Kona Historical Society’s Kona Coffee Living History Farm will be hosting the annual Farm Fest Open House at their historical coffee farm in Captain Cook on Saturday, September 30 from 10am to 2pm. The public is invited to attend this free community event that shares Kona’s rich farming history. Shuttles, generously sponsored by Hawaii Forest and Trail and Roberts Hawaii, will be running between the parking area of Kealakekua Ranch Center and the Kona Coffee Living History Farm from 9:30a.m. to 3p.m. since parking will not be available at the Farm.

At this year’s celebration, the theme is “From Farm to Table” in honor of Kona’s cultural heritage, and promises a day filled with fun-for-the-family activities that revolve around all the amazing sustainable foods that are made here in Kona. Celebrity Chef Sam Choy will be exploring the vegetable gardens and fruit trees on the farm, and using what he finds, he’ll prepare a delicious dish and beverage. Sandy’s Drive In will be returning to the farm for this annual celebration to cook up a traditional plantation era dish: Chicken Hekka.

The Kona Coffee Living History Farm, homesteaded by Japanese immigrants, reveals the story of Kona’s coffee pioneers in the 1925-1945 era. The coffee mill and farmhouse will be open to tours where guests can experience the domestic life of Kona’s coffee farmers. Visitors enter the kitchen where rice simmers on a traditional open-hearth stove before they remove their shoes to walk on tatami mats throughout the house. Outside, they learn to pick coffee and see how it was processed in the kuriba (mill) and dried on the hoshidana (drying platform), and explore the gardens where traditional vegetables are grown, or visit with the chickens, or Kona Nightengale Donkeys, who were an important part of the economy of Kona coffee farms.

Throughout the grounds of the Farm, historical interpreters, cultural practitioners and volunteers will be hosting “Hands on History” activities where guests can practice the art of lauhala weaving, Japanese calligraphy, medicinal gardening and pan roasting coffee, among others. The Songbird of Milolii, Diana Aki, will also return to the farm to perform local music on the lawn. Kona Historical Society will be displaying a new pop up exhibit featuring Kona’s history of growing and gathering food sustainably and sharing meals with our diverse, multicultural community.

This event is generously sponsored by Hawaii Community Federal Credit Union, Hawaii Tourism Authority, Candy Sargent, and Farm & Garden.

Kona Historical Society is a community-based, 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization and Smithsonian Museum affiliate that has spent the past four decades collecting, preserving and sharing the history of the Kona districts and their rich cultural heritage within Hawaii. The Kona Coffee Living History Farm is the only living history coffee farm in the nation. This award-winning, historic farm that tells the story of Kona’s coffee pioneers during the early 20th century.

For more information, call Kona Historical Society at 808-323-3222 or visit www.konahistorical.org. To get the latest updates regarding Kona Historical Society programs, historic sites and special events, “LIKE” Kona Historical Society on Facebook.