If you just want the details to book your trip scroll down to the bottom!
O’o Farm’s lunch tour in Maui, Hawaii’s Upcountry takes farm-to-table to a new level. It is farm to family style lunch on a farm table on the farm! My sister, brother-in-law, parents, and I took the tour on our Maui vacation. Despite varying interests among us, we all loved the tour. My dad loved it so much that he took on an unofficial marketing role, recommending a trip to O’o Farm to all the other tourists we encountered during the rest of our trip.
TOUR: HANDS ON “QUALITY ASSURANCE”
The O’o Farm lunch tour takes you around the 8.5 acre farm, stopping frequently to discuss the plants and farming operations. It also incorporates a stop by the outdoor brick oven where the chef tells you about lunch and a brief lesson I coffee harvesting and roasting that will make you appreciate your morning cup a lot more. Those who want a deeper dive into the coffee production process can take O’o Farm’s coffee tour that culminates in a gourmet breakfast in lieu of lunch.
Our tour was led by overall clad farm manager, Ryan, who was a fountain of knowledge about farming operations on O’o Farm, and agriculture and horticulture generally. We later learned that he had studied with a master gardener in Europe. Despite the amount of information conveyed during the tour, it never felt like a lecture. Ryan kept everyone engaged through hands-on activities like “quality assurance” (taste testing), “scratch and sniff” (guessing what an item is), and harvesting greens and flowers for our lunch salad.
I don’t want to give away all the facts or answers, but one of the most interesting things I learned was that the coffee cherry that houses the beans, which is often disposed of or used for fertilization, is chock-full-of antioxidants. It doesn’t taste bad either – like a sweet red pepper. O’o Farm incorporates the cherries into various dishes. Future prediction: Coffee cherries are likely to become a trendy superfood. (You can buy a few products now, like sun-dried coffee fruit or coffee cherry tea)
LUNCH: A FOODIE’S DELIGHT
My sister and my brother-in-law found out about O’o Farm because it shares an owner with and supplies food to one of their favorite Maui eateries, Pacific’O. With that background, I figured the lunch would be good. Since it was on a farm, I figured it would be simple. The former was true, the latter was not. The meal was exceptional. My brother-in-law was so enthralled with the chicken that I overheard him talking about how he might be able to recreate without a brick oven.
Homemade bread. We couldn’t wait to dig in. Spice and coffee rubbed chicken with root vegetables.
The lunch menu for O’o Farm’s food tour varies with the seasons. The Farm is committed to sustainable farming which means figuring out how to incorporate what vegetation is in abundance into their meals. Edible flowers were abundant when we were there so they mixed them into the salad and the salad dressing.
PLAN YOUR TRIP TO O’O FARM
Website: http://oofarm.mybigcommerce.com/ (Tour can be booked online)
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/oofarm_maui/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/OoFarmMaui/
Address: 651 Waipoli Rd., Kula, Hawaii 96790
Phone: (808) 667-4341
Tips to Know Before You Go:
- Make reservations far enough in advance. For good reason, the tour has been gotten a lot of positive buzz and the number of people interested ins likely to continue to increase.
- Leave early. O’o Farm is located inland in Maui’s more rural Upcountry which means it’s a little bit of a drive from any of Maui’s coastal towns and a little harder to find.
- Be on time. I was pleasantly surprised that the tour started right on time.
- Bring your medication and/or inhaler if you have allergies.
- Wear closed toed shoes you can walk in. Expect to walk about a ½ mile total over unpaved surfaces.
- Bring your bottles of wine or beer to enjoy with lunch. There’s no corkage fee and “nO’o judgment” at O’o Farm. In fact, they’ll even keep your chilled beverages chilled for you during the tour.
- Be social. You’ll be on the tour with a total of about 15 – 30 people depending on the season and lunch is family style.
- Consider your children’s’ ages and dispositions. The tour was mostly adults but there were two girls around the 7 – 9 year old range who seemed to enjoy it.
Other Connected Businesses to Check Out:
Pacific’O Restaurant (Same owners)
Feast at Lele (Same creators)
Aina Gourmet Market & Coffee Shop (Coffee & Food Made from products from O’o Farm
