When Hurricane Lala passed Maui in mid-August, Ryan Earehart thought his strawberry plants at ʻOkoʻa Farms in Kula had only lost their flowers and fruit. Weeks later he found the wind had pulled up the weed mat, and the roots had come up with it. His kale and chard were growing at an angle, and his cucumbers had picked up diseases spread by the rain and wind. "More is revealed each week that passes," he told Maui Now in early September.
That damage is still shaping this fall's harvest. Two kinds of schedule set what you can buy from Upcountry growers in early November. Persimmons follow the dates Kula's growers publish every year, and the fruit is on those dates now. The vegetable fields are on replanting schedules that started over after each storm. The two kinds of crop are moving at very different speeds, and that difference decides what turns up at a stand, in a CSA box or at the Saturday market.
A Persimmon Calendar That Doesn't Change Year to Year
Two Hashimoto family operations work the Kula slopes, and both publish the same window. Hashimoto Persimmon Products, at 1378 Pulehuiki Road in Kula, gives its season as October through early December and sells fresh fruit along with persimmon products. Its listed hours are 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday through Saturday and 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Sunday.
Hashimoto Kula Persimmons & Cherimoya works differently. Its farm isn't open for casual visits. Fruit is ordered ahead for curbside pickup or for shipping to the other islands. Its season runs October through early December for persimmons, and its cherimoya runs December through March.
That farm also breaks the season down by variety, which tells you where things stand this week:
- Maru is usually an October fruit, so it's near the end of its run by early November.
- Fuyu usually comes in by late October and sometimes lasts into early December. This is the persimmon in season right now.
- Hachiya comes in around mid-November and sometimes runs into early December. The farm says quantities are limited and asks customers to check availability with them directly.
Persimmon season runs about two months, from October into early December, and the variety you can get changes as it goes. If Hachiya is the one you want, the window opens next week and usually closes by early December.
What the Kona Lows and Lala Did to the Vegetable Fields
Vegetable fields have had a very different year. Maui Now's September report by Colleen Uechi, produced through the Hawaiʻi Journalism Initiative, followed two Upcountry farms through it.
ʻOkoʻa Farms grows fruit and vegetables on 46 acres in Kula. Earehart estimated about $250,000 in damage from the March Kona lows. The rain wiped out newly planted crops, washed away soil, damaged the packing shed and knocked down the fences that keep axis deer out. The crops that survived produced about 75% less, and for about three months the farm had only enough to sell at its own Makawao store, with no wholesale business.
The crew replanted and was just starting to harvest when Lala hit. By early September, Earehart said the farm was getting about 30% of the production it had planned on. Orders from large distributors on other islands were down by half or more.
Up in Olinda, Lapaʻau Farm grows more than 100,000 pounds of produce a year on 2 acres, rotating dozens of seasonal crops. Its owners, Lauren and Michael Marchand, lost about 80% of their open-field crops to Lala. Corn close to harvest bent over halfway, and a whole bean crop was beaten against its trellises.
"The amount of wind crop damage that we saw was higher than we've ever seen in almost eight years of farming," Lauren Marchand told Maui Now.
How a crop was grown made a big difference on the same 2 acres. Lala tore the whole roof off Lapaʻau's oyster mushroom greenhouse. No mushrooms were lost, because the farm had set August aside for cleaning and resetting that greenhouse. The crops in its seven high tunnels also held up well.
Help has come through the Hawaiʻi Farmers Union Foundation. As of late August, its Hawaiʻi Flood Response Fund had raised more than $1 million and paid out more than $700,000 to 162 producers across the islands, in grants of $1,000 to $10,000. ʻOkoʻa Farms received a $10,000 grant in June.
Fast-Growing Crops Fill the Gap
When the fields go down, Upcountry farms replant with whatever grows fastest. In early September, Lapaʻau leaned on cut flowers and salad greens that handle a range of temperatures and rainfall. It also planted quick crops like arugula, okra and turnips, plus root crops that mature in 30 to 40 days and can take more rain. Seed that went in around the start of September and grows on that schedule would have been ready in October. So a November box from Olinda is more likely to hold greens, roots and flowers than the tomatoes and corn of a normal year.
ʻOkoʻa's recovery is slower. "Plants are still alive. That's good," Earehart said, adding that the only fix was to replant and wait months for a full recovery. Some damage showed up only at harvest. His sugarcane juice came out less sweet because the stalks broke before they matured. Carrots that split from too much rain were left in the ground for chicken feed.
Short supply also decides where the produce goes. Lapaʻau normally delivers twice a week to restaurants like Flatbread Company in Pāʻia and Lineage in Wailea, and to Mana Foods and Down to Earth. In September it cut those runs to once a week and put its CSA members first, because they had paid upfront for a July through December membership. ʻOkoʻa did the same in spring, keeping its Makawao store stocked while wholesale stopped. When harvests are small, the farm's own outlets get served first.
Buying Close to the Field
Here are the places to buy straight from Upcountry growers this month. Hours come from each business's own website, so confirm before you drive.
| Where | Address | Hours as posted | What to know |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hashimoto Persimmon Products | 1378 Pulehuiki Rd, Kula | Mon–Sat 9 a.m.–3 p.m.; Sun 9 a.m.–2 p.m. | Fresh persimmons and persimmon products, October to early December |
| Hashimoto Kula Persimmons & Cherimoya | Order ahead | By arrangement | Curbside pickup or inter-island shipping; Hachiya from mid-November |
| ʻOkoʻa Farms store | Kulamalu Shopping Center, 30 Kupaoa St, A#103, Makawao | Daily 7 a.m.–8 p.m. | The farm's own retail outlet |
| Kula Country Farms stand | 6240 Kula Hwy, Kula | Mon–Sat 9 a.m.–4 p.m.; closed Sundays | Lists strawberries, Kula onions, squash, herbs, flowers, honey, jams and baked goods |
| Upcountry Farmers Market | Kulamalu Town Center, 55 Kiopaa St | Saturdays 7–11 a.m. | More than 100 local vendors |
| Lapaʻau Farm CSA | Olinda | Every-other-week delivery | Produce box; chefs and wholesalers can ask for an updated order list |
Kula Country Farms was open every day in October, but its regular schedule is back, so the stand is closed on Sundays again. The ʻOkoʻa store and the Saturday market are both at Kulamalu, a few minutes apart, so you can get to both on one Saturday morning.
Farther Up Highway 37 at ʻUlupalakua
If you drive Kula Highway south for persimmons, you can keep going. MauiWine sits on Highway 37, six miles past Keokea, just past the ʻUlupalakua Ranch Store. In November, its Historical Walking Tour & Tastings costs $45 and runs 11:15 a.m. to 1:15 p.m. on November 6, 11, 13 and 18. The $95 Tasting Table runs 1 to 2:30 p.m. on November 12 and 19. The winery is closed to the public on November 8 for a private Wine Club event.
December brings walking tours on the 9th, 11th, 16th, 18th and 23rd, and Tasting Table sessions on the 10th, 17th and 24th. Next door, ʻUlupalakua Ranch holds its annual Christmas in the Country festival on December 13. The growers' published persimmon season usually wraps up in early December, so the festival comes just after it, as cherimoya season gets started.
I grew up on Maui, and fall Upcountry has always meant the persimmon run down Pulehuiki Road. This year it falls in the middle of a hard recovery for the farms around it. If you're thinking about agricultural land in Kula or Olinda, or just want to understand what growing up here takes, I'm glad to talk it through. Let's Connect with Caleb A. Palmer.
