The legendary molokai purple sweet potato

John’s film Rock Prophecies just played at the Maui Film Festival. First off, it won another audience award! It won the audience award at Nashville Film Festival, Dallas AFI Festival, and now Maui Film Festival, and it is a very special honor. This type of award is determined by an audience vote at the end of each screening. The highest collective vote wins, which means this film is connecting to people! Nothing more important than that, right? The Maui Festival also held a deeper meaning for Robert Knight, the rock n’ roll photographer who is the subject of the film, because his childhood home was Hawaii.

The film played at an outdoor venue. A huge screen was set up on a golf course with a volcano as the backdrop and a view of the ocean over your shoulder. The sky was crystal clear with an unthinkable amount of stars. Halfway through the film, John came and grabbed me. He led me around the side of the crowd where we sat on the dark hillside to hear the audience reactions more clearly. We laid back in the grass, my head on his chest, and slowly, a permanent image burned in my soul. The crowd laughed and sighed while we breathed the clean ocean breeze and felt the dewy grass on our sunburned legs. Moments like those come every so often, and they fill my mental memory bank with love.

While in Maui, John uncovered the local health food store and took me there on the first morning. He asked around without me knowing until he found it, and he received an appreciative hug from me for his efforts. I think our sweet-to-each-other meter was extra high on this trip because our first wedding anniversary fell on the last day of the trip – June 21. We actually took a red-eye back to LA that night with John’s mom (Ma Cee), who joined us for the trip. We joked that we took a red-eye with the mother-in-law for our anniversary. Ha! But, it was actually perfect. It was very special to have her with us. The picture below she self-titled “I’ve Died and Gone to Heaven.”

Something else special (this appears to be the word of the trip) happened in Maui that I wanted to share with you. On the plane ride over, I began thinking about people that actually make the island their home. I remembered that Renee Loux, the author of my favorite raw food cookbook Living Cuisine, lived in Maui. I pondered how great it would be if I could actually meet her while in town.

Well… the Saturday morning after the Rock Prophecies screening, John held a private screening for a few of Robert’s friends who couldn’t make it to the previous night’s event. And guess who happened to attend that screening… No Joke. Renee Loux! I was thrilled to meet her, and more importantly, her personality was a direct reflection of her books, which doesn’t always happen. She’s got a lovely spirit… thoughtful, open, warm and full of life. While we were talking, she mentioned her most recent work, “Easy Green Living“, and I hadn’t read it yet. So, she dropped a copy off in the cutest recycled nylon yoga bag with a precious note. She asked to drop it by rather than snail mail to reduce the carbon footprint. Yes! Well, I managed to squeak in reading a few pages between my zzzz’s as I traveled across the Pacific at 3AM, and I am totally impressed with the generous and thorough approach she took to create a green living guide for us all to reference. This book answers every question about how to make green decisions, tips to living a green life and a detailed reference of the green products on the market today.

And continuing our serendipitous vacation, our upstairs condo neighbor, Jan, randomly offered me a ride to the Maui Farmer’s Market on Saturday morning. I’m sure she didn’t know what she had stepped in, but she soon learned after I professed my Farmers’ Market love for several miles. Jan is great. She loves Hello Kitty and with her stylish over-sized sun-glasses, short blonde hair and colorful outfits, Ma Cee thinks she may actually be Hello Kitty. She is warm, friendly and really easy to be around… a perfect farmers’ market partner.

And, the market was awesome! Rows and rows of crafts, antiques and island produce. Passion Fruit, Organic Pineapple, Non-GMO Papaya, Mango and an amazing fruit that I had never heard of called a Star Apple. After much debate, we decided it was a cross between a coconut, a plum and a green apple with a little jell-o/grape texture thrown in for added mouth appeal. Most of the fruit came from a lovely farmer who runs oNo Organic Farms. The farm stand had the great creative energy of a place that cares about the effect their farming has on our world. I just called the farmer to find out the name of the Star Apple, and he mentioned the farm tours that they offer including picking and tasting of 20 tropical fruits, cacao (chocolate!) and coffee beans. I will definitely be back to Maui with a stop at the oNo Farm high on my to-do list.

Lastly, I saw this sign above at the health food store and curiosity had me purchase a few. I roasted them slow (1 1/2 – 2 hours) and low (350) until the outsides were crisp and the center was soft. I just scrubbed them up, dried them, rubbed on a little melted butter, sprinkled them with sea salt & popped them in the oven. I didn’t even prick them with a fork until I was ready to see if they were done. After they came out, I cut them in half, added a little more butter to each side and sprinkled them with cinnamon. They were so good that I went back and got more. On our last night, we had a big vegetable dinner using up all the fridge’s remaining produce and featuring the Legendary Molokai Purple Sweet Potatoes. The pic below shows the the purple sweet potatoes with a squash that I got with Miss Kitty. I couldn’t identify the squash and there was a language barrier at this market stand, but it was yummy regardless.

And, we made sure to drop our leftovers at Jan’s door with a note of thanks. She wasn’t there though because she’s very popular and her social calendar can make an 18-year old tired.

xo – Organic Spark