Honolulu Weekly

Blaisdell Farmers’ Market / You want to support local agriculture, but you claim you don’t have time to go out of town or rise early enough on the weekends to go to farmers’ markets. Maybe you don’t have a car to get to many of the markets on the island. Safeway is usually your best bet for groceries. Want to quiet those who judge you for your lack of hand-woven grocery totes made from someone’s old dreadlocks while also avoiding pau hana rush hour traffic? There is a solution–at least, once a week there is. The new weekly Blaisdell Farmers’ Market, less than a month old, comes to the rescue, catering to the town-bound crowd when they get off of work.

Conveniently located in the Blaisdell parking lot along Kapiolani Boulevard, it’s easy to swing by on the way home, perhaps after picking up the kids. Parking shouldn’t be a problem since the market is in a, well, parking lot. And being located along stopping points for several bus lines, getting to the market quickly and toting your leafy greens and baguette home won’t be so awkward for those who are vehicularly challenged. But how is an urban-based Hawaii Farm Bureau Federation-certified farmers’ market best experienced?

White tents gently curve around a section of the parking lot, forming an eye-pleasing crescent of smiling vendors on either side as one starts the path down the market, which is comparable in size to the Kailua Thursday night farmers’ market. Vendor pros, such as North Shore Cattle Company and ‘Nalo Farms serve up fresh, local goodness alongside relative newcomers such as Natsunoya Teahouse and Big Island Abalone.

The crowd is consistent and curious, some even already having made this pilgrimage a weekly routine. While vendors and organizers alike hope for bigger crowds soon, right now it’s nice to be able to avoid the throngs of hungry shoppers that usually ravage the stands within the first hour. The ambience feels vibrant, having the cheerful bazaar atmosphere without the elbow-shoving action. “Tomatoes!” yells a representative from the Big Island-based Wow Farm tent, standing in the middle of the market with a bold red shirt on. And like children to candy, people are drawn to the stand, which offered samples of juicy red tomatoes.

Wow Farm, according to partner Scott Hudgins (a retired fireman and football coach), started on Hawaiian homestead land in Waimea on the Big Island in 1976. Originally vending tomatoes without a name, the numerous customer reactions to the samples, “Wow,” gave birth to the company’s name. “As we got better, we got more product, we thought this island could use it,” Hudgins says of the decision to commute to Oahu farmers’ markets every week to sell the state’s only commercial organic tomatoes. Hoping to have Oahu-based family run the farmers’ markets stands eventually, the success of Wow Farm products stemmed from a hobby “that was for stress relief…it was never about the money. It was to bring our families together,” says Hudgins.

Sean Nakamura, the Hawaii Farm Bureau Federation’s farmers’ market manager, says the market “is a work in progress” and is eager to see the Blaisdell Market be “sustained by a core regular group,” but perhaps “have the tourists down here, too.” Pointing out that the predominant farmers’ market clientele is a mature, leisurely crowd, Nakamura is hoping that both the location and time of the new market will pull another demographic into supporting local farmers.

The Kapiolani Farmers’ Market on Saturday mornings is the big time for many vendors, and some are cutting their teeth on the farmers’ market circuit at Blaisdell. Naked Cow Dairy, a new Waianae dairy run by Monique van der Stroom with the help of her sister, Sabrina St. Martin, is “an all-girl dairy, including the cows,” laughs St. Martin as her family offered samples of freshly whipped butter on crackers to customers. With butters ranging from roasted toasted coconut to garlic and herb, as well as cheeses and soon milk, the presence of island-produced dairy once again will pave a welcome way for the ladies of Naked Cow. Reception to the stand has “been positive,” says van der Stroom, and rapid word-of-mouth has many flocking to the vendor, only in its second week at the market. Aside from addicting products, a catchy name doesn’t hurt, either.

As the growing presence of plate lunch stands at farmers’ markets continues, a trip to the market means that you can both pick up groceries for the week and nutritiously satisfy the hunger that will set in while you’re shopping. Too busy to cook? Choose among the likes of ‘Umeke Market or Mark’s Specials for meals, or snack on Keith’s Cookies or fresh mochi from Island Preserve. Wash your dinner down with an iced latte made with 100 percent Kona coffee or a refreshing creation from PacifiKool Island Ginger Syrups.

With a new satellite location for HFBF to help city folk remember their connection to the ‘aina, the market seems too convenient to fail. Check it out at least once, since you’ll most likely be in the area. And you’ll probably have to return for more butter, anyway.

Blaisdell Farmers’ Market

Blaisdell Center parking lot, Wednesdays, 4–7pm, parking $3,

[hfbf.org], 848-2074

Because you don’t have enough Norwegian accordian music in your life

Norwegian band Farmers Market playing their medley “tails of the unexpected” live in Santa Cruz, 2002