Cultivating earthworms for castings and compost tea is an excellent way to produce your own nutrient rich inputs for your garden. The Same Canoes project linked up with Recycle Hawaii and offered a vermiculture class where Earth Machine composters and worm bins were made available. See One Island’s Buying Club link for information on ordering a worm compost bin system in Hawaii.

Beyond Organics is a soil analysis program developed and operated by Dr. Jana Bogs. She came to One Island for a Same Canoe presentation and shared with us startling facts about the direct relationship between the decline in our soil quality and the corresponding decline in nutrients in our current food. An apple a day that had beneficial vitmans and minerals before 1920 would now require TWENTY apples a day to get that same level of nutrition. Her solution? Think beyond just organic growing – improve the quality of our soil.

Jana won the BEST in AGRICULTURE award during the Sustainability Innovation Challenge in 2012.

What a great day – Gerry Herbert, Bob Shaffer and Nancy Redfeather made presentations at Kawanui Farm for a Same Canoe Workshop. Gerry shared his knowledge about tools and composintg, Bob got deep into soil health, and Nancy updated the crew on the Hawaii Island School Garden Network project. Thanks everyone for making this such a well attended, thought provoking workshop.

One Island bought Josiah Hunt over from Hawaii Biochar to give us a full day workshop including hands-on creation of biochar from scrap branches on the farm. Funded in part by The Same Canoe Community Garden Project

How to create a home garden is a challenge for many people who have at most gardened in pots or on window ledges. Where to begin?

Una Greenaway of Kuaiwi Farm, an organic farmer in Hawaii for over 35 years, hosted a Same Canoe workshop to showcase -and get our hands in – different soil building, composting, planting, pest resistance and poultry systems she has found successful at her cool mountainside 2200 foot elevation.