Self-Sufficient Farmers in Maui

Are we ever happy that one of our families moved to Maui! We have always loved Maui but never in our wildest dreams did we think we would someday have a delightfully daring, darling, dashing, decisively independent family living at one of our favorite places on earth!

Jonah and Aja bought a house about 13 months ago that was pretty much a sow’s ear! After a thousand hours of work, they have made it into a charming silk purse!

Now that they have beautifully finished the main part of the house Jonah is working on building a beautiful new sun room at the back of the house. He has great farmer genes on both sides of my family and  loves to work (honestly). In fact he is practically addicted to it! He is using his contractor skills to build a lovely new room back there.

They are both working like crazy to become self-sufficient.In addition to driving in the converted diesel Mercedes to “greasel”, traveling over 200,000 miles (or close to that) on recycled grease, Jonah has now built grow boxes and fresh vegetables and herbs abound! Luckily Aja has a passion for growing things and knows everything about how things grow and what is needed to balance the acidic Hawaiian soil. Technically, Aja knows everything!

 

See the banana trees in the background. There’s also a papaya bush you can’t see. This is broccoli and kale.

And below is spinach and a variety of lettuce!

And she’s tending a bumper crop of tomatoes:

They house also came with a “knobby” lemon tree and a huge cherry tree which produces millions of “knobby” cherries.

Another of Aja’s passions has always been chickens. She has 40 at the moment and she’s looking forward to next month when they start laying eggs. Eggs are from 6-8 dollars a dozen in Hawaii, so the money’s going to be rolling in!

All these chickens attracted a mother hen with about a dozen little chicks. She abandoned four of them and Aja knew exactly what to do to take care of them. She and Po took care of them until the mother returned a few days later and they all took off together.

How about this for a couple of cute little chicks?

See al those baby chicks scampering after their mother?

I think Jonah made all the chicken coops.

The property is full of beautiful landscaping: ! 

Jonah loves being the chief cook.

He makes bread once a week:

 

And they always have a delightful selection of delectable jams, given to them by a friend. He juices oranges off the tree in their side yard almost every morning for fresh yummy orange juice.  He likes to hand out carrots in the breakfast mix too! 

 

Last night he stayed up until midnight making his famous homemade granola!  He got out his machete and whacked open a coconut, a friend traded him for some work, chopped it up, added lots of rolled oats,pure, extra virgin coconut oil, macadamia nuts from a friend’s garden well as some other “good for you” stuff and there you go. The best granola you’ve ever tasted! 

We love what this family is doing to conserve the earth’s resources and teaching their kids to do the same!  Go Jonah and Aja!  You are awesome!