Your Guide
Akoni Kamehameha
Meet your guide
Akoni Kamehameha
Sixth-generation kalo farmer. His family has worked Hanalei Valley since before Western contact. This is genealogy, not agriculture.
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Akoni Kamehameha
Sixth-generation kalo farmer in Hanalei Valley. Has farmed the same paddies his ancestors cultivated before Western contact. Serves on the Hanalei River Watershed Alliance and teaches kalo cultivation at Kauai Community College. Recipient of the State of Hawaii Cultural Practitioner Award.

Taro — kalo in Hawaiian — is the oldest continuously cultivated crop in these islands, and Hanalei Valley contains the largest remaining taro cultivation in the state. Akoni's family has worked this specific section of the valley since before James Cook arrived. He knows the flood cycles, the planting patterns, the varietals that his great-great-grandmother selected because they grow best in this exact microclimate. He also knows the creation myth: in Hawaiian tradition, kalo is the elder sibling of humanity — the first food born from the same divine parents. When he talks about this plant, it's not agriculture. It's genealogy.

What Your Day Looks Like

A sample itinerary

Morning (8am)
Meet Akoni at the Hanalei Valley taro paddies. He begins in the nursery — the huli (the shoots) soaking in the irrigation channel, the varietals his family has maintained for six generations. He explains the water management system: how the paddies are flooded and drained on a cycle tied to the Hanalei River, how the water temperature affects growth.
Mid-morning (9:30am–12pm)
Into the paddies. You plant huli alongside Akoni's family workers. The soil is the volcanic black mud of Hanalei — cold, deep, rich. He explains each step of the 9-month growing cycle. Then harvest: pulling a mature corm from the mud, the roots, the corm weight that tells him the growing season was good. A section of the field that's ready for harvest; you dig with him.
Midday (12–2pm)
Poi-making on a stone board near the paddies, the way it's been done here for a thousand years. Akoni explains why the pounding motion matters, what the consistency means, how poi changes over three days of fermentation. Lunch features what you made — fresh poi with the morning's harvest, salted fish, opihi (limpets) from the north shore.
What's Included

Everything is handled

✓ Private guided taro field experience with Akoni
✓ Hands-on planting and harvesting session
✓ Traditional poi-making demonstration and practice
✓ Hawaiian lunch featuring fresh poi and local foods
✓ Transportation from Princeville or Hanalei
✓ Kalo varietal reference guide (printed)
Best For
◆ Cultural immersion seekers
◆ Families with children (kids love the muddy paddies)
◆ Food and agriculture enthusiasts
◆ Anyone who wants to understand Hawaii from the roots up