This might be the best possible way to get your hands soiled . We ’re at the lushHana Ranch , 3,600 acres of organic farming and pasturage - prey cattle ranching between sea and spate in Hana , a tropic sac on the eastern edge of Maui .
We ’re handed baskets , horticulture glove and knives , and we roll up our sleeves . Everything here is organically grown and raised without the consumption of synthetic chemical substance or GMO seeds . The ranch ’s cordial reception manager , Morgan Maki , shows us rows of different heirloom carrots , beetroot , Basil of Caesarea , tomato , limes , bananas . Who knew there were so many type of bananas ? “ Some are run through crude , some are for cooking , some are for dessert , ” Maki explain .
Everything here is grow with a regard for its impact , he said : a regard for the kingdom , the environment , the ecosystem , and for the ranch and its 26 employees , most of whom are relatives or friends . Built in the 1940s as a hotel , the ranch has blossom forth into one of Hawaii ’s premieresustainable intellectual nourishment and agriculture name and address , supplying local restaurants with fresh , seasonal garden truck and beef . Along the way , it has become a little - known farm - to - table heaven . If you ’re going to visit Hawaii , this is an immersive way to experience it : picking your own food for thought with professional chefs , then cooking and dining with them .
Gina Bender
Getting there is affordable and/or spectacular
Though this side of Maui may seem isolated , it ’s actually not that rugged to accomplish . For a low - impingement attack , rent a car : it ’s just a few time of day on the palm - line Hana Highway . Or try a 30 - minute eggbeater drive viaParadise Helicopters , part of apackage of experiencesarranged by the cattle ranch and the Four Seasons resort in Wailea . There ’s no good style to ogle falls , dramatic coastline , vale of untasted rain forest , and Haleakala , the old , cold vent that draw up three - quarters of the island .
If you ’re feeling adventurous and want to find the farm on your own , sans package , a go runs $ 15 . It ’s so close to the black backbone beach atWaiʻanapanapa State Park , with turquoise waves and freshwater cave sculpted by the lava guide , you pretty much have to go . Also , Virgin America has drop prices to the island , touch off a act of a price struggle . Round - trip-up might run you just $ 400 from California .
Respect for the food is respect for the culture
Here , you ’ll obtain that every beach , hill , and rock music is sacred . Locals say that take so much as a stone or bewilder without permission can lead to illness , natural depression , even death . That sense of connectedness live in the ranch ’s ethos , and we postulate permission as we harvest commons – and even pay off it forward and imbed some raw ones .
“ I ulu no ka lala i ke kum , ” chants Kui Gapero , our cultural guide . “ The outgrowth grow because of the tree . ”
Everywhere you look , culture and inheritance – not what outsiders might expect from an island known for bread cane and ciao shirt . It ’s so beautiful and tranquil , it ’s sluttish to almost palpate bad about direct these plant . But by the time we fly in and get to work in the poop , we ’re famished .
Gina Bender
As we help plant butter bread , we nibble a few leaves . And then with the chefs conduct us , we soak sweet basil , common beet , and kale , sampling as we go . The vegetable grow to mammoth size in the tropical sun .
Once we collect the greens , we pass them to the header chef , Jon Watson , and Marco Calenzo , the executive sous chef from the Four Seasons . We head out from the ranch house to take in the ocean views , enjoy lemonade from tree we just passed . The chefs , meanwhile , get to work in the open kitchen with fixings we ’ve accumulate – chopping honey oil , mingle herb , juicing citrus fruit , drizzling vinaigrettes . Our stomachs act as the national anthem .
At last, you get to eat what you picked
On the menu : five courses we foraged . croquette of zucchini , fresh Irish potato , and cocoyam with green tomato chutney , and lemon herbaceous plant chermoula . cocoyam cattle farm salad with knock off Daucus carota sativa , radish , child loot , crush blossom , banana blossom , cerise tomatoes , pea plant shoot , nasturtium rosiness , and a silken nasturtium French dressing . Risotto cooked in tomato water , with micro park and ahi tartare , overstep with Basil the Great .
Then a generous costless - range unretentive costa , harvested from the cattle ranch , with a five - spiciness glacé ; the substance is so warm it sloughs from the off-white . Dessert is a scalding baked pineapple plant and ginger crumble with flog vanilla bean mascarpone and a ample coffee avocado tree mousse crown with just - pick raspberry . We wipe out it on the run . This is a tropical island , after all , and as the atmospheric condition turns , our pilot get skittish .
As we take off , we pass a forested James Jerome Hill – the Ka‘uiki Head – the birthplace of a queen and the site of a historic battle in the 1700s between warring Hawaiian chiefs .
Gina Bender
We fly over land mile of sugar cane , and Chris tell us that this is the last time of year Maui will farm it , no longer the cash crop it once was . What will happen to these plantations ? The opportunity will be there for the island to adjure on beyond beach , golf game course , and haunt . Land proprietor here could do unfit than to bet to Hana as an example of sustainable touristry and farm - to - table forage . miserable - impact food for thought , grown as organically as potential , steps away from sun and breaker . It would be perfect for choosy foodies uncoerced to get down in the land .
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Gina Bender