Photos by Craig T. Kojima and Ken Sakamoto, Star-Bulletin

The Ag Day Country Market will feature gourmet
Kamiya Papaya, as well as lots of other island produce.

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HOME GROWN

Eat your way through a celebration
of Hawaii's farmland bounty

By Catherine Kekoa Enomoto
Star-Bulletin

SHAKE the hands of farmers whose fingernails harbor the dirt of Keaau, Kunia and Kaanapali.

Then, meet the purveyors who transform the growers' Island Fresh produce into jams, juices, wines, salsas, sausages and gourmet dishes.

They will all be at Saturday's Hawaii Ag Day Festival. The tasty event features five hours of sampling and festivities. Seven topnotch chefs will prepare delectables to honor the farmers and their fresh fruits and vegetables:

Savor Island Fresh cabbage and sliced fresh mushrooms in Ikaika's chow fun, a dish from "Eating Well in Hawai'i," co-authored by chefs Alfred and Patricia Salvador and Star-Bulletin columnist Joannie Dobbs.

Big Isle mesclun, fresh ogo, Ka'u oranges, passion fruit juice, fresh herbs, green onions and chiles enhance kalua-duck salad with lichee, poached pear and candied pecans, by Hawaii Prince Hotel executive chef Gary Strehl.

Mangoes, spinach, tomatoes, cilantro and chiles flavor Lahaina sunset wraps with mango tropical pesto, by chef/restaurateur Mark Ellman of Avalon Restaurant and Maui Tacos.

Discover a roasted garlic chicken prepared with taro, cucumber, daikon, chives and smoked chile essence, by Glen Chu, chef/restaurateur of Indigo restaurant.

Delight in edible flowers, Maui onions, Okinawan purple sweet potato, regular sweet potato and taro in smoked kajiki mousse on island chips, by chef/restaurateur Sam Choy of Sam Choy's Restaurants.

And, papaya, cucumbers, tomatoes and mesclun will fill li-hing mui chicken salad wraps by Gordon Lum, executive chef of Sea Life Park and Neal Blaisdell Center.

Lum said he will prepare 3,000 to 3,500 of his refreshing, healthful wraps for Saturday's tasting.

"I try to use as much local produce as possible," said Lum, 1998-99 president of the local Chefs de Cuisine chapter of the American Culinary Federation. "I use lots of local fruits and all different lettuces from Mountain Meadows on the Big Island. I go ahead and pay extra, because I know the flavor is nice and fresh."

The Hawaii Ag Day Festival also will feature more than 50 exhibits and demonstrations, tours of the Urban Garden Center's manicured gardens and taro patches, and slack-key guitar stylings by George Kahumoku, Ozzie Kotani, 'Opihi Pickers and others.

"Plant Doctors" will field questions, isle-developed hydroponic-lettuce kits will be sold and children can ride ponies.

A country store will offer fresh produce, such as gourmet Kamiya Papaya (come early!), Aloun Farms corn, Ka'u oranges, Dole Food Co. produce, hearts of palm, rambutans, Yee's Orchard mangoes from Maui, and Mountain Meadows mesclun.

Sample goodies ranging from Rosalani International's "100 percent Hawaii" ice cream, to American International Resources jams and jerky, Hawaiian Honey House honey, Lilikoi Gold Butter and Suzuki's Ice Castle gourmet syrups -- including the li-hing syrup used in chef Lum's chicken wraps.

Also, Arturo's salsas, HPC pickled veggies, Pacific Sausage's spicy-Thai and chicken-apple sausages, bean soup with Gouvea Portuguese Sausage, and state Aquaculture Development Office fresh seafoods.

Maui products include Kaanapali Coffee, Tedeschi wine, Sweet Kula Enterprises Maui Sprouted Crunchies, Ulupalakua Ranch elk and beef, and Uncle Louie's Maui onion- and pineapple-flavored sausages.

Hawaii Ag Day Festival

Featuring: Food samplings, entertainment, pony rides, Country Market, 'Plant Doctors,' free pH soil tests, tours, hydroponic-lettuce demos.
Place: Urban Garden Center, Second Street, Pearl City (two blocks makai of former Pearl City Tavern)
Time: 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday
Tickets: $10 presale at Safeway, $15 at door; proceeds benefit Ag Leadership Foundation of Hawaii
Parking: Free, 1 mile makai of Urban Gardens; catch free shuttle to site
Information: 956-2255
Mini Ag Days: Saturday at Safeway Kahului, Lahaina and Kona