Photo by Sarah Burchard.
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The most important thing you can do when visiting any island is to support its local economy. In Hawaiʻi, one of the best ways to do that is by supporting local agriculture. You can do this by going on farm tours, purchasing locally-grown ingredients and shopping at farmers markets.
Although the archipelago was once completely self-sustaining with a robust food system, Hawai’i now relies on imported food for 85% to 90% of its needs. As a food lover and former chef, the first thing I did when I moved to Hawaiʻi nine years ago was to plug into the local farming community, so I could source the freshest ingredients and support local agriculture. As a traveler, I do the same thing wherever I go. You will always find the best food when itʻs locally produced.
According to the Maui County Farm Bureau, Maui is home to over 800 farms. Over a dozen host farm tours. While you will have the opportunity to learn and taste wonderful things at all of them, here are a few that offer something extra special. Check out these farm tours next time you visit Maui.
Owner of ʻOkoʻa Farms, Ryan Earhart, is on his way to producing 500,000 pounds of food this year. Photo by Sarah Burchard.
‘Oko’a Farms – Farm tour and tasting + farm-to-table dinners
With no farming experience, Ryan Earhart started ‘Oko’a Farms in 2004 on a patch of dry, undernourished land. 21 years later, thanks to his curiosity, ingenuity and relentless hard work – despite many hardships – his farm now grows over 100 different crops. Today, it supplies a farmers market in Wailea (soon to be a brick-and-mortar store) and his own farm shop in Kula, which in turn supports more than 100 local vendors.
The tour begins in a quaint garden just off the farmhouse, where large trays of fresh dragon fruit, star fruit, guava, jaboticaba, carrots and radishes are served with a house-made macadamia nut-herb dip.
Seated on benches made of recycled mango wood, guests are introduced to Dr. Carolyn Dean – a medical doctor, naturopath, food security activist and supporter of the farm from day one. She invested in the farm in 2020 when Earhart’s landlord planned to sell the land. Like a fairy godmother, Dean swooped in and helped Earhart purchase the property, securing the farm’s future.
Earhart’s passion is connecting people to their food, and it shows. As he leads the tour, he picks fruit off trees for guests to sample, pulls carrots straight from the earth and explains each crop in detail—darting around the farm like an excited kid on Christmas morning. There’s sugar cane, banana trees, pineapple, 1,000 chickens and rows upon rows of produce—everything from turnips to asparagus. Like many farms in Kula, the property also boasts breathtaking ocean views.
Guests can also visit the farm in the early evening for a farm-to-table dinner prepared by Earhart himself following the tour.
Book ʻOkoʻa Farms Upcountry Family Farm Tour
Book ʻOkoʻa Farms Sunset Culinary Immersion: Farm-to-Table Dinner Experience
Farm tour guide Kerry Glen welcomes guests into the cacao orchard at Kuʻia Estate. Photo by Sarah Burchard.
Ku’ia Estate Chocolate – Farm tour, tasting and sunset jazz
Dr. Gunars Valkirs, a biophysicist who invented the rapid response pregnancy test and various cardiovascular health diagnostics, began growing cacao and making award-winning chocolate in Lahaina in 2020 as a retirement project.
Seven days a week you can tour his 20-acre farm where he uses agroforestry to cultivate a loving environment for 100 varieties of cacao. The tours leads you through a forest of panax (known as “false coffee”) trees, which block wind along the perimeter, neem trees, which keep the pests away and cacao trees.
Eventually, you’ll reach a two-story gazebo overlooking the orchard. With sweeping ocean views, you’ll taste at least nine varieties of chocolate – coffee-flavored, milk chocolate, dark chocolate and sugar-free – made with estate-grown beans. The company also offers a wide variety of flavored chocolates using beans sourced from Costa Esmeralda, a farm in Ecuador with close ties to Dr. Valkirs.
As a dark chocolate lover, I found the sugar-free chocolate especially interesting. Instead of artificial sweeteners like Truvia or Stevia, Dr. Valkirs uses allulose – a naturally occurring sugar with a similar chemical structure to sucrose but less sweet and no caloric absorption by the body. I also loved the calamansi-flavored dark chocolate and the estate’s bean-to-bar dark chocolate.
After the tour, you’ll return to the chocolate factory and café, which is 100% solar-powered. Here, you can purchase chocolate bars, drinks and desserts made with Kuʻia Estate Chocolate. Don’t miss the chocolate milkshake.
On Sunday evenings, head upstairs for a glass of wine and a free sunset jazz concert.
All profits from sales are donated to local non-profit organizations such as Maui Food Bank and the Maui Humane Society.
Book a Maui Ku’ia Estate Guided Cacao Farm Tour and Tasting
Book a Maui Ku’ia Estate Chocolate Factory Experience
Another sampling of Oʻo Farm bean-to-cup coffee before brunch is served. Photo by Sarah Burchard.
O’o Farm – Coffee tasting, farm tour and brunch
Start your morning with a cup of freshly brewed coffee while taking in views of Central and West Maui all the way to the ocean. Oʻo Farm grows, processes and roasts its coffee entirely on site – 3,500-feet up in the district of Kula. After a tasting and primer on coffee production, you’ll tour the farm, which features up to 130 varieties of fruits, vegetables, herbs and flowers across eight acres of lush, hilly fields.
When owners Louis Coulombe and Stephan Bel-Robert purchased the land in 2000 they began with coffee, eventually expanding into produce to supply their Lahaina restaurant, Pacificʻo on the Beach. After the restaurant tragically burned down during the Maui wildfires in August 2023, they began hosting farm-to-table dinners at the farm, which had already been welcoming visitors for tours since 2007.
Eventually, the tour ends at an outdoor kitchen shaded by tall trees and framed by that same gorgeous view. Here, the farm’s chef prepares a brunch feast made almost entirely from ingredients grown on site. Among the three courses were pastries, salads, sliced fruit, frittata, freshly baked bread and all the coffee we could drink.
Book an Oʻo Farm Seed-to-Cup Coffee, Brunch & Farm Tour
Book and Oʻo Farm-to-Table Lunch & Farm Tour
Waikulu Distillery makes its spirits from the same 200 agave plants owner Paul Turner planted in 2012. Photo by Sarah Burchard
Waikulu Distillery – Agave Farm Tour and Spirit Tasting
Visit Hawaiʻi’s only agave spirits farm and distillery. Because “Tequila” is a protected designation of origin that can only be used in specific regions of Mexico, Waikulu Distillery refers to its product as “agave spirits.” Like Tequila, Waikulu spirits are made with at least 51% blue weber agave – all grown onsite.
Owner and distiller Paul Turner has been stewarding this land for over 20 years with a minimal environmental footprint. He planted agave in 2012, a plant so resilient it requires no irrigation. The distillery runs entirely on solar power.
Tours include a walk through the agave fields, with opportunities to watch workers harvest the plant and cut it down to its piña (core). You’ll also see the custom-built ovens and agave crusher Turner designed himself. Guests can taste a piece of freshly steamed agave – cooked for two days until fully caramelized.
After the tour, you’ll sample a selection of Waikulu’s silver and barrel-aged agave spirits. My favorite was a smoky, slightly spicy spirit infused with chipotle and arbol chiles. All Wailuku spirits are made with wild yeast and zero additives – a rarity in the Tequila business. The distillery produces only 10,000 to 12,000 bottles per year. Aside from a few grocery stores, bars and hotels on Maui, the only place you can purchase them is at the distillery itself.
