San Francisco visitor Joe Sawyer and his wife were en route to the North Shore from Ko Olina when they discovered Green World Farms, the new 5,000-square-foot agricultural visitor center in Wahiawa.
The couple took a tour of the 7-acre triangular farm, which is surrounded by vistas of Oahu’s highest peak, Mount Kaala. They tried the homegrown fresh roasted coffee and bought local honey from the gift shop.
A few days later, Joe Sawyer made a second trip to the farm. "The coffee brought me back," he said.
Serving coffee to visitors and locals was the catalyst for Howard Green, principal investor and financier of the project, to spend more than three years turning the former Galbraith Estate pineapple lands in Wahiawa into a coffee farm and visitor center.
Green planted coffee on the land in 2009 and had hoped to open the center in the fall of 2010; however, he and general manager and roastmaster John Alvarez only received their conditional use permit — which they needed to open a retail store on agriculture land — a few weeks ago.
"The delay was a real killer, but I’m stubborn and I had money," Green said. "Besides, I’ve done this before."
Green said he met similar resistance while developing the North Shore Marketplace. Green is the leasehold owner of the marketplace, which sits on land owned by Kamehameha Schools.
"They said I was crazy (to develop the North Shore Marketplace) and the banks wouldn’t finance it," Green said. "It’s grown into a success."
While Green didn’t have any coffee-farming experience, he is no stranger to retailing the crop or catering to visitors. The semiretired Green, 71, was a partner from 1982 to 2002 in Coffee Works, which operated in Ward Warehouse and on Lanai.
Alvarez, 50, roasted coffee at Coffee Gallery in the North Shore Marketplace.
The duo now has three acres of coffee trees growing on the triangle and is working on ramping up its stock.
"Last year we grew about 1,000 trees, and we are planting those now. This coming year we’ll do 1,000 more trees," Green said.
Alvarez said the farm, which has red catuai trees from Molokai and typica trees from Kona and Waialua, is off to a good start.
"Last year we got our first round of beans; we had less than 25 pounds, but this year we’ll have hundreds of pounds," he said. "We supplement our crop by buying green beans from Waialua and other farms and roasting them, but we expect our production eventually will be typical of a small Kona farm."
At full buildout, Green said he hopes to have 10,000 trees planted.
"We would expect to produce 80,000 to 90,000 pounds of coffee cherries, which would give us about 12,000 pounds of actual finished coffee," he said.
Alvarez’s roasting style is influenced by the slow-roasted barbecue of grill masters in his native Texas.
"Most coffee is roasted too frantically. I developed a slower process which uses a much more gradual increase of heat," he said. "It’s really suited to Hawaii’s beans."
So far, Green and Alvarez have created 10 jobs at the center and opened up opportunities for other businesses to share in their profits.
"We are selling pastries from Wahiawa, coffee mugs made in Waialua, honey and jellies made from local fruits in Wahiawa and lots more," Green said. "There is a huge amount of hidden talent in Hawaii’s communities, including Wahiawa. As we sit here every day, folks come here and show us what they have, and we help to shape it into something that is marketable."
Ultimately, Green said he and Alvarez plan to bring in more products that reflect the agriculture and history of Wahiawa and surrounding neighborhoods. Alvarez also continues to add to his collection of nostalgic coffee signage from all over the world.
"If there is one thing that I learned from the North Shore Marketplace, tourists and local people want an authentic experience," Green said.
Beverly Eagen, who lives in the surrounding countryside, said she and her family are glad that Green persevered.
"This is an unbelievably great business idea because of its location," said Eagen, who brings her 12-year-old son, Isaac, to the center once a week for mocha freezes. "There are no Starbucks or any other coffee shops in the area. This has become a daily desire."
The center is drawing customers from the nearby military community.
Amy Bartley, who just moved to Schofield, said she buys roasted beans twice a week.
"I’ve been coming ever since they opened," Bartley said. "I took a coffee to my husband at work, and it was so good that he sent me back to get more the same day."
Bartley said she’s even convinced members of her coffee group, which normally meets at the military exchange, to give the center a try.
Joe Sawyer said the center’s small-town atmosphere provides an appealing place for locals and tourists to mix.
"I like to go to local coffee shops," he said. "They are getting harder to find in San Francisco, where the bigger coffee companies have started taking over. This one is really great."
