It Starts With Lepo

Before food reaches our tables, before a lei is strung or a plant is gathered for cultural practice, there is lepo, the soil that supports its growth. Its health helps shape what can grow, what can nourish us and what can continue to be shared. For mahiʻai and cultural practitioners, caring for lepo means paying attention to a place. One crop struggles while another thrives. The person stewarding that land notices the differences and begins asking what the land needs. Those questions arrive at Makaliʻi Metrics, a soil lab in Mōʻiliʻili where samples are weighed, prepared and analyzed for information about the conditions beneath growing plants. The findings return to growers and land stewards who consider them alongside what they have learned through working the land.

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