A Celebration of Hawai'i's Locally Grown Foods.
Whether you're a foodie, locavore, chef, rancher, farmer, acquaculturist—or just plain hungry—the 16th annual Mealani's Taste of the Hawaiian Range has something for everyone.
Besides offering delicious "tastes" of dishes using locally produced, grass-fed meats and fresh fruits and veggies, the popular event also gives attendees the opportunity to meet the people who are growing our food.
Hawaiian Cowboy Country
The event originated in Waimea on the Big Island, where the paniolo (Hawaiian cowboy) rides the range and greened-over volcanic cindercones are dotted with grazing cattle. Hawaiian cowboys boast a distinct Hawaiian heritage: they are credited with being "keepers of the Hawaiian language." Their domain—the ranch—is one of the few places Hawaiian has never stopped being used. Even though paniolo were made up of numerous ethnicities, these hard-working cowboys communicated using Hawaiian on the job—and still do today.
Waimea is also home to the Mealani Research Station, a statewide leader in the development of Hawai'i's grass-fed beef industry-plus other healthy food system crops such as green tea and blueberries.
Big Island Sustainable Agriculture
Evolving over the past 16 years with a variety of events—Mealani Forage Field Day, cooking 101 seminars and an ag industry trade show— Mealani's Taste of the Hawaiian Range continues to share the importance of creating a Big Island livestock production system that is economically, ecologically and socially sustainable. While it markets local products by hooking up producers with users, such as chefs and consumers, Taste also enables producers to get instant product feedback and network with other industry members.
