Asagi Hatchery

Sorry, we've missed a few posting dates over here.

Been pretty busy with another heritage hatch (a bunch of you probably got a phone call and now have some new chicks running around) and more fruit trees in.

The trees are all minimum of two years old, their roots protected in black plastic transportation sacks, ready to pick up and plant. We bring in a lot of dwarf trees because a lot of us live in urban areas and don't have a lot of room.

Here is a list of trees currently in stock:
Dwarf Calamondin Lime (when we ordered kalamansi trees they said this was it!)
Dward Kaffir Lime
Dwarf Clementine Tangerine
Dward Chandler Pommelo
Manoa Sweet Acerola
Sharwil Avocado
Golden Nugget Loquat
Murta Jabotica
Mulberry
Red Mountain Apple
Kumquat
Surinam Cherry

We've also been running around with our new work with Hawaii Farm Bureau, helping to manage a few of the farmers markets around town. We're busy with the new Honolulu Farmers' Market at the Blaisdell get on its feet, that is the one that happens every Wednesday, 4-7 p.m. We are also helping to grow the one at Mililani High School that is on Sundays, 8-11 a.m.

We view our work with the farmers markets as an extension of our family's efforts to help other families (most of the food growing farms in Hawaii are still family owned and operated) who are trying to keep the food growing systems in Hawaii alive.

We'll keep you posted on more developments in this area of our work, we are working to create more opportunities for community to become more involved in this effort, because we know its been on everyone's mind lately -- our food security, our food safety, and how it can be a way to fortify our local economy.

Take care and hope you are having a good start to a great summer.

Wow! Our two favorite magazines, Grit and Mother Earth News, have teamed up to produce a great new on-line resource for all things poultry.

The first issue looks wonderful, with a guide to heritage chicken breeds and designs for homemade incubators.

Here is a link to that website: http://www.communitychickens.com/?utm_source=iPost&utm_medium=email&utm_source=iPost&utm_medium=email

Hope you find it helpful!

One of our most favorite organizations, Ma`o Organic Farm, is organizing what will prove to be an incredible conference on food sovereignty over the weekend of June 12-13, 2009.

Here is a link to the schedule: http://www.maoorganicfarms.org/index.php/site/education_hoola/

It is the first in a series of conferences with a focus on bringing youth together around these important issues, on several islands.

The conference is called ‘Āina Ho‘ōla o Ma‘ilikukahi and here is an excerpt from the Call to Action Narrative on the conference website:

"As evident by the global economic and climate crises, and in the socioeconomic conditions of our communities, there is a desperate need to take action in ensuring our island‘s movement towards self-sufficiency which calls upon ‘aina based action and kuleana based purpose. The ‘āina, as taught in the story of Hāloa, is that which feeds us, its younger sibling. The reciprocal responsibility then for kanaka is to return the favor. Here on O‘ahu, we have been overwhelmed with the pressures of a globalized food system that disconnects us from the ‘āina, maintains social and environmental injustice, and blocks our ability to feed ourselves. It is time for ‘āina reinvigoration and kanaka action."

We're just spreading the word. We thank Ma`o Organic Farm and the conference organizers for their leadership. If you can't make it to the conference but would like to support their efforts, they are a non-profit and you can support them via website with donation or help on their monthly service days.

This came our way from an educator at Punahou who is doing a lot of good work with teaching active sustainability practices in our schools.

FOOD FOR THOUGHT at PUNAHOU
Spring 2009

The Punahou Sustainable Food Committee is hosting a spring "Food for Thought" event at Punahou on Wednesday, May 13th from 6-8:30 at Thurston Chapel, as part of our continuing discussion on Sustainability in our community. This year the Food for Thought series specifically explores the relationships of food and agriculture with sustainability. At the upcoming May event we will be screening Chris Taylor’s 2008 documentary film Food Fight, which according to the filmmaker is "a fascinating look at how American agricultural policy and food culture developed in the 20th century, and how the California food movement has created a counter-revolution against big agribusiness." The movie explores the repercussions of the agribusiness model and ultimately considers the community's role in the development of a more sustainable food system.

The evening will begin with a free tasting of dishes featuring local produce by Ed Kenny (‘86) of Town and Downtown as well as Pat Shea (’91) of Sweet Home Waimanalo. After the movie screening, we have invited a panel of speakers representing the various perspectives the movie explores (Dean Okimoto of Nalo Farms, Laurie Carlson of Honolulu Weekly and Slow Food Oahu, Dr. Ted Radovich of UH College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources and Brian Schatz, the State Democratic Party Chair and CEO of Helping Hands Hawaii) to facilitate discussion of the many areas the film considers.

We hope everyone can make our "Food for Thought" movie night as part of our continuing discussion on Sustainability in our community. We are especially interested in having members of our Punahou community join us; please encourage your students and their parents to come. If you are wondering about potential classroom connections or have any questions about the event, please feel free to email me at elathrop@punahou.edu.

The event is free and open to the public. Food Fight is rated for all audiences.

Article in San Jose Mercury News:

San Jose family follow new popular trend of raising backyard chickens
By Tiffany Carney
Willow Glen Resident
Posted: 05/04/2009 05:22:01 PM PDT

While most people don't associate backyard chickens with city living, there's a growing number of San Jose residents converting portions of their yards into coops to raise hens for fresh eggs.

A recent "chick sale" at Sam's Downtown Feed and Pet Supply on West San Carlos Street attracted long lines, with people coming from as far as Hollister for a chance to pick out the perfect chicks to bring home.

"We've sold chickens for years, but in the past five years, we've sold more than we ever have," said Lisa Blackford, who owns the feed store with her husband, Sam. "[Raising chickens] is just huge right now. This year, especially with the economy, our customers want to buy the chickens for the eggs."

To read more: http://www.mercurynews.com/localnewsheadlines/ci_12293407?nclick_check=1

Yet another article published in New York Times about keeping backyard chickens in suburb, town, and city. This one about how some cities are changing ordinances by popular demand, increasing legal allowances, in some instances from zero to six.

I love the title.

Envisioning the End of 'Don't Cluck, Don't Tell'

By Peter Applebome
Published: April 29, 2009
New Haven

In the modest backyard of Rosemarie Morgan’s 1890-era house, about a half-mile from Yale University, there is a small Buddha, azalea and forsythia, Japanese cherry and plum trees, and an Amish-made chicken coop with five residents — four who lay eggs and Gloria, who is barren but one heck of a watchdog.

The fowl are technically illegal under New Haven’s zoning code, which prohibited raising hens and other livestock when it was updated during the 1950s. But these days, many dozens of backyard hens are generally tolerated under the city’s informal enforcement program — call it “don’t cluck, don’t tell” — that mostly looks the other way. With urban fowl increasingly common, Alderman Roland Lemar has introduced legislation that would allow residents to raise up to six hens.

To read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/30/nyregion/30towns.html?_r=1&em

Mahalo to the KHON2 team for sharing the backyard chicken revival with Hawaii viewers. Jai and Kenny came down on Friday early afternoon and we were on tv by the six o'clock news. A couple of people in the newsroom are already raising chicks, so KHON2 came to see what the growing interest was all about.

Anchor Joe Moore mentioned that the hatchery business is booming because of the downturn in the economy and people wanting to raise their own food.

No boom here. Like everyone else, we are managing to stay afloat by choosing to know how fortunate we are to be doing something we care about and to have the chance to meet great people everyday. We're so lucky to have customers that are really good fun and interested in exploring all kinds of things - chickens, eggs, chickens as pets and companions, growing their own food, getting in touch with their inner farmer, adding chickens to the garden systems. Makes every day an adventure here at the hatchery.

Fun.

Last October, Agriculturalist Will Allen was awarded the prestigious MacArthur Genius award for his work developing sustainable urban food growing models.

Here is Will Allen talking about his work and why developing urban and inner city food growing centers is where it's at:

He is the founder of Growing Power, an inner city farm in Milwaukee, what was once considered a food desert - a region where all food was being trucked in and sold in convenience stores, fast food outlets, and big box stores.

Please visit Growing Power's website to see the scope, scale, heart and vision behind the work being done. They are aiming to build closed system farming - they are composting to grow their own soil, developing vertical aquaponic systems, raising their own flocks of chickens. If you can, do the three minute video tours -- pretty amazing!
http://www.growingpower.org/Index.htm

We're all inspired over here. As land and water become immediate conservation concerns, we should all be looking at models like Will Allen's.

Growing Power began in 1999 on the last remaining farm and greenhouse operation in the City of Milwaukee -- on just two acres. The original vision is still the same "Community Food Center has provided a wonderful space for hands-on activities, large-scale demonstration projects, and for growing a myriad of plants, vegetables, and herbs." In ten years, the operation has grown, and in that two acre space the size of a small supermarket "live some 20,000 plants and vegetables, thousands of fish, and a livestock inventory of chickens, goats, ducks, rabbits, and bees."

Their urban farm currently includes:

- six greenhouses growing over 12,000 pots of herbs, salad mix, beet greens, arugula, mustards, seedlings, sunflower and radish sprouts. These greenhouses also host production of six hydroponic systems growing Tilapia, Perch, and a variety of herb and salad greens, and over 50 bins of red wriggler worms;

- a aquaponics hoop house with two independent fish runs and growing beds for additional salad mix and seedlings;

- three hoop houses growing a mixture of salad greens;

- a worm depository hoop house;

- an apiary with 5 beehives;

- three poultry hoop houses with laying hens and ducks;

- outdoor pens for livestock including goats, rabbits, and turkeys;

- a large plot of land on which the first stage of the organization’s sophisticated composting operation is located including 30 pallet compost systems;

- an anerobic digester to produce energy from the farm's food waste; and

- a small retail store to sell produce, meat, worm castings, and compost to the community.

And they are reaching out and educating. They offer schools, universities, government agencies, farmers, activists, and community members opportunities to learn from and participate in the development and operation of Community Food Systems.

Just think. In the space smaller than the Costco on Iwilei, we could have something like this.

Something to think about as our food security issues continue to grow. We can do only so much on our own. Might be time to start working together.

Over the last few years, we've seen the interest in backyard chicken raising grow to a level we could call a movement, but what is more of a revival.

A lot of people coming back to the old-style, old-school, common sense idea of raising a few chickens in the backyard for a steady supply of fresh eggs. Eggs, organic weed and pest control, and plain old companionship and entertainment.

In a lot of folks we have met over these years we sense a real community or a connection that we feel is community. We've created a Facebook Group hoping that it could be space for this connection to grow stronger. We encourage you to connect, to share, and to know you are a part of something larger. Something that has to do with learning how to care for things, especially fun and feathery things. To share resources, info, stories, and especially pictures.

The Facebook group site called: Hawaii Backyard Chickens.

We'll be posting resources and blog entries from our website. Think about joining us there.

Thanks to our good friend Cameron D for inspiring us with his Pigeon and Hawaii Chickens show bird sites on ning, mentioned in one of our last posts.

P.S. -- We've extended our deadline for the next Heritage Hatch orders! You have until April 29 to get your orders in!

Birchen Cochin Bantams

Buff Cochin Bantams

Buff Orpington

Araucana

Golden Laced Cochins

Golden Sebright Bantams

Araucana

Old English Game Bantams

Partridge Cochin Bantams

Silver Laced Wyandotte

White Silkie Bantams