Nate Hayward grew up marveling at the miracle of plants on a 225-year-old-farm in southern Vermont that his parents bought in 1985.

“They redeveloped that run-down property into a beautiful acre-and-a-half garden,” he recalled. “My dad ran a successful landscaping business using our farm as an example. People would visit, like what they saw and hire him to start a garden for them. As a kid, I planted many trees there that are now the main established plantings. There wasn’t a day that I didn’t have my hands in dirt.”

Costa Rica, Saint Croix, Senegal, Thailand, Vietnam, the Andaman Islands — Hayward spent a good part of his college years traveling around the world to study tropical agriculture and permaculture, a system of planting crops that relies on renewable resources and a self-sustaining ecosystem.

“I worked summers so I could travel during the winters and earn college credit,” he said. “Fields and orchards were my classrooms, and farmers were some of my best ‘professors.’”

Today Hayward owns a 5-acre farm in Kapaau where more than 50 types of fruits, flowers and spices thrive. “I love to watch plants grow,” he said. “In North Kohala results happen 10 times faster than just about anywhere else. Some trees at my farm have grown from 2 feet in a pot to 40 feet in the ground in three years.”

He’s also the co-founder of Kohala Grown Farm Tours, which takes visitors to two or three privately owned farms to learn about the area’s bounty. He met the perfect partner for that business, like-minded Leo Woods, at the wedding of a mutual friend in 2006.

At the time, Woods was living in Hilo, and home for Hayward was in Northern California. In 2011 they both moved to Hawi where Woods and his wife, Jeannievie, eventually opened Kohala Grown Market (see sidebar) in May 2014. Kohala Grown Farm Tours started three months later with Woods handling logistics and Hayward serving as the guide. The tour begins at the market, which sells some of the produce that participants see at the farms.

For example, one of the stops might be 12-acre Blue Dragon Farm, whose crops include the ubiquitous avocado, papaya and banana as well as exotics such as chiku, dubbed the brown sugar pear because of its sweet flavor, tan color and slightly grainy texture; mamey sapote, akin in color, taste and texture to sweet potato pie; and jaboticaba, which looks like a cherry on the outside but is closer to a grape inside. The farm’s eponymous sister restaurant in Kawaihae uses most of its harvests.

Participants might also visit Lokahi Garden Sanctuary, where tender, slender asparagus is grown year-round and harvested twice a day because it thrives in Hawi’s lush, warm climate. Lokahi also specializes in the showy dragon fruit, which Hayward describes as a cross between a watermelon and a kiwi.

“Dragon fruit must be hand-pollinated after 9 p.m. when the flowers open,” he said. “Besides being a beautiful white and yellow, the flowers have a wonderful aroma. The first dragon fruit in Hawaii were planted at Punahou School in 1831, and they’re still doing great.”

Also of note is jackfruit, which can reach 3 feet in length and weigh more than 100 pounds. “The young fruit can be cooked as a vegetable, and the seeds can be roasted and substituted for garbanzo in hummus,” Hayward said. “Also, the casing around the fruit can be marinated and prepared like pulled pork. Honestly, I have a hard time telling the difference between that and real meat!”

Midway through the tour, guests sample coconut water and some 20 different types of fruit. Although some are familiar, at least a few will be new even to longtime kamaaina, including the succulent rollinia, which Hayward grows at his farm. Native to Central America, it has a firm, white flesh that’s reminiscent of lemon custard.

When available, Hayward also shares his durian, hailed in Southeast Asia as the “king of fruits” despite its strong odor, which has been likened to sulfur, manure and garbage. If that can be overlooked, durian’s taste is actually quite delightful — like creme caramel with a hint of onion.

Visitors will leave with new insights and inspiration, whether it’s eating a more diverse diet, seeking out locally grown food wherever they are or growing some of their own food at home.

“I have a deep respect for agriculture and the Hawaiian culture,” Hayward said. “In ancient times the Hawaiians grew, raised and caught everything they ate, and we need to rebuild that traditional sustainability. Our tour emphasizes the crucial link between local food and sustainability of both life and culture, and in that regard Hawaii has a chance to be a model for the world.”

Kohala Grown Market

Leo Woods and wife Jeannievie bring a farmers market to customers six days a week. Their Kohala Grown Market specializes in fresh produce grown in North Kohala.

“It’s a win-win partnership,” Woods said. “Everything in the store reflects the values of responsible, sustainable agriculture. We provide an outlet for small-crop farmers who can’t sell to conventional grocery stores and supermarkets because they don’t have enough volume or they’re growing exotic things that the big stores won’t sell.”

The market is open Sundays through Fridays from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. On Saturdays either Woods or his wife is at the Hawi Farmers Market at the corner of Hawi Road and Akoni Pule Highway from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Call 937-4930 or check out kohalagrownmarket.com for more information.

Cheryl Chee Tsutsumi is a Honolulu-based freelance writer whose travel features for the Star-Advertiser have won several Society of American Travel Writers awards.