Smoothies in Paradise Most people venture into the ever-greener wilds past Hāna on Maui to check out the pools of Ohe‘o Gulch or Charles Lindbergh’s grave. We go for organic fruit smoothies whipped up in a bicycle-powered blender. Or for a cup of smooth, shade-grown coffee, brewed from biodynamic/organic beans roasted that very morning; they were dried on a trampoline in a Bucky Fuller dome with help from a solar-powered fan. (Make mine with a splash of coconut milk, please.)

You’re in Kipahulu at the roadside stand of Laulima Farms, the most beautiful middle of nowhere you’ve ever seen. Look around. Sloping upward from the too-cute stand, this is the epitome of alive, a natural riot of food-in-the-making, flowers, butterflies, and pollinating bees. At a nearby pond, ducks make snacks of slugs and other garden pests. Because you’re on the gentle haunches of Mt. Haleakalā, you’re in a United Nation’s biosphere reserve. The good folks of Kipahulu have also declared it a GMO-free zone.

It was all guava and cane grass, recalls Josh Stearn, the farm’s manager, when it was purchased by his family (which owns the organic, vegan and raw Café Gratitudes in the San Francisco area). Laulima means “many hands together,” and that’s what it took to transform these 13 acres. Most of the labor, then and now, comes from interns who trade use of their hands for the chance to live in this beautiful place. Today they’re harvesting all kinds of leafy greens and tasty veggies, herbs, roots like ginger and turmeric, tropical fruits (including 8 varieties of banana), cacao, not to mention the awesome coffee. Nearby Hotel Hāna-Maui, a green oasis of a much tonier sort, buys tons of this bounty; the rest is sold at the farm.

All power flows from solar panels, the wind, or a back-up generator that runs on veggie oil (as do the farm’s vehicles and motorized equipment, including the small coffee roaster). Plantings are done permaculture style-permanent agriculture—to minimize energy use, human and otherwise. Ground cover, for instance, is the low, quickly spreading peanut plant, which need no mowing and puts lots of nitrogen back into the soil. The farm stand is a local gathering spot for talking story, checking out crafts by local artisans, and bulletin boards with flyers and newspaper articles about organic agriculture and sustainability. There are even weekly farm tours.

Nuts to us On Maui’s fabled road to Hāna, not far east of Pā‘iā town, there’s a roadside bamboo hut with the sign that reads HUELO LOOKOUT. Not only will you find fresh organic tropical fruit here ready to eat—whatever’s in season, be it mango, rambutan, lychee, papaya, and more—but there’s no better spot to sample cooling, healthful coconut water and soft young coconut meat right out of the shell. If you’re really lucky, the guy with the machete who deftly cracks the nut for you will be the fruit stand’s owner, Phillipe Visintainer, a Frenchman by birth who’s made it his mission to save Hawai‘i’s coconut palms from a deadly fungus that produces coconut heart rot. After the state told him it didn’t have the resources to fight the spreading infection, Visintainer used research begun by the University of Hawai‘i to create an inoculation that gives healthy coconut trees a 98% chance of avoiding the disease. Mahalo and merci!

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Renée Loux is a green marvel. If you hit the glorious sugar-sand beaches of south Kihei, on Maui, you’re not far from the solar-powered beach house she shares with Shep Gordon, who’s a marvel of a different sort (long-time manager of Alice Cooper, friend to the Dalai Lama, et al.). Renée was the raw chef on actor (and fellow eco-hero) Woody Harrelson’s veggie-powered bus in the 2003 feature documentary Go Further. She used to be chef/owner of an acclaimed raw restaurant on Maui’s north shore, and she still consults with restaurants and spas on how to go green. These days her main gigs are hosting “It’s Easy Being Green” on the Fine Living Channel and writing painstakingly researched, highly engaging books. Her latest is Easy Green Living (Rodale Press), which she calls “the ultimate, elemental guide to how to go green and stay sane.” We’re also big fans of The Balanced Plate, also from Rodale, a cookbook that’s as much about a green and healthy lifestyle as it is great recipes. Both are highly recommended. And check out her website, which is jam-packed with info.

This post is a sneak preview of Green Traveler Guides’ Hawaii, our e-guide to all things green in the Aloha State.

We highly recommend watching this video of Maui volunteers rescuing 15 baby Hawaiian green sea turtles.  The turtles were stuck in their mother’s nest underneath the sand, until Skippy Hau and Cheryl King lead the efforts to recover the newly hatched babies.

The nest was on the Maui Coastal Land Trust property at the Waihe’e Coastal Dunes and Wetlands Refuge.  There is something very hypnotic about watching the video. Seeing the team come together to rescue the little turtles, and then releasing them out to sea is worth ten minutes of your day.  It makes us realize how precious wildlife truly is.