands of running a farm, multiple separate businesses, and having an active life full of adventure is not for the weak! You might actually have to be a little bit crazy to want to live like this but we’re embracing our insanity to the fullest!
Adam, Spencer & Otto working on the future farm stand structure.
Ducklings!
The future for Ka ‘Ohi Nani Gardens looks bright. With a renewed sense of our values and ideals, we’re restructuring our operations to be more efficient and to better serve our island community. The pandemic definitely highlighted a lot of the challenges our society faces, particularly in the microcosm of Kaua’i and we’re pivoting our plans to better fill some of the gaps. We’re hoping to have the market garden back in action within the year and future projects include a large-scale vermicomposting system, an aquaponics greenhouse, and hopefully not too far down the road, a wedding!
We plan to be more active in this space as well, posting more of our daily farm doings as well as delicious recipes, garden tips, and life updates. So stay tuned for future posts and thank you so much for your continued support through the years. It means so much to have a community of folks all over the world sharing in our dream.
With love from the land,
Ka ‘Ohi Nani Gardens
