I’ve taking advantage of the time I have to work in my garden. As a result of this work, I’ve been getting some beautiful results.

All of these things were a result of years of care and lots of sweat. I’d spend few hours here and there tending to my yard to weed, spray, and prune to get these plants growing.

It takes a lot of patience but as you can see, it does pay off eventually. Neighbors would see me in my junk clothes and always admire my garden. As things grew, I’d share a lei or some flowers and pass out jam.

My hands and clothes were always dirty and I probably stunk from all that work but the outcome was worth it.

The very things were can use everyday likely came from a farm and someone’s hard labor. The work that someone put in gave you nice soft clothing or a delicious meal on your table. If you did not grow it, someone did.

Here in Hawaii, I had hoped the pandemic helped to make more realize the importance of local farms but unfortunately, transplanted invasive people from the Center for Food Safety has decided to block efforts for food security once again by using catchy campaigns. They are trying to make one of our very few egg farms, Waialua Fresh, disappear.

Nearly 9 years ago, that same group tried to push 1 mile buffer zones in farms in an attempt to get the biotech farms shut down. Little did they realize that they also would have shut our farm down too.

We have an opportunity to really work on that dream to be more food secure only of we walk the talk to support our agricultural community. It is not about going organic or some other hyped buzzword like regenerative farming but about supporting each and every farm. It is about community.

Several months ago, I shared some heliconias with a neighbor and he called me to see if he could stop by. He gave me some fresh eggs from his hens! I even traded my Lilikoi goods for fresh ahi and ono filets with a local fisherman. When we are blessed with abundance, we share the aloha.

In this day and age of constant bad news, it is clear we need to change our focus back to communityc for the sake of our kids. They need to see where they fit in the greater picture within out community.

My kids always asks how I am always coming home with stuff. I told them that the more we share and help others the richer we are in life.