The Challenge - Mahiʻai Match-up
A friend on Facebook (thanks, Olin of Kanu) shared a link to a Kamehameha School's agricultural business plan competition aimed at putting qualified businesses on some of their vacant agricultural lots. This came at a time when my mom and I were mulling over ways to get her on some land to expand her insanely productive home garden. See, Mom grew up on a farm, too, but in Korea. And, she can make just about anything grow.
We had been looking at various ag lots for sale in Kona for years. Then I saw an announcement for this business plan competition. A quick call to Mom and Dad in Kona confirmed that one of the contested lots was minutes from their house got my gears turning. We explored all sorts of ideas - but breadfruit won. I decided to focus my application on a farm that primarily grew breadfruit - as far as I know, there are no dedicated, commercial breadfruit farms in Hawaii at this time.
So, our course was set, and I had to start putting ideas to paper. With the help of some financial planning spreadsheets from UH's CTAHR program and input from knowledgeable friends, I got my application in on the July 1 deadline.