Read all about our second Cacao Harvest at our Lahaina Farm on Maui Now.

"The commercial farm operation is located on the leeward side of the West Maui Mountains in the ahupuaʻa of Kuʻia, covering 50 acres of former sugarcane land leased from Kamehameha Schools.  Since the farm area in Kuʻia had been cultivated in sugarcane for 140 years, all the vegetation had been cleared. With little but weeds and grasses covering the land, a jungle had to be created to protect the large leaves of the cacao tree. Fast-growing trees such as neem and panax were planted to provide windbreaks on the perimeter of the fields and both wind protection and sun protection within the fields. Ten acres at a time, the hillside began to transform into a luxuriant green—helped greatly by the water that flows from the wao akua of Mauna Kahālāwai (West Maui Mountains), where the gods reside, to the wao kanaka, the realm of people where cacao is grown and crafted into chocolate."

Click here to read the full feature.