Wednesday, March 9, 2011

Haiku Ho'olaule'a Flower Festival

The Haiku (our town) Flower Festival was last Saturday and it was a rainy, cool day. That didn't stop us (or many others) from attending.  It's a free community event and fundraiser for Haiku Elementary School, Haiku Boys & Girls Club & Haiku Community Association. It features live entertainment, local food, farmer's market, grower vendors, Maui-made arts & crafts, silent auction, small & big games for keiki, and more!  We had fun talking story with plant people, vendors, friends and neighbors. Ho'olaule'a means celebration in Hawaiian.



Made up of about 250 small square pots with individual flowers in each, assembled to make this welcoming greeting.



Possible winner at the flower arrangement competition booth, perhaps?



Tracy talking plants with a local vendor.........that's not her horse in the background but from the looks of her it should be!






Our friends Syd and Karen who recently moved here from British Columbia showed up to play as well.







Rain protection





Sven cooking plenty chicken for the people. This is a great system:  Half of a 55 gallon drum for the fire. The wood used here is Kiawe (kee-ah-vey). It's a relative of the mesquite tree and is abundant on Maui - also considered invasive so it's a win-win in the fact that it grows like a weed and needs to be chopped back often and it's a fabulous wood for grilling. The chicken is on a heavy metal woven wire grate and suspended from 3 points and connected to a tripod of 3 metal pipes (tipi style). The grate can be spun and swung back and forth which is important because the wood burns long and hot. Sven had started the fire at 8 am. It was about noon when I took this picture and he had not touched the fire the whole time. I purposely took the picture at a slow shutter speed to get the spinning effect. It looks like it's spinning much faster than it actually was (shutter speed a little too slow, makes Sven a bit blurry as well). While hanging out and talking, Sven offered to either make me one or help me make one. I can see it now in our big back yard cookin' up da kine!



I suppose all things should be considered at the Flower Festival.
Ya gotta love the "Surfin' Coffin Table"