A farming landscape beneath the familiar one
A view across leeward Kohala can conceal a much older agricultural story. Ulu Mau Puanui describes the Kohala Field System as roughly twenty-five square miles once farmed intensively by Hawaiians. Parts of the landscape still carry the imprint of that work. Researchers studying soils and archaeology could describe where the system developed, yet still had a practical question: how did farmers keep producing crops there for centuries? Knowing that fields existed was different from understanding how people made them work. Ulu Mau Puanui · History of the research gardens ↗
Learning by growing again
The effort at Puanui brought that question back to the soil. The organization’s history describes three fenced gardens established with research support, community collaboration and the backing of Kamehameha Schools and Parker Ranch. Those gardens created places to investigate sustained cultivation within the old field system. The project connected research with the return of Hawaiian crops and community participation, giving an agricultural history a practical setting in which to be explored. Ulu Mau Puanui · History of the research gardens ↗
The connection to today’s gardens
Ulu Mau Puanui identifies its purpose as understanding intensive farming sustained by rainfall and considering what it can teach present efforts toward sustainability. It manages gardens and offers learning opportunities for students, teachers, families and community, in partnership with Kamehameha Schools. For a Kohala grower, that invites a grounded question: what can careful observation of this particular place teach us before we choose a crop or a technique? The historical system is a starting point for learning; it does not establish that every nearby parcel has the same growing conditions. Ulu Mau Puanui · Mission, gardens & community education ↗
Based on the linked published accounts, with Kohala Signal’s local perspective. Sources consulted September 12, 2026.