Farm To Table

With it being Christmas Eve, we wanted to do something special. On a previous trip to Maui, Liz and Algis toured a place called O’o Farm which offers a farm tour and gourmet lunch. They said it was awesome and so Liz organized the outing for today ($74 USD / person). O’o Farm is located in Upcountry which is on the western side of Haleakala. The area has lots of farms, ranches and gardens.

The tour started at 10:30am and our guide was Ra. You could tell that she is very passionate about being a farmer and educating people on the virtues of farm to table eating. There are approximately ten farmers that work the 8.5 acre farm. All of the food grown here supplies the Pacific’O Restaurant in Lahaina.

To begin we walked through the some of the trees of the farm … olive trees, coffee bushes and various fruit trees. We arrived at a covered area that had two large tables where we would be enjoying our lunch. Before we went off to harvest, the chef described what lunch would be today and boy did it sound delicious.

The next hour was spent walking through the various gardens harvesting what we would be eating. I do not remember all of the items but some of them were beet leafs, arugula and edible flowers such as Mexican sunflower. We finished up the harvesting and while we were looking in the gift shop, we heard the lunch bell and that meant it was time to eat.

We started our lunch with focaccia bread and a field green salad with a citrus vinaigrette. Chef explained that the focaccia bread is made from a starter that he has had for the last few years.

Our first main of three was pan seared urban crusted Tofu with toasted black rice and white quinoa. This was served with a braised medley of vegetables including squash and coloured beans.

The second main was Mahi Mahi in a spicy sweet onion rub along with fresh avocado.

Our final main was a roasted chicken breasted in a coffee cherry BBQ coating accompanied with parsnips and carrots.

And to finish off lunch, coffee and chocolate was served with pineapple and apple bananas. The coffee was made from the beans grown on the property.

Ross, Susie, Karen and I stopped at the Safeway in Kahului to pick up the very last of the items needed for Christmas dinner. By the time we got back to the condo, it was after 4:00pm. I headed to the pool while Karen did some final wrapping.

Christmas Eve dinner was BBQ chicken with the sound of the waves crashing. The night ended with people stopping by and dropping off presents for Christmas morning.