Celebrating Malo Farms' Commitment to Excellence and Community

As I walked through the beautiful setting of Malo farms, I couldn't help but feel a sense of awe at the dedication and passion that goes into creating a truly exceptional dining experience. From the high-end restaurant to the humble beginnings on the farm itself, it was clear that this was more than just a business - it was a community-driven initiative that brought people together through food.

The journey began with the farmers' table, where we were treated to an incredible spread of locally-sourced produce, expertly prepared by Chef Eddie. The room was filled with laughter and conversation as we savored each dish, from the roasted carrots to the burrata cheese. It was clear that this was a space where people came together to celebrate not just food, but also the connections and relationships that make life truly rich.

One of the things that struck me most about Malo farms was the emphasis on community and connection. As Chef Eddie explained, "We took care of each other, we found our excellences and we brought them together." This approach to food is not just about sustenance, but about building bridges between people and fostering a sense of belonging.

The farm itself was a testament to this philosophy, with its emphasis on supporting local farmers and workers. The use of cast iron pans and traditional cooking methods added a unique touch to each dish, while the incorporation of foraged ingredients like carrot tops and lima beans brought a fresh and exciting element to the table.

As we dined, it became clear that Malo farms was not just about food - but about restoring connection to our natural world. "We restore connection and you start families right," Chef Eddie said, as he presented us with the delicious spread of dishes. This is more than just a business model - it's a way of life.

The conversation turned to the topic of paradise and how it relates to food. Chef Eddie explained that Hawaii was once considered a paradise, but human actions have had devastating effects on the environment. However, he emphasized that it's not about dwelling on the past, but about taking action in the present. "That's what I'm learning," he said, with a smile.

As we neared the end of our meal, Chef Eddie pulled out his salt and pepper shaker to share a special moment. He explained that olive oil is more than just a condiment - it's medicine for the soul. The use of cast iron pans and wood-fired ovens added a depth of flavor and texture to each dish, while the incorporation of local ingredients like kalo and lima beans brought a unique taste experience.

As we finished our meal and began to say our goodbyes, I couldn't help but feel grateful for the experience. Malo farms was more than just a dinner - it was an opportunity to connect with people and celebrate the beauty of food in all its forms. As Chef Eddie so eloquently put it, "This is me giving back to you."

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enhuh my god I'm over New York my backpack it up I'm out here work for you yes you just need me in radishes yeah oh shoot hey guys saying going places we're meeting up with my organic farms on the west end of Oahu here they're working with a lot of the young adults in the area getting them involved in their food system growing their palates learning where food comes from how to grow it and the responsibility behind it and then we're going to be working with chef ed Kenny a Hawaiian chef down in town here and we're going to make a nice lunch for the folks that work on the farm couldn't be more excited to learn about it so let's get working Oh my cake and my Luna my own anomaly my momma no Haleakala not a bad place to work not a bad place to work man it's a pretty good cubicle so this is actually horrible and so this is kind of like the pickle of the farm or the center of the farm and so as you can see there's like some offerings on it just yeah people that have come and share it so you can bring your whole cuckoo or your gifts coming similar to that circle in the front it was kind of the space of grounding on the face of reefs entering but in Hawaii did the chat we did this morning it was us kind of taking from our ancestors calling on to them to kind of help us get through this day or or to take on the task at hand you know we've been doing this farm in this world 14 years the education program has been around for about 12 of those years we've been getting people to college who've been growing food you know the people that run this farm are from the ages of 18 till about 29 and I couldn't help but notice you know just looking around quick in that circle everyone wanted to be there oh yeah yeah they were I got to go to school kind of language is dragon it definitely has to do with just they understand the work they're doing is purposeful you know so like at the surface it just looks like okay it's a farm we're going veggies yeah but when you look deeper into it what we're trying to do is we're trying to like reshape the stigma that our community has and redefine it and so basically you drive down this road down Franken Highway you know it's a food desert there's some farms in this valley a lot of its being exported we notice that's one deficit we have another deficit is education we know that with higher education you get more opportunity and a lot of these guys we don't necessarily have opportunity we're told that you know we just gotta be laborers and there's nothing wrong with that there's nothing wrong with that we want our community to have options yeah when we realize that we are smart people and we're capable all these guys that you see in the front they're college interns and they're basically doing everything a part of the farm yeah so they're planting stuff they're harvesting veggies washing and processing the vegetables I feel like in farming you learn a plethora of skills in terms of management time management not schools for life exactly it goes for life yeah for sure and whatever they learn here they're gonna taking them forever yeah I mean no pun intended but like planting that seed in them yeah yeah for sure man so we had a few things we're gonna be harvesting over here we got some root veggies over here we're probably do some bunches I'm taught soy and arugula oh wow uh-huh ooh that's a good one that's beautiful yeah yeah so like when we were back at the circle I couldn't help you know everyone was pretty fired up and stoked about this new land that you guys are acquiring and I mean that you just explained how huge that is for you know for an outside as an outside yeah I mean Chuck's just just finding a large parcel of land right that Bay 236 acres it's not very common to move forward we know in order to be self-sufficient we gotta get more food into the ground and we gotta start go to people yeah exactly start ourselves yeah yeah we got a real sour reaping the benefits of this land that we are meant to take care of yeah you guys are doing the good work man install the piece oh yeah for sure dude this is my favorite here there's no oh wow that flavor and so we really says salads we're oh these as bunches just so much flavor so much flavor in a roll and peppery mm-hmm like this is really it's a product of the soil exactly yeah yeah what does I think at a walk Nancy using like for wine right right realtor oh yeah yeah big-time right here you taste this and it's just like it's completely different how you're gonna go back exactly yeah yeah I'm almost like we've got spoil that'll spoil time you know our goal at farmer's market is the to bring diversity so every time we always have about 35 different things at least at that farmers markets always say one of the reasons why we grow so many different things is because growing multiple things is sexy man yeah big you know it's yeah it's it's boring if you just grow in the same thing but when it's unhealthy yeah it's not healthy for the land soil exactly biodiversity is key that monos right yeah exactly you know and we know it doesn't work it doesn't work you know it was done here years ago with the sugar plantations sure all it does is take it all it does is take yup had it boots Donna I don't know man oh no yeah you got me beating out one are you here to sort of that it only weighs 12 pounds I'm gonna be ready we don't we don't cool thing you know what are we picking here this is top so a bunch it's like a cross between spinach and Pok choy is what I had on baby it's one of my face yeah yeah it's so good my favorite part of this is actually the stalk it's like refreshing yeah yeah it starts from the root and comes up that's the nutrient highway yeah yeah yeah yeah the new street highway I like that yeah I'm gonna do a quality-control real quick get some sweat in there too huh I did look great Brian wait does boob and it's like almost like taking a sip of water too yeah yeah it's refreshing babe I mean I know you guys already did the hard work and there's a lot that goes into just getting these beautiful perfect rose yeah yeah look how much food we filled up engine yeah in five minutes exactly and from workers from a five foot strip yeah yeah yeah yeah and the colors just poppin she's a beauty every color of the rainbow over here mmhmm yeah get in there oh yeah yeah yeah everyone's everyone's a trap everyone should try everyone to try one okay I'll give a little pull we got going here bok choi bok choy yup Wow we just heard about I love how you can get the whole the whole plan the whole cycle there kohlrabi slaw yeah my goodness okay oh my god it makes me happy how how happy you are you in this battle but it's so satisfying and just stuff the fact that we're you know like knowing that you were a part of it you know you've seen it through its cycle it's like having kids just a lot of them right right millions of them that you eat yeah that's the other I love the land I love eating food but it's these guys man they definitely give my life purpose and just like knowing that I was in that place where they are sure now and seeing some of them come through here man a lot of there's so much sure I'm so impressed man I'm so yeah you should be male keep me motivated for sure and so all that's left is the processing part okay so specially the washing all right yeah that's do it man cooks we got so much flavor you can learn in the veteran possible shoots we can pay for oil in the vegetables yeah you know you will load us up onto the truck as well yeah so this right here this is a receiving area as well basically all the produce that comes in off on the fields coming through these to harvest vehicles will end up here you know when you go into some supermarkets everything's perfect like oh that's a defect mmm nice that's normal yeah you know just as good exactly you know buy my favorite thing to find and you'll probably find something that trail carrots is these really awkward shaped carrots all right looks like some legs going yeah yeah yeah I got just as good as a regular you know Bugs Bunny carrot yeah you know it has good characteristics okay I thought that all week I'll just wait for the time to say it every weigh-in yes let's go very good now you do it right on I'll see if I'm a daddy Ricky goodness thanks for joining us man of course yeah yeah so what do we have where we get into you tell me haha this is this is basically Ready Set cook yeah it's what we do at the restaurant everyday we just kind of wait for what shows up at the back door and we look through it and it's like Christmas get inspired by Christmas think of these things beautiful you try on your chance to try these yeah just orange laughs sweet perfect unbelievable I mean I just love how they're not all perfect you know magazines or you know movie carrots you know cartoon this is perfect I know exactly I couldn't agree more so what we do the restaurant is we've got some staples that we always have in the pantry and then we complement it with that so I brought a few things with me to the farm today kalo which is the starch staple of the Hawaiian people I've got some aku which is a ball little skipjack tuna you would think because we're in the middle of the Pacific that fish is plentiful same problem is the rest of the world we're over fished and we're surrounded by international waters so boats come in and just take everything everything this is one of the fish that is actually still green on the Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch list it's just eat as much as you want it's plentiful little baby tunas super oily super flavorful good for you yeah so yeah fish and POI fishing taro a state match made in heaven one of my favorite things to do is feed feed the the youth out of the farm they labor all day but they don't really get to see the finished product of their food so I try to come out here as much as we can and cook them that's huge yeah and to see the light bulb moments when they're like oh my god this is the arugula I grew and I mean the average age of the farmers getting older and older so this place is really really significant in that it's it's reintroducing young adults to where all their food came from back in the day it makes sense in contemporary times that we have this arrangement between organic farm in a rural Hawaiian community and a high-end restaurant in a very urban and discerning marketplace but it also made sense ancestry as to Native Hawaiians like this is how we took care of each other we found our excellences and we brought them together and you can't talk about excellence without then dropping yeah anyway and what he's able to do with our produce and help lift up our work but also transform our students palate sure and that you include the people producing the food in in a very intentional way with the people taking and pleading that food to empower them by restoring food systems we restore connection and you start families right and I'm really glad that we can be lifting up this work a people set up for you to understand that who is in the paradise you think it is it's actually a better kind of paradise from what I'm learning I mean sounds like Hawaii was a paradise and people came and screwed a lot I mean that's the human story right no so it's not about what happened is what you won't do about it which gonna do and how you gonna make change alright thank you Jesus you can bring it to my salt and pepper it's beautiful there's certain things we don't have here olive oil being one of them I love I can't live without it it's more more medicine than in his food on nectar of the God yeah and we've got um these cast iron pans in here getting nice and hot whipping yeah beautiful going yeah so these I'm thinking will probably serve them room temp with a maraca cheese so make a little carrot top pesto for these things cocoa I thought so many people just throwing away Taylor character and what's good about being on the farm is you can just throw it is go yeah we still bring in 90 plus percent of everything we eat here unbelievable that our restaurants were probably at around 65 percent local I mean I can't live without olive oil right our garlic garlic I eat it raw you saw getting a little cold coming if you crush it out and oh boy you know I think the more empennage it does some at that food processor a little bit of a technological the sweat the drips off your nose a little exercise in it yeah the carrots come out we're just going to do the same thing with this tear oh yeah look at that cool right you know a bit of color not I mean I can almost probably guarantee that the youth on the farm have never had burrata cheese but he probably never had half the stuff they're gonna eat today I'm glad we can get to them all right yeah thank you all of you guys for doing this is such such important work it's not just super beneficial for you but for for your children and their children and it really is a global issue yeah it was just a super special day and I'm glad I could celebrate it with you no panic Organic today um again my honor to cook for you don't thank me no one say thank you this is me giving back to you we got arugula your folks are Uggla it's so beautiful I basically don't want to do anything with it Lily Cote vinaigrette cut to a bow she which is dried aku Parmesan cheese on top we have burrata which is a beautiful fresh mozzarella stuffed with curd it's with your folks carrots roasted in the wood oven I could put dog poop in that wood oven and it would taste oh no we have chocolate chip cookies I had to make something that I knew you guys would all like and then we have a COO that I we roasted in the oven it's with kalo the staple of our people look pickled lima on top chili pepper water io Lee and that's it so Mahalo you folks thank you yeah you know wrapping up the day here on Malo farms I can't help but just just feel the sense of love and an inspiration to kind of bring home with me all the beautiful people that we met and work with I mean it's a whole village that makes this happen it's such a beautiful program that they set up where they're helping you know young adults from from the community get involved with their food Riaan digitize their food system and everything we ate was just so delicious and you could really taste that it was a product of its environment thank you again to everyone chef Eddie for shine and light and bringing the stuff awesome produce to the restaurants and to in to the people that matter doesn't get much better than this and you know nothing but best of thoughts for you guys and just keep fighting the good fight because because the world needs it Bon Appetit man I just got to say thank you to everyone to let me come on here and get I thought you were son of them like a mafia hit he gave up yeah I'm cement boots throw me in the ocean we have a hole already dug uphuh my god I'm over New York my backpack it up I'm out here work for you yes you just need me in radishes yeah oh shoot hey guys saying going places we're meeting up with my organic farms on the west end of Oahu here they're working with a lot of the young adults in the area getting them involved in their food system growing their palates learning where food comes from how to grow it and the responsibility behind it and then we're going to be working with chef ed Kenny a Hawaiian chef down in town here and we're going to make a nice lunch for the folks that work on the farm couldn't be more excited to learn about it so let's get working Oh my cake and my Luna my own anomaly my momma no Haleakala not a bad place to work not a bad place to work man it's a pretty good cubicle so this is actually horrible and so this is kind of like the pickle of the farm or the center of the farm and so as you can see there's like some offerings on it just yeah people that have come and share it so you can bring your whole cuckoo or your gifts coming similar to that circle in the front it was kind of the space of grounding on the face of reefs entering but in Hawaii did the chat we did this morning it was us kind of taking from our ancestors calling on to them to kind of help us get through this day or or to take on the task at hand you know we've been doing this farm in this world 14 years the education program has been around for about 12 of those years we've been getting people to college who've been growing food you know the people that run this farm are from the ages of 18 till about 29 and I couldn't help but notice you know just looking around quick in that circle everyone wanted to be there oh yeah yeah they were I got to go to school kind of language is dragon it definitely has to do with just they understand the work they're doing is purposeful you know so like at the surface it just looks like okay it's a farm we're going veggies yeah but when you look deeper into it what we're trying to do is we're trying to like reshape the stigma that our community has and redefine it and so basically you drive down this road down Franken Highway you know it's a food desert there's some farms in this valley a lot of its being exported we notice that's one deficit we have another deficit is education we know that with higher education you get more opportunity and a lot of these guys we don't necessarily have opportunity we're told that you know we just gotta be laborers and there's nothing wrong with that there's nothing wrong with that we want our community to have options yeah when we realize that we are smart people and we're capable all these guys that you see in the front they're college interns and they're basically doing everything a part of the farm yeah so they're planting stuff they're harvesting veggies washing and processing the vegetables I feel like in farming you learn a plethora of skills in terms of management time management not schools for life exactly it goes for life yeah for sure and whatever they learn here they're gonna taking them forever yeah I mean no pun intended but like planting that seed in them yeah yeah for sure man so we had a few things we're gonna be harvesting over here we got some root veggies over here we're probably do some bunches I'm taught soy and arugula oh wow uh-huh ooh that's a good one that's beautiful yeah yeah so like when we were back at the circle I couldn't help you know everyone was pretty fired up and stoked about this new land that you guys are acquiring and I mean that you just explained how huge that is for you know for an outside as an outside yeah I mean Chuck's just just finding a large parcel of land right that Bay 236 acres it's not very common to move forward we know in order to be self-sufficient we gotta get more food into the ground and we gotta start go to people yeah exactly start ourselves yeah yeah we got a real sour reaping the benefits of this land that we are meant to take care of yeah you guys are doing the good work man install the piece oh yeah for sure dude this is my favorite here there's no oh wow that flavor and so we really says salads we're oh these as bunches just so much flavor so much flavor in a roll and peppery mm-hmm like this is really it's a product of the soil exactly yeah yeah what does I think at a walk Nancy using like for wine right right realtor oh yeah yeah big-time right here you taste this and it's just like it's completely different how you're gonna go back exactly yeah yeah I'm almost like we've got spoil that'll spoil time you know our goal at farmer's market is the to bring diversity so every time we always have about 35 different things at least at that farmers markets always say one of the reasons why we grow so many different things is because growing multiple things is sexy man yeah big you know it's yeah it's it's boring if you just grow in the same thing but when it's unhealthy yeah it's not healthy for the land soil exactly biodiversity is key that monos right yeah exactly you know and we know it doesn't work it doesn't work you know it was done here years ago with the sugar plantations sure all it does is take it all it does is take yup had it boots Donna I don't know man oh no yeah you got me beating out one are you here to sort of that it only weighs 12 pounds I'm gonna be ready we don't we don't cool thing you know what are we picking here this is top so a bunch it's like a cross between spinach and Pok choy is what I had on baby it's one of my face yeah yeah it's so good my favorite part of this is actually the stalk it's like refreshing yeah yeah it starts from the root and comes up that's the nutrient highway yeah yeah yeah yeah the new street highway I like that yeah I'm gonna do a quality-control real quick get some sweat in there too huh I did look great Brian wait does boob and it's like almost like taking a sip of water too yeah yeah it's refreshing babe I mean I know you guys already did the hard work and there's a lot that goes into just getting these beautiful perfect rose yeah yeah look how much food we filled up engine yeah in five minutes exactly and from workers from a five foot strip yeah yeah yeah yeah and the colors just poppin she's a beauty every color of the rainbow over here mmhmm yeah get in there oh yeah yeah yeah everyone's everyone's a trap everyone should try everyone to try one okay I'll give a little pull we got going here bok choi bok choy yup Wow we just heard about I love how you can get the whole the whole plan the whole cycle there kohlrabi slaw yeah my goodness okay oh my god it makes me happy how how happy you are you in this battle but it's so satisfying and just stuff the fact that we're you know like knowing that you were a part of it you know you've seen it through its cycle it's like having kids just a lot of them right right millions of them that you eat yeah that's the other I love the land I love eating food but it's these guys man they definitely give my life purpose and just like knowing that I was in that place where they are sure now and seeing some of them come through here man a lot of there's so much sure I'm so impressed man I'm so yeah you should be male keep me motivated for sure and so all that's left is the processing part okay so specially the washing all right yeah that's do it man cooks we got so much flavor you can learn in the veteran possible shoots we can pay for oil in the vegetables yeah you know you will load us up onto the truck as well yeah so this right here this is a receiving area as well basically all the produce that comes in off on the fields coming through these to harvest vehicles will end up here you know when you go into some supermarkets everything's perfect like oh that's a defect mmm nice that's normal yeah you know just as good exactly you know buy my favorite thing to find and you'll probably find something that trail carrots is these really awkward shaped carrots all right looks like some legs going yeah yeah yeah I got just as good as a regular you know Bugs Bunny carrot yeah you know it has good characteristics okay I thought that all week I'll just wait for the time to say it every weigh-in yes let's go very good now you do it right on I'll see if I'm a daddy Ricky goodness thanks for joining us man of course yeah yeah so what do we have where we get into you tell me haha this is this is basically Ready Set cook yeah it's what we do at the restaurant everyday we just kind of wait for what shows up at the back door and we look through it and it's like Christmas get inspired by Christmas think of these things beautiful you try on your chance to try these yeah just orange laughs sweet perfect unbelievable I mean I just love how they're not all perfect you know magazines or you know movie carrots you know cartoon this is perfect I know exactly I couldn't agree more so what we do the restaurant is we've got some staples that we always have in the pantry and then we complement it with that so I brought a few things with me to the farm today kalo which is the starch staple of the Hawaiian people I've got some aku which is a ball little skipjack tuna you would think because we're in the middle of the Pacific that fish is plentiful same problem is the rest of the world we're over fished and we're surrounded by international waters so boats come in and just take everything everything this is one of the fish that is actually still green on the Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch list it's just eat as much as you want it's plentiful little baby tunas super oily super flavorful good for you yeah so yeah fish and POI fishing taro a state match made in heaven one of my favorite things to do is feed feed the the youth out of the farm they labor all day but they don't really get to see the finished product of their food so I try to come out here as much as we can and cook them that's huge yeah and to see the light bulb moments when they're like oh my god this is the arugula I grew and I mean the average age of the farmers getting older and older so this place is really really significant in that it's it's reintroducing young adults to where all their food came from back in the day it makes sense in contemporary times that we have this arrangement between organic farm in a rural Hawaiian community and a high-end restaurant in a very urban and discerning marketplace but it also made sense ancestry as to Native Hawaiians like this is how we took care of each other we found our excellences and we brought them together and you can't talk about excellence without then dropping yeah anyway and what he's able to do with our produce and help lift up our work but also transform our students palate sure and that you include the people producing the food in in a very intentional way with the people taking and pleading that food to empower them by restoring food systems we restore connection and you start families right and I'm really glad that we can be lifting up this work a people set up for you to understand that who is in the paradise you think it is it's actually a better kind of paradise from what I'm learning I mean sounds like Hawaii was a paradise and people came and screwed a lot I mean that's the human story right no so it's not about what happened is what you won't do about it which gonna do and how you gonna make change alright thank you Jesus you can bring it to my salt and pepper it's beautiful there's certain things we don't have here olive oil being one of them I love I can't live without it it's more more medicine than in his food on nectar of the God yeah and we've got um these cast iron pans in here getting nice and hot whipping yeah beautiful going yeah so these I'm thinking will probably serve them room temp with a maraca cheese so make a little carrot top pesto for these things cocoa I thought so many people just throwing away Taylor character and what's good about being on the farm is you can just throw it is go yeah we still bring in 90 plus percent of everything we eat here unbelievable that our restaurants were probably at around 65 percent local I mean I can't live without olive oil right our garlic garlic I eat it raw you saw getting a little cold coming if you crush it out and oh boy you know I think the more empennage it does some at that food processor a little bit of a technological the sweat the drips off your nose a little exercise in it yeah the carrots come out we're just going to do the same thing with this tear oh yeah look at that cool right you know a bit of color not I mean I can almost probably guarantee that the youth on the farm have never had burrata cheese but he probably never had half the stuff they're gonna eat today I'm glad we can get to them all right yeah thank you all of you guys for doing this is such such important work it's not just super beneficial for you but for for your children and their children and it really is a global issue yeah it was just a super special day and I'm glad I could celebrate it with you no panic Organic today um again my honor to cook for you don't thank me no one say thank you this is me giving back to you we got arugula your folks are Uggla it's so beautiful I basically don't want to do anything with it Lily Cote vinaigrette cut to a bow she which is dried aku Parmesan cheese on top we have burrata which is a beautiful fresh mozzarella stuffed with curd it's with your folks carrots roasted in the wood oven I could put dog poop in that wood oven and it would taste oh no we have chocolate chip cookies I had to make something that I knew you guys would all like and then we have a COO that I we roasted in the oven it's with kalo the staple of our people look pickled lima on top chili pepper water io Lee and that's it so Mahalo you folks thank you yeah you know wrapping up the day here on Malo farms I can't help but just just feel the sense of love and an inspiration to kind of bring home with me all the beautiful people that we met and work with I mean it's a whole village that makes this happen it's such a beautiful program that they set up where they're helping you know young adults from from the community get involved with their food Riaan digitize their food system and everything we ate was just so delicious and you could really taste that it was a product of its environment thank you again to everyone chef Eddie for shine and light and bringing the stuff awesome produce to the restaurants and to in to the people that matter doesn't get much better than this and you know nothing but best of thoughts for you guys and just keep fighting the good fight because because the world needs it Bon Appetit man I just got to say thank you to everyone to let me come on here and get I thought you were son of them like a mafia hit he gave up yeah I'm cement boots throw me in the ocean we have a hole already dug up\n"