Every one lines up for the 8:30 start	Farmers Seting up!	Flowers	Fruits & Vegtables
	67-106 Kealohanui St	Oahu Island News	Great Dressing
		Beautiful Flowers every Saturday	Parking lot fills up fast on Saturday

Local color
Two Saturday markets on the North Shore offer products made and grown in Hawaii. The pace is slower, in contrast to the high-energy city markets. In the parking lot at Sunset Beach Elementary School, the North Shore Country Market sells Hawaii-made crafts and food: flowers, shave ice, grass-fed beef burgers from North Shore Cattle Co., shell jewelry, tie-dyed shirts and, perfect for this month, heart-shaped pillar candles in pastel colors. Artist Jessica Wall creates the candles and collects local shells that are embedded in designs around the base.
At the tiny Waialua Farmers’ Market, fruits and ethnic vegetables are for sale; the local atmosphere is free. At the site of the old Waialua Sugar Mill, a small group of immigrant farmers, former sugar workers, sell produce from plots of land they lease from Dole Foods Hawaii. The arrangement was made when the sugar mill closed in 1996 and the workers were left jobless. The Waialua Farmer’s Cooperative was formed to help the workers make the transition to farming.
Edith Ramiscal, president of the Waialua Farmers’ Cooperative, stated that her goal is to expand the farmers’ market to more of a community market and to bring more business to Waialua.
“I grew up in Waialua and I’ve seen it go downhill, so I’m trying to help this town out. I’m interested in helping the town out and keeping it country,” she said.
“We want it to be kind of a tourist destination because after all, Waialua Sugar Mill was the hub of Haleiwa, Waialua, Waimea, Mokuleia. … We want people to experience this,” Ramiscal declared. “And this is how Hawaii was born, with the immigrant farmers, the immigrant laborers that came in.”
On Saturday mornings, the Waialua market sells out in a couple of hours: apple bananas, tomatoes, garlic, lima beans, taro and more exotic produce such as kabocha pumpkins and katuday.
David Ancheta, standing near his family’s vegetable stand at the Waialua market, noticed a shopper puzzling over a bag of katuday. He offered some suggestions for preparing the edible white flower. First, you cook it a little bit, said Ancheta. “Then add spices, tomato, vinegar and salt, whatever you like,” he added. “Good for blood pressure.”
“I learn about the vegetables as I go along,” commented Goodwill, who shops weekly at the Waialua market. “I try to experiment with new ones at least once a month, and they tell me, oh, this gets boiled, this gets stewed, or you cook this with pork, it’s really good.”
“The farmers’ market is a little bit social too, although you don’t talk too much before the market because you have to go get the goods,” she added. “But it’s a nice, social way to start the weekend.”

By Mary Young Oahu Island News.com
Thank you for your interest in the Waialua Sugar Mill and Surrounding area.