Otsuji Farm

I went to their booth yesterday at kcc farmer’s market and ordered their mushroom fries. Sadly, I had to ask for my money back since they still hadn’t come out after waiting nearly thirty minutes. Their booth is completely disorganized and inefficiently run so I hope they will see this review and work on improving their system.
They only have a few items you can order so they list the order at the top of a notebook and then write each customer’s name under the column that they ordered. This means that they end up not knowing who has placed their order first. There is no communication between the folks taking the order and the folks doing the frying so they end up randomly filling the orders of the sushi sliders, malasadas, and mushroom fries. This means that the person who was ten people behind you in line will get their order ahead of you if the staff decides to work on frying malasadas first.
Your fries looked delicious and I’d sure like to try them one day once you’ve mastered the art of handling the large crowds. My tips on making your booth run more efficiently: write down each person’s name in your notebook in the order it was received and simply write a S, M, or F after their name for the sliders, malasadas, or fries. This will ensure that people receive their order in the order that it was placed. There needs to be more communication between the people taking orders and the folks working in the back, meaning that the ones working in front need to holler out what orders need to be fried up next.
It’s unclear which side of the counter to order on and which side to pick up. Since the wait is long, there is always a crowd of customers just standing around making it difficult to make it to the counter to order. A sign with «ORDER» on one side and «PICK-​UP» on the other side would make it easier for the customers to understand your system. Having the people who already placed their order wait on the «PICK-​UP» side would also make it easier for new customers to come through and place an order.
I hope to be back and finally try those mushroom fries. Good luck and I wish you success!

Last night at the Honolulu Farmer’s Market around the NBC Concert Hall lawn was our first time trying Otsuji Farms sweet potato and apple banana malasadas ($ 8), mushroom fries with dipping sauce ($ 7), and poke sliders on kale ($ 7). All very tasty and though every one of those dishes was deep fried, they weren’t oily — how is that done?!!
The system for getting your food is weird and the girl manning the register wasn’t good at keeping track of what she had given out and what she hadn’t. We were before another couple, but they got mushroom fries before we did… and the girl thought she had already given us our mushroom fries, when we were standing there the whole time (never walked away) and holding our incomplete order for her to see. They need a better system for accuracy!

DELICIOUS CREATIVE EATS!!!
(5 stars and a meteor shower)
Walking around Honolulu’s Blaisdell Farmers Market (Wednesday only) and discovered this. When you read a sign that says «purple banana malasadas» you have to check it out.
— FOOD, yummy
— PRICES, decent
— SERVICE, quick
— AMBIANCE, tent/​food stand at the farmers market
HEFER STATUS
SPICY POKE ON KALE CHIP — omg wow. Never had anything like that before. Kale chip was lightly fried with tempura batter topped with a big chunky piece of spicy poke, drizzled with some sauce. Every bite was heavenly. Liked how they made it proportionate so it’s not messy and you can walk and eat.
PURPLE BANANA MALASADAS — so OMG delicious. My mouth is salivating as I wrote this review. Sweet, crunchy outer layer, and sugary. This is on point!!!
Will I be back? You don’t have to ask me twice.
JABA APPROVED. Until the next review.

I haven’t tried their produce — this review is only for the stall they have at Eat the Street and various farmers markets. I could eat those sushi sliders by the TON. So good. For the uninitiated, it’s a slice of kale, deepfried, topped with a piece of toro, green onions, and two sauces (a balsamic and a spicy sauce). Yummmm.

We visited early on a Saturday morning to take advantage of the $ 10 veggie box at the farm! The box filled our fridge to the brim with delicious greens and radishes. You have the option of having them pick the items in your box or picking the items that go in your box. Either way offers savings from purchasing the items ala carte. The veggies were all fresh and we didn’t have any «bad apples» if you will. We will definitely be going back, or purchasing from their stand at the farmers market. Support local!

$ 10 BOX OF VEGGIES = ENOUGH TO SUPPLY 1 – 2 WEEKS WORTH’ OF VEGGIES! (CASH ONLY)
Otsuji Farm has been my first + only experience with community-​supported agriculture (CSA), but they’ve been uh-freakin’-mazing! I started purchasing several of their $ 10 veggie boxes back in May 2009 from their farm, a private lot near Kaiser High School in the back, back, back of Hawai’i Kai. 1 box yields enough produce to easily take up 2 shelves of my icebox + is enough veggies fo’ feed my rabbit at least 2 – 3 weeks. Da value is easily $ 20 — $ 30 worth of fresh produce!
His veggies aren’t 100% organic, but I’ve read he strives to use less pesticides. He leases the land from Kamehameha Schools/​Bishop Estate + has been dea fo’ over 40 years. All money dat you pay fo’ his produce goes back to support his farm (seeds, equipment, labor, etc.).
Da $ 10 boxes consist of mostly Asian veggies like bok choy, daikon, gai lan, etc., but includes others like Manoa lettuce, kale, spinach, radish, green onions + wateva else is growing on da farm. His blog also includes recipes on how fo’ cook + use da veggies fo’ culinary retarded people like me. ;)
Here’s da days/​times/​places he stay at:
Tues, 4 pm — 6 pm
Kaiser High School farmers market
Thurs, 4 pm — 7 pm
Kailua Farmers Market (by Longs Drugs)
Sat, 8 am — 11 am
Otsuji Farm in Hawai’i Kai (459 Pakala St.)
Sat, 9 am — 11 am
Kaiser High School farmers market
Sat, 7:30 am — 11 am
Kapi’olani Community College farmers market (No veggie boxes available! Only a limited selection of veggies)
REVIEW #208

I haven’t bought the produce that they sell at the other places, but I tried the sushi sliders at the tent they set up at the NBC farmer’s market on wednesday nights:
Sushi Sliders — 4 stars — 4 pieces of tempura eggplant and kale (?) with a piece of poke and green onions on top of it for $ 5. The tempura was very crispy and fresh, and the poke with dressing (sorry, I forgot what it was) drizzled on it blended very well together. It was a really original and tasty pupu to eat that lasted pretty nice in my mouth. I’d buy this again.

What can I say about Otsuji Farm that hasn’t been said already? Honestly, this is the reason why I love Unilocal!I had discovered Otsuji Farms under the local flavor section of Unilocal and was so intrigued by it that I begged my bf to take me there back in early October. Having grown up on Oahu for 20+ years, my bf had no idea what Otsuji Farms was but with the help of the awesome Unilocal reviews, we set off to find the farm and we were in veggie heaven for about a month! Needless to say, when I realized we were going to be in the area on Saturday morning, I had to add a pit stop to Otsuji Farm!
Here is the lowdown for the Saturday morning stand:
— You can opt to purchase the $ 10 box which has an assortment of veggies or you can purchase the veggies/​herbs a la carte.
— If you aren’t sure how to cook or prepare something, don’t be shy to ask. The people who run the stand, along with the other customers, are super nice and ready to share recipe ideas.
— Although it says private property, if you ask-​they let you walk up to the farm to view the veggies growing.
— Bring cash.
— Be sure you have a strategy on how to store the veggies. The first time we visited-​we brought home so many beautiful veggies but were ill prepared. We didn’t know the proper way to store veggies and left them out instead of getting them in the fridge right away and as a result, we ruined a lot of our fresh veggies.
— If you are not big into salads, try getting a bunch of the purslane to add into the next salad you make. It has a semi-​citrus bite to it and makes me actually want to devour a salad: p

I love these people :) They have a booth set up at the Kailua Farmer’s Market on Thursdays from 5pm — 7:30 pm. I was at the farmers market one night browsing the different food booths and i kept seeing people walking around with these plates of eggplant things. It looked pretty interesting so i asked the next person walking by with a plate what exactly it was. The person said ooh it’s tempura fried eggplant with Spicy Ahi drizzled in ponzu sauce! What the!!! Never heard of this combination before but hey I like eggplant and i love spicy ahi so i need to get some of this stuff. We found it 3 mins later. They had a waiting list lol and a line but we were determined. It’s finally our turn to order and were oblivious as to what the dish is called. So i tell the man um we want the eggplant thing so he asks for our name and puts in our order. He tells ok were gonna call your name when your order is up. Less than 10 mins later he calls us and it’s like jesus is beckoning me to heaven. We half ran/​skipped to get our order and the man that took our order started chuckling cause of our excitement. So i smiled at him and ran off with our plate. First bite was heaven! My cousin looked at me and said why are we sharing this plate? we should have got our own plates. There was 6 pieces of yumminess on the plate so that meant 3 for each of us. My cousin is a big eater and she gets nuts about food. She ate her 3 pieces like a cave woman. Boom it was gone in 2 mins, the thing had no chance against her. So she tells me she’s gonna go get us another plate lol. I was like whatever im good and this thing is fabulous so go get some more if you want to. She leaves and 10 minutes later comes prancing back with 2 plates of the eggplant sliders. She said she didnt wanna share anymore lol that i should have my own plate. We were hooked ever since. I try to battle the parking situation to make it there every thursday. I will admit that im an eggplant slider addict. Mr. Otsuji even recognizes us whenever we go. He’s such a nice guy very friendly and personable. Im gonna keep coming back for more as long as they have a stand open at our farmers market. It taste awesome and pretty healthy minus the slight frying of the eggplant lol.

Drove from Salt Lake to Hawaii Kai residential area to find lots of signs posted on telephone poles and fences pointing toward the direction of the farm. It was pretty easy to find if wasn’t for the signs and my GPS keeping me on track. lol
A small row of canopies were set up with veggies and people manning the tables. Parked along the back fence of Kaiser High School no problem since it was a private road.
Lots of varieties of fresh veggies such as kale, dino kale, cilantro, radishes, manoa lettuce, daikon, chinese cabbage, mustard cabbage, and green onion etc. All organic and fresh without the supermarket prices!
I’m juicing the veggies for my juice feasting/​detox/​cleanse and it was worth the drive there. The people that were running the tent were so nice and just love to talk story. People were constantly arriving when i was paying for my veggies.
After picking up my 3 boxes worth of veggies I headed to the Kaiser High School parking on the other side of the school for the farmer’s market. Otsuji Farm had a tent set up there as well and had more kale that i needed so i got more! lol awesome! so cheap compare to Whole Foods and Down to Earth markets.
Thumbs up awesome if you want fresh quality farm grown vegetables!
:D

Tucked away in the residential recedes of Hawai‘i Kai is an unknown oasis of fresh produce found at Otsuji Farm. For more than 40 years, this once pure subsistence, but now commercial 4 acre farm provides their farm fresh veggies to big wigs such as Whole Foods, Safeway, Don Quijote, KCC farmer’s market, and more.
Now before I go on, I want to provide the disclaimer that if you do go and check this place out, you may not be able to buy regular produce again! I blame Farmer Ed Otsuji for ruining my ability to shop at grocery stores and buy in naivety. Although not 100% organic, the process that these veggies go through ensure that there are the lowest level of chemical used.
Here’s the deal: you are able to purchase boxes of vegetables for $ 10. What does that get you? Well, your typical box will have Manoa lettuce, Chinese cabbages, green onions, radishes, daikon, and an assortment of whatever seasonal veggies are available. The reason that I am such a huge fan of this place is not only do they provide access to a number of whole foods, but they do so with budget in mind. To purchase all the aforementioned goodies at a grocery store a la carte, will run you $ 20 — $ 25 easy. Yet at a fraction of the cost, Otsuji Farm allows you to eat healthy for cheap. Check it out Saturday mornings between 8:30am — 11am and you will become privy to the same lesson that I learned two years ago: there is absolutely NO substitute for fresh vegetables.

We’ve been ordering our $ 10 box of veggies from Otsuji Farm for a while now after seeing them featured in the news and online. They used to only be available on the weekend but have since expanded to include Tuesdays at the Kaiser High School Farm Market. Super friendly folks and the vegetables are very fresh and last for a while. The vegetables are organic so the only complaint is the time we bought corn from them on the side and it had worms. Aside from that, the $ 10 box is quite big so we tend to share with friends. They ask that we recycle our boxes and eat all the leaves on their daikon. No waste! Most times we get daikon, bak choy, radishes, choy sum, green onions, and Manoa lettuce in our box, but it varies from time to time. They also sell other vegetables such as kale, basil, parsley, eggplant, etc on the side.

As someone who runs all over Honolulu to get the freshest, most local food, I am very grateful to have another Farmer’s Market mid-​week and on the east side of the island.
Its a very small market, 4 tents, maybe. There are perks to that: although there are people coming and going, its missing the usual parking panic of other markets. And it is most DEFINITELY missing the black smoke belching tour bus dropping off oversea’s visitors. The only sound are the kids practicing in the nearby field. This market has one tent featuring pre-​made food and they aren’t drawing a line so big they need numbers. No, this crowd is local, figuring out what’s for dinner tonight. The guy with the dreads in front me of is talking about his stir fry with the farmer… the Mom behind me is getting the veggies her kids like… its a casual, mellow group.
As graze through I see that this food is probably even fresher — today’s tomatoes were bright red and had that fresh, acidic tomato smell– than what I get on Saturday mornings at KCC, and much of it is A LOT cheaper. I am sure that KCC charges alot more for space than Kaiser High School.
I get out of there for less than $ 20 and I have enough veggies to last me and the rabbit (my husband) the rest of the week. I think WE might even have stir fry tonight too…

Otsuji Farm is located in Hawaii Kai just behind Kaiser High School.
You can order a box of fresh, organic vegetables for $ 10. You have to pre-​order and you can pick up the box Friday afternoon or Saturday morning. The box I got this past weekend was packed with very fresh, very healthy looking veggies. It will easily last my g-​friend and I two weeks. They have a bunch of other veggies that are also for sale that are also all very fresh. They are so much cheaper then buying at a store and even the farmers markets around town.
Farmer Ed and staff are really cool too. If its your first time they’ll offer you to take a tour of the farm. It’s great to see a farm nestled out in Hawaii Kai amongst the yuppies and transplants.
I highly recommend checking it out. Help keep local farmers in business and eat more locally grown veggies.