Maigret Family Farm is just that-- a small farm in Honaunau, South Kona, on the Big Island of Hawaii that produces some of the finest coffee you will ever taste. In 2004, Mark and MaryAnne Maigret, along with their son and daughter, began to return a remarkable coffee and macadamia nut farm back to life and productivity. We are happy and proud to share it with you.
How We Farm to Preserve the Landscape
Clearing and Cleaning the Land: Our farm is covered with stone walls and terraces from hundreds of years ago, and we preserve this landscape by conserving and building the soil. We hand-cleared the overgrowth, removed hundreds of invasive trees, pruned and nurtured a mature coffee and macadamia nut orchard without resorting to destructive, mechanical methods. It is more work, but worth the effort.
No Herbicides or Chemical Fertilizers: Controlling invading weeds in Hawaii is difficult. However, repeated uses of herbicides is expensive, potentially toxic, and frankly doesn't feel good to have around. We have adopted a combination of planting grass to crowd-out the weeds, mowing and weed-whipping, and hand-pulling.
Integrated Pest Management : We favor the view that healthy plants and trees are less susceptible to pests. While there are a number of organic pesticides available for use on the market, we tend not to use them widely, favoring instead pruning unhealthy tree parts, spot-treating, and controlling the environment in which pests are attracted. Our best pest-controllers are our chickens, both domestic and wild, pheasants and turkeys who roam around the farm all day, scratching and eating bugs.
Composting: We compost all by-products from the coffee and mac-nuts on the farm to use as fertilizer, and supplement this with chicken manure (composted and fresh-from-the-chicken) and other organic products. Unlike many macadamia nut farms, instead of blowing leaves from the orchard and leaving bare soil before picking, we blow into rows and mow the leaf piles to break them up. The result-- a carpet of organic matter to feed the trees and absorb the rainfall.
The Result: Excellent coffee and nuts that you can feel good about drinking and eating. We like to know where our food comes from, how it was grown, and we know you do too.
No Herbicides or Chemical Fertilizers: Controlling invading weeds in Hawaii is difficult. However, repeated uses of herbicides is expensive, potentially toxic, and frankly doesn't feel good to have around. We have adopted a combination of planting grass to crowd-out the weeds, mowing and weed-whipping, and hand-pulling.
Integrated Pest Management : We favor the view that healthy plants and trees are less susceptible to pests. While there are a number of organic pesticides available for use on the market, we tend not to use them widely, favoring instead pruning unhealthy tree parts, spot-treating, and controlling the environment in which pests are attracted. Our best pest-controllers are our chickens, both domestic and wild, pheasants and turkeys who roam around the farm all day, scratching and eating bugs.
Composting: We compost all by-products from the coffee and mac-nuts on the farm to use as fertilizer, and supplement this with chicken manure (composted and fresh-from-the-chicken) and other organic products. Unlike many macadamia nut farms, instead of blowing leaves from the orchard and leaving bare soil before picking, we blow into rows and mow the leaf piles to break them up. The result-- a carpet of organic matter to feed the trees and absorb the rainfall.
The Result: Excellent coffee and nuts that you can feel good about drinking and eating. We like to know where our food comes from, how it was grown, and we know you do too.