Quick! Think of a Hawaii-grown crop.

Heart of palm may not have been top-of-mind, but it put Wailea Agricultural Group Inc. on the culinary map as the largest grower of fresh Hawaii heart of palm in the U.S.

The tender inner core of the peach palms grown by Michael Crowell and Lesley Hill since 1994 have wound up on plates all over the place, including at a U.S. temple of molecular gastronomy called Alinea, a restaurant by chef Grant Achatz in Chicago.

“He even had those porcelain pedestals made” for presenting the dish featuring heart of palm, Hill said.

Philippe Padovani, one of the original 12 Hawaii Regional Cuisine chefs, was an early adopter of the Hawaii crop in the islands.

“He and some of these other guys really stuck their necks out” for us, Hill said.

Now a chocolatier with a specialty shop in Dole Cannery, Padovani still does special-event cooking, restaurant consulting and related work, and strongly believes in the ingredient.

He would use it on the menu of a “big gala dinner” in Paris, he said. On a rating scale of 1 to 10, the Hawaii heart of palm “is 100,” he said. “If it’s not a 20 or above, you’re not going to make it (onto my menu), but the Hawaiian heart of palm is unique, and that’s a product Hawaii has to support,” said Padovani.

“Heart of palm is an incredible product,” said Padovani. “I promote it around the world when I do cooking shows and special dinners,” he said.

He prepares vichyssoise and adds heart of palm, and tops the dish with Dungeness crab or diced smoked salmon. “It is a dish I could put in any three-star Michelin restaurant in France,” Padovani said.

The thicker, bottom portion of the heart of palm can be shredded, or matchstick-cut, “and it becomes like green papaya salad. Use a Japanese mandoline,” or slicing tool, he said. Add a couple of slices of Maui onion, some cooked haricots verts, and toss with vinaigrette and chives and you have an appetizer, or a main course if you add roasted shrimp or scallop, he said. He added a flourish of julienned mango around the top, for color and sweetness.

“Heart of palm is mild, and once you start eating it, you don’t stop,” Padovani laughed.

Crowell and Hill also have big fans in award-winning San Francisco chefs Stuart Brioza and Nicole Krasinski, who have enjoyed “playing with all the stuff on the farm,” Hill said. “They got married here six years ago” and, when planning their reception, waited until they arrived on-island to put their menu together based on what was fresh at the moment.

Brioza and Krasinski have found great success and media-darling-hood at their restaurants, State Bird Provisions and The Progress, in San Francisco.

Local chef Colin Hazama also has used Wailea Agricultural’s products, such as at a fragrant cooking exhibition he staged using the company’s mace, among other ingredients, when he was at the Sheraton Waikiki. Hazama now is executive chef at The Royal Hawaiian, a Luxury Collection Resort. Mace is the lacy outer covering of nutmeg, which is grown by Wailea Agricultural Group, as are cloves, bay leaves, allspice and other spices; tropical flowers; tropical fruits; and a new culinary sensation called finger limes, used for their “little orbs of lime juice,” Hill said.

The tiny globes of so-called “citrus caviar” can be used “as a garnish for a gin and tonic, atop an oyster, with sashimi, it’s really fun,” she said. She adds it to guacamole and floats the “caviar” on top of soups.

Their farm operation has earned the state Department of Agriculture Seal of Quality for its sound practices, and as part of the department’s effort to protect the integrity and value of Hawaii-branded agriculture and related products.

Crowell was born and raised on Oahu, “and my mother always had a garden,” he said, describing the bananas, papayas, mangoes and vegetables she grew and which inspired him to farm. As a child, “I took some seeds, dried and planted them, and two or three months later” his own garden was growing. A light bulb went on, he said.

Crowell and Hill, who also wanted to be a farmer, met at the University of Hawaii College of Agriculture 27 years ago, and thus began their partnership in life and work. They started the farm in 1994.

The best-known Wailea is on Maui, but “there’s a Wailea on every island,” Hill said, and the one where their farm is located is on the Big Island, near Kolekole Beach Park in Honomu.

Hill has owned and operated Paradise Plants Home & Garden Center in Hilo for 38 years, which provides the couple with an additional revenue stream. “Some years the farm does better, some years the store does,” she said.

The focus for Crowell and Hill, as you may have gathered, is the wholesale market, but their farm products are available at retail stores to varying degrees. Their friends at Kekela Farms in Waimea sell some of their items at farmers markets Tuesdays and Saturdays, and the fresh heart of palm can be purchased at Whole Foods Market and select Foodland locations.

“Buy Local” each Aloha Friday is about made-in-Hawaii products and the people who make them. Reach Erika Engle at 529-4303, erika@staradvertiser.com, or on Twitter as @erikaengle.