Natural, Organic Food Prices

[Cindy B]

Aloha,

While I still remember the general differences in grocery prices between BI and mainland, we weren't buying almost all natural and organic like now. I know Keauu has a small natural food store, and I heard that Hilo has a bigger one, but have the mainstream stores on the BI like KTA caught on to natural and organic yet? I found online that Hilo's Safeway carries their organic brand. Also, have any of you found little black specs in packaged items, like Kraft mac & cheese. We did when we were there, but now my son eats Annie's natural version of mac and cheese, and if it's not available thre, we found out on their Website we can have it shipped by the case load :-)

Now that I don't eat meat other than fish, I eat a lot of pasta. I hope the pasta doesn't have those little black specks (bug eggs?). Do the farmer's markets like Maku (Maku'u?)and Hilo have lots of organic now? I guess we'll find out a lot of this on our experimental move. From what I've heard Hilo's really coming along in this area.

I know one thing for sure Puna doesn't have that we do - sweltering heat! 106 heat index in Ashland Oregon yesterday.
Tradewinds, cooling surf - Zero.

A hui hou,
Cindy

[punagirl]

There is a well stocked natural foods store in Pahoa. It has a small warming bar of ready to eat foods. They have a pretty good selection.

There are two natural food stores in Hilo - one down town and one in the WalMart (ew, shudder) shopping center. I like the one at the WalMart Center better but parking can be an issue on a busy day.

A Whole Foods is opening on Oahu in 2007 so it will not be long before they open on the BI. The one on Oahu is supposed to be one of their biggest stores.

I hate the next thing I am going to say...... if Wal Mart turned into a supercenter they would have awesome prices on natural/organics. Last year they signed a deal with Horizon Dairy and kind of shook up the natural/premium market. We had one open near us recently so I did go to check it out. They had Muir Glen, Horizon, Organic Valley etc. It was limited in what they had. Maybe diced tomatoes but not crushed. None of the fresh produce was organic. They did have a decent selection of Cascadian Farms frozen stuff. Super Target stores (now that is what Hilo needs has a good organic/natural foods selection too.

I have to get my Wal Mart sucks plug in here - my recent shopping experience at the new one near my house was awful. It only confirmed everything I every thought about Wal Mart. Rude cashiers, pushy customers and the feeling that the $76 I spent was funding a terrorist operation. I only went there because I was buying the b-day cake for my nephew and he insisted Wal Mart was the only place that had the Superman bursting through ice cake. I decided to kill two birds with one stone and check out the big new deal that looks so out of place in my nice little mom & pop neighborhood and get the cake. Nephew loved the cake. Be forewarned, if you order buttercream icing from Wal Mart it taste like they substituted Crisco for butter.

Enough of a rant for today. Cindy, you will have no problem finding natural and organic foods in HIlo/Puna. A lot of stalls at the markets state organic but I don't think they are certified.

Atlanta/Pahoa

[Les C]

Cindy,

We eat vegan and lead a mostly vegan lifestyle. We were concerned about how much might be available to us on the Big Island compared to the SF Bay Area, our previous home. We've visited many of the natural foods stores, save for ones in Kealakekua, Kona, Kohala and Honoka'a. We haven't checked on what all of the supermarkets carry, yet. So far, we haven't felt a serious lack of resources.

As for natural foods stores, here's what we've found:

Island Naturals Hilo in the Waiakea Shopping Center near the aforementioned WalMart on the southside of Hilo. This is one of the newer stores of this type on the island, started by a former distributor of natural food products. They are fairly well-stocked and can order stuff for you. Okay on produce, not all organic. Hot deli items in the buffet are hit or miss, some are great, some are not exciting at all. I haven't had anything prepared for me by the deli.

In Hilo town on the Bayfront, there is Abundant Life Natural Foods and Cafe. This is an older store with a seemingly good track record and loyal clientele. The cafe prepares fairly good dishes, although they might run out of some items for some dishes. I haven't bought much produce here.

In Kea'au, there's Kea'au Natural Foods. This is one of the smaller stores, but they do a very good job. Their bulk items generally cost less than Island "Natch" (as Is. Naturals is called). Sandwiches are so-so. Most of the deli items are provided by one supplier, apparently. Small produce section. You have to check for sale items, of which there are a lot.

In Pahoa, there is the former Pahoa Natural Foods, now Island Naturals Pahoa. Although owned by the same folks that started the Hilo store, they've wisely retained most of the staff and food selections. In many ways, this feels superior to the Hilo store. Great sandwiches, haven't tried the hot deli table; it doesn't have a deli dept. where you can order prepared food. Good produce section.

In Hawaiian Ocean View Estates (aka HOVE, in South Kona) there is Anuenue Natural Foods. This is a very small store, but their sandwiches are great! Very small produce section, as well as for groceries. But they can order stuff for you and can have good pricing on some stuff. It's out of the way if you live on the east side, but when we go to Costco (from Volcano to Kona), we stop there.

You should know that in the Islands, when items sell out, it may take a while for them to be restocked. We have been able to order stuff over the Internet, too.

The farmers markets don't seem to be teeming with organic farmers, unfortunately. The market in Volcano Village has 2 to 4. I haven't found any yet at the Maku'u farmers market, I've only been to the Pahoa farmers market once and found little there. Hilo's farmers market has at least one organic farmer currently, but we haven't gone there much. What I have heard is that there was some upheaval in the past with the market that started in Pahoa and eventually migrated to Maku'u (between Pahoa and Kea'au). In the process, the organic farmers were somehow kept out. They eventually discovered that they could do better by selling directly to the natural foods markets and restaurants. Hence, there are few at the Maku'u and (new) Pahoa farmers markets. This is hearsay from one source, so I'd be happy to hear other "facts" about what happened and why there are few organic farmers at Maku'u.

I think there are growers who don't bother to get the organic certification and claim that they don't spray. You have to ask questions and, maybe at some point, trust them.

I don't know if the pasta here has black specs, I remember that just about all pasta can have bugs from when I worked in a supermarket. We haven't found organic pasta here that we've liked yet. I ended up shipping some packages home from Whole Foods during my last visit to CA.

We were pleasantly surprised to find more restaurants than expected that carried something that could pass for vegan. Often, it might be a sandwich made with a Maui Taro Burger, a Gardenburger, or a Boca Burger. If it matters to you, only one of the Boca Burgers is actually vegan, and I'm not really sure about Gardenburgers. I used to think they were made by Morningstar Farms and contained egg whites. But I think I'm wrong about the producer and the egg whites. There are many good Thai restaurants that do vegan. Akmal, a Pakistani/Indian restaurant in Hilo, prepares good vegan dishes, but they can be expensive.

In general, the prices at the food stores seem to be higher than in the SF Bay Area, but they're not prohibitive.

Les C

Edited by - Les C on 07/24/2006 15:30:43

Edited by - Les C on 07/24/2006 15:39:52

[Kapohocat]

Da Banana Boys fruit is organic... although I dont know if they actually went through the formal cert program.

As for the pushing out of the organic vendors at Maku'u, I am not sure that is how the story goes, primarily because they were scrabblign for vendors for a long time. But... could possibly be...

-Cat

[Cindy B]

Mahalos for your details replies. Sounds very promising. We're not Vegan, but we try to limit animal products to ones that are not produced under inhumane conditions. I didn't realize there was so many natural stores popping up, and the Whole Foods on Oahu sounds like a big one. Thanks again...

Cindy