Coffeehouse Delighting Both Visitors And Wahiawa Locals
The interior of Green World reflects the North Shore area’s history. Photo by Howard Green.
The newly opened Green World farm makes for a refreshing pit stop while traveling through Wahiawa toward the North Shore.
Owner Howard Green put up the property’s historic-looking building and planted hundreds of coffee trees on the surrounding land nearly three years ago. With the city permitting process finalized, he’s ready for visitors who can learn about local coffee production while enjoying a cup of coffee grown right in the backyard.
Green’s 7.5-acre plot sits on the triangle of land where Kamananui and Kaukonahua roads meet Kamehameha Highway, about a mile before Dole Plantation. The soil, sunny weather and irrigation water in the area present ideal conditions for growing coffee. The only downside was the windy climate, which Green took care of by planting koa trees as a windbreak.
“We presently have about 1,700 coffee trees in the ground and another 500 to be planted the next two months,” said Green. “All of the trees are arabica. Some of those are Kona Typica, which is a Guatemalan derivative, and Red Catuai, which is a Brazilian semi-dwarf variety in use on Molokai and Maui, which grows well in Oahu conditions. We picked several thousand pounds of cherries this year, our first production year. We expect that to climb above 50,000 pounds of coffee cherries by the time the trees are fully producing.”
To help that number increase, plans include the planting of 5,000 more trees. Green also buys green coffee beans grown in Waialua, on Molokai, on Maui and in Kona, and then roasts the beans daily for top freshness and flavor.
The visitor center, which opened last month, is a celebration of coffee, with vintage posters decorating the walls and chair seats covered in coffee sack material. In addition to fresh coffee, the shop offers cups, coffee bags and T-shirts carrying the Green World logo, as well as Hawaiian agricultural products like lychee and lilikoi jam, and honey.
“Our themes are coffee and retro coffee art,” said Green. “We specialize in really, really good coffee. So far people are loving it. We have had visitors from (all over the world),’and we have already started developing a group of Wahiawa and Schofield customers who come back nearly every day. They love our friendly informality. They love to walk out in back of the shop to see the 3-year-old Red Catuai trees, which are bearing coffee cherries. They love hearing and seeing the basics of how coffee is grown, and they like our free coffee samples.”
Green, who also owns nearby North Shore Marketplace, said his success with the Marketplace comes from working hard to satisfy visitors, but more importantly from working to keep the surrounding community happy as well, and he plans to do the same with his coffee farm.
“The North Shore Marketplace was developed over a period of 20 years, and I expect this property to evolve over a period of time as we learn more and more what visitors need and what will be reflective of this community.”
For someone interested in agriculture, there’s really no better name than Green, and he agrees: “In our family, we’ve always been very environmentally oriented. Twenty years ago if I named the business (Green World) after myself everybody would have said, ‘You’re an egomaniac,’ but now it’s just perfect.”
A former attorney, Green said he got the idea to embark on his coffee venture simply because he loves coffee.
“When you ask how much coffee I drink, I say ‘I have two in the morning,'” said Green. “‘Two cups,’ my doctor said, ‘That’s not too bad.’ And I say, ‘No, no, doctor, two pots.’ I could drink my whole production myself,” he added with a chuckle.
