Story and Photos By Ekahi Aloha Dale Michaels
WELCOME! TO THE SATURDAY KAIMU OPEN MARKET!
Located in Kaimu, across from Uncle Robert’s, is the Saturday morning Kaimu Open Market! It’s located up on the lava flow with a wide variety of weekly vendors!
It’s a place where you run into, say aloha to, talk story with friends in the community, shop for many of your weekly favorites (like fresh baked bread, healthy and nutritious snacks, and can eat a hearty breakfast!
The sellers/vendors are a diverse collection of interesting characters. Each one is so interesting! In their knowledge and background, we could write an entire article on each one!
Let’s start with LESLIE. Her both offers a big selection of local, grass-fed, and organic meats. Ground beef, turkey, chicken, and venison.
Next, we move down to a booth shared by SILKY and MARY. Silky offers a collection of beautiful and unique handmade beeswax candles, tinctures, and handmade jewelry.
Mary (MaryMade) offers some of the most outstanding kombucha you’ve ever tasted. She loves sampling out her kombucha, making it easy for you to decide your favorites! Mary creates handmade jewelry, and also bakes my absolute favorite Ginger cookie. I NEVER leave the market without buying two double-sized soft ginger cookies! I must admit, one of my weekly addictions and indulgences!
Then there’s THE BASHFUL BANANA offering a variety of bananas like Nom Wa ariette and traditional Chinese Apple Bananas, all grown locally on his farm.
Sauntering further, we come to a beautiful wahine offering a variety of local jams, homemade baked goods, fresh-made fermented vinegars, roasted cacao beans, and raw honey (to name a few).
Then we might find LYDIA. You can’t miss her radiant smile. She’s a very healthy Vegan, radiating and glowing from the consistency of living a life filled with healthy foods and eating her own creations.
Lydia is very well known throughout the mainland, having served countless thousands on the festival routes. Locally, she serves food here at the Kaimu market, delivers to Hale Aloha, store at Kalani, sets up every other week after Ecstatic dance at Kalani, and you’ll find her at many of the major local festivals here in Puna. Her dedication to a healthy lifestyle is evident in her natural beauty.
Her elixirs are quite intoxicating and energizing, filled with vitamins and minerals. Her food plates are the epitome of nourishing, healthy eating.
A couple of stalls mauka is one of our local favorite personalities, RORY! He calls his space GOING NUTZ. His specialty is serving up fresh coconut water straight from the coconut. (He also does all the climbing and harvesting).
You can drink a coco on the spot, take one away with a straw, or bring your jars and he’ll fill them up with fresh coconut water.
Rory’s is one booth I NEVER MISS. In fact, that’s my first destination. I bring a ½ gallon jar for the coco water and a quart zip-lock bag for the fresh coconut meat. I’ll blend the coconut meat with the fresh juice, making a coconut milk/cream that I use in my smoothies!
Right next to Rory is TONY. He’s the essential oil distributor of MIRACLE BOTANICALS. This is a line of the finest, purest essential oil obtainable.
The company was started by Tony and his beloved Hope Johnson. Hope is wholeheartedly persuading another of her loves (besides Tony and the oils), spreading consciousness through Wisdom Dialogues.
Across the way, we come to a magical booth offering some next-level skin care products like Magnesium Oil, Body Butters, Kona Coffee, and Cinnamon Honey Sugar Scrub, as well as Fresh Island-grown Noni.
Benefits of Noni juice: it’s a nutrient-dense beverage known for high antioxidant levels, particularly vitamins A and C, which help fight free radicals. It is used to boost immunity, reduce inflammation and joint pain, improve endurance, support healthy digestion, and regulate blood sugar and cholesterol levels.
Right next to the Noni and body care booth, you’ll find one of THE most popular foods at Kaimu market, The EMPANADA people. Carlos and his beloved and daughter. This couple makes fresh bread and serves the most delicious EMPANADAS-WOW! Get in line for these.
Close by, you’ll find ANNA’S stall. Anna, an Oriental beauty originally from Japan, now residing in Kehena, offers gourmet homemade fresh-made TEMPEH, Sprouted Mung and Garbonzo, along with other seasonal offerings. She’s quite talented and also ferments her own Miso.
Next down the line is an interesting couple offering Vegan kombucha, coconut kefir, and assorted. cultured veggies. They are a vendor that offers unwashed organic free-range eggs supplemented with NON-GMO feed.
Then there’s the lovely KARA. Some of her fine offerings include Fresh French Style Sourdough bread, fresh-baked Banana bread, Churros, unique, tasty baked goods, and also offers local organic free range fresh farm eggs.
We come to this beautiful Goddess in a golden dress with some of her original, very uplifting, colorful paintings. She also had some very special crystals for sale on the tabletop
This next booth is KRIPA and BRANDON. Brandon is in the back grilling some very healthy, tasty Breakfast Burritos. Kripa (a lovely human from Nepal) is upfront today with her culinary offering of freshly made Vegan pesto, fresh naan, and a beautiful assortment of Nepalese dresses and other handcrafted items.
Many, many people at this market are multi-talented in so many different ways. Brandon is a very accomplished and excellent slide trombone player who played in several notable groups. He also loves singing kirtan, has a deep voice, and sounds a lot like Krishna Das.
I must mention my friend and soul sister DANIELLA and her beloved. Dani is truly a remarkable woman radiating and sharing Love and Blessings to everyone. Her booth is brimming with Crystals, crystalline energy. Her beloved draws some amazing superhero artworks and cooks up delicious Cajun food!
This woman, OMRA, is so talented and creative, making clothing of her own designs. Her artisan creations are so unique and widely seen on women who know style throughout the Punaverse. She’s also a producer, Musician / DJ, and Visionary artist.
These are a few of the many booths. We could go on and on, booth after booth, with more and more dynamic, interesting people, and so many creative offerings!
This little market is truly a gem, filled with friends and high-vibe products.
Ekahi Aloha Dale Michaels
EKAHI ALOHA DALE MICHAELS has been a lower Puna resident since 2014. He's 76 years 'young,' and loves deep ocean swimming, which is aligned with overall health consciousness. He's been a licensed healthcare practitioner (L.Ac.) since 1994 and a Hawai'i resident for 50 years. He loves swimming, preparing wholesome, nutritious, and delicious organic foods, enjoys ecstatic dance and all music in general, yoga stretching, and is an advocate for spending time in nature, walking, and hiking.