The sisters of Naked Cow Dairy continue to inspire us [see below: BUTTER MAKING] with their dedication to bringing locally made awesome dairy products back to Oahu! This time we were invited to their newly renovated dairy kitchen to learn basic cheese making techniques and play around with recipe creation for when their actual cheese making operation goes online! In what was a very fun but very long day, we made five different types of cheese including (labne (yogurt cheese), 2 kinds of ricotta, a mild jack style cheese, a gouda style and a camembert style cheese.. luckily the fresh cheeses were basically edible on the spot.. so while we will be waiting a while to see if the gouda and camembert were successful we happily snacked on the others at an fantastic al fresco lunch on their lanai.. to round out the day we were treated to a double rainbow and a Waianae sunset.. a great pairing!! Thanks to Jay Parasco for sharing his great pics of the day!

An inspiring and wonderful trip to Maui! Our itinerary was a diverse mix of food and flora, subsistence farms and big business operations with the common theme of sustainability. Mahalo to all of the wonderful people we met who are doing their part to improve Hawaii's food system. Here's our itinerary from the trip with contact links (when possible.) [Pics by Wendy, Jay, Kevin, Robert, San & Charles] 
Farmer's Market@Green Dragon
Roselani Ice Cream Factory Tedeschi Winery Maui Cattle Co. and Lunch at Ulapalakua Ranch Store
Shim Coffee and Protea
Maui Preserved @ MCC Swap Meet 
Flatbread Pizza Co. 
Upcountry Farm Specialties (contact upon request)
Surfing Goat Dairy
Star Noodle 
Maui Olive Co. 
Ali'i Kula Lavender 
Lanikai Farms and Fragrant Orchids of Maui 
Maui Brewing Co. 

 Mana `Ai means “power food” in Hawaiian and is both the business name and the philosophy of a family run company on the island of Oahu specializing in hand-pounded taro or pa`i`ai, (essentially poi before water is added to thin it out.) Daniel Anthony, Mana `Ai’s founder, believes not only in the nourishment and health benefits brought about by eating pa`i`ai but also in the empowerment fostered by keeping a community in touch with the ancient food-making traditions of ku`i kalo (pounding taro.) 
Slow Food @ Kapi'olani Community College had the opportunity to experience first-hand the process of making pa`i`ai.  Under Daniel’s enthusiastic and knowledgeable direction, we learned that each step in the taro pounding process is of equal importance. Even before cooking the taro, we were shown how to properly pick the leaves from the ti plant, prepare our equipment and stay as clean as possible to avoid transferring bacteria to the pa`i`ai. We then helped cook the taro by steaming it in a pressure cooker lined with ti and banana leaves and cleaning it to make it ready to be pounded using mortars made of lava rock on smooth, carved koa wood boards. 
As day became evening, the community center filled with local families there to make their own pa`i`ai and poi for the week. The atmosphere was warm and lively; kids playing while the adults talked story and pounded. Our group shared the pounding of 15 lbs of taro, learning quickly that it is NOT as easy as it appears. It takes strong arms and understanding of the soon sticky mass of pounded taro to create the desired uniform, smooth texture. The experience left many of us with a desire to learn more about the many uses of pa`i`ai and to become more proficient at pounding it. We were invited back to the weekly gathering and will be attending a ku`i kalo as a chapter again soon.  http://www.manaai.com/

Monique Van der Stroom and Sabrina St. Martin are two sisters with a mission: to bring local fresh butter and dairy products back to the island of Oahu. Naked Cow Dairy, the sisters’ venture into the world of artisanal dairy products, makes a huge array of flavored butters as well as a smart selection of tasty cheeses and yogurt all from local milk and cream. On a beautiful Sunday in April 2010, Monique and Sabrina helped a group of Slow Foodies from both our KCC campus chapter and the Oahu chapter learn the intricacies, methods and issues with making our own butter from scratch. Although the day started with a few hiccups (missing keys, weird temperatures, overfilling the churn etc..) we accomplished our goal of transforming 12 gallons of local cream into 40 lbs of freshly churned butter. The sisters transported their butter churning machine and equipment for our use and walked us through churning, washing and beating (!) our butter into delicious submission.. Each participant in the workshop took home a pound of butter, some with creative flavorings, and we prepared several pounds to adorn local baked potatoes for our Earth Day festivities. There is NOTHING like freshly churned butter. YUM!! Naked Cow Dairy is found at many farmer’s markets in Honolulu including Saturdays at the KCC Farmer’s Market and the Hawaii Kai Farmer’s Market, Sundays in Haleiwa and Wednesdays at the Blaisdell Farmer’s Market. http://nakedcowdairy.com/