Waimea Farmers Market

We were up early on Saturday (surprise!) so we had some time before our 11:00 AM sea salt farm tour.  We had wanted to go to Waimea Farmers Market, rumored to be one of the better farmers markets on the island, but they're only open Saturday.  Since we had only one Saturday on our trip, today had to be the day.  We knew we would only get there if we woke up early because it was about a 50-minute drive from our hotel and we had an 11:00 AM tour at a salt farm.  We left the hotel a little after 7:00 and made the drive up.  The farmers market actually opened at 7:00 and when we got there a little before 8:00 there were a fair number of people, but it wasn't too crowded yet.  We were starving so we headed immediately to a couple of food tents.

The first thing that caught our eye was a malasada tent.  Malasadas are a sugar coated donuts that have become very popular in Hawaii.  They are Portuguese in origin and were introduced to Hawaii by Portuguese laborers working in the sugar plantations.  There were lots of different choices for filling and a few different choices for sugar coating.  We mixed it up a little by getting two with Li Hing powder, which is a powder made from dried plums that has a sweet, salty and tangy taste; and one with plain sugar.  We chose the guava filling for one of them, another with with a s'mores filling, and the last one with Mango filling.  They were made to order and when we got them they were hot, fresh, and absolutely delicious.  If we had more time we probably would have ordered a dozen more.

While the malasadas were being made, we hit up a produce tent.  We always say that people should give out samples because that sells your product better than anything.  If it weren't for samples being given out we would not have had a chance to try a jaboticaba.  While it is native to Brazil and not Hawaii, it was delicious nonetheless.

We also bought some fresh pineapple, some freshly squeezed pineapple juice and some freshly squeezed lilikoi (passion fruit) juice.

We also picked up some steamed dumplings which hit the spot.

After walking around a bit and checking out some of the crafts for sale, we spotted a guy cutting up coconuts.  Sofia had tried coconuts before in Puerto Rico and wasn't thrilled about them, these were younger and softer, and she liked it.