Farmers Market at Queen Ka'ahumanu Center Blooming Again

How many times can a visitor ask where to get “fresh Hawaiian food,” before locals just shrug their shoulders?

Simply look around. Options abound ~ and many of them depend on your patronage to help support their local Maui farms and businesses.

The Farmers Market at Queen Ka’ahumanu Center in Kahului has been serving fresh produce straight from the fields ~ along with other delectable treats ~ for about 2 decades now. It’s kind of the extension of the original farmers market in Kahului some years ago, and is now open 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. every Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday.

As with other on-island businesses, the Queen’s Center market has seen an uptick in activity in recent weeks, as Maui opens up more to visitors. It is among the few ventures that did not close during the pandemic emergency response, and its vendors are quite happy to see more folks stop by.

“We need all the help we can get here,” said Anna Hidalgo of MauiBaked.com, which has kept a table open at the Kahului market the past 5 years, operated by their main business, Ohgoodies!

“For a while I was making friends with the pigeons,” she laughed.

Hidalgo’s table of hand-made goods is generally open 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. the days the market is open; while others are always open during the entire 8-hour period those days, and others only set up shop on busy Fridays.

Talk with the market’s operators and you learn the produce that's freshly available comes from communities around the island.

“This is our bread and butter,” said Susan Valdez, whose booth features a colorful array of produce grown in Kula. Her family’s business, Ma’alaea Wonder Farm, has been a fixture at the Queen’s Center market for over 20 years now.

Valdez's booth was bustling this Tuesday morning. Nearby, Lilia Sales staffs the table Tuesdays and Fridays ~ because those are her only off days from her regular, full-time job. She says business has picked up a little in recent weeks, “just enough for the family.”

For others, the farmers market is not a full-time venture, but an operation to enjoy. Alex and Edith Caoile will quickly tell you they are “local grown,” staffing their table at the market almost a decade now, with produce from the farm in Waihe'e. Around that time the family closed its restaurant in Kahului, and the booth business was started by her late sister, with assistance from their mother.

“When we shut the restaurant down, that’s when we decided to do something,” Edith said. “We didn’t want to just sit around in retirement.”

Back at Hidalgo’s baked goods table, she casually explains what to expect at their market in the middle of the island’s biggest shopping center. Most days, locals will arrive very very early, to grab fresh produce before going to work.

And Fridays seem to be most popular, when there are more vendors, including a booth focused on organic farming only, a “coconut man,” and others.

She says this market is an extension of the very first farmer’s market on the island, at the Kahului Shopping Center not far away, which was displaced long ago by a fire.

Now you can find farmer’s markets and produce stands all over the island, including a few slowly re-opening on South Kihei Road along the south Maui coast. (More on those establishments in a report later this week).

If You Go

Farmers Market ~ “Maui’s Fresh Produce”

At Queen Ka'ahumanu Center

275 W. Kaahumanu Ave., Kahului

At: Center court, first floor

Hours: 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Fridays