So Much To Taste And See Saturday At Waialua Festival

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North Shore artists Bill Braden (left) and Margo Goodwill are among the many artists who will display and sell their works in the art boutique at this weekend’s Taste of Waialua. Photo from Margo Goodwill.

More than just the smell of spring will be in the air Saturday as Island X Hawaii and Coffea Consulting host The Taste of Waialua at the old sugar mill to showcase the best in locally made coffees, chocolates, cookies, cakes and more starting at 9:30 a.m.

“We started this event last year to let people know about the richness of this little area, and that by supporting these little industries, you can help keep it around,” said Bill Martin, owner of Island X Hawaii and coordinator of the free event.“By supporting this kind of local industry,it helps keep the character of the North Shore the same.”

Martin came to the North Shore 21 years ago from South Carolina to check out those world-famous waves and decided to stay.After the mills closed down in 1996, he and wife Reba opened up their company on land owned by Castle & Cooke.

“We have a huge selection of locally grown produce that’s fresh and not expensive. Before when we just grew pineapple and sugar, people didn’t really have a choice. But with the spread of the farmers’markets and attention paid to locally grown food, the change has been real positive.”

Shawn “Dr. Coffee” Steiman will conduct a premier tasting and talk about some of Hawaii’s finest coffees, followed by a signing of his book, The Hawaii Coffee Book: A Gourmet’s Guide from Kona to Kauai. A food tasting follows. Tickets are $25 with seating limited to 30. Call 637-2624 or go to islandxhawaii.com.

Auntie Edith’s Pickled Okra, Francis’ Huli-Huli Kiawe BBQ chicken, Lulu’s Mexican Cuisine, North Shore Naturals organic snacks, Pa’ala Kai Bakery and

Sugar Mill Cookies and other vendors will have samples and sales of their made-in-Waialua products. Waialua Farmers’ Market also opens at 8:30 a.m. with fresh produce, and the Friends of Waialua Library will have an Easter egg hunt.

The art gallery located inside Island X Hawaii also will be open, offering works by established and emerging artists. North Shore artist Margo Goodwill came up with the idea for an art boutique area there in 2005 as an outlet for sales, as well as to widen the scope of the sugar mill complex and enrich the culture of the North Shore in general.

“He (Martin) was aware of the Hawaii North Shore Artists Studio Tour (www.hawaiinorthshoreartist.com) that I had been a part of for several years and said he wanted to help give local artists a retail outlet on an ongoing basis,” Goodwill recalled. “So we took a large, former office space and refurbished the walls,reset the lighting and reconfigured the space into an intimate fine arts gallery.”

From sculptures to oil paintings, greeting cards to Tibetan calligraphy - even a tiki statue being chiseled out of raw wood - Goodwill said shoppers can see works by Dale Andres, Lynn Boyer, Bill Braden, Nitya Brighenti, Jeff Lee Ceramics, Gus Guttendeil, Tommy Sammis, Yama and more, something for every taste and budget.

Surf craftsmen, shapers and glassers will stage the first Surf Industry Open House and screen the DVD release of the Outereef Productions/Sugar Mill Films’ Finding Aloha.

“The mill and its environs have a patina of age that we find most charming and almost sacred,” she said. “Keep the Country Country includes a love for the country, and keeping it sweet and not making it too slick is important to respect.

For more information, visit www.waialuasugarmill.com or www.tasteofwaialua.com.

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