An expanding industrial farm on Maui is making an attempt to supply Hawaii restaurants with more speciality ingredients for customers’ plates.

Mahi Pono, which in 2018 acquired about 41,000 acres that once were the Hawaiian Commercial &Sugar Co. plantation, announced a project Thursday to grow more than 30 crops requested by five acclaimed chefs overseeing about 20 restaurants statewide.

The plan will have Mahi Pono planting about 2 acres of its vast Central Maui landscape with crops including shiso, caraflex cabbage, dinosaur kale, Jerusalem artichokes, watermelon radish, baby corn, celery root, yellow beets, tri-color carrots, leeks, fennel bulbs and other items on wish lists from Roy Yamaguchi, Bev Gannon, Chris Kajioka, Lee Anne Wong and Scott McGill.

“This is a great opportunity,” Yamaguchi said during a Thursday blessing ceremony for the project that Mahi Pono is calling the Chefs’ Corner. “Us chefs, without farmers, we’re nowhere. Farmers to me are rock stars. They’re the ones who created something for all of us to work with.”

Darren Strand, a Mahi Pono vice president, said the project is fairly experimental and will involve the company trying to grow many crops it has not tried before.

If a certain crop succeeds, the requesting chefs can buy as much as they want, and any remaining harvest can be sold elsewhere. If a crop proves really popular, Mahi Pono could reproduce it on a larger scale to supply even more restaurants and retailers.

On the other hand, if a crop doesn’t fare well or meet a requesting chef’s standards, there is no purchase obligation.

“We’re taking a risk,” Strand said. “It’s a starting block.”

Strand said Mahi Pono, which has largely pursued a variety of orchard crops and potatoes along with cattle ranching, got into more diversified farming about a year ago to supply local markets with items including bananas, butternut squash, sweet corn, carrots, kale, green beans, broccolini and sweet potato.

A few of those items are on the special chef request lists, but other items are harder to find or not readily available from local sources.

Gannon, who owns Hali‘imaile General Store, Gannon’s Restaurant, Celebrations Catering and the former Joe’s Bar &Grill, all on Maui, said in a statement that she can’t get several items on her list locally, including baby fingerling potatoes, Jerusalem artichokes, celery root, icicle radish and baby corn, while other fresh produce such as watermelon radish and yellow beets is in short supply.

“This garden will provide a consistent supply of locally grown fresh ingredients I am excited to feature on my menus,” she said.

Wong, who owns Koko Head Cafe on Oahu and Papa‘aina on Maui, anticipates that Mahi Pono’s effort will give her a 100% local supply of fresh produce.

McGill is corporate chef of T S Restaurants, which has eight eateries in the state including Duke’s, Kimo’s and Hula Grill.

Kajioka is involved with three Hawaii restaurants: Miro Kaimuki and Papa Kurt’s on Oahu, and Waicoco on Maui.

Yamaguchi operates nine Hawaii restaurants, which include Roy’s and Eating House 1849.

Strand said crops are slated to be planted by the end of this month to have an initial harvest by September or October.