Welcome to GROW, a site for the non-experts growing food in Hawaii!

This all started with some pallet gardens in my backyard many years ago.  We have evolved, me and my little blog, to be more than just a space to share gardening adventures.

I have spent a great deal of time thinking about food: considering the intersections of food, food justice, insecurity, feminism, industrial farming, climate change, island sustainability, health and homesteading. I’m also the busy working mother of a clever ballerina, Lego loving karate kid and a sweet baby girl. I’m partnered to the handiest guy around and dog-mommy to two rescued pit/boxers, who may make an appearance.  So I blog, ponder, write poetry and try to stay away from ugliness and negativity.

There’s some big picture stuff we are all seriously pondering these days, and you might see it here- as a DYI project or poem!  I’m not a fan of ginormous-meat-farming, and there’s a bunch of science that supports the idea that huge amounts of meat consumption is bad for our bodies and the planet.  In fact, I read once that going meatless three days a week would do more for reducing your carbon footprint than driving a Hybrid.  Crazy! So you will see a lot of vegetarian stuff here, and mostly whole foods.

I also take my job as a parent pretty seriously, and most days do my best to raise thoughtful, kind, healthy kids who loves their veggies.

On our little island, something like 90% of all our food is imported.  Most estimates say that if some kind of natural disaster made it too difficult for the ships to come here our island is 9 days away from hunger.  So we think about Food Security- a lot.  Our original Green Box Garden was both a part of an effort to depend less on the system, and a symbol of resistance to it.  Shipping pallets represent our dependence on oil and the powers that be to provide for us.  We turned them into food production boxes for next to nothing.  You can see how simple it was here and  here.

We hope you find some inspiration here. Aloha ❤