Meet Your Producer: Cherelene Bombay

About a decade ago, Cherelene Bombay moved from the Philippines to the Big Island to continue farming, applying her knowledge she brought with her from her home country. Cherelene’s first farming experience on the Big Island was harvesting macadamia nuts, which she attests to is ‘extremely hard physical labor.’ Three years ago, Cherelene and her brother started farming a two-acre parcel near Kea’au which they are leasing from W.H. Shipman Ltd for approximately $1,600 a year.

One of the regular, natural practices Cherelene and her brother implement is feeding the soil with chicken manure. On her farm, long beans, eggplants, squashes, tomatoes, and various other veggies are mingling happily together. Crops are regularly rotated to keep the soil healthy and disease free.

If you recently had long beans and eggplants in your DA BOX, chances are that they were grown and harvested with a lot of Aloha by Cherelene.