Ka‘ū News Briefs, Monday, October 28, 2019

Sugar Farm Homestead won the Edmund C. Olson Entrepreneur Award and $25,000 on Saturday. Photo from Sugar Farm Homestead

THE EDMUND C. OLSON ENTREPRENEUR AWARD was presented Saturday to Sugar Hill Farmstead and its founders Brittany and Bodhi Anderson, who won the annual Hawaiʻi Island Business Plan Competition. Olson, founder of Kaʻū Coffee Mill, said today that starting businesses and encouraging others to do the same brings him great joy, and has helped to make his life both prosperous and happy. He said he is honored to to be a sponsor of the Hawaiʻi Island Business Plan Competition.

Brittany Anderson Photo from Sugar Farm Homestead

     The finals were held Saturday at Palamanui Campus of Hawaiʻi Community College in Kona, with the following finalists: Koa Wood Ranch, Pure Mana Hawaiʻi, Sugar Hill Farmstead, Surf Cottage, Western Aloha, Good Karma Spa & Neuter Clinic, Oribe Tea, and Upcycle  Hawaiʻi.
     The Andersons' business plan is to create a Community Supported Agriculture enterprise to distribute, pasture raised meats and produce for delivery to homes. Sugar Hill came in first among enterprises in the competition. 

     Alapake Nahele-a, a judge in the competition, said Sugar Hill Farmstead "clearly is helping to meet a need on our island that
would transform the way that we consume, how we relate to our food, on Island."

Bodhi Anderson Photo from Sugar Farm Homestead

     The Hawaiʻi Island Business Plan Competition is conducted in three rounds. Round one is submission of a seven-page business plan based on the HIplan template. After review by a team of judges, the top 15 plans move to Round two, and a 12-minute live presentation before judges. The top eight move to the third and final round.
     Hawaiʻi Island Business Competition finals are free and open to the public. This year's sponsors were Edmund C. Olson Trust II, University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo, Hawaiʻi Community College, Hawaiʻi Island Chamber of Commerce, Ulupono Initiative, Pacific Media Group, and the County of Hawaiʻi.

     According to the competition's website, the competition is open to "individuals or groups - for-profit or non-profit - whose business plan focuses on developing startup or expanding a business based on Hawaiʻi Island.
     "The purpose of the Competition is to stimulate development of an entrepreneurial ecosystem on Hawaiʻi Island. The competition encourages contestants to develop or refine their business plans towards developing viable new businesses on Hawaiʻi Island. Real estate developments are excluded from the competition."

Edmond C. Olson hands the $25,000 check to Sugar Hill Farmstead's Brittany Anderson. Photo from Big Island Video News

     In addition to the grand prize of the $25,000 Edmund Olson Entrepreneur Award, a special category for the Student Tuition Scholarship Business Plan Competition awarded winners UH Hilo and HCC tuition scholarships.
     The competition has been held since 2016. Past winners are Ono Queens, Sunshine Pediatric Clinic, and Big Island Coffee Roasters. Student Scholarship Awards have gone to Lava Forge Metalcraft, Kupaʻa Tax and Accounting, and Student Corner. A prize that provides advertising for the new businesses have gone to Alakai Academy and Hawaiʻi Electrical Maintenance Services.

     Read more and find out about entering next years Hawaiʻūi Island Business Plan Competition at bbibp.org

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Wally Ito, limu expert, will share his knowledge at this Saturday's Hoʻokupu Hula No Kaʻū at Pāhala Community Center.

LIMU EXPERT WALLY ITO will be among the many cultural practitioners at this Saturday's Hoʻokupu No Kaʻū Cultural Festival from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. at Pāhala Community Center. Ito is a marine biologist who raises limu and monitors the seaweed beds around the state.

Limu huluhulu waena, favored  by Queen Liliʻuokalani. Photo from U.H.

     Ito often talks about the history of limu in Hawaiʻi and its importance in Hawaiian culture, in providing micronutrients for the diet. He researches ancient Hawaiian methods of cultivation, including efforts to transplant limu from one nearshore water to another, which was apparently attempted by Liliʻuokalani, who favored the seaweed limu pakeleawaʻa or limu huluhulu waena.
     Imu says that a healthy population of limu supports the fish population in the islands, as the base of the marine food chain.
     The festival is sponsored by Kumu Hula Debbie Ryder and Kawehi Ryder, and features hula, other ethnic dance, music, food, and educational displays and workshops.
     See hookupukau.org.

To read comments, add your own, and like this story, see Facebook. Follow us on Instagram and Twitter. See our online calendars and our latest print edition at kaucalendar.com.

UAS flies over Kīlaeua Caldera to drop down to the new green, scalding lake in Halemaʻumaʻu Crater to take photos, a water sample, and to measure gases. Photo by Janice Wei/NPS

USGS scientists check out the water sample from the new hot green lake in Halemaʻumaʻu. Photo by Janice Wei/NPS

PHOTOGRAPHS, GAS MEASUREMENTS, AND A WATER SAMPLE from the "scalding hot surface" of the new lake at the summit of Kīlauea Volcano are expected to produce data soon to be released.
     Hawaiʻi Volcanoes National Park reports that on Saturday, "our colleagues at the USGS Hawaiian Volcano Observatory took the next step in unlocking the secrets of a lake of water that has risen over the last few months from deep within the summit of Kīlauea Volcano. They launched a specialized unmanned aircraft system, UAS... Once the data is analyzed, USGS will announce its findings."
     To learn more about this intriguing body of water, which has never been observed in Halema‘uma‘u crater in the history of monitoring Kīlauea, visit the park website at nps.gov/havo/planyourvisit/lava2.htm.