End of Year Garden Highlights

Avocados, Onions, and Sweet potatoes, oh My! This year we harvested over 2000 pounds of food from the garden, which included over 500 pounds of avocados (and she’s still producing!), almost 140 pounds of onions and more then 50 pounds of sweet potato!

Our avocado tree has just been out of control, providing avocados for over 5 months. We also achieved over 7600 student hours, working with all 180 students over the school year, in addition to several groups such as Tūtū & Me and Ka ʻOhā: An online blended program of Kanu o ka ʻĀina.

Highlights for our 7th grade students included naturally-dying their t-shirts for May Day with Avalon Paradea, an alumni of Waimea Middle! They have done extensive work over the year teaching students about native pollinators, native dyes, and native plants via hands on learning.

As 6th graders our students learn the about significance kalo plays as a food source in Hawai’i and about its cultural importance in the Hawaiian creation story. Then as 8th graders we have started providing the opportunity for them to pound kalo, to ku’i! The texture is similar to poi but less moisture, it’s so yummy it often gets eaten fresh before it can ferment! This year we want to thank Nikko Chatham from the Kohala Discovery Garden at Kohala Elementary for sharing his experience and time with our students. Many of them shared it was one of their favorite experiences.