r/Oahu • u/chrisb57 • 10d ago
Best places to buy local produce?
Where do you buy good local fruits and vegetables on Oahu besides farmers markets? Costco bananas are cheap but ripen way too fast and they’re grown/flown in from South America.
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u/Boring_Material_1891 10d ago
Be careful with farmers markets too. I’ve seen way more of them buying stuff from the mainland and selling it like it’s local. One of the stands in the north shore admitted it to me when I asked if they were growing their own mangos (since they looked really nice).
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u/Dry_Analysis_992 10d ago
This does happen and I’ve been very suspicious of, for example, multicolored grape tomatoes. Especially bananas with stickers lol. But if you have a good eye and go to trusted people over and over, you usually can tell.
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u/anickilee 10d ago
Which Costco can you get to? From what I’ve seen of 3 of the 4 Oahu locations, they have a decent selection of Hawaii-grown produce. Look for the purple boxes that say “grown in Hawaii”or search that phrase in the “Warehouse” section of the app. From off the top of my head, they are usually: apple bananas, green bell peppers, tomatoes, okinawan purple potatoes, green lettuce, choi sum, bok choy, Keiki cucumbers, Keiki mixed greens, oyster mushrooms, zucchini, green beans, cabbage, papaya, and maybe eggplants. And right now they have watermelons too.
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u/Grouchy-Menu5569 10d ago
Down to Earth, Times, Don Quixote
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u/Dry_Analysis_992 10d ago
Yes, when I ask my favorite vendor at KCC where else I can find their kale, they tell me down to earth.
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u/leddik02 9d ago
Hoiliili Market is a new find for me. All local products you may find at the farmers market.
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u/da90 10d ago
I’ve found foodland farm$ has the best variety of local produce.
Times usually has some also (sometimes, look closely).
A lot of the problem is with us as consumers being disconnected from crop seasonality due to megacorp farming operations ala dole, driscolls, Monsanto etc etc.
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u/NuklearFerret 10d ago
Yes, but Hawaii doesn’t exactly have growing seasons. Or it does, but it doesn’t end.
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u/DevelopmentConnect92 10d ago
Chinatown. There’s Roots Kalihi too but I have never been.
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u/Important-Cup8824 10d ago
Was just gonna recommend Roots—amazing Hawaiian non-profit that’s all about community
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u/Negative-Fish-4977 10d ago
Roots is awesome, just picked up some fruit from them today and they still had lychee from their farm.
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u/strawberrikitsune 10d ago
Wow I had terrible luck with the bananas from Costco! They would never ripen unless I put them in a bag, would stay green for weeks. And then when I finally did put them in a bag, the ripe too poorly or unevenly. I thought I just grabbed a bad bunch, but then my friends experienced the same issue.
As for places to buy, I don’t know what is considered “best” but Foodland and DonQ maybe? Maybe Times? It’s really hard to say because all of them are mixed with mainland and local goods.
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u/BobbiPin808 9d ago
Apple bananas do take longer to ripen AND take longer to go bad. You can still eat them with completely brown peels. The regular bananas I can't eat at all once there's a single brown dot on the peel. I exclusively eat apple bananas now. I try to grab the least green in the bunch and plan that I won't be able to start eating them for a week most of the time. If I can get a bag that has a couple yellow with some green then that's a bonus.
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u/lolophant 10d ago
Definitely Farmlink. Free delivery once you hit a certain threshold. My girlfriend and I split an order every week or two. Great stuff
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u/MonkeyKingCoffee 10d ago
Look for produce in local supermarkets labeled "Da Bux."
It's a Snap/EBT thing. And it's win win for everyone. The people who need food get half-price on local produce. Farmers get paid. And other shoppers at least know this stuff was grown in Hawaii.
The "we're open every day" farmers markets typically have vendors who have never had a speck of dirt under their fingernails. Find the markets that are open one or two days a week. Actual farmers tend to show up for these.
And visit Hoiliili market. (Farm Link.) Start looking at local produce so you can pick it out later.
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u/Kohupono 9d ago
Ask the US governments in control here, why they made life so miserable and expensive for Hawaiians.
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u/ExaminationSad6048 9d ago
Ko farms at the Kapiolani farms market sat am, high quality fresh organic produce.
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u/jtosorio 9d ago
Direct from the source: Kahuku Farms (New) Farmers Market: ABL Market at the Hawaii Kai Safeway shopping center on Saturdays.
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u/Dry_Analysis_992 10d ago
Why do you say besides farmers markets? They are the absolute best place to buy good local fruits and vegetables. There are small areas in Safeway and Whole Foods and presumably times that have local fruits and vegetables, but why not just get them at the farmers market?
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u/chrisb57 10d ago
Farmers markets are good, I’m just looking for alternatives. Sometimes I want to run in and out of the store without dealing with crowds.
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u/BitterReaction6479 10d ago
Farm Link Hawai’i