Want to learn more about CTAHR Cooperative Extension programs, research, and resources? Whether you’re working in agriculture, environmental conservation, or community development, our newly updated website can help.

When CTAHR serves the community, and the community helps the College, everybody wins. The Mānana ahupuaʻa is home to several new food-growing systems after Oʻahu County Extension wrapped up its third annual summer workday series at the Urban Garden Center. 

Garlic is one of the most widely used spices for cooking across many different ethnic groups, yet it is one of Hawaiʻi’s most rarely produced spices. One of the challenges, explains Jensen Uyeda of the Dept. of Tropical Plant and Soil Sciences, is that garlic requires a cold winter to overcome dormancy.

What’s the appetite for hot peppers among local growers in the community? On one hand, Hawaiian chili types are well known and one of the more widely produced peppers in the state. And of course, chili peppers are commonly used, both fresh and dried, in many different culinary dishes. 

Ninety percent of flowers used for lei-making are imported to Hawaiʻi, and the decreasing supply of local flowers is having a drastic impact on the lei industry statewide. To address the growing chorus of lament from lei-flower growers, lei makers, and lei vendors, Extension has kicked off 2024 with a new plumeria collection at the Urban Garden Center.