Chantal Chung has her hands, arms, legs and both feet full overseeing all of the programs she has running at Ma’ona Community Garden. She was a founding member of the Garden in 2007 establishing it as a nonprofit organization with the mission of creating and supporting community food systems. As the Garden’s Project Manager, Chantal has applied for and been awarded supportive grants for projects that are designed to increase our community’s capacity to be environmentally sustainable, economically vibrant, physically healthy and socially cohesive.
Chantal brings to her role at the Garden lots of gardening and farming experience. The Hirata and Tokumura sides of her family were South Kona coffee farmers. She visited the farms often as a child and always helped out in her family’s garden.
She declares, “We always had a garden at home to grow vegetables for our family. I loved working in our garden.”
Her experience has helped her understand the value of growing your own food. During the difficult times we are currently experiencing, it has been a primary goal for Chantal and those who work with her at the Garden to increase food security in our community. In pursuit of this goal, the Garden offers a monthly give-away of food plants from 9 a.m. to noon on the first Saturday of the month. Gardeners and would-be gardeners gather monthly at the site at 84-5097 Keala O Keawe Road in Honaunau to choose food plants to take home and grow.
Recipients of plants get information on how to grow their new crops successfully as well as lots of gardening tips and advice. They also get to tour Ma’ona Garden and see some full grown and productive examples of food crops.
This monthly plant distribution is made possible by generous donations and the collaboration of several organizations including the Hawaii Tropical Fruit Growers, Hawaii Ulu Producers Cooperative, Mala Kalu‘ulu, University of Hawaii Master Gardeners, and the Ka‘u Seed Library. Local farmer, Mary Lynn Garner, and UH Master Gardeners Robin Hill, Debbie Kokinos and Ray Sundstrom help to coordinate this project
Ma`ona Community Garden is situated on nearly six acres of Kamehameha Schools leased land, located on the road to the City of Refuge, just below the Painted Church Road turn off and near the juncture with Honaunau Road that leads to the rodeo grounds. Just over an acre of the land serves as a fruit germplasm repository for the Hawaii Tropical Fruit Growers while another acre and a quarter is set aside for traditional agroforestry research for Mala Kalu`ulu with a focus on ulu. The remaining acreage is filled with demonstration gardens, individual and family plots and some shared use facilities that include their large imu, a nursery and several composting areas. Future plans include a certified community kitchen and a Farmer’s Market.
To further promote food sovereignty in the community, Ma’ona Community Garden offers onsite plots as well as educational workshops to community members free of charge. The free plots include small family plots, shared space demonstration gardens and a few larger research plots. Work-share agreements are also offered to anyone wanting to participate in projects at the garden.
The Community Composting Project at the Garden was established in 2016 as a partnership with the Hawaii Ulu Producers Cooperative. They saw this as a way to reduce the landfill and provide compost for gardeners. Chantal reports that the project recycled 60,000 pounds of food and paper waste into garden compost onsite in 2019. They are composting in 15 separate composting areas as well as in a new vermiculture bin filled with Indian Blue garbage eating worms (Perionyx excavatus).
As part of the Community Composting Project, the Garden is researching the viability of alternative composting methods.
“We have had great results from our vermicomposting experiments and feel that composting with worms is an ideal way to convert large quantities of food and paper waste into soil amendments,” Chantal reports.
To get individuals involved in vermicomposting at home, OHA funded several free workshops to create worm bins and give away free worms to local residents. As the research at the Garden continues, a large concrete worm composting bin that is 40 feet long and 4 feet wide has been built. It has been breeding worms for several months so that worms and vermicast will soon be available to the public by donation.
Special holiday projects are in the works at Ma’ona. Holiday imu roasting and turkey pastele fundraisers are being offered this month. These annual events help raise operational funds for the Garden’s many projects.
To participate, you need to pre-order turkey pastele or register for a cooking spot in the imu underground cooker by Monday, December 21. Turkey drop off for placement in the imu is before 4 p.m. on Wednesday, Dec. 23. Only thawed unstuffed turkeys of 20 pounds or more can be accepted for the imu. The birds need to be wrapped in two layers of aluminum foil and ready for imu entry at drop-off. For complete information and to reserve you pasteles or imu spot call (808) 937-9800 or email maonacommunitygarden@gmail.com.
The imu-cooked turkeys and/or fresh pasteles will be available for pickup on Thursday, Dec. 24 between 8 and 10 a.m. Your participation in this holiday event is a great opportunity to support the Ma’ona Community Garden.
Managing these projects and more, Chantal brings both her past work and educational experiences to her role at the Garden. For more than ten years, she worked as the Hawaii Island Extension Project Assistant with the University of Hawaii Sea Grant College Program. Hawaii Sea Grant is an organization that supports innovative programs aiming to improve the stewardship of our coastal and marine resources. Chantal’s job for them focused on outreach and education. Currently, Chantal is currently taking a break from her job to finish a degree at UH in Business Administration, focusing on Management.
While taking classes and coordinating projects at the garden, Chantal also manages her four acre coffee and macadamia nut farm in Honaunau. If that isn’t enough, she is also a full time mom to her children, Lauryn and Xavier. This woman is an accomplished juggler of multiple tasks.
For more information about Ma’ona Community Garden and their many projects, go to www.facebook.com/maonacommunitygarden. This is a lively and interesting place to hang out and learn while supporting local agriculture and related ventures. Be sure to stop by or call to see how you can participate in some of their projects or just go to enjoy a day in the garden.
Diana Duff is a plant adviser, educator and consultant living part time in Kailua-Kona.