Bees, Chickens, Mites and Fish. Community Gardeners on Kauai Gather to Talk about More Than Vegetables.

Raising backyard chickens is part of the conversation for Kauai Community Gardeners. This small flock is featured courtesy of David Tabonia.

On Saturday afternoon November 13, 2010 twenty individuals, covering the gamut from church community garden leaders, environmental educators, aquaponics teachers, grant writers, honey and bee advocates, back yard chicken farmers, private landowners, practitioners in the spiritual aspects of gardening, soil remediation experts and more gathered at the Kauai Community College (KCC) to talk about the issues and resources they share in common and how to maximize the local food sustainability efforts on Kauai.

Glen Hontz, developer of the course Growing Food as well as Agricultural Entrepreneur classes at KCC is the dynamic coordinator behind the gathering. The discussion ranged from the problems affecting the bees to how to repair overused and toxic soil. Here’s a few highlights from the afternoon exchange:

Bee covered in pollen. Photo courtesy of Happy Hour Design.

Growing food shouldn’t hurt. Perspective on growing up on a farm with a lot of chemical use. Hendrikus

Growing local food is way to restore not only our own health, but the health of the local economy. 
Arius

There are great implications for bee colonies from the varroa mite (Varroa destructor). There are also solutions but it requires very different techniques to protect your bees today. Oliver


Several months ago I started a quest – traveling around Kauai visiting the community gardens and writing stories for NatureTalksNews (for more see Kekaha and Kilauea). New community gardens are springing up across the island and linking with existing gardens that have been growing together for years. In the upcoming months we’ll visit all that are open and share their stories, who to contact and how to get involved. Next on the list are more of Kauai’s Church Gardens and the great work they do.