Comes a time where one must look at their accomplishments and realize that much transpired due to the synergy and help from others. We have been blessed with many different experiences as we brought this farm into being with blood, sweat and tears and with the cooperation and support of so many people who believe in our product and us. We are proud to have created a unique farm with a beautiful fresh oyster mushroom cluster produced right here on Maui, using sustainable principles to enhance our environment and reduce our expenditures. The solar panel and water recycling pump and tank not only cooled our growing room but saved water, the roof top coil of black piping provided solar preheated water for the waste vegetable oil boiler, which created steam for the mixer that sterilized and blended the substrate for the mushrooms to grow on.
As much as we love what we do and the people we meet and interact with, we must look at our labor of love as a business that has run its course after 7 years. While we have been fortunate to take an existing old building and transform it to a working mushroom farm, we did not own it nor have family property on which we could build, live and work. The equipment we use has outlived its composition and to replace it is not economically feasible coupled with a short-lived lease. Sadly, we have made the decision to close the Makawao Mushrooms Farm.
We would like to take this opportunity to thank Everyone who has made this possible and the people and businesses that have supported us by buying our mushrooms and touring the farm and buying our logo tee shirts. The following is a list, not necessarily in any order, of many of those people and entities:
US Dept of Agriculture, Tri-Isle RC&D, Old Ah Fook’s and Eddie Tam Farmers' Markets (where we first started selling), Kaunoa Senior Centers (who’ve always toured respectfully, full of true aloha), Mana Foods (our first retail outlet), Paradise Food Mart, Illocandia, Puunene Mill workers, Alpha Delta Kappa Teacher’s Sorority both on Oahu and Maui, Seabury Hall and Carden Upcountry and Haleakala Waldorf students, Richard Martelles, Valarie Cardone, Rob Parsons of the Rob Report, Jill Engledow for writing the article that was picked up by Hawaiian Airlines Hana Hou magazine, Wendy Osher and Frank W. Pulaski for putting us on You Tube and generating all the global inquiries we are still getting, all of our farmer friends: Janet and Gerry of Kupa’a Farm, Joan and Ed, Walter and Terry of Evonuk Farms, Judy and Bill of Anuhea Farms, Thomas and Eva, and Nalani, of Surfing Goat Dairy, Audra and Chris, Melissa and George, and most of all, our Family and Friends who invested and believed in our effort.
Restaurants: Spago at the Four Seasons Maui, Capische, Pineapple Grill, Market Fresh Bistro, Hula Grill, Gerard’s, Merriman’s Kapalua, Ritz Carlton Kapalua, Roy’s Kihei and Kahana, Seahouse, Honolua Store, Haliimaile General Store, Grand Wailea. Special thanks to Chef Cameron Lewark and his crew at Spago’s, and Mana Foods, for supporting us from the very first commercial purchase right up to the very last days of production.
Thank you also to the many people not named here, but you know who you are, and you have touched us with your personal visit, support, or concern. Our lives have been enhanced by that interaction.
We are honored and grateful to have been given the opportunity to create a locally produced food product that was so well received here on Maui. We are especially honored of the continued requests for more product including tours, and regret we are unable fulfill those requests.
What we have learned about agriculture here and in general made a deep impact. What we will do with that knowledge is yet to be seen but as we are solution-oriented individuals we are excited to see where that takes us here on Maui. Thank you again for all your support and check back on the website under “What’s Happening” as that will now be an active blog log that will be monitored for your posts as well as ours. Mahalo Nui Loa.
