It was a great honor to be included in a small group of people welcoming Hawai‘i Governor Neil Abercrombie to the Kihei Elementary School Garden today. The Governor toured the grounds with the school garden volunteers, then chatted with everyone over a scrumptious lunch sponsored by Chefs Brian Etheredge and Chris Kulis of Capische featuring vegetables grown in the garden.

Originally published on Slow Food Maui.

Here’s a great video of the work we’re doing at the Kihei Elementary School Garden, produced by Elizabeth Crow at Crowdiddy Productions.

Click here to view the embedded video.

NSC Partners LLC is offering the Clean Energy Hawaii STEM iPad app for free in celebration of Earth Day, and in honor of teachers, students and parents worldwide.

We had a great time watching the kids participate in a hands-on learning experience where they made pizza from scratch using ingredients from their own school garden. Chef Christopher Kulis taught them how to make the pizzas while Chef Dan Fiske showed them how to make a “Tomato and Cheese Explosion.”

The other night we were preparing dinner and I grabbed a local tomato we had gotten from our weekly Kula Fields delivery.  It is always so nice to have fresh and tasty tomatoes in our salad.  This tomato had been on our counter for about a week…I guess in good conditions.

I cut open the tomato and immediately said to Peter “Oh shoot, it looks like this tomato has bugs” as I saw the tiny white pieces that I’ve learned to equate with little larval worms that get in produce.  I start to try to salvage part of the tomato when I  notice – Green?  I look closer and start laughing.   I made Peter get his glasses and take a look at my “bugs”.   My tomato was sprouting!   I guess this is what would happen in the wild; ripe tomatoes fall to the ground and the seeds are protected in the rich, juicy pulp until they are strong enough escape and put down roots.  What a wonderful lifecycle lesson!