WFN Directory

FIND A FARM, FIND A MENTOR

Support, shop, and connect with women-owned/operated farms, ranches, and agribusinesses across the islands now.

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Mauka Market

O’ahu Resource Conservation and Development Council’s Women Farmers Network (WFN) teamed up with Mauka Market to raise awareness of the WFN Directory.  Mauka Market is a platform that connects the public to local artisans creating handcrafted products made from ethically sourced materials to create economic drivers for ecosystem restoration.

Farmers Featured in Mauka Market Collaboration

Kailin Kim of Hoʻola Honey
Lehia Apana from Polipoli Farms
Kailin Kim of Hoʻola Honey
Kailin Kim

Aloha, my name is Kailin Kim, co-founder of Hoʻōla Honey. My family’s mission is to save honey bees and contribute to a healthy, sustainable island ecosystem. We produce a variety of healing Hawaiian honey products infused with homegrown lāʻau lapaʻau, medicinal Hawaiian plants. All of our honey and beeswax comes from hives that we have rescued. We relocate bees from unwanted homes and buildings across Hawaiʻi island to our home community of North Kohala where they can provide necessary and beneficial pollination for local farms and gardens. 
 
I became a beekeeper and farmer to support my family, my community, and our home Hawaiʻi for generations to come. As an ʻohana run operation, our keiki are a part of everything we do, from catching bee swarms to planting, tending, and harvesting vegetables used to feed our community. I think the most important thing about what we do is raising them as the next generation stewards of our island home who care about the environment and are deeply connected to our Hawaiian culture. It is also very fulfilling work to help people through our Honey Bee Relocation project and make a positive impact together as a family. 
 
While honey is a sweet benefit to our operation, it is not the priority and focus of our organization! The health of our rescued bees is of upmost importance and we judge our success by how big of a difference we can make in our community. We love sharing our passion for honey bees from a unique Hawaiian perspective, making bees relatable and exciting to youth through educational programs, and inspiring others to get involved and build their own personal relationships with nature.

Hoʻōla Honey

Hoʻōla – to save, to heal, to thrive. Our mission is to save honey bees, heal communities, and contribute towards a thriving island ecosystem for generations to come.

Eva Lee

I’m one half of the duo that runs Tea Hawai’i & Company, a farm that sells Hawai’i grown specialty Camellia sinensis teas including white, green, oolong, and black! My husband and other half of the Tea Hawai’i & Company duo, Chiu Leong, also makes hand-crafted porcelain teaware. 

At Tea Hawai’i & Company, an agroforestry approach is taken to cultivate their shade-grown teas with sinensis cultivars in the native forests in Volcano Village at 4000 ft. elevation and robust assamica cultivars. We also have full sun pasture lands in Hakalau at 900 ft. elevation, with microclimates that express Hawai’i’s unique island tea terroir.

I’m especially proud to have established a tea production processing facility that provides for the surrounding island communities, while also reaching a global market. I also look to educate the public on tea, so I welcome folks to experience tea at her farm. Tea Hawai’i & Company represents Hawai’i’s first generation of tea growers in commercial production, establishing a healthy relationship with the Camellia sinensis tea plant, shrub, and tree, cohabiting with native species (such as ‘Ōhia, Koa, and Hapu’u ferns), providing a value-added food crop, and participating in long-term carbon sequestration initiatives combating climate change for generations to come. 

Chiu and I decided to blend art and agriculture in 2000 after the Pacific Basin Agriculture Research Center conducted research that showed Camellia sinensis teas were found to be well suited specifically for the environment in Hawai’i. We’ve been farming and processing tea ever since.

Tea Hawaiʻi & Company

Artisanal Hawai’i grown tea.

FIND A MENTOR OR OFFER AN APPRENTICESHIP OPPORTUNITY IN YOUR COMMUNITY!

WFN Mentor Feature

Soil Health Hero Mindy Jaffe

The Hawaii Women Farmers Network (WFN) Directory

Supporting and empowering women owned/operated farms and agri-businesses is an important step in the growth of our local agriculture industry. The Hawaii Women Farmers Network (WFN), with generous support from the Hawai’i Department of Agriculture (HDOA), is excited to introduce our Directory, which allows users to access, support and connect with female agriculture producers, makers, entrepreneurs and leaders in their communities. To be included in this Directory, the farm/agri-business needs to be owned by a woman/women (50% or more) AND the woman/women must have major leadership role(s) in the decision-making and management of the agriculture operations and business. The WFN Directory’s map-based interface covers all islands and includes agriculture businesses and endeavors of all sizes. 

Please watch our video (above) about how women are leading the way in generating new businesses across the islands, from starting CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) programs to developing online stores for local produce, to producing value-added products from specialty crops, such as mamaki tea, to running agri-tourism and education programming. This video also raises awareness of the benefits of women working together through our network and emerging opportunities for women in agriculture during this opportune time. We hope this video serves as a source of inspiration for women interested in exploring a future in agriculture.  Women interested in learning from other women can use the WFN Directory to locate those in our network who offer agriculture training, internships or other forms of mentoring.

WFN Mentor

MINDY JAFFE

This WFN mentor feature is dedicated to Mindy Jaffe in honor of our Summer Soil Health Workshop Series. Co-founder and coordinator of Zero Waste Windward School Hui, Mindy’s program annually turns more than 55 tons of unfinished sandwiches, spoiled milk and other food waste into rich soil for school gardens. In 2004, she started her agri-business, Waikiki Worms, which she was able to pass on to Leslie Foster who continues to meet the needs of vermicomposting enthusiast throughout Hawaii. Over these past 17 years, Mindy has mentored many apprentice.

Mindy Jaffe posing in front of the Windward Zero Waste School Hui banner during a compost sale
Mindy Jaffe posing in front of the Windward Zero Waste School Hui banner during a compost sale

In asking Mindy how she started her program, she points to her mentors, Betty Gearen and Evelyn Giddings. As Mindy recalls, “Betty really started this whole thing. She passed me a note at a conference which read, ‘You really need to see what we’re doing at Palolo Elementary. We’re the first zero-waste school.’  At that time, the idea of doing a full zero-waste program seemed out of reach in her mind. Betty’s presentation was really powerful though and showed Mindy that it could be done. In addition to providing inspiration for Mindy, Betty also provided a hub for innovators through, The Greenhouse.

Evelyn Giddens, artist by profession and affectionately referred to as a ‘composting guru’ and ‘community treasure’. As Mindy reflects, Evelyn’s methods for composting were ‘truly works of art’. “Even at the age of 80, Evelyn was picking up 150 lbs of food scraps from town and driving the buckets up to Waialua to start build the soil at Mohala Farm. As Mindy shares, “I took Evelyn’s perspective to heart. The aesthetics of everything in my program is important to me. I approach everything we do with composting as though it is an art installation. People expect composting and worms to be dirty and stinky, but our standards are high and it looks beautiful. When people look at our composting system, they have an emotional reaction even if they don’t realize why. This unspoken component has amazing power in receiving buy-in from the schools and public. Evelyn gave me validation for how I worked with the land and it built my confidence in my approach.”

These women were kind enough to share their knowledge, which set me on my path that I’m able to share with others to this day. We have a 40 week apprenticeship program. Our apprentice will build over 150 compost pile to hone their art and develop the feel for consistently building compost to the standards that Evelyn taught me. We were connected to our newest apprentice, Carolyn, through the WFN network. Peer-to-peer networks, like the WNF, support natural ways we learn and grow together, which is through experience and sharing knowledge.

The Hawaii Women Farmers Network (WFN) Directory was produced with funds from the State of Hawaii Department of Agriculture.