Maui Tea Farm Emergency Replanting

Aloha from Andrea and Alex de Roode, owners and tea farmers at our family run Maui Tea Farm. Maui has suffered an unprecedented disaster. Many in our community have been severely impacted, particularly on Maui’s West Side, but also in Upcountry Maui where we are located. To support disaster relief efforts for the Maui community, please donate to https://www.hawaiicommunityfoundation.org/maui-strong

If you would like to support our Maui Tea Farm directly, please read on and contribute to our GoFundMe campaign. Mahalo!

WHO WE ARE

We are Maui’s first and only tea (Camellia sinensis) farm and a grower of native Māmaki herbal tea, along with fruit trees such as avocado, citrus, and coffee. We started growing tea on our home farm property back in 2014 while creating delicious tea and herbal tea blends under our own label PONOinfusions teas.

After years of hard work and sweat equity in farming and growing our business, we expanded our business in 2021 to a secondary field and retail shop to welcome tea lovers of all ages to a visitor friendly farm location where they could enjoy tea tastings, snacks, and guided tea farm tours.

before photos of Māmaki crops:

MAUI STATE OF EMERGENCY: WIND & FIRE DAMAGE

We are here on GoFundMe as both of our farm properties and fields were severely damaged in the recent fire and windstorms starting August 8, 2023 that have tragically affected many parts of Maui Island, including our region of upper Kula and Haleakalā Volcano where our farms are. Though we were so incredibly fortunate and beyond thankful to have escaped fire damage to our home, as a result of 80-100 mph winds ripping over Haleakalā volcano during the passing of Hurricane Dora, our tea crops, protective deer fencing and farm property infrastructure received severe damage and access to our road and farm shop is closed due to the current emergency situation here. There are still active fires that are only partially contained at this time about a mile from our farm sites, so we are certainly not out of the woods yet in regards to the Kula wildfires.

MAMAKI DESTRUCTION

Particularly our herbal Māmaki tea bushes, a native plant here in Hawaii well known in herbal medicine, have nearly all been destroyed due to defoliation (loss of leaves in the high 80+ mph winds) and uprooting. We have lost our entire future Māmaki harvests for the rest of the year. Our tea (Camellia sinensis) bushes are relatively still intact, however Māmaki tea was our best seller due to its unique flavor and significance as a native plant to Hawaii.

after storm photos Māmaki crops:

Our Maui Tea Farm retail shop, farm tour activities and visitor tea farm site are closed to the public as it is unsafe to visit this region of Haleakalā volcano at this time, resulting in a total loss of income from these parts of our business.

WHAT WE ASK

Through GoFundMe, we are looking to cover some of the costs that our business insurances may not cover, including the removal of large trees that did not fall on structures as well as replacement of and waiting time for new Māmaki crops to go into the ground and be mature enough to begin harvesting. From the time Māmaki is planted as a young bush, it will take about 9 months until it would be large and sustainable enough to begin harvesting from it. We estimate that we lost a total of 3 acres of Māmaki which will need labor and time to be replanted.

FUNDING REQUESTED

As stated, we are working with our farm business insurances and other local programs to see what can be covered. In factoring in waiting time to determine what we are eligible for, we still have bills to pay and food to put on the table for our farm family of 3 (soon to be 4 as of next month September!). We are humbly asking $7,500 as our funding goal to help us clear dead Māmaki plants this week and begin to replant our farm fields over the next few weeks. We are also taking pre-orders for next Spring/Summer’s Māmaki harvests on our website mauiteafarm.com for those of you who love Māmaki and especially want your funds to go toward this effort.

Mahalo nui loa for taking the time to read through, share, pre-order or donate. All of these count towards your support of our little tea farm and we’re so thankful for the messages, phone calls and words of encouragement we’ve received from friends, family, and our dear customers since August 8. To follow our rebuilding journey, you can watch our “Stories” and reels on Instagram and Facebook @mauiteafarm and feel free to subscribe to our Maui Tea Farm/PONOinfusions e-newsletter.

with aloha,

Andrea and Alex de Roode

owners and tea farmers

Maui Tea Farm