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Maui Yoga and Dance Shala

Delicious and Organic

 Local Hawaii Fruit and Veggies

organic farmer's market

Paia Fruit and Farm Stand

E komo mai – Welcome to our fruit and flower farm stand!  

Farm country fruit stands and farmer’s markets are often hidden gems for locals and travelers alike.  We are happy to present this wonderful offering of tropical Maui fruit and local vegetables as a part of our center!  We’ll regularly feature pineapples, papayas, bananas, avocados, and coconuts.  These are the fruits you can find here year-round in Hawaii. 

We have lots of beautiful tropical flowers like heliconia, wild ginger blossoms, bird of paradise, awapuhi (shampoo ginger), protea, and a wide assortment of colorful ornamentals.
Our fruit and farm stand and organic farmer’s market also features delicious local, raw honey in jars and we have freshly made banana bread french toast from the kitchen of our Island Fresh Cafe.  These are the wonderful selections you’ll find at our north shore Paia farm stand which stands in front of our Cafe and the Maui Yoga Shala.
apple bananas

Apple Bananas

Maui apple bananas are sweet with a rich, slightly tangy banana flavor that is far different from the taste  of the typical Cavendish or Williams hybrid varieties found in supermarkets everywhere.  The inside of the apple banana is firmer and creamier where the other varieties tend to be soft and starchy. The fruit size tends to be smaller and makes a perfect sized natural snack. Apple bananas in Hawaii are a result of the combination of rich volcanic soil and ideal climate. In fact, once you sample these sweet treats you may start eating 5 or 10 of them a day!  And any smoothie or açaì bowl you enjoy from our Island Fresh Cafe will have these frozen bananas in them for a truly special taste.

Mangos

We eagerly await mango season which starts in late spring and goes thru summer.  There are over 60 types of mangoes in Hawaii—all of which have slightly different flavors—but the most popular varieties are Rapoza, Haden, and Pirie. Hawaii’s mangoes are truly unbeatable. They’re juicy with a flavor like no other and are best eaten fresh and ice cold. Mangoes are also used as toppings for desserts or when still green to make  pickled mango.  The sweet tasting mangos on Maui are so out of this world delicious you’ll find yourself biting right into one if you can’t wait!

maui mango
maui pomelo

Pomelo

While cruising around Maui you may notice a tree with lots of pale yellow, volley ball sized fruit hanging from it.  You’re looking at pomelo, the world’s largest citrus fruit.    This tangy, delicious fruit is juicy and satisfying.   The taste is like a sweeter grapefruit with a splash of lemon.  You can remove the pomelo’s easy-to-peel skin and thick pith with your hands, but it’s easier to use a knife and cut perfect pomelo segments and enjoy!

maui pomelo inside sliced pink
coconuts

Coconuts

A fresh coconut water after a yoga class here at the Maui Yoga Shala is so refreshing!  Coconut water has exploded in popularity in recent years, and for good reason. Often referred to as ‘nature’s sports drink’, coconut water is a wonderful source of amino acids, vitamins, and minerals including calcium, magnesium, phosphorus and potassium. The natural electrolytes in cocos help to replenish and hydrate.  The coconut tree is a member of the palm tree family and the only known living species of the genus Cocos.  The coconut palm thrives on sandy soils. It prefers areas with abundant sunlight and regular rainfall which makes colonizing shorelines of tropical Hawaii relatively straightforward.  Come get your coconut.   We’ll open one for you at the fruit stand or Cafe and you can enjoy!

Avocados

Avocados are essentially nature’s magical fruit. They’re delicious, but they’re also healthy.  No matter how you consume them — and the numbers of ways to do so are many — the creamy green superfood always packs a powerful and diverse nutritional punch.  It’s believed that avocados were first brought to the Hawaiian territory in the very early 1800s.  

avos

Thanks to cross-pollination there are hundreds of hybrids with varying characteristics, and in the islands, trees produce some of the biggest, best avocados in the world.  The microclimates and supreme soils result in larger fruits with larger amounts of healthy oils, like polyunsaturated fatty acids, minerals, and nutrients.   You’ll see some of the biggest avos ever on the island of Maui!  The organic, local avocado can be added to any dish at the Island Fresh Cafe and is also used for our house-made avocado aioli which is used as a creamy dressing for many of the menu offerings.   And, come try our delicious avocado toast from the the Cafe!

avocado toast island fresh cafe
maui hawaii pineapples oahu molakai

Pineapple

Pineapples can be traced back to their origin in South America, and are linked together with Hawaii because of the large pineapple industry that was build on Hawaii in the early 1900s. … In Hawaiian, a pineapple is called “hala kahiki”.  Pineapples are not a single fruit, but a group of berries that have fused together.   The inside of a pineapple can be light white (sugar loaf) to golden yellow (Maui gold) with varying degrees of sweetness and accents.  You’ll find pineapple also growing on the Big Island, Kauai, Molokai, and Oahu.  

We grow them in the back of our Maui Yoga studio.  After the pineapples have been cut, we take the tops (the crown) and plant them and make sure they get plenty water.  In 2 – 3 years the pineapples appear!

fresh baked banana bread paia maui

Banana Bread

It’s hard not to notice that banana bread is a big deal in Hawaii.  There are signs about this treat all over the islands.  Our banana bread comes fresh out of the oven of our Cafe’s kitchen and is made using those sumptuous apple bananas we grow here.  Maui-style banana bread is dark and moist, with a nice crunch on the top.  But there’s more!  We use this sweet, cake-like quick bread for our wildly popular banana bread french toast!  It’s featured on our menu with fruit topping, whip-cream, and real maple syrup.   Make sure the next time you’re in Paia to come try some!

Honey

Our organic farmer’s market has local, sustainably raised honey harvested from Haiku and Kula beehives.  These lovely Maui bee homes are surrounded by trees, flowers, and plants conducive to producing the sweet golden substance.  A typical beehive can produce anywhere from 30 to 100 pounds of honey a year. To produce a single pound of honey, a colony of bees must collect nectar from approximately 2 million flowers and fly over 55,000 miles.  Honey’s depth of flavor and color is determined by the source of the nectar it was made from and on Maui there’s lots of flowers to choose from!

hawaii tropical flowers maui paia

Tropical Flowers

When driving, walking, or biking up on Baldwin Ave from Makawao, Paia, or Hali’imaile you may notice some brightly colored ensembles in front of our Maui Yoga studio and Island Fresh Cafe.  We have lots of beautiful tropical flowers like heliconia, wild ginger blossoms, bird of paradise, awapuhi, protea, and a wide assortment of colorful ornamentals.    With all the types of flowers that grow in Hawaiʻi, the diversity in Maui is sure to impress even the most educated botanist. Because Maui has 17 of the 20 known worldwide climate zones, there is always an area to grow just about any kind of flower that exists.    Around the grounds of our center we have koki’o ke’oke’o and hau hele, which are types of hibiscus as well as the intensely sweet smelling plumeria and pua kene kene flowers which are great for lei making. If you’re a flower lover like we are, it’s easy to see why this island is called a tropical paradise.

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