30th Anniversary of Maui’s Only Agricultural Homestead

KEOKEA HOMESTEAD FARM LOTS ASSOCIATION photo The 30th-anniversary Keokea Ho`olaule`a offers fresh produce and plants, food, crafts, a silent auction and daylong entertainment Sept. 3 in luminous Upcountry.

Event Cancelled: Due to expected Inclement weather, Kēōkea Homestead Farm Lots Association has decided to cancel its upcoming 3rd Annual Kēōkea Ho’olaule’a on Saturday, September 3, 2016. Everyone will receive a full refund of booth fees to the address shown on check that was sent with their application. Organizers will keep participants in the loop, should they decide to do the event on another weekend. 

The Kēōkea homestead in Upcountry, celebrates the 30th anniversary of Maui’s only agricultural homestead community.

The third annual Kēōkea Hoʻolauleʻa will unfold from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 3, 2016 at Kēōkea Marketplace.

The marketplace is located at the 17 Mile Marker of Kula Highway, two-tenths of a mile past Grandma’s Coffee House.

A homestead band, Da Kualoa Kanikapila Gang led by retired fire Captain Alika Akana, will highlight the hoʻolauleʻa along with Upcountry produce and plants, food, crafts, silent auction, daylong entertainment and voter registration.

The anniversary event will salute state Department of Hawaiian Home Lands and Hawaiian Homes Commission officials, who have played roles in the homestead’s three decades.

Project Vision Hawaiʻi will also be on hand to offer free eye tests and free reading glasses.  It is among the various community-service booths featured at the event.

Admission is $1 per person or $5 per family, with proceeds to the host nonprofit Kēōkea Homestead Farm Lots Association. The latter represents farmers of the subdivision’s 66 two-acre lots dedicated to sustainable, subsistence cultivation.

Kēōkea homestead started May 24, 1986, with lot selection at Lihikai Elementary School in Kahului. Kēōkea is Maui’s lone agricultural homelands under the auspices of the 1921 federal Hawaiian Homes Commission Act spearheaded by congressional delegate Prince Jonah Kūhiō Kalanianaʻole, and managed by DHHL.

Homestead highlights include monthly Kēōkea Homestead Open Markets that started in 2014 and are now quarterly; Da Taste of Kēōkea culinary festival that premiered last year, and a 2016 Father’s Day Special With Classic Cars event that raised $2,200 for homesteader Thomas Baclig. He lost his home to an accidental fire May 24.

This year will culminate with the seasonal Kēōkea Homestead Crafts Festival on Nov. 12, 2016. For vendor applications and information related to the Sept. 3 Hoʻolauleʻa or Nov. 12 crafts festival, contact Kalena Park at keokeamarketplace@gmail.com or (808) 870-3220.