Where are the Farmer's Markets on Maui? (Hilo, Kahului: coupons, home)

[davephan]

Where are the farmer's markets in Maui, and when are they open? We went to a nice sized farmer's market in downtown Hilo on the Big Island several times. The food at the Safeway here in Maui seems to be much more expensive than the food in the Big Island. We might be noticing the high cost of food on Maui more than the Big Island since we haven't discovered the farmer's markets here on Maui.

[OpenD]

Originally Posted by davephan

Where are the farmer's markets in Maui, and when are they open? We went to a nice sized farmer's market in downtown Hilo on the Big Island several times. The food at the Safeway here in Maui seems to be much more expensive than the food in the Big Island. We might be noticing the high cost of food on Maui more than the Big Island since we haven't discovered the farmer's markets here on Maui.

Here's a pretty good list of farmers markets on all the islands.

Hawaii Farmers' Markets


We grow the majority of local food for the state on the Big Island, which helps to hold the prices down here.

[davephan]

Originally Posted by OpenD

Here's a pretty good list of farmers markets on all the islands.

Hawaii Farmers' Markets


We grow the majority of local food for the state on the Big Island, which helps to hold the prices down here.

Thanks for the link! We'll check out the farmer's markets tomorrow. We bought 3 heads of lettuce at Safeway. I did not notice the price being as high as it was. It must have been priced by the pound. For only 3 heads of lettice, it was $14 at Safeway. At Costco in Kona, it was $8 for 3 heads of lettuce, which we considered to be very expensive. I didn't see any lettuce or much produce in the Costco in Kahului. In Minnesota a very high price for lettuce is $2 a head. A typical price is about $1.20 to $1.50 per head. The lettuce in Minnesota typically comes from across the country from California or Florida and isn't locally grown.

The beef and chicken are quite a bit higher on Maui than the Big Island.

We'll be looking at other prices on Maui over the week we will be here. My first impression is that food prices are drastically higher than the mainland and significantly higher that the Big Island. I'm not sure how the average person can survive that lives here on Maui and isn't in the top 5%. Even if you are in the top 5%, the food prices in Maui are too painful compared to what the costs should be if they were more reasonablely priced.

[OpenD]

Originally Posted by davephan

We bought 3 heads of lettuce at Safeway. I did not notice the price being as high as it was. It must have been priced by the pound. For only 3 heads of lettice, it was $14 at Safeway. At Costco in Kona, it was $8 for 3 heads of lettuce, which we considered to be very expensive. I didn't see any lettuce or much produce in the Costco in Kahului. In Minnesota a very high price for lettuce is $2 a head. A typical price is about $1.20 to $1.50 per head. The lettuce in Minnesota typically comes from across the country from California or Florida and isn't locally grown.

Yeah, it's a fooler, but most of the head lettuce in Hawai'i comes from California too. According to CTAHR only 18% of the lettuce sold in Hawai'i is grown locally, and most of that is grown on the Big Island. Head lettuce optimally needs a temperature range of 50F - 70F to grow well, which is only found at higher altitudes, or during the coldest part of the winter. Since lettuce is 95% water, and highly perishable, shipping costs make up the largest part of its price. My suggestion is to look for loose leaf lettuce and alternative salad greens.

The beef and chicken are quite a bit higher on Maui than the Big Island.

Again, it's all about local production on the Big Island. Parker Ranch at Waimea was once the largest cattle ranch anywhere, and even now is one of the largest in the US. Plus there are a lot of smaller scale operations. One of my neighbors lives in the village, but runs about 200 head of beef cattle on alpine meadows at higher elevations. Hawaiian grass-fed beef is among the finest in the world. We also have a big dairy on the Big Island, and one side product of dairies is beef.

Ironically it used to be hard to find local beef, because almost all of it got shipped to Texas or to Oregon feedlots for fattening up. Purely grass-fed beef is very lean, and has a "gamey" flavor that people who have only eaten corn-fed feedlot beef sometimes find unappealing. And grass-fed beef are much smaller at slaughter, so their per pound price is higher. That's why the bulk of the beef, including lower priced supermarket beef sold in Hawai'i is shipped in. But the high shipping costs in recent years, plus the need to downsize herds due to the droughts, has pushed more local beef to the local market.

Local chicken and egg production is down from several years ago, primarily because most of the chicken feed has to come from the mainland. So most of it is shipped in, and local small farmer eggs are usually more expensive. One of the local chicken mavens says it's currently impossible to break even on selling local eggs at less than $5/doz. So they are shipped in from bulk producers on the mainland, whose cost is maybe 1/4 or 20% that of Hawaiian producers .

Fresh pork is another one that's a fooler. Hawaiians love pork, no doubt about it, and a lot of rural folks keep a pig or two which are fed on mostly household scraps, or hunt the wild ones for luau and sausage. But commercial pork production requires a lot of corn and soybeans for their feed, which is not grown in commercial quantities in Hawai'i, so the feed has to be shipped in... so it mostly isn't. Instead the pigs are grown to market weight on the mainland, shipped live to Hawai'i, then slaughtered and dressed for market here.

"Food security" is a big governmental concern in Hawai'i, as we only have an estimated 7 days worth of perishable foods on hand in the state, and 30 days worth of all foods, according to government surveys. Any interruption in the flow of shipping... which has happened at times... can set off ripples of hoarding and shortages. That's why there is a lot of support for small farm food growers, and home gardens.

[quote]We'll be looking at other prices on Maui over the week we will be here. My first impression is that food prices are drastically higher than the mainland and significantly higher that the Big Island.

Yes, that is correct. It always makes me crazy when a few people breeze through any discussion of Hawaiian Cost of Living and say "It's not that bad here," when the facts clearly say otherwise.

I'm not sure how the average person can survive that lives here on Maui and isn't in the top 5%. Even if you are in the top 5%, the food prices in Maui are too painful compared to what the costs should be if they were more reasonablely priced.

There are several ways people cope here...

1) Switch to "island style" diets. Instead of suffering over the fact that mainland style foods are so expensive, change your diet to the local foods that are less expensive, like local fish and local tropical fruits and veggies. Also switch to cooking styles that use smaller amounts of pricey ingredients, like meat, and have larger amounts of inexpensive food, like rice. In other words, give up the Standard American Diet and learn Asian food styles instead. Avoid packaged foods, which are almost all shipped in and more expensive here than on the mainland.

2) Budget a larger portion of your income for food. Mainland Americans have it good, globally speaking. On average we only spend about 12% of our income on food (and we throw 1/3 of that away!), so bumping that up a few percent of the whole makes a big difference. In other parts of the world people spend much more... 25 to 50% on food. Yep, that calls for cutting back elsewhere, but look at all the great weather you get for free!

3) Be more frugal. Shop for bargains, shop specials, shop with coupons. Buy in bulk. Waste less, grow more. Shop more for value than for convenience.

As for farmers markets, exactly what you shop for and where you shop for it at farmers markets determines whether or not they will save you any money. Maybe not, but I like them for the freshness and variety they offer. For this reason I personally prefer the smaller markets in more rural areas, because you tend to get a lot more hobby farmers and home gardeners, and they often have varieties you'll never see in the stores, and "picked 4 hours ago" freshness. The bigger markets, like the famous Hilo market, have more commercial growers, often selling "culls" from what they export, and some scammers even selling cheap S American produce as their own. Caveat emptor, brah!

Have fun!

[jportal]

[quote=davephan;32141848]Where are the farmer's markets in Maui, and when are they open? We went to a nice sized farmer's market in downtown Hilo on the Big Island several times. The food at the Safeway here in Maui seems to be much more expensive than the food in the Big Island. We might be noticing the high cost of food on Maui more than the Big Island since we haven't discovered the farmer's markets here on Maui.[/quote

One Market I did not see on OpenD's list is Kaahumanu shopping center.
IIRC Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Fridays 8-4........ Yup, here is the link
Events | Queen Ka'ahumanu Center | Kahului, Hawaii

[OpenD]

Originally Posted by jportal

One Market I did not see on OpenD's list is Kaahumanu shopping center.
IIRC Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Fridays 8-4........ Yup, here is the link
Events | Queen Ka'ahumanu Center | Kahului, Hawaii

Thanks for the update. Yeah, it's hard to keep the compilation lists up to date, because things do change. For example I see that the Volcano listing needs an update, because it recently changed hours to: 6 - 10am Sundays. But it's handy to have so much info in one place.

Mahalo,
OpenD

[whtviper1]

I hope you have a large wallet if you want to drink locally produced milk on Maui - $10.19/gallon!

Sticker shock over Maui milk prices - Hawaii News Now - KGMB and KHNL

[OpenD]

Yeah, nothing produces sticker shock any faster in Hawai'i than the price of fresh whole milk. Visitors and malahini go apoplectic over $5/gal milk, so $10+ must drive them insane! We even had a classic CDF meaandering thread about this a while back:

https://www.city-data.com/forum/hawai...razy-milk.html

#2 crazy is probably the price of bread. I don't even think twice about paying $5 for a loaf of bread at the general store, if I must have bread. It's just what is. Consequently I buy a whole lot less bread than I did when I was on the mainland, bake more, do without more.

And that circles back to adapting to the local conditions, as far as I'm concerned. If the price of fresh whole milk is an issue for you, don't buy it. If you have kids, buy powdered milk, it's far cheaper. Or at least mix fresh milk 50:50 with powdered milk to preserve the taste but reduce the cost. And if you are an adult, consider dropping it from your diet. There are other good sources for calcium, like kale, and who needs Vitamin D supplementation in the sunshiniest state?

A lot of native Hawaiians don't buy it at all. For one thing many people of Asian or African descent are lactose intolerant, so milk just isn't part of their normal diet. And for another, it's also not part of the cultural norm in Hawai'i, due to it so long being scarce and expensive in the islands. Unless you are genetically from Northern European heritage, where milk historically helped people survive during long, dark winters, chances are that milk really isn't all that to you.

For adults I recommend a switch to coconut water or fruit juices with rum or okolehao added as a flavor booster, organic pesticide, and all around mood enhancer.

I mean, no kidding, you think dunking Oreos in a glass of milk is good, just try them with this classic Hawaiian breakfast drink:

Rum and Coconut Water - Drink Recipe – How to Make the Perfect Rum and Coconut Water - Esquire

Okolemaluna y'all! Right JJ?

[maui-intoxicated]

I love my Milk!. I just started drinking more water and fruit juice as it seems to go hand in hand with the tropical weather here on Maui.

If you go to Costco the milk prices are a bit more reasonable and there are places that should offer discounts to "locals" that should bring it under $10.

I tell you what, when Christmas rolls around Santa is definitely not sacrificing his milk and cookies...not even in paradise!

[OpenD]

Originally Posted by maui-intoxicated

I tell you what, when Christmas rolls around Santa is definitely not sacrificing his milk and cookies...not even in paradise!

Speak for yourself. In my ohana Santa switched to pupus and mai tais many years before I left the mainland.