Kauai Farmers Markets & Uncle Juan

I'm a big fan of Farmer's Markets and, turns out, there was one on the first full day we were in Kauai. Living here in Alaska means fresh local produce choices are pretty tough to come by during the winter. Your pretty much stuck with carrots, potatoes and green house tomatoes. So, I was really looking forward to getting some real fresh produce while on vacation. It appears that most the grocery store's produce in Kauai is the same well traveled, well aged produce that we get up here. Not too tasty!

So, my mother, myself and my eldest son, Vince, hit the Farmer Market in Hanalei on that Saturday am. It's the same day that I went to Strings and Things.

The reason my son was with us was because he had $5.00 that he wanted to spend on a necklace. The $5.00 was bribery money for the flight to Kauai the previous day. The boys usually are pretty good air-travelers, but I think they were too excited on this journey and on the flight from Anchorage to Seattle, the younger son, Ian, must of asked how much longer, at least 10 times. It was driving me crazy! I offered to give each boy $1.00 in quarters and that it would cost them a quarter to get an answer to any variation of this question. Of course, both immediately said "What the heck can we buy with a dollar?". Yeah, they were right, so I upped the anti to $5.00, $1.00 per question. Worked like a charm! They actually figured out on their own, how to find the answer, without disturbing me.

Okay, back to the Farmers Market. It was refreshingly raining while we shopped. There we several local artists selling their hand-made items. Glass, shells, photos, paintings. All of it beautiful. Then we came up to a table with hand-made necklaces. The artist told us how made all his beads. The bamboo beads were made from bamboo grown in his yard. Vince loved them. So did I. They were more than the $5.00 so I put in the extra $20 for him to buy it. Better than buying one made in China or Taiwan at the ABC Store.

We also bought the beautiful fresh picked lettuce pictured at the top. I had to try a fresh cold coconut. it needed some rum and pineapple juice, which I was sure to add later that day. We bought a chino (?) (some kind of round kiwi-ish fruit that has a cinnamon-sweet taste), pineapples (of course), papaya, a grapefruit/orange hybrid, local honey (amazing) and the best avocados, this ex-californian has ever tasted.

When we got back my younger son, Ian, loved Vince's necklace and we ended up taking him to the Farmers market on the following Tuesday to get his very own necklace.

Then, the next day, the boys and I stopped in Kapaa on our way to Costco, in Lihue, and somehow, ended up in Larry's Music Store. So we're in the store looking for an item Vince needed for his guitar and the clerk says to us "Did you get those from Uncle Juan?". Turns out, Uncle Juan comes by every Tuesday morning to sell them eggs. The clerk told the boys how hard Uncle Juan works on these necklaces, explaining again to us how the beads are made. I don't think Vince has taken his off since.

There's more to come......

Here's a picture taken this am. Once again, we got a little to excited that winter was over. The good news, though, is my dogs aren't tracking in mud today. It's been horribly muddy in our yard for the last few days.