Advertisement - Click to support our sponsors.
The newest tomato on the block is a big, red beauty from Waialua. Waialua tomato
ready for prime timeBy Betty Shimabukuro
Star-BulletinIt's vine-ripened, deeply flavored and growing on what used to be sugar land in that small North Shore community. Expect the Waialua Vine-Ripe tomato to be the Next Big Thing in specialty produce on restaurant menus and in select markets such as Strawberry Connection and the Hawaii Regional Cuisine Marketplace.
Jeanne Vana, who is growing the tomato on her five-acre farm, says it makes people forget those hard, fragrance-free tomatoes so common in supermarkets today. "They may not look as pretty, but when you cut into them ... It's bringing back people's memories of what a tomato should be."
Come meet this tomato -- and the myriad other items being grown by the Waialua Farmers Cooperative -- at Saturday's Harvest Festival at the old Waialua Sugar Mill.
What are they growing out there? You'd be amazed: asparagus, wing beans, long and short beans, bananas, eggplant, tapioca root, tiny Philippine garlic, red sweet peppers, red-bulb onions and more.
The festival offers a chance not just to buy fresh produce, but to wander through the farms and pick your own vegetables.
Also to be showcased are some ready-made food items produced on the North Shore, such as sweet potato and taro chips, smoked fish pates and breads.
In fact, Vana, who is also president of the Waialua Cooperative, encourages families to bring picnic baskets and coolers, load up on the fixings for a meal at the festival, then choose one of the many beaches in the area as a site for an outdoor feast. She'll even provide maps.
The idea, Vana says, is not just to discover the produce of these small farms, but also to rediscover the entire Waialua area.
Harvest Festival
When: 8:30 to noon Saturday
Click for online
calendars and events.
