The great advantage of your own Kauai vacation rental is the ability to cook and eat when you like in your own kitchen. Kauai has many fabulous restaurants that prepare the finest and freshest of foods and cuisines in the world. But sometimes, you may just want to stay in and prepare your own meal at home. You might even wish to pick something up for your special picnic or on your way to relax on the beach...here are the best local markets where you can enjoy all the bounty that the Garden Isle has to offer:
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Green Markets & Fruit Stands -- The County of Kauai sponsors regular weekly Sunshine Markets throughout the island, featuring fresh Kauai Sunrise papayas (sweeter, juicier, and redder than most), herbs and vegetables used in the various Hawaiian ethnic cuisines, exotic fruit such as rambutan and atemoya, and the most exciting development in pineapple agriculture, the low-acid white pineapple called Sugarloaf, not as rare these days, but still hard to find. These markets, which sell the full range of fresh local produce and flowers at very fair prices, present the perfect opportunity to see what's best and what's in season. Farmers sell their bountiful crops from the backs of trucks or at tables set up under canopies. Mangoes during the summer, numerous lettuces all year, fleshy bananas and juicy papayas, the full range of Filipino vegetables (wing beans, long beans, exotic squashes, and melons), and an ever-changing tapestry of edibles are all for sale.
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The biggest market is at Kapaa New Town Park, in the middle of Kapaa town, on Wednesday's at 3pm. The Sunshine Market in Lihue, is held on Friday's at 3pm at the Vidinha Stadium Parking Lot, is almost as big in size and also extremely popular. The schedules for the other markets: Koloa Ball Park, Monday's at noon; Kalaheo Neighborhood Center, Tuesday's at 3:30pm; Hanapepe Park, Thursday's at 3pm; Kilauea Neighborhood Center, Thursday's at 4:30pm; and Kekaha Neighborhood Center, Saturday's at 9am. The Koloa Market draws hundreds of shoppers, so go early shop hard and shop fast! There is also the Kauai Products Fair located in North Kapaa. Experience Kauai's culture with all the fresh produce, tropical plants and flowers, artisans, aloha wear, island food, wellness practitioners and various form of entertainment...always free Wednesday thru Sunday.
For Kauai vacation homes on the North Shore, Kilauea is the agricultural heart of the island, with two weekly green markets: the county-sponsored Sunshine Market, Thursday at 4:30pm at the Kilauea Neighborhood Center; and the private Kilauea Quality Farmers Association (mostly organic growers) Farmers Market, Saturday from 11:30am to 1:30pm behind the Kilauea Post Office. Everything in the markets' wide-ranging selection is grown or made on Kauai, from rambutan and long beans to sweet potatoes, corn, lettuce, and salsas and chutneys. The markets are a dramatic, colorful illustration of how farming activity and enterprises are growing by leaps and bounds in Kilauea. Also on the North Shore, about a quarter mile past Hanalei in an area called Waipa, the Hawaiian Farmers of Hanalei -- anywhere from a dozen to 25 farmers -- gather along the main road with their budget-friendly, just-picked produce. This market is held every Tuesday at 2pm. You'll find unbelievably priced papayas (in some seasons, several for a dollar, ready to eat), organic vegetables, inexpensive tropical flowers, avocados and mangoes in season, and, when available, fresh seafood. The best of the best, in season, are rose apples, mountain apples, and the orange-colored papaya lilikoi.
For Kauai vacation rentals on the South Shore, there's great things said about the two adorable fruit stands in Lawai, where you can find inexpensive bananas (sometimes .25 a bunch!), papayas, and avocados along an old country road. The fruit are beautifully displayed, and sometimes the honor system is used -- leave the money if no one is there. This is country style nonpareil. (From Kaumualii Hwy., turn at the corner -- Lauoho Rd. -- then take the first right.)
Closer to the resorts, in Poipu on Koloa Bypass Road, with a view across asparagus fields and the chiseled ridges of Haupu Mountain, the Poipu South-Shore Market sells produce (some of it from Haupu Growers) daily from 10am to 6pm. Haupu Growers is the major supplier of Kauai asparagus, and this is where you'll find it. Asparagus season begins in October. Fruit Smoothies & Exotic Treats -- Fruit stands have sprouted up all over this island, and smoothies are gaining ground as the milkshake of the new millennium. New crops of exotic trees imported from Southeast Asia are maturing on Kauai, creating anticipation among residents and fruitful ideas for the smoothie world.
"Everyone's waiting for the mangosteens and durians," comments Joe Halasey who, with his wife, Cynthia, runs Banana Joe's, the granddaddy of Kauai's roadside fruit-and-smoothie stands. "They take about 12 years to start bearing, so there are a lot of maturing trees. We're all waiting for the fruit. Rambutans (with a hairy, red exterior and a translucent, litchi-like flesh) are good for the farmers here because they're available, and they're a winter fruit. In the summer, mangoes and litchis are always in demand." Banana Joe's has been a Kilauea landmark since it opened in 1986 at 52719 Kuhio Hwy., between mile markers 23 and 24 heading north, on the mauka (mountain) side of the street. Sapodilla, star apple (round, purple, and sweet, like a creamy Concord grape), macadamia nuts, Anahola Granola, and homemade breads -- like banana and mango-coconut -- are among Banana Joe's attractions. The Halaseys have expanded their selection of organic vegetables and exude a quiet aloha from their roadside oasis.
Mangosteen, reputedly the favorite fruit of Queen Victoria, has a creamy, custard-like flesh of ambrosial sweetness. When mangosteens start appearing at Hawaii fruit stands, they will no doubt be in high demand, like mangoes and litchis during their summer season. In the meantime, Banana Joe has a hit on his hands with Sugarloaf, the white, non-acidic, ultra-sweet, organically grown pineapple popularized on the Big Island. Whether made into smoothies or frostees (frozen fruit put through the Champion juicer), or just sold plain, fresh, and whole, the Sugarloaf is pineapple at its best. For litchi lovers, who must wait for their summer appearance, new varieties such as Kaimana and Brewster are adding to the pleasures of the season. In addition to fresh fruit, fruit smoothies, and frostees, Banana Joe's sells organic greens, tropical-fruit salsas, jams and jellies, drinking coconuts (young coconuts containing delicious drinking water), gift items, and baked goods such as papaya-banana bread. Its top-selling smoothies are papaya, banana, and pineapple. Windward Market Place in Kapaa, is one of those great local grocery stores that has everything! One of the few fresh fish markets on the island they also carry excellent meats, fruits, vegetables and sundries.
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