Ward Farmers Market

Ward Farmers Market

The old Ward Farmers Market (????-????) previously known as Ala Moana Market (????-????), would serve as an icon and be considered by many as “The Spirit of Ward” the old buildings, the preservation through development, and the history that it played on Oahu. Historians argue that the destruction of the market is to destroy the spirit of ward and while the market was in need of much needed repairs the larger business people rather get rid of it like yesterdays news instead of bringing in attention with scents of sea, slack key guitar playing, live displayed fish fileting and poke making with an artisan touch that people would be ensured they were getting some of the best all the time. Knowing it was a place people would track down ingredients for the Holiday season and have the local culture of peoples great great grandparents still live through the marketplace. 

Memories are made from the old seafood markets that were there to serve the people of Oahu with lots of locals going down the damp walkway that resembled a wet-market of wet floors from the melted ice. There were all the things a person would need to shop for their family there including the Groceries, Seafood Markets, Snacks, and Ready-made-food vendors where there was a real local design that felt very historic and was noticeably well liked with people meeting there. Many people in the community had considered it a Hawaii Landmark with significant character and as a source of food for Locals as a mom and pop store hub, but it was in need of revitalization. The Farmers Market wasn’t your typical farmers market as it was organized more like a mom and pop version of costco or sams club in the big retail, but not as fancy and not as organized, and not as many people working. 

Businessmen and Tradesmen would send workers over to the market, especially if they worked nearby to to go and get seafood snacks and poke along with beer. They would go and pool together money and have a huge haul of “Pau Hana” (after work) goodies from the vendors where people spent everything for the sake of a good time, some of the vendors even through something extra, so things back then were great. The food would be used as the “Stash” that they would keep at work, so when people needed something to snack or knaw on they would go and bring stuff out from the stash of goodies they when buy from the market. There was a carpenter that use to go to the outdoor seating under the coconut tree to eat dried aku as they waited for their girlfriend to pick them up.

Walking in the Fish Market, when people walked in there would be the smell of fish right from the entrance and it made you know there were fresh goods being sold. If people entered from the other entrance they would be smelling laulau with some kids running down the wet market side holding their nose telling their grandparents how stink it was, meanwhile their parents would go shopping for things to make or bring home for dinner. They had many stalls that had all sorts of goods with The Asian Market (Hank), Hiromoto Fish Market, and Bob’s Market, Haili’s Hawaiian Foods (Lorraine Haili), Jimmy’s Seafood Market, The Peanut Hut (aka. The Peanut Man “Ken Nago”), Stanley’s Chicken, Chinese Chuckwagon, Tropics Seafood & Vegetable (1952. Kay and Kiyo Tanoue), and a rows of Warehouses in the back where the deliveries were made. Also there were whole salers and more vegetable produce vendors where people could get even more things like: Tamago (from the tamago man), Tofu (tofu factory), and Takuan (takuan producer).

The Locals would enjoy their shopping with the smell of fresh seafood in the air and the availability of very good and well prepared Hawaiian food with big bags of poi, fish bones, fish collars, lau lau, and fresh poke. It would be a favorite back in the 1980’s to get Poke with: Aku Poke, Shoyu Onion Aku, Aku Palu Poke, Aku Ake, Aku belly, and Spicy Aku Poke (kochujang garlic salt seasoning) where the whole fish would be taken care of with “Sea-to-Table” before there was a name for it, because people were strong believers in Hawaii of “Eh, No Waste!”. Many of the older poke selections that are hard to find or are no longer seen in many markets would be found in the area as well, like Raw octopus poke, Raw shrimp poke, Raw crab poke, and more that have been lost to time. Other seafoods that people would find were salted Aku, dried Aku, dried Ahi, Salted Ahi, dried Tombo, Salted Tombo, as well as Opihi. There were people selling seaweed as well like Limu Kohu and there was a pickled selection and even fresh veggies.

Ward farmers market used to service boats as the fishermen dropped off their loads of seafood for the markets inside their fishing boats could get worked on as well. Many of these came from the Kewalo basin. Fishermen recall that there were some of the most interesting laulau made of reef fish, old laulau that was made from creamy bits, and meat market friendly laulau that had lots of different red meats. From time to time they would trade while they were waiting and talk story with the others, like when they would talk about the Ala Moana Market days of the salted fish was brought in whole or half by the pound and there were all sorts of fish that was salted from the Alaskan trade trips (1948). The Hawaiians would go and: Salt Salmon, Salt Bloodred Salmon, Salt Sockeye Salmon, Salt Pacific Sole, Salted Cod, and other Salted Fish from Hawaii waters or Pacific Northwest Waters from connections with overseas Hawaiian settlers.

Bob's Fish Market had the fresh fish being wheeled in the containers with a person cutting the fresh fish in front of the people. A person would be yelling out “Fresh fish! Real ono! Get em fresh!” where they knew to keep the guys of all sorts of fish, because many of their clientele would make old fashion kanaka poke with the raw ake, urchins, crabs, slipper lobster, lobsters, limu, and fish guts as well as many of the shellfish. People had a working relationship with the people there, so it wouldn’t be strange to see a grandma with their grandchild getting a fish and the child being all haboots because of the smell of the place. The owner was nice as he would have a stack of poi bags that were for some of their older customers in consideration that it would take them a little bit longer to get to the stall, because everyone wanted that fresh poi.

Haili’s back then had many dishes that were liked at the time and not seen as much in todays flavor palette with Aunty Rachel, such as: Naau Luau, Turkey Tails, Oio Poke, Roast Pork Chips, Lomi Salmon, Kulolo, Fish Palu, and Samoan Palusami, and plenty Ake (raw beef liver) that needs great attention as it can be made great or made really bad. What people forget is there use to be plenty of different poke with the raw beef liver, but maybe thats too far in the past, but there was variety. There were always treasure troves of information in the ways of oral history and life lessons with many Kapunas sitting on the benched all around eating whatever they bought and sharing things with curious minds. Walking out from the entrance there would be people near the sidewalk selling whole fish and it was an amazing site to see the crates of ice and fish and people buying em up. The owner at Bobs would be surprised the employees at Hailis would be buying from him instead of their own workplace, but he sold em food anyways.

Get Your Peanuts, the Peanut Hut then known as the old peanut shop with the peanut man (Ken) with the long beard and forever scowl on his face. He would boil the virginia peanuts and then roast the peanuts before bagging. Then there was plain boiled and plain roasted, but there were many ways to have them seasoned that made them have a unique taste and the freshness would lead to the sort of texture of the snacks. If it wasn’t peanuts that were being roasted there would be pistachios, peanuts, pine nuts, and they were nuts for Jerky the Tengu kine. There was a strong sense of family support in the market and some of the vendors knew each other so well it felt like an extended support system, said one of the old time customers.

Stanley's Chicken Market, there was also a meat market on the side of it. The Chicken market occupied the space where people would go and see them all lined up, plenty of chickens ready to purchase. There was shave ice available for order as well.

Tropics would have fresh tuna sandwiches, musubis, that was popular with workers who would go in to grab a bite. There were so many fruits and vegetables you would be looking through all of them to get the best one with some of the old Japanese ladies having their special technique of knocking on the fruits to see their ripeness. There was a great selection of Japanese pickles in a local style where it was just umbrella termed as “Tsukemono”, but it didn’t taste the same as Japan and more Hawaii-style with Poke that had mixed in the pickles, or the Chili Fish Poke that was really fresh with the onions and white sesame seeds, or the Shoyu Poke Onion. They would supply Orsons Restaurant, so they would come on over to pick up their goods to support local.

Chinese Chuckwagon, Wong Ohana, had an early morning lady on the grill cooking their Lup Cheong Fried Rice with scrambled eggs along with wor won ton min. Some people wanted different kinds of eggs and would go over to find the big jar of duck eggs that were sold with the other vendors. Some people wanted to get the 50 cents manapua and add 25 cents more where they would add kau yuk to em, because they would break it open, each side adding kau yuk.

The market would then be occupied by Marukai and called “Marukai Market”, but with the area being so well known by visitors there were those that grieved the loss of such a great place to shop that was catered to Hawaii locals and gave a authentic local experience for them. Then in the name of progress it was demolished for high-rise condominiums with landlord Howard Hughes Corps pushing out many of the small businesses. The space previously was known to be a Coral Dredging site where there was a pile to fill in the swamp lands. It kept on going for a while and sold many Japanese goods until it would end up closing to make way for investment properties. It would be a sad day when the letters of the ward farmers market would start to be pulled off as the building would be prepared for demolition behind coned off areas.