Kipahulu Certified Kitchen approved!

The off-grid certified kitchen in Kipahulu (on which I've been project coordinator over the last year plus) has received its final approvals! We passed the Department of Health inspection last week and the county wastewater inspection this morning, which was the last one. I should be able to get the Certificate of Occupancy this week, and our License to Process Food is on the way. We still have a lot of improvements we want to continue making so it isn't really "complete", but it is to the point where it can be certified and we can start using it! It has been a long process, and it feels good to reach this milestone (just before I leave for vacation). We have scheduled our blessing for Friday, September 1 at 3:00 p.m. if anyone happens to be in the neighborhood. Another big mahalo to the County, OHA, and the community of Kipahulu for providing the funding and the sweat to make it happen. Here's the interior of the kitchen, taken this morning:

It will be a shared use facility for various value-added ag processing, but the #1 priority is poi. Of course, now we need to increase our kalo production.

We are expanding the taro patches at Kapahu and also working on plans to help get more opened up across East Maui. There are old lo'i along every stream, and Uncle John knows where most of them are. We want to map them and then prioritize which ones to work on.

The idea is to get folks to manage the lo'i in their own 'ahupua'a. If we get together with community work days to get them cleared, opened, rebuild the walls as needed, and repair the 'auwai or install irrigation to get the water flowing again, then it is fairly easy for a few people to maintain.

Then, along with folks in that 'ahupua'a being able to have kalo for their tables, we can do a sort of cooperative harvest where the excess kalo from all the 'ahupua'a are gathered together - maybe once a week would be the goal - taken out to the kitchen in Kipahulu and processed into poi, and then delivered back to those maintaining the lo'i, with the excess going to those most in need - kupuna, infants, hapai mothers, folks with diabetes, etc. at an affordable price.

That is my main mission in life at the moment, and something that, regardless of politics, I hope we all can agree on!

Here's Kapahu last week. The three wet lo'i in the center are just about ready to plant, they just need one more session of kids tromping in the mud—and the planting moon. Behind that you can see three more across that have been newly tilled and are ready to start working. On the right there's the bright tape indicating the outline of another lo'i to be opened next. This area is the lowest in the farm and very wet, so the lo'i have to be restored and worked by hand, whereas the ones behind can be tilled by machine which is much quicker. There's plenty more right in this area to keep opening, which can be done fairly quickly with machines, but we also want to get others along each stream open as well, and we can supply the huli and the guidance.

Posted: Mon - July 31, 2006 at 05:02 PM

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Kipahulu Certified Kitchen approved!

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