About Us
To make a very long story short…
Deb and Ben moved from New York City to Ahualoa, Hawai’i in May 2005. We moved into a house we own on 2.3 acres, a house that Ben grew up in, surrounded by a wonderful community.
Ben’s parents, Jim and Ruthie Bernaert, live here too. The Bernaerts are Anusara yoga teachers, and have been gardening organic vegetables for decades. Fresh vegetables are great, but we wanted to make more use of our land, and try farming.
The first thing we did, in the fall of 2005, was attend a Hawaii County workshop on growing and processing Tea. We joined the Hawaii Tea Society and got a few plants.
The next thing our family did was build a fancy chicken coop, and raise free-range chickens. They arrived as day-old chicks on Valentine’s Day, 2006, and started to produce eggs in July. In August, we finally found a way to import organically grown chicken feed, so in 2007-2008 we had the only organically-fed hens on the island. The Egg Farm has its own page.
Our big challenge right now is getting tea plants. There is very little plant material available on the island. I have cleared and prepared half an acre of land to receive rows of tea, as soon as our little plants are ready.
Ben maintains a detailed notes page on growing tea in Hawaii here http://ahualoa.net/tea/
When Deb is not tending to the hens, she loves folding and teaching origami, crafting and rubber stamping. She also enjoys Indian cooking at home.
Come have a farm visit with Ben & Deb!
