Laulima's Vision and Mission

Mission: Our mission is to provide resources to children and families, integrating traditional Hawaiian values and sustainable living practices

Vision: Our vision is to empower every household on Maui to grow food easily by taking notice of the foods that grow in our region.

A Little More About Us

We are inspired by our Polynesian climate, by Hawaiian, Biodynamic, and Korean farming techniques, and we have joined forces with an intention to empower families to grow food easily by taking notice of the foods that grow (and grow easily) in our region.

We have received mentorship, guidance and support over the years from incredible Hawaiian treasures like Uncle George Kahumoku Jr., Kumu Raylene Ha’alelea Kawaiae’a, Lei'ohu Ryder as well as cultural leaders from HOCVS.

We hope to serve as an agent of outreach and education, inspiring community to grow food in their yards, and to serve as an example that more sustainable living need not be daunting or overwhelming. Begin with what plants thrive in your region, and a little aloha, and the rest will follow!

What We Offer

We provide resources and hands on activities for keiki, from learning how to make poi the traditional way, to making tinctures, ferments and other value added products.

We offer weekly garden classes, learning about soil regeneration, compost-making, pest management, and creating delicious food from our garden plants.

Roll up your sleeves and make a difference!
Mondays are "Malama Mondays" at Laulima Garden - come lend a hand in our thriving farm from 9:30 AM to 1:30 PM.
All ages welcome - let's cultivate community together!

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Our Partnerships

We are fortunate to be in partnership with Freunde - Friends of Waldorf Education, who connect us each year with international volunteers that support our educational and gardening efforts.
(If you have interest in joining forces with us, please reach out!)

We are also in our second year offering our farm-fresh produce weekly to the Maui Hub!

Additional Partners:

Hawaiian Outrigger Canoe Voyaging Societ

Here's what our past wwoofers have said about their experience at Laulima!
Volunteer with us through Wwoof.

And a warm Mahalo to our seed provider, Johnny's Seeds, who awarded our organization an additional $250 worth of seed stock in 2023!

Meet our Team

From professional farmers to volunteers, we have a beautiful team that helps make everything possible!

Kether Hollabaugh

Kether is our visionary for Laulima Garden ‘Ohana. Kether is a Waldorf-credentialed educator whose journey into sustainable gardening and the food security movement began on the island of Molokai in 1995. Since then, she has become a pioneer in creating Waldorf community homeschooling for hundreds of families across three of the Hawaiian Islands, with growing food for local children and families serving as the cornerstone.

Her passion, under the direction of Hawaiian elders, her late Kumu Raylene Ha’alelea Kawaiae’a, her current mentor Uncle George Kahumoku Jr, and many other cultural leaders, is to build bridges between Hawaiian and non-Hawaiian peoples, as well as create nature-based educational opportunities and environments for children and their families.

Emily Ramsey

Emily has been our lead garden educator for our keiki for the past two years and comes from an extensive farming background! Emily is a graduate of Agricultural and Life Sciences from Cornell University and has a lifetime of experience in farming and farm business. She helps facilitate our weekly outdoor immersion for youth, along with

supporting organically managed Maui farm 'Oko'a Farms in a multi-faceted role.

Jason "JD" Dennis

Jason is an an ex professional baseball player turned farmer! JD is a Soil Food Web graduate, soil wellness consultant, permaculture advocate and father of 2. He helps Maui residents, farms and land-care organizations through Soil Regeneration Maui, a program offering high-quality biological soil amendments at no cost. "Brew Hut," as Soil Regen Maui calls it, puts life back into the soil, creating regenerative landscapes and removing the need for fertilizers, pesticides, or any other synthetic products. The amendments extracted from compost include beneficial species of microorganisms, bacteria, fungi, protozoa, and nematodes present in a healthy soil-food web.

Jason serves as an incredible resource to Laulima, educating young farmers and volunteers while helping us expand our operations!

Lacey Abercrombie

Lacey serves as one of our fun-making camp leaders! She joins us from Grow Some Good, offering garden education to Maui youth for the past four years. Lacey is passionate about instilling Malama Aina into the campers--learning to give and take only what you need from Mother Earth. She believes, if you nourish the earth, it will nourish you!

She loves to explore natural surroundings with the keiki because they are such good explorers.

In addition to the fun-making she brings to our Laulima kids, we have Lacey to thank for helping us apply for this year's MEO Agricultural Microgrant! Wish us luck as we endeavor to expand our offerings!

Tricia Siletti

Tricia is one of our camp leaders sharing a wealth of knowledge, experience and love!

She is a business-owner of Ocean Apothecary, a natural skin care company utilizing Hawaiian herbs in her formulas. And that’s not all; Tricia’s education resume is impressive. She holds masters degrees in Educational Psychology, Curriculum Development and Alternative Medicine.

When leading campers, she offers fun and practical herbalism classes, sharing the Hawaiian principles of Malama Pono (Taking Care of Self) and Malama Honua (Taking Care of the Earth) with the keiki (the kiddos!)!

We are fortunate to get to have Tricia’s daughter each Monday for our weekly volunteer garden program!

Eric Peterson

Eric has been with Laulima Garden 'Ohana for the past two years, helping with all things behind the scenes. A former professional actor, singer and puppeteer, Eric serves as Kether's right hand dude to help the administrative side of things flow, grow and build.

Working with Laulima has inspired his own desire to become a backyard farmer! He and his partner have begun growing leafy greens, root veggies and vase-ready flowers!

Alina Jeremin

Alina is a volunteer joining us from Germany! In addition to helping us with our weekly programs for keiki, she helps us with our weekly volunteer gardening program! Her hobbies include singing, oil painting, pottery and dancing, and has had multi-year experience playing bongo, guitar and clarinet!

Jasmin Grabs

Jasmin comes to us as a credentialed primary school teacher from Germany. She supports us in our programs for keiki as well as with our weekly volunteer gardening program! She has a background in coaching soccer and ski instructing. Her love of nature has inspired her to gather skills in food cultivation, specifically with tomatoes!