This week’s bag will include: Maunawili Greens lettuce, Ho Farms long beans, Hauula tomatoes, Poamoho Organic Produce starfruit and papaya, Nalo Farms mixed herbs and Pit Farms corn!

Starfruit is a local favorite, and is best eaten sliced. It’s unusual shape makes a beautiful addition to fruit salads and as a garnish. It’s also great in smoothies especially if you let it get a little overripe! If you have an hour or so and want to try something different with your starfruit here’s a recipe for starfruit chips.  It looks like fruit candy!

We’ve been eating a lot of corn it seems like and we had some the other day that we grilled.  I think that’s the best way to eat corn-especially at the beach or camping-so we are including a few novel grilled corn ideas for you here!

Coconut Grilled Corn

Grilled Corn with Cayenne, Lime, & Cotija Cotija is a Mexican cheese from Michoacan, and is very salty.  You can substitute feta or parmesan for similar flavor.

Mexican Grilled Corn

New Potatoes with Mixed Herbs This recipe can use any mix of herbs, and don’t feel limited to steaming or boiling the potatoes.  You can also try roasting or grilling them (whole or cut, tossed with a little olive oil) or pan fry them, cut into chunks or slices.

Crostini Mixed Herbs Great pupu idea!

Aloha Oahu Fresh clients!  We are very excited to have a delicious and unique bag for you this week.  We will be including a new item from Hana Herbs and Flowers on Maui, Hawaiian Fern shoots (pohole).  We’ll also have organic starfruit from Poamoho Organic Produce, hydroponic lettuce from Maunawili Greens, Ho Farms tomatoes, & cantaloupe, and sweet potatoes from Pit Farms.

Pohole, or Hawaiian Fern Shoots, are typically eaten with `alaea salt, ‘ala’akai (Maui onion `aka`akai lau leaf) dried aku, dried  he` (octopus) and nioi (Chili pepper).

Ho’io (Hawaii’s edible fern): this recipe comes from a blog by a local girl living in Italy

Sauteed Fresh Shrimp with Fern Shoot and Vine Ripened Tomato Salad This one comes from the Hawaii Farmers’ Market site: scroll most of the way down the page, it’s close to the bottom.

Watercress Pesto Also from the HFBF page, this one is the very last one!

Spicy Chickpeas and Watercress

Pohole Salad with Taro

Grilled Sweet Potato Salad

Roasted Sweet Potato Salad with Black Beans and Chili Dressing

Spinach and Sweet Potato Salad with Warm Bacon Dressing

Nana’s Wilted Lettuce Salad

The story of Hana Herbs and Flowers: this comes from Eileen Comeaux via email, and we thought you might like to know how they got started.

My husband and I saw a sign: “Land for Sale.” Land in this area of East Maui, Hawaii was very high even in 1982, but this land was one mile off the main road.    I went in to talk to the realtor.    She said, “My Son will take you up this weekend.”    Well, it was one of those very rainy weekends and we  didn’t  get up to see it.    But  I did say I would see her on Monday.    I was just going to pop my head in to say  we’d  do it the next weekend.    She said, “I am sorry but I have a man outside who said he would like it.  But  I told him we had this appointment.    If you are not going to take it he will.” I knew the price was good, so I said a little prayer and told her I wanted it.    â€œWhere do I sign?”    I signed our life away and went home to tell my husband what I had done.    I just brought land  we’d  never seen.

The road was awful and it was a very thick jungle.    It was barely a road, more like a hunting trail.    Hunters with dogs came to hunt pigs and gather mountain foods for their families.    This road was a “line road,” Meaning the government came in and drew a line where the road could be.    Well, the hunters  didn’t  follow that pencil line.  When I asked the county to help repair the road I  was told  that they did not physically put the road there, so they were no responsible for it.    State said the county owned it.    County said the state was responsible.

Lucky for me, my husband could see great potential in the land.    We fixed the road with our own four-wheel drive military weapons carrier and with the help of other people that had bought into this mountain.

In the beginning, we had no amenities just a hole for an outhouse.    We cleared a 20 X 24 site for a small house.  My husband, who had only built chicken coops, was nervous, but I said, “Honey, think of it as a slightly bigger chicken coop with windows.”

We’re  on a water catchments system.    We started out with a very small water tank, catching water from the heavens.    Since that  time  we have put up 5,000 and 10,000 gallon water tanks, and this year we put up a big 23,000-gallon tank.    Since there was no electricity, we used solar lights and a gas refrigerator.    Showering was an adventure.    We built a fire under an old hot water tank, and then hooked up some pipes and a showerhead.    Butbecause it was outside it proved to be a little tricky when the wind blew.    The water would slant left or right, so we spent a lot of time trying to catch the hot water before it ran out.

Wanting to be a “stay–at-home Mom,” I started a fresh herbs business.      This was 24 years ago when fresh herbs were just starting to catch on with the  general public.    We sent 100 pounds of Basil to Oakland, CA, once a week.  My husband Rene` worked full time at a nursery close to home and on weekends we harvested basil.    He began to grow tropical flowers, too, and we shipped gift boxes of flowers via FedEx.    The basil business was good until free trade with Mexico made prices drop below the cost of shipping, all this in the middle of the growing season.

We were up late one night, having a few drinks, eating  Pohole  (Maui Fern Shoots) and crying the blues, when Rene` said, “Why don’t we sell this  Pohole?” at first, we laughed because it grows wild all over this mountain.    We tossed it around for about a week then said, “What the heck, let’s give it a try.”

That was in 1994, and in the years since then we gotten many hotels and restaurants, to name a few  Longhi  in  Hana Maui, Pineapple Grill,  Seahouse,  Makenna  resort, Feast a  LeLe, in most Natural Food stores, Hawaiian moon,Mana  Food, Alive and Well and  WholeFoods.    Along the  way  we discovered we needed approvals from the Agriculture Department and the FDA.    In 1996, we received our Export stamp both  Pohole  and Flowers.      That year we also, lunched our website,  www.hanaherbs.com.    Two years later, we got into Food & Wine Magazine and on two PBS programs, one with Graham Kerr and other with Roy Yamaguchi.

For those who  don’t  know  Pohole, it is in the family of the fiddlehead fern but prepared very differently.    You do not need to cook  Pohole; it is best eaten raw or by blanching shoots in boiling water for a fast minute and then quickly immersing them in very cold water.    It’s  best served with tomato and onions in a vinegary salad dressing.

In  2002  we were certified organic by the Hawaii Organic Farmers Association.

Congratulations to Hana Herbs and Flowers!  We are happy to support them and hope you enjoy this unique produce.

Aloha everyone!
Oahu Fresh spent the past weekend with Class 13 of the Agricultural Leadership Foundation of Hawaii touring the Big Island to learn what types of agriculture farmers are undertaking there. We traveled from Hilo to Waimea to North Kona and saw everything from an exotic fruit orchard to Hamakua Mushrooms to an EPA award-winning pond at the Four Seasons Hualalai that is home to the prawns that will eventually end up on dinner plates at the restaurant. We hope you enjoy the pictures and if you have any questions about the farms please contact us!

This week’s bag contains hydroponically grown lettuce from Maunawili Greens, Ho Farms tomatoes, Nalo Farms arugula, and Pit Farms pak choi, apple bananas, carrot, & possibly Thail basil.

For some recipe ideas using your fresh produce see below:

Corn, Avocado, & Tomato Salad

Grape Tomato and Avocado Salad from Whole Foods

Mild Spiced Summer Squash and Pak Choy

Glazed Carrots

From the Hawaii Farmer’s Market Cookbook:  Bok Choy with Kurogoma

8 whole heads baby bok choy

1/2 cup kurogoma (black sesame seeds)

1 cup dashi

2 teaspoons usukuchi soy sauce

1 tablespoon plus 2 teaspoons sugar

Bring a large pot of water to a boil.  Hold 2 heads bok choy together with tongs, grabbing leaf ends.  When water is boiling, immerse the stem ends in it.  Cook stem ends first, about 30 seconds.  Then drop whole heads into the water and cook another 30 seconds.  Remove from water with tongs and immerse in ice bath.  Repeat with remaining bok choy.  When bok choy is well chilled, remove from ice bath and squeeze out as much water as possible.  Lay on cutting board and trim ends.  Leave whole or cut crosswise into pieces and arrange on serving plate.  Refrigerate until ready to serve.    Place sesame seeds, dashi, soy sauce and sugar into blender.  Blend until smooth.  When ready to serve pour sauce over bok choy.

This week’s bag will have a variety of greens for you to try!  We’ll have braising greens from Nalo Farms, hydroponic lettuce from Maunawili Greens, grape tomatoes from Ho Farms, organic mangoes from Poamoho Organic Produce,  and a variety of produce, including green onions, celery, and corn from Pit Farms.

For braising greens, you can search our site for previous recipes or try a few listed here:

Spaghetti Squash with Spicy Braised Greens…

Braising Greens with Tofu, Cashews, & Raisins over Polenta

Southern Braised Greens with Bacon

Spicy Grilled Chicken and Green Onions

Roasted Grape Tomatoes

Spicy Bok Choy in Garlic Sauce

Aloha Oahu Freshies, and welcome to the last bag of summer!  This week’s bag will have Maunawili Greens lettuce, Nalo Farms baby arugula, Ho Farms tomatoes, Pit Farms mint, Poamoho Organic Produce avocados, and Aloun Farms canteloupe.  There will also be either zucchini or long squash from Pit Farms.

A few suggestions on how to use your produce this week:

Canteloupe Salad with Lime, Mint, & Ginger

Thai Shrimp and Squash Soup This recipe calls for butternut squash but long squash works so well in soup it’s worth changing the recipe.

Squash Griddle Cakes

Long Squash Chicken Soup Very few ingredients in this recipe, so you can make it as is, or get creative!

Baby Arugula Salad with Lemon Dijon Dressing

Baby Arugula Pesto A pesto with capers instead of pine nuts!

Six Great Recipes for Zucchini:  zucchini oven chips, grilled zucchini and summer squash salad, zucchini bread, layered zucchini, chocolate zucchini cake, and stuffed zucchini with potatoes and peas!

Sweet Potato Fries with Avocado Dip

Enjoy the produce and please let us know if you try something really tasty-we’d be happy to put it up on the site!

Please remember to provide your previous week’s bag when your order is delivered each week.  You can leave the bag on a door or desk if you are not present when the delivery occurs.

Avocados!  The avocado in your bag is an organic one from Poamoho Organic Produce.  Al Santoro, owner and farmer, told us that normally avocados will ripen in 5-7days after coming off the tree.  This variety however has been consistently ripening within 2-4 days.  Your avo should be ready to eat this weekend-enjoy!  Al says that this variety was called Butterball by the person who gave it to him, although many avos are referred to that way.  Al’s not sure exactly what variety it is but he’s been eating them on BLTs for several days!  Thanks Al!

aloha and bon appetit!