FUMIE
Fumie Farm is named after my grandmother, Fumie Dorothy “Dot” Ikehara who grew up farming in Kalāheo, Kauaʻi. Fumie's parents came from Okinawa to work in the sugar plantations and later, with the help of their Okinawan community, owned and operated a farm and pineapple plantation.
As part of assimilating to "America", my grandmother stopped using her birth name and went by Dorothy or “Dot” instead. She took on the dot as a kind of personal icon– outside of every door sat a pair of black rubber slippers, each painted with a pink dot.
Fumie Farm is named in her honor. This work is a loving endeavor, it is a remembrance of her and all those who came before, it is a reclaiming of the parts we mute in order to adapt. Here in Mākaha, it is a return to my roots, it is an effort to repair myself, this land and my relationship to it.
In the 1950's, Dorothy, wife and mother of 2, moved to Mākaha. At the time, much of this area was rural and proposed as affordable land to live and farm. Dorothy went on to populate the land with 3 more children and many more plants. She amassed a large and unique plant collection alongside the corn, beans, and papaya grown to feed her family (photo below-left). The photo to the right was taken when she first moved here. It is dramatically different from today's populated Mākaha.
MĀKAHA
FUMIE
FARM
Over time, Dorothy's children grew up and moved away, her husband passed and she cared for the property alone. Dorothy's large plant collection dwindled, the farm went fallow, overrun with invasive species. When Dorothy passed in 2019, the only records of farm activity were rusted bean trellises and broken irrigation pipes.
Following the Lahaina wildfires, with ferocious anxiety, my mother and I started to clear the overgrown brush. As the guinea grass, koa haole, and kiawe cleared, a magical thing happened– farm land started to appear!
I started planning for climate change crops to grow in Mākaha but was quickly overwhelmed with academic papers on soil and evapotranspiration rates. I didn't know what I was doing and needed help. I stumbled upon the Go Farm program and after many months of farm school, and many nights passed out in mud, I'm proud to say I know a little bit. With that little bit, I started Fumie Farms.