Hawaii Organic Farmers Association

How to market your agricultural products locally and increase on-farm profits through direct sales at farmers markets, restaurants, and retail stores.

Steve Frailey-Hawaiian Health Ohana

Adding value with creative marketing and product development. Owner and developer of Organic Noni Fruit Leather and Lavender Noni Lotion.

Sponsored information tables featuring compost tea production systems, fertility amendments, organic consultation, and more

Silent auction for educational fundraising

General business meeting

Genetically Modified Organisms on Kauai

Pupus from Blossoming Lotus

FREE and OPEN TO THE PUBLIC!

Please call HOFA for more information- 808-969-7789

Back to the Garden Radio Talk Show on KKCR

Kauai’s community radio, has a weekly program on Wednesdays from noon to 1 PM entitled “Back to the Garden.”

This is a talk show which promotes organic gardening & farming. We also discuss other topics of interest that promote sustainability in agriculture and life in general. The show is hosted by four co-hosts, Dove, Kamran, Dave & Tracey. We encourage participation from our listeners by inviting them to call in and share ideas, ask questions or make comments.

We often have special guests join us on-air to share their expertise, enthusiasm and experience. Kauai is a popular vacation destination, which has given us the opportunity to share the airwaves with a number of special guests who are well respected in their fields of expertise. Many of them are popular authors as well. To name a few: Herbalists, Michael & Lesley Tierra; Mycologist, Paul Stamets; Biointensive farmer, John Jeavons; Anti Genetic Engineering Activist, Luke Anderson; Eco-farming specialist, Phil Wheeler; Organic farmer & major composter, Amigo Bob Cantisano; Safe Food & Fertilizer Advocate, Patty Martin.

We also have guests that are Kauai residents come in and share with our listeners. Some of the topics covered include biodynamic farming, permaculture, composting, non toxic weed & pest control, water gardens, caring for orchids, pruning fruit trees, air layering, companion planting, propagation, native & invasive species, bio-diesel and more.

On Kauai you can tune into the program on 90.9 FM, 91.9 FM, 92.7 FM on your radio or 95.1 on cable. On Oahu you will find us at 104.7 FM and we are streaming globally at:

www.kkcr.org.

Call in and join us on-the-air at:

Phone: 826-7771

Toll free: 866-275-1112.

If you would like to be a guest on “Back to the Garden” please phone our business office at 826-7774.

Bio-Intensive,Sustainable, Mini Farming Workshop

FEBRUARY 2007 WAIMEA, BIG ISLAND

GROW BIOINTENSIVE Workshops offer an excellent opportunity to acquire a wealth of information on the most efficient gardening method we know. This information has been gathered from over twenty-eight years of research, and is currently in use in over 130 countries around the world.

John Jeavons has been the Director of the GROW BIOINTENSIVE Mini-Farming program for Ecology Action since 1972. He is known internationally as the leading researcher, developer, teacher and consultant of small-scale food production techniques utilizing GROW BIOINTENSIVE culture. Stay tuned for registration details in our next newsletter! Made possible through the County of Hawaii R&D and RC&D

EAST HAWAII SEED EXCHANGE Saturday October, 7 2006

The second annual Eastside Seed Exchange will take place at La’akea Community in Pahoa on Ala’ili Road. (Look for signs) This free community event celebrates a vibrant local food economy based on ecological growing practices. Homegrown seeds, keikis, seedlings, small fruit trees, etc. will be gifted and exchanged. Set up– 7:45 am Opening– 8:30 am Exchange– 9:00 am Workshop– 11:00 am Volunteer help needed. Sponsored by La’akea Community and Know Your Farmer Alliance.

For more information call: 936-7040

NOW ACCEPTING CREDIT CARDS!

It’s true! HOFA can now accept VISA and MASTERCARD payments for anything from merchandise to certification fees. If you don’t believe me, try it for yourself.

Certification Fee Update

As of September 1, 2006, the cost for receiving multiple category certification under HOFA (such as crop and processing) will be charged at 50% of the Minimum Certification Fee plus highest gross sales category. Minimum Certification Fee is currently $375 (50%=$187.50). Inspections must occur simultaneously and additional travel fees may be charged as required by the inspector.

GOT PAIN? MAYBE NONI CAN HELP

Used with permission from, The Doctors’ Prescription for Healthy Living, Volume 10, Number 4 -by Sara Lovelady

THE NONI STORY

A large ovalesque yellow fruit, noni is found throughout the Pacific Islands, Southeast Asia, India and Australia, where it’s been used as both a medicine and a food for literally thousands of years. The earliest reference to noni is in the Rig-Veda, an ancient Sanskrit text which is at least 4,000 years old and possibly 14,000!

When the Polynesians originally migrated from Southeast Asia to their current island home 2,000 years ago, they brought this important medicinal plant with them. And it’s played a key role in Polynesian herbalism ever since. In fact, it was one of the few plants these accomplished sea-farers brought with them on their long ocean journeys. Why? Because they used it for everything —including lumbago, asthma, dysentery, head lice, open wounds and broken bones.

We talked to Steve Frailey—perhaps the most enthusiastic noni advocate in the world—about one of the most intriguing uses of noni today: pain relief.

INSTANT RELIEF

Steve Frailey owns and operates Hawaiian Health Ohana out of Kauai, Hawaii— one of the places where the Polynesians brought noni centuries ago. A true entrepreneur, Frailey isn’t content to follow the herd. First of all, while virtually all noni products on the market are juices, his is a fruit leather, which is as close to the whole fruit as you can get. He points out that the traditional way to take noni is by eating the whole fruit. “They didn’t have juicers, jars and containers back then,” Frailey explains. “They picked the fruit off the tree and they ate it.”

The second thing Frailey is doing differently is that he’s changing the way noni is commercially used. While most noni manufacturers are marketing the plant as an internal elixir, Frailey isn’t neglecting its external benefits. He’s plastered his Noni Fruit Leather on people’s wounds and rubbed his Lavender Noni Lotion into their inflamed joints, pulled muscles and sore backs.

At first, Frailey was surprised by the instantaneous results his products produced. At health shows he would apply the lotion (which is an impressive 99.2 percent pure fruit) to hundreds of people; 90 percent would come back within 10 to 20 minutes and say, “My pain is gone.” Some experienced relief before they had even walked away from the booth. But now he’s used to this kind of response. “I don’t say it works for everybody every time,” Frailey cautions. “But 90 percent of the people who use it get relief.”

ATHLETIC COACHES IMPRESSED

Chris Leong, a football coach in Honolulu, started using Lavender Noni Lotion on his shoulders one evening to treat a skin fungus. Much to his surprise, the spasm he’d had in there for several months was gone the next morning. “I looked back and said ‘What did I do different? Maybe it’s the noni,’” Leong told Healthy Living. The coach wasn’t active for a few days and all was fine. Then he went back to the weight room and the spasm came back. “I put noni on again and the spasm went away again,” Leong went on. At this point, he knew he was on to something.

So he brought the bottle to school with him and gave a little bit to a boy who had sprained his knee two days before. “The next time I came back, he asked ‘Coach, what did you give me? It’s a lot better,’” remembers Leong. “I gave him some more and a minute later he told me the pain was gone.” A similar story has repeated itself with over a dozen of his players.

WHAT THE SCIENCE SAYS

The anecdotal information is intriguing, but very preliminary research supports noni’s traditional use as a pain-reliever.

In 2003, researchers investigated the effects of 24 plants traditionally used in Australia and China to treat all kinds of inflammatory conditions.

Nearly all of the plants were shown to inhibit COX-1, a pro-inflammatory protein. However, noni had the most powerful effect of all. A study two years later confirmed that noni has anti-inflammatory and pain-relieving effects both in vitro (test tubes) and in vivo (animals).

But perhaps the most impressive study was one which found that noni extract “did not exhibit any toxic effects but did show a significant, dose related, central analgesic activity.” So significant, in fact, that it was 75 percent as strong as morphine, yet totally safe and side-effect free. We’re not surprised, therefore, that Lavender Noni Lotion works so well.

WHY WE LIKE HAWAIIAN HEALTH OHANA

The noni fruit leather and lotion produced by Hawaiian Health Ohana meet all four of our criteria for quality noni products: organic, whole fruit, processed using low temperatures and non-fermented. We also like the fact that these folks are intimately involved in all phases of production. As Frailey says, “We grow it, we pick it, we process it, we package it and we distribute it, so we have total control over the whole process.” But most of all, it’s wonderful to see that someone is offering the

millions upon millions of Americans who are in pain a natural, effective, safe and side effect-free way to manage their pain.

Choosing a quality noni product

❍ Organic. Organic noni is grown without the use of synthetic pesticides, fertilizers, sewage sludge, bioengineering or ionizing radiation.

❍ Whole fruit. Products made from the whole fruit, such as fruit leather, closely resemble the way noni was traditionally used.

❍ Low-temp. processing. High heat destroys essential enzymes contained in noni; low temperatures (below 115 degrees) preserve them.

❍ Non-fermented. Fermentation creates a taste and odor many people find objectionable and loses the potency of the enzymes that ripen the fruit. In fruit leather form, noni is not allowed to ferment, making it more palatable and powerful.

HAWAIIAN HEALTH OHANA

If you don’t see Hawaiian Health Ohana noni products at your local retailer, call them at (888) 882-NONI Or visit their store locator service at www.nonifruitleather.net

HOFA CONTACT INFORMATION:

HOFA is located at: 94 Kamehameha Avenue, Suite #8, in Hilo.

NEW OFFICE HOURS: Monday through Friday 8 AM to 4 PM

Phone (808) 969-7789 FAX (808) 969-7759

hofa@hawaiiorganicfarmers.org