Rusty and Jenny Perry, who farm in Kapoho, have been bringing their Volcano Isle Fruit Company produce to the Kino‘ole Farmers Market since it started a year and a half ago.
That’s Rusty at left, and Jenny on the right. Richard tells me that he and the Perrys have been friends, farming together, for more than 30 years.
Rusty was part of the Farm Bureau group that developed the market. He says that the farmers needed more markets and that “the idea was, is, to give customers local stuff, and make it real clear that it’s local stuff. I think we’ve succeeded in that, and that’s really been a good thing.”
The Perrys started out primarily as banana growers. Back in the late 1970s, along with Richard Ha and three others, they started the Big Island Banana Growers Association.
These days they have fewer bananas, and more of other types of produce. “We’ve always been diversified,” says Rusty, “which I think is a good business model in Hawai‘i farming.”
“We’ve got a fair amount of papayas,” he says, “some apple bananas, citrus, tangerines, tangelos, navel oranges, some lemons. We have about 4000 ft. of hydroponic vegetables, mostly lettuce so far, and about 20,000 feet of orchids.”
Richard says they are perhaps best known for their high-quality papayas.
Those are the crops they bring to the Kino‘ole Farmers Market every Saturday morning, and occasionally some that are a little more seasonal, too. “We bring sour sop almost every time, and right now we have rambutan and longan. The lychee is not ready yet.”
He says the market is a little better every single week. “We get more customers coming and liking our concept, and liking the vendors,” he says. “And they are trusting that our vendors are selling stuff they’ve produced themselves. That’s a real benefit to the customers – getting to meet the farmers. They can ask them, ‘What pesticide do you use?’ or, ‘What’s this thing on my plant?’”
He says that the Kino‘ole Farmers Market is working out well economically. “Both for our customers who are getting pretty good deals,” he says, “and also for the vendors. It’s become a really important part of our business.”
The Kino‘ole Farmers Market is open every Saturday morning from 7 a.m. to noon. It’s located at the Kino‘ole Shopping Plaza (the old Sure Save Market) at 1990 Kino‘ole St (at the corner of Kahaopea St.).
There are several things I enjoy about the Kino’ole Farmers Market. The best besides the quality of their products is that the vendor/famers/producers are all very friendly and take time to talk story with the customers.
Everyone is friendly and helpful…the demos are interesting…the ground is never muddy, even when it rains…there is plenty of parking all around…and there is a chance of winning a door prize donated by the vendors…Those are just a few of my favorite things about the market.