 Think Tech Away, civil engagement lives here. It is Pomai Weigert, and we are back at another gripping episode of Hawaii Food and Farmers series. I haven't seen all of you in a while, but I'm back, and it is National Women's Month, and before we close out the month, I thought, why don't I bring on one of my favorite GoFarmers, women farmers, cool people, Priscilla. Here she is, and she is from Vita Farms. And we're just going to be talking story about all kind of farmer things. Welcome, Priscilla. And Priscilla has a farm in Waimanalo, and how long have you been farming? I started the GoFarm program in 2015, and I've been farming alone since 2016, so about two years now. And were you a farmer before then? No. Oh, I just love these kinds of stories where just woke up one day and decided to be a farmer. So can you tell us how you got into that? How did you get into farming? Actually I knew Coach Jay, the GoFarm program, and Nora Rodley, and they were doing this GoFarm function at the Waimanalo station, and so I talked to a few of the farmers there and decided it was something I wanted to do. She's a GoFarmer, by the way, if you folks didn't already pick that up, which has been really great. We were just talking before the show started about having access to this network of farmers, beginning farmers, small farmers, and people who are doing a lot of different things. And a lot of people who have still other lives or came from a different life from before. So before you were farming, what were you doing? I'm actually a chemist, and I'm still doing that as well. This is like my favorite thing about you. Okay, tell us about your chemist life. I work for a private company here on Island, a biomedical company called Igenics. So I think farming and chemistry go hand in hand, so they do. That's kind of how it all started, and did you, are you from Hawaii, or when did you guys come to Hawaii? I moved to Hawaii, I've been here off and on about 17 years. And I've been here the longest, I think about nine years so far. And from all over, or where did you come from before that? I'm from South Texas originally. South Texas. Okay, okay, and is your family still there? They are. Okay, and then did you come over with your family, or did you be- No, I came alone. I came to school alone, decided I was gonna finish school, go to chemistry, here at HVU. Wow. And I finished school in Texas, but then I decided I wanted to move back again, so I did, and found a job, and here we are. And then, I feel like you found a husband too, and then a couple kids, yes. I have a partner, and I have two boys, a seven-year-old and a four-year-old, which he's on the screen now. Yeah. Oh, yes he is! Yes, this is my favorite. I recently went to Mexico, and one of my dad's favorite movies is Nacho Libre. So one of my big things, or my nephew, he really wanted one of these masks. Did you find one? Yes, and I did. I did. And so when I was looking at your photos, I was like, oh, this is the photo right here. This is the winner. And this is your youngest son? This is my youngest, yeah, it's my four-year-old. So it's a family unit. Does everybody sort of participate in the life on the farm? They do. My partner, Scott, actually helps with a lot of the harder stuff, like prepping beds and picking up compost, and prepping all of that that I don't actually have a lot of time for. I mainly focus on the harvesting, the marketing, the planting, and the planning, and the records. And the records. Now that we're speaking about records. Yeah, definitely. And then there's also this cooking component that I feel like is really important and unique to your guys' brand, because you cook things and you make different, I want to say value-added products, and food is a big part, I think, of how you guys market. Can you tell us a little bit about the foods you make? Sure. We're actually doing kind of a farm-to-table pizza. We do jams as well. We're trying to get into doing other things, like maybe an okra pasta sauce, but at the moment we do do mainly pizza, farm-to-table pizzas. So Scott actually makes all the ideas I have, no creative. I grow the stuff and people decide how it goes on to the pizza or not. But yeah, that seems to be one of the best aspects of being able to have the farm-to-table market at a farmer's market, because we're drawing in people not only for the food, but for the vegetables. And we try to focus them mainly on vegetables and then have the pizza as the value-added, of course. Right, right. Sort of like as another hook. Exactly. Yeah, like a hook to bring them in and then be like all these fresh things, take home with you and have in your life, that's great. And then where do you sell these things? We have quite a bit of outlets. We have, we just started a farmer's market at our Kakaako on Wednesday nights from 4 to 7. That's the newest one we have. I also do my own CSAs, I'm on break right now from that, but yeah, that would probably restart in April. There are other markets we sell wholesale to restaurants, Chef Maya Fett is one of my greatest supporters. She buys a lot of my produce. We do sell a lot through Farmland, Kauai wholesale. Okay, wow, that's plenty. It is. That's a lot for just you, your partner and your littles kind of making it happen. Do you love it? I do, I love it. Yeah, tell me why you love it. I love seeing those little guys, the little plants like grow up and become this beautiful flower or this, this food that somebody is going to enjoy. That's what I love about it. And I love growing beautiful food for people to enjoy with their eating, not only in the color but in the variety and the texture and giving out recipes on how to use that. That's a new thing we just started as well. Well, and like we were talking about before we started today, because you folks sort of you and your farm and your family do have this joy for cooking and where do you get these recipes from? Like do you just invent them or were they inspired by something or you Google, how do you get recipes? I think it kind of depends on what we like and then some stuff like we were trying to move some Olena and we just had to Google it like how do you make a golden milk or how do you, some recipes like another recipe for Olena is just like chopping it up and putting it in the stir fry. Wing beans, we started selling wing beans and having to give ideas to people because they're like what is this thing? This is a beautiful bean. Yeah. How do we use it? Exactly, besides a Filipino dish or stir frying it. So and how do you feel, how do you feel about your consumers? Do you do you feel like a lot of your consumers who buy your things know what they're doing or you have to educate them a lot to to try stuff out? I think it depends where you're at. I also sell through the Friends with Farms Co-op and I think their market in Kailua, a lot of people are educated on already how to cook their food. Kakaako, we're starting to get a more base type of consumer and so we're having to kind of give people ideas on how to make certain things or especially like the Hikama we were just talking about like how do you actually eat this Hikama? We're going to talk more about Hikama by the way just in the second in the second part of the show we're going to because Hikama has been really on my mind since I since I've you know been seeing more and more farmers growing it. There's it's amazing the varieties that are coming out and that there's so much more in food than I think people ever could even ever imagine. It's actually so beautiful and creative. What about some of the challenges in farming? You know I feel like you know especially as sort of one of the focuses for the show today is sort of like women and ag and do you feel like women and ag is a concept that is nurtured in the agricultural industry? Do you feel like it's harder for you or it's easier for you or it's just a real thing and it doesn't matter being a woman in agriculture how do you feel about that? I think it's great I haven't come up against much obstacles at the moment I think more maybe it's just Hawaii that people are supporting women in agriculture I'm not sure if that would change is say if I was in Texas here I feel like it's much easier people are more open to the women farmer so and it's great that GoFarm actually has a lot of women farmers one of my collaborators is a woman and I love working with her so it's I think GoFarm helps to nurture that just a little bit more and even though there are male farmers as well there women I think we try to stick together a little. I really feel like you know there are so many of the men farmers that are in support of that or they do see how like it's you know women bring a whole different type of cool to the industry that is that is very relevant like right now I feel like it's very relevant and and workable so I really like seeing that in the industry what about just challenges in general of being a farmer? The weather I think it's all a challenge time management is a challenge when things die and you don't know why the pest the heat sometimes kills everything but at other times you're rewarded with this wonderful kale that you didn't think you could grow or a beautiful purple cauliflower so I think there's a flipside to all the bad as well and the challenge just makes you better and you learn your lesson and you just keep going so yeah works out pretty good. I think so one I just even think that having that mentality of like like moving forward learning from the mistakes that happened and then I think also like gearing the consumer to understand that real food real things happen like weather and like so if you want the freshest and the bestest it might not necessarily be what you wanted it might be what we have you know especially if you like the Stalin method or especially if like they like the Stalin method of how you grow it. What kind of things do you grow? I grow a lot. I have a pretty big I like to give my CSA members a very nice variety as much as I can do. There are some things I'm not good at like radish I'm horrible at growing radish but I can grow beets and kale and chard. I've been doing a fresh herbal tea with chamomile or in the picture my son was picking chamomile flowers. Oh okay so just trying to think outside of the box and I love growing flowers so that's another thing I wanted to get into. Okay and then do your CSA members are those the people that get those kinds of things because like when you do for restaurants and you do like through farm link is that I mean they're looking for specific things usually and does your do your CSA members do they get I'm assuming at the most variety. They do get the most variety but I try to grow enough to kind of split it up between everybody like enough that I'm gonna sell at the farmers market enough for my CSA and enough for my farm link orders just because sometimes somebody doesn't want like 10 ounces of edible flowers you know. I try to keep the variety throughout for most everything like some things I don't but say peas for instance I may only grow that for my CSA and maybe or for farmers market but not for farm link because I know like the value and the time that it takes to pick a pea it's kind of a lot but kale and lettuce are worth the value I think. So then you just make the call right yeah mentally like no this is what is the best idea. Exactly. Oh that's awesome okay well we're at our first break in this show and then we'll come back and we're gonna talk future what's next collaborations so we'll see you in a little bit. Hi I'm Pete McGinnis Mark and every Monday at one o'clock I'm the host of Think Tech Hawaii's research in Monart and at that program we bring to you a whole range of new scientific results from the university ranging from everything from exploring the solar system to looking at the earth from space going underwater talking about earthquakes and volcanoes and other things which have a direct relevance not only to Hawaii but also to our economy. So please try and join me one o'clock on a Monday afternoon to Think Tech Hawaii's research in Monart and see you then. Hi I'm Ethan Allen host on Think Tech Hawaii of Pacific partnerships in education. Every other Tuesday afternoon at 3 p.m. I hope you'll join us as we explore the value the accomplishments and the challenges of education here in the Pacific Islands. It was a quick little break quick little breather we're here with Priscilla from Vida Farms in Waimanalo and we are just talking women and ag farm pizzas Hikama life and we sort of covered how in the first segment how how you got here how you wanted to start farming how you know sort of making that move and transition into you know having farm life a part of your life but I was thinking maybe we could talk a little bit about the future and we're sort of like where where you see the future of farming in general you know just sort of now that you're in it and you're kind of doing it as a business where where do you where do you think agriculture is going what are your hopes what are your what are your and even not hopes what are you just you know what are your forecasts on what's happening. I think more people are starting to buy local I mean not even just here in Hawaii I see it when I follow some of my friend farmers in Texas and that people are starting to go out buy local food invest in it and what they're eating and what they're doing what they're giving to their families as well so I think that hopefully more people are going to be willing to not only buy local but pay the price as well like as a small farmer I feel like that seems to be one of the bigger challenges like getting people to buy it they usually do like very few people like complain but I think we're in a unique space right now. Right like really changing that mentality of the worth I think of farming and and what it takes because I do feel like there is a big paradigm shift and we're like kind of in this really neat like we're right on the edge of it yeah so I mean I I feel very hopeful but then I I always like to check the temperature and other people are you hopeful too are you hopeful too and then as far as partnerships or collaborations for your business are there other businesses that you're working with or that you like to team up with? Rose Matthews, Bear Claw Farms, we do farm to table or we do farmers markets together we collaborate a lot even for my CSA she grows stuff that I am not good at growing or don't have time for and so I love collaborating with her like and plus it's just easy to talk to her and we can talk about things that are growing well things are growing bad it's like a great like a farm bestie like a farm friend like you can talk farm with her yeah because I feel like you know it's it's these very specific conversations you know about she knows what you're talking about exactly yeah like so when you're talking about how things are growing and and and how things are going she's not like okay you're talking to me about farming again I'm going out what's going on I have no idea what you're talking about like she actually understands what you're saying that's great and then I did want to circle back around to Hicama because it's sort of my own my own personal farm story I when I first got here to go farm I went to visit counterculture and Rob Borreka gave me a Hicama he was like have a great day here's a Hicama and I went home and I was like oh I'm I don't know what to do with it and hence my question about like where do you get recipes and do you Google and you were saying that you eat it in a very specific way can you share that with us we just cut it up and eat it with lime and chili yeah we just cut it up and eat it with lime and chili like oh okay meanwhile I was thinking we had to make it into french fries or you know but you were saying to me that it's kind of it's very refreshing the very refreshing it's this of the variety counterculture was growing is very sweet has a sweet flavor so I felt like you didn't even have to boil it to bring out or to take away any bitterness from it and so it's very refreshing you can cut it up into salads you can cut it into little potato chips and eat it that way just fresh make a dip an avocado cilantro dip dip it in maybe even hummus and but I would say fresh is the way to go with the fresh is the way to go see because I'm even thinking like there needs to be some type of I might have to start adding that to my segment where I pick a crop that you know because I feel like we definitely the farmers that I'm encountering more and more it's it's less commodity it's very we have all these niche varieties all like these special things that no one gets which I love because I love having things that nobody else has but then when I get them I still don't know what to do with them this is great but can somebody help me so really knowing and I feel like like I'm starting to see Hickamah more around so again like this educational component of getting these new varieties and what to do with them and how to eat them has been really awesome what about the future of your business and farming do you think that you're gonna now that you're sort of warmed up in it you want to stay in it yes definitely definitely gonna stay in it I'm not sure what the future holds I have one more year in the incubator program so I'm gonna focus on that and just keep following my passion for farming yeah I think that that's I feel like once people start having this a part of their lives you know this farming component it changes them how I mean do you feel like that's true I think so I think you think about things differently I feel like it's a big de-stressor when I'm in my field nobody else is there most I mean sometimes they're like my family kids or my partner but for the most part it's you and the plants and your outdoors and of course we get to see the beautiful koala range and it's one of the best places to farm I would say it really is it's so majestic I mean you just took it right out of my mind cuz like and you would never I mean I feel like people drive in and out of Waimanalo all the time yeah but like when you're actually there and it really is Nora I feel like Nora has explained it is like the golden hour yeah like it's it's so majestic to wear like oh that's something really hard to give up you know and and we're seeing it you know earlier on in the phases you know because there's you know you do the egg school so like you have it and then you do egg pro and then you have to sort of make this decision like was that it or do I keep going you know but it's it's really hard to give up that golden hour you know even golden hours how many hours do you think you spent on the farm in addition to your full-time job and you being a mom and you how many I would say between maybe this week isn't as much but usually it's 30 hours at least 30 to some weeks are 40 I feel just depending but high-end is usually 30 20 hours is minimal just to be there to check on everything to weed guess because everything's organically grown we don't use herbicides so it's it needs constant care it does yeah it needs constant but it's worth it yeah totally worth it yeah yeah no that's I feel like just knowing that that is how people feel about farming I think is reassuring you know in knowing that you're doing something that you love when you're when you're on the farm is it and you thinking about what you want to grow or you want what you want to try next is there do you have a plan for that or do you just think oh maybe I'll try this you know I because I'm more of a supporting role you know like I like to come and take pictures and like you know like taste but like you know there there is so much science and math and planning involved that into like you know and everybody has their own method you know but like for you how do you decide what you're gonna add or subtract I usually try to think about my CSI membership and what I want to have for them to last at least three months so I usually do an initial three months and then I asked them if they want to keep continuing okay so I plan for the three months to make sure I have my leafy greens my blood is whatever can be grown at that time of year since it's seasonal okay like sometimes egg plants not gonna do as well in the winter time there we go okra as well so I try to plan around that sometimes maybe the broccoli and the cabbages are not gonna do well in the summer so I know I have to plan that in the winter so I do have kind of a plan I do try other varieties that I just want to see are gonna work for my own curiosity so but I usually don't do that on a large risk yeah let's just do a little test we're not gonna change we don't we don't know where this is all gonna go so if people wanted to find you Priscilla where should they go to find you where how do we find you and your your farm fresh goodies and your pizzas tell us so for sure you can find me Wednesday night caca aqua from 4 to 7 I think it's on 440 keave okay road I do sell some products through Friends with Farms they have a Kailua market and they just opened a North Shore market okay so there we you can find lettuce or kale or chard things like that they would have can look online and email me okay or Instagram Instagram and her Instagram is we're gonna be popping it up it's on it's been on her info but can you tell us what it is it's at Hawaii dot Vida so okay message me there if you want something specifically I've not looked for us at the farmers market the farm to table pizza is usually there and it's also on Saturday at the co-op women all over market co-op oh yeah ever driving through on their way to the beach yep and then we can get and we can stop and get that there exactly well thank you so much for joining us today it was a pleasure having you I really appreciate you coming out from Waimanalo and sharing your story with us and okay guys that's and we're gonna wrap up another another holy food and farmer series and we'll be seeing you in a couple weeks bye