Tail-Wagging Aloha
By Denise Laitinen Sydney Andrade’s face lights up when I walk into his room, but it’s not me that he’s excited to see. It’s my companion Clancy. A pit bull mix I adopted from the Hawai‘i Island Humane Society’s Kea‘au…
Superfoods! Made Here on Hawai‘i Island
By Fern Gavelek In the search for healthier eating, many people boost their diets with supplements. Hawai‘i Island is not only a cornucopia of locally grown foods, but it’s also home to some highly regarded supplements. These locally made products…
Folk Art of Bobbi Caputo Brings Family Coffee-Picking Memories Back to Life
By Hadley Catalano It’s summer vacation for Bobbi Caputo. It’s the late 1950s and though she hasn’t yet reached adolescence she’s already versed in the ways of the coffee farming world. Sandwiched between Leonora and Faustino Orpilla, her mother and…
John Tanaka: WWII Hero, Inventor, Artist, Novelist
By Catherine Tarleton John Tanaka’s life spans 80-plus years across two centuries and throughout, he has remained youthful, inventive, positive and forward-thinking. His ageless face and energetic voice make one wonder if there’s a fountain of youth hidden in John…
Then & Now: Murder & Movies in Old Honoka‘a Town
By Ann C. Peterson For many decades, sugar was king throughout the island chain, and in no place was this more so than in the folksy village of Honoka‘a in the northeast district of Hamakua. At its core, Honoka‘a embodied…
M. Kalani Souza: An Ecological Music Man Making a Splash
By Ke Ola Music Correspondent Colin John Many on The Big Island may know Kalani Souza as a great musician whose personality lights up the room when he enters and takes the stage—either solo or with Sugah Daddy or Hamakua…
Hollywood Calls Local Boy from Hilo; Still, His Heart Stays in Hawai‘i
By Cynthia Sweeney Pomaika’i Keko’olani still shakes his head in disbelief. A local boy arrives in Hollywood, and fresh off the plane, he is greeted by a chauffeured limousine that whisks him off to a major studio for an audition…
Slammin’ at the Gym: Local Youth Discover the Sport of Poetry
By Alan D. McNarie The bleachers of Pahoa High School Gym are packed with cheering, clapping students. The noise is deafening. But this isn’t a basketball game, or even a pep rally. It’s…a poetry reading? It’s Guinevere Balicoco’s turn at…
Teas, Tinctures, and Tonics: Mamaki
By Barbara Fahs The traditional Hawaiian healing herb mamaki seems to have taken the world by storm. When you Google “mamaki” you’ll find 39,500 websites that talk about the Hawaiian version of the stinging nettle, including general information on sites…
Daniel T. Set to Change Waimea’s Food Scene: A New Look for a Treasured Old Building
By Devany Vickery-Davidson Any resident or visitor to Waimea has experienced the wind blowing down from the mountains on a daily basis. The winds of change are also blowing in Waimea’s food scene. Legendary chef and restaurateur Daniel Thiebaut is…
Treasures from the Sea: A Unique Farmers’ Market Comes to Kona
By Devany Vickery-Davidson Looking for live crabs and lobster? How about some local sea salt? Abalone? A free cooking class? Get the cooler out and head to NELHA! On the last Friday of each month Hawai’i Island residents are afforded…
Joy of Chickens: Big Islanders Are Discovering a New Use for Their Back Yards
By Alan D. McNarie I think a lot of people don’t think that chickens have brains,” muses Jeannette Baysa, co-owner of the Hilo Coffee Mill. “But I think they do. We train them. They know their names. They come when…
He Knows the Uke from the Inside Out: Sam Rosen—Craftsman, Teacher, and Historian
By Margaret Kearns Longtime Hawai‘i Island resident Sam Rosen is preserving one of Hawaii’s cultural treasures, one student and one ‘ukulele at a time. Soon after relocating to Hawai‘i Island 33 years ago, Rosen found he finally had the time…
Feng Shui Hawaiian Style: Lighten Up Your Life With the Fire Element
By Marta Barreras, Master Feng Shui Practitioner Have the stresses of life got you feeling burned out? Has your passion for living, your joi de vivre, become a distant memory of the past? Would you like to rekindle a sense…
Inspiring Visions in Glass: Artist Calley O’Neill Teams with Stained Glass Artisan Lamar Yoakum
By Catherine Tarleton If eyes are windows to the soul, then windows must be the eyes of a house’s soul, particularly a house of God, where stained glass windows cast cascading colors to illuminate the people. In the quiet little…
Physical Challenges Never Stop This Triathlete: Jason Patrick Lester Keeps Running on Faith
By Fern Gavelek “Today is the youngest you will ever be. Live like it.” This advice comes from Jason Patrick Lester, who recently posted it on Facebook to his nearly 3,000 “friends.” Fewer than a dozen words, they speak volumes…
Then & Now: Multi-Cultural Holualoa—The “Long Sled”
By Ann C. Peterson When King Kamehameha ruled from Kamakahonu (near today’s Kailua Pier), he would look up to the slopes of Hualalai and know that all was good. This is where he had built Kuahewa, an extensive, dry-land farming…
Feeling Good, Bringing Joy, and Cleared for Take-Off: Mili Nanea
By Colin John Ke Ola Magazine Music Correspondent Take three pedigreed and talented musicians with mutual respect for one another. Add patience, perseverance, family, community, faith and friends. Combine together in a laid-back home environment utilizing a strong work ethic.…
Beyond Organic: Natural Farming
By Noel Morata A new trend—natural farming—is being embraced by backyard gardeners and farmers here on Hawai‘i Island. These methods have been shown to enhance growing organically, focusing on long-term sustainability and using local, raw products and indigenous, green materials…
Holuakoa Gardens Restaurant and Café: Connecting the Plate with the Planet via Slow Food
By Fern Gavelek Handmade potato gnocchi…house-cured bacon…homemade fresh pasta lasagna… Admit it—the above is not your normal restaurant fare. They can be had, however, in the heart of Holualoa village at Holuakoa Gardens Restaurant. The delicious, labor-intensive delicacies illustrate the…
The Bread Line Stops Here
By Catherine Tarleton It’s a party at the Parker School Farmers Market, and Waimea is at her blue-green, sunny Saturday best. Evangelista and Palafox are rocking and reggae-jamming near the entry gate, between Woody’s tomatoes and the Hamakua coffee stand.…
Catching Fire: The Watchful Lens of Bryan Lowry
By Marya Mann Oh play catch with the sun, Your feet to the fire, building on the run. Incandescence in the skies, Captured by attentive eyes. Bryan Lowry, watchful and calm, wedges his boots into warm fissures on the south…
Filming the Story of the Storyteller: Filmmaker Keith Nealy and “Kindy Sproat: A Gift of the Heart”
By Hadley Calatano Keith Nealy will start any conversation off with a good story. With more than 30 years of experience in the art of filmmaking and production, Nealy has become a living library of narratives. Gathering personal anecdotes, tales…
Hut Ho! “Octo-Paddlers”: Pull Together for Fun and Fitness
By Fern Gavelek At 6:30 every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday mornings, a canoe full of paddlers heads out of Keauhou Bay for a morning workout. They come from all walks of life and hail from different parts of the world.…
Then & Now: “Dillingham’s Folly,” or How the Railroad Came to Hawai‘i
By Ann C. Peterson Imagine a time when the only way to get from the Hamakua district to Hilo and points south was by walking, by horse, or by “the most scenic railroad in the nation,” the Hawai’i Consolidated Railway—a…
Creating Ha with Bolo: He’s “Been There, Done That,” and Made the T-Shirt
With Music Correspondent Colin John Bolo Mikiela Rodrigues, or “Bolo” as he is best known, greets me at the gate of his family home—which also serves as his design workshop and inspirational hale—with a friendly smile and an affable, ”Howzit?”…
Hilo Coffee Mill: More Than Java
By Devany Vickery-Davidson Most people immediately think of Kona when you say Hawai‘ian Coffee. But things are changing in that realm. There is fine coffee being grown on other islands and there are fantastic coffees being grown in Hilo, north…
Feng Shui Hawaiian Style: Metal for Clarity, Strength, and Success in the Year of the Tiger
By Marta Barreras, Master Feng Shui Practitioner Have you sensed a feeling of change in the air lately? As 2010 marks the commencement of a new decade, Chinese astrology claims it to be the Year of the Metal Tiger. Symbolizing…
It’s No Secret: Huggo’s Is Invested in Making Kona a Better Place for Living and Eating
By Fern Gavelek When Huggo’s opened its doors in 1969, restaurateurs Shirley and Hugo von Platen Luder knew they had a prime spot for oceanfront dining in Kailua-Kona. Now in its second generation in the same family and the oldest…
Plantation Era Is Gone, and Pahala Lives On: Historic Preservationist Julia Neal Uses Hammer and Wood to Pull the Community Together
By Ann C. Peterson When the Pahala Sugar Mill closed in 1996, after 135 years as the town’s major employer, the village of Pahala in the Big Island’s southern district of Ka‘u went quiet. Some folks moved, but many local…
