Hilo, HI
August 2007

Market Day

Hosted by Tony

Next: Basically Hilo

I am happy to report that Tony was able to put some gas in his car and we happily drove in to Downtown Hilo this morning to the Hilo Farmer's Market.

There are usually a few fruit & veggie vendors down here every day of the week but the best days to check this out are Wednesday & Saturday mornings. The place is mobbed!

The market offers the obvious fruit & veggie vendors as well as craft & food booths and even street performers, sort of. Well I guess they really are street performers.

Tony has been acquainted with local photographer Sue Kohler of www.PuaArts.com for a year or so. Sue sells photo prints & cards of Hawaiian flowers & scenery, much like Tony does.

Didn't catch his name but he bears a striking family resemblance to Bud and, well, Santa Claus. He is a screen printer and sells tons of different Hawaii type designs on his t-shirts.

At one point RG informed us that he had been traveling pretty much nonstop around the world for years. Bud suggested a massage from Sea-Jays Healing Massage. They offer Deep Tissue, Shiatsu & Reflexology techniques with 15 years of experience.

Cori was very surprised when we stopped at her booth to look at Just Some Pretty Rocks & Things & wind chimes.

Cori also has a bunch of really cool coconut postcards.

She & RG talked for a few minutes about Travelocity. "My husband and I have used Travelocity for years. It was great seeing you!"

All at once various vendors spotted us with RG and we were off and running meeting one vendor after another.

Christine was eager to have her photo taken with RG but commented that we would have to show up the one day she isn't wearing makeup. RG told her she looked smashing and this photo was taken.

Christine is a Tree Hugger, er I mean she sells Tree Hugger Products. Anyone that hugs trees is cool in our book. Have you hugged a tree lately?

We popped over to The Velvet Echo booth where Jean-Marie & Kristof sell handmade jewelry. RG agreed to model a necklace and Tony commented that they had a nice business card for some reason.

I modeled a bracelet on my hat as Jean-Marie whispered "We used Travelocity to buy our tickets when we moved to Hawaii!"

We then stopped off at Andrea's Stained Glass. She had lots of neat stuff that is completely handmade with original designs.

After we were done looking at the craft vendors, of which there were at least 100, we moved back over to the produce section which had taken on a whole new vibe with all of the people moving around.

We stopped at Scott's booth and sampled his Meli O Kaimu Raw Hawaiian Honey. Very Ono (Ono means delicious).

He explained that he uses a handcrafted approach to honey production. Hives are harvested once a month in small quantities of superior quality.

Bees pollinate blooms of Lehua, Mac Nut, Christmas Berry, avocado & others which makes for some very tasty honey.

We went by to see if David was working at the Aloha Coast Realty booth again.

David wasn't in but John was. John Dirgo is well known for offering excellent service without being pushy. Hey that's different.

In the shot above John is explaining the various real estate market trends affecting the Puna area.

LAVA! Yep that's her name. She is the creator of Lava Rocks Puna Goat Cheese. John commented that he loved her product as we walked by.

Tony has taken Lava's picture on many occasions. This is the only one that wasn't blurry. YES!

We stopped in at JG Surfboards for a quick visit. Jerry is the owner and has been a board shaper in California, Mexico & Hawaii since 1962.

RG talked with him for quite a while sharing board stories about his many mishaps on the ocean. This went on for quite some time so Tiki Jr., Tony & I left RG here...

We found him about 30 minute's later hiding amongst some anthuriums again communing with the flowers.

(Photos: Tony V./ Dialogue: Tony V.)

Mahalo to all the folks at the Farmer's Market! It was great meeting you all.