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Thursday, June 16, 2011

The Kauai farmers market

The week of Memorial day was a welcome break after yet another stressful year at work and a long (3+ years) overdue vacation.We spent a week in the Hawaiian island of Kauai. It truly lives up to its name of being the Garden Isle with wonderful canyons and rainforest valleys covered with lush vegetation, thanks to an abundance of rain and tropical heat.

Being avid vegetable gardeners ourselves we were eager to check out the local farmers markets and as we heard Kauai has many of them all over the island towns with a few everyday. We stopped by to check out the one in the town of Koloa.


Sauntering through the stalls a few minutes before the opening "yell", we were treated to some vibrant colors. The two most common flowers sold all over the island were the Heliconias and few varieties of the ornamental ginger plants. The other popular ones were Anthuriums and Orchids.

Lobster Claw Heliconia (Heliconia Rostrata)


Scarlet Flag Ginger/Indian Head Ginger (Costus Woodsonii Maas)
Red Ginger (Alpinia Purpurata)

Some lovely and delicate orchids were also on display. 



And Leis with fresh flowers


But we were there for the fruits, the exotic and the not so exotic ones. The farmers market had the best deal for fresh coconuts at $3.50 a piece compared to the $5 a piece elsewhere on the island.


White Pineapples


and the good old Sugarcane


And a very typical farmers market picture to show off the 70-200 IS L lens.


Overall, the farmers market was a bit of a disappointment to us. Though it was entertaining with good photo opportunities for tourists, it left much to be wanted. We were hoping to see a lot more fresh produce considering the island enjoys year round great growing conditions compared to California. We expected to see the market bustling with locavores, instead it looked more like a Rodeo drive with vendors showing off one of a kind art pieces called fruits.

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