Kawanui Farm

Gerry and I wanted to update you on our SARE Table Grape Project and wish you a Healthy and Joy filled New Year! We will be wrapping up our grape research and education project in the Spring of 2023, and wanted you to know about the educational materials that will be available to our Stakeholders and share our insights on the Winter resting period. All grape varieties in temperate climates have a natural resting period in the Winter. Many of our varieties have genetic paren

When you have time check out our two latest short Summer grape videos on our youtube channel. "Picking Summer Grapes" and "Under the Tamiami." at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6-o3FGhEOpMSYf4NVlXRIw?app=desktop This summer was the first year that our grape vines set a good quantity of fruit so that we could taste them and experiment with making juices and raisins, eating out of hand, freezing and making jelly. Before sharing our culinary adventures it is important to re

Interestingly enough, grape production worldwide is currently experiencing great changes. As the weather heats up, grapes that had been grown for the the table and for wine over the past 10,000 years, especially in the Mediterranean countries, are experiencing huge declines in production. It has become too hot to produce Champagne in France and so England is picking it up. Here at Kawanui, our SARE Research and Education Project has been vetting table grape varieties for

Blog #4 3/2022: Table Grape Varieties for Subtropical Hawai'i Trials Pruning the Vineyards, Making and Planting Scions, Winners of the past 7 years Photo Below: Before Pruning Winter 2022 The Fall of 2021 saw a shift in the weather pattern that Kona had been experiencing over the past 3 years, which was increased rainfall (approximately 94” per year), cooler daytime and nighttime temperatures, no dry season, and cloudy days. The shift has been to more of the “normal” weathe

November 2021 - Table Grapes for Hawai'i Research and Education Project Aloha Everyone, Welcome back to our second Grape Blog. It's now November 2021 and much has happened over the past 3 months so we would like to catch you up on Gerry’s grape and vineyard observations. The summer 2021 grape harvest was thin all around, in quantity and taste due to the very unusual cold wet weather over the past two years on the Kona Coast. Usually Kona experiences a wet/dry seasonal shift

By Gerry Herbert and Nancy Redfeather - Kawanui Farm - July 2021-Blog #1 Gerry and I want to welcome all of you to our 2-year grape research & education project for Hawai'i. Mahalo for your interest in this project that was made possible by Western SARE (Sustainable Agriculture, Research, & Education Initiative/USDA) and NIFA (National Institute for Food & Agriculture). I’d like to tell you a little about Gerry and how he came to be doing this work. Gerry began planting gra