This summer, youths across the state learned and cooked their way through “4-H Camp Kau Kau,” a new week-long summer culinary camp from CTAHR’s 4-H Youth Development Program. Recipes and lessons focused on the context and diversity of local food in Hawai‘i, with hands-on cooking experiences and educational activities about Hawai‘i’s food and agricultural history.

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. 

The Urban Garden Center is more than a green oasis that calls to commuters as they drive through Pearl City. It’s a living classroom where community growers and gardeners can learn how to keep plants — and the environment — healthy and beautiful. 

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. 

Mahalo to the Oʻahu County ʻOhana for your ongoing support of our various CTAHR programs in the county, especially our student summer program. Whether it’s picking plumeria, teaching students how to transplant seedlings, approving their supply purchases, packing vegetables for donations, editing their paperwork, prepping their workspace, or attending their various presentations, the time and kindness you’ve extended to these students will pay off greatly in the future.

Palapalai is an indigenous Hawaiian fern – one of the most important plants in hula – and Oʻahu Extension was proud to host a recent talk with Hawaiian fern specialist Kay Lynch. The UH Horticulture graduate (ʻ98), Master Gardener, and founder of Lāʻau Hawaiʻi, a Hawaiian fern propagation research nursery, spoke at CTAHR’s Urban Garden Center

Nearly half of Hawaiʻi farmers under age 46 report depression – which reflects the high-stress environment they must contend with on a daily and seasonal basis, complete with risks and uncertainties, volatile markets, fluctuating weather, invasive species, and the list goes on.

CTAHR’s mission is to secure the future of Hawaiʻi by building local self-sufficiency in food and agricultural products, noted Dean Parwinder Grewal at the first CTAHR Conference April 11. “CTAHR’s inclusive vision is to secure the future of Hawaiʻi through collaborative innovation and merging the Western, Asian, Hispanic, and Native Hawaiian knowledge systems,” he said.

The 2023 Dean’s Award for Excellence in Extension goes to Nancy Ooki of the Dept. of Family and Consumer Sciences.

Since 2018, Nancy’s “My PI Hawai‘i” has trained Maui youths in fire safety and suppression, search-and-rescue, C.P.R., disaster psychology, and other topics in FEMA’s Teen Community Emergency Response Team. By the final disaster simulation, youths can demonstrate knowledge and skills in first aid, triage, communications, and damage assessment. 

With one student holding a wireless microphone and another a portable amplifier, the tour of The Manini Farm Project on the grounds of the Urban Garden Center had begun. As students took turns at the mic, presenting their projects and roles and walking participants through the rows of plants, it was apparent that these young adults felt an awful lot of pride in their participation.

Congrats to Mark Thorne who recently began a two-year term on the Board of Directors of the Society for Range Management. Mark, who has served the society in many capacities for almost 30 years and is currently Section Treasurer, will focus on three key issues throughout his term: recruitment and retention of SRM members, involvement in the International Year of Rangelands and Pastoralists in 2026, and strengthened national and international partnerships and collaborations.

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. 

The good folks at Urban Garden Center, along with Oʻahu high school students, departed for their holiday breaks knowing that fresh produce would make it onto the plates of many Hawaiʻi families in need. 

It lasts just two hours and happens just once a year, but this is your chance to let members of the Hawaii State Senate and House of Representatives know what you’ve been up to, and how our legislators can help you help feed the state.

With partners from Maui, Kauaʻi, Oʻahu, Hilo and Kona, CTAHR’s Rapid ʻŌhiʻa Death team hosted the statewide seventh annual ‘Ohia Love fests. This year’s theme was Ka ʻUpena O Ke Ola, a metaphor for how life is interconnected mauka to makai, like a fishing net, and ʻōhiʻa is a keystone species that holds it all together, explains Charlotte Godfrey-Romo.

“The recent disasters of COVID-19 and wildfires have caused forced disruptions in activity, limited information about the future, and economic instability,” says Nancy Ooki of Maui Extension. “The combination has placed the Maui community in a position of feeling a sense of loss of control, decision-making ability, and uncertainty of the future. 

The school bus doors swung open and in the blink of an eye, pastoral serenity was replaced by organized chaos as the army of chatting, laughing, and sometimes screaming 5^th graders marched toward the outdoor exhibit booths at the Oʻahu Urban Garden Center.

Back in the day, the Waialeʻe Livestock Research Station was a true community resource for Oahu’s North Shore. The sprawling facility, a stone’s throw from today’s surfing mecca, once provided invaluable services as the area’s primary abattoir and center for livestock feed and harvesting research. 

There’s a new Tribal Advisory Committee within the USDA, and retired Extension agent Glenn Teves has been appointed to serve by U.S. Sen. Brian Schatz. Schatz, chair of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, announced his appointment of Glenn last week. The new committee, authorized in the 2018 Farm Bill, will provide advice and guidance to the Secretary of Agriculture on Native equities in USDA programs and policies, and develop an annual report to Congress.