Farmer's Market Bonanza

The first thing that I wanted to do with my time off on the weekend was check out the farmer's markets. I'd been reading all about the local fruits and vegetables, most of which I'd never heard of before, and was really amped to try some new foods. The family I'm staying with lives on the north shore of the island in the Kohala district and the biggest farmer's markets in the area are in Waimea and Kona. Waimea, being awesome, has not just one, but TWO markets on Saturday morning, so right after coffee I headed over there with the other two WWOOFers staying at the house.

The first one we hit was pretty small, and kind of disappointing. Not much in the way of new produce, but it did have a little breakfast booth with Korean-style omelets, crunchy asian cookies and lots of flavors of kim-chee. I'll take any excuse to have bbq pork and pickled cabbage for my morning meal. The second market was at Parker School and they had more folks with prepared foods and some beautiful vegetables. And a little old man singing ukele songs in falsetto, which was totally darling. I was really impressed with the Sandwich Isle Bread Company stand. There was beautiful fresh bread coming out of a portable wood-burning oven sitting there in the sunshine. This guy (Kevin Cabrera) is something of a local legend, and folks line up early to claim the first loaves out of the oven. He gets his oven up to 600 degrees and can churn out a loaf of bread in minutes. I tried a few varieties, including his famous 20 seed bread, and it was heavenly and totally worth the hype. There was another vendor giving out samples of red veal sausage, a local specialty that comes from calves who have just started grazing on the pasture but have been weaned. Their diet and development gives the meat a distinct red color even when cooked. If you don't mind eating baby cows, it's totally tasty.

So Waimea had some cool artisanal stuff, but I was really wanting to just get down and dirty with exotic produce. We headed down to Kona and came upon a market on Alii Street (the main tourist drag) that was exactly the opposite of the markets in Waimea. It was clearly for tourists, not locals. There were crappy trinkets, shell necklaces and tee shirts with island motifs everywhere. And lots and lots of tropical fruits. Jackpot! It reminded me of the open air markets in the Bahamas and Jamaica with all their touristy junk and beads and smells, which I loved going to as a kid. It was busy with tourists milling around so I got to oggle the food as long as I liked and found tons of varieties of mangoes, papayas, bananas and checked out some new fruits I'd never seen before. I also apparently have a mango fairy godmother. Some random fellow plopped four bright and juicy mangoes in my hands as I was leaving with my dragon fruit. I'm a little afraid to eat them, fragrant as they are. Is it possible to put a crazy Hawaiian vodoo spell on a piece of fruit? I'm having delusions reminiscent of the evil witch in Snow White with her poison apple.

I was especially compelled by the dragon fruit, which just looks so damn exotic. It comes in both the yellow and fuschia varieties, with these amazing wings that spike off the outside of the vibrant skin. Opening them up is no disappointment either. They have firm bright pink flesh and little poppy-seed sized crunchy seeds. The flavor is a little disappointing, though. Mine was vaguely sweet but otherwise pretty bland. I did manage to get the red juice all over my hands and stain my fingers and lips sort of a violet color. I was really suprised at how much it reminded me of a perfectly cooked beet...

Me and my new WFOOFing buddies plopped down at a touristy place near the water and rewarded our morning labors with cheap happy hour cocktails while cooling our feet in the sand and looking at the sailboats in the bay.