Anahola Marketplace to launch weekly farmers market June 1

Anahola Marketplace will add a Monday farmers market on Kauai’s North Shore starting June 1, giving east-side residents a weekly stop for farm-fresh produce, prepared food and handmade goods from 3 to 6 p.m.

The market will run every Monday at Anahola Marketplace, 4523 Ioane Rd, and is set to include produce, food trucks, local art, handmade goods and services such as face painting and chair massage. That mix makes it more than a produce stand. It is being built as a regular sales venue for growers, makers and service providers who need repeat customer traffic, not just a one-time event crowd.

The setting matters as much as the lineup. Anahola Marketplace describes itself as a 10-acre open-air marketplace created to support local entrepreneurs with affordable retail space and access to a 2,000-square-foot certified kitchen. The site is governed by the Homestead Community Development Corporation and the Anahola Hawaiian Homestead Association, placing the market inside a broader homestead-led economic development effort on Hawaiian Home Lands.

That effort has been years in the making. HCDC says the marketplace was developed on trust land that had to be cleared of junk cars and dumped items before it could be put to use. Renovated shipping containers now house more than 15 local micro-enterprise business owners, giving the site a built-in business district alongside the new market stalls. A 2024 HCDC project profile put the marketplace’s initial development cost at $850,000, with support from Kauai Community College, HUD, ANNHIAC and the State Department of Hawaiian Home Lands.

The weekly market also extends a longer push in Anahola to build income opportunities around local food and small business ownership. Ka Wai Ola has reported that homestead economic development has been a goal of Anahola Hawaiian Homestead Association board members for more than 20 years. Anahola Cafe, which opened in October 2021, became part of that same ecosystem, aimed at job creation and food-industry training.

For shoppers, the new market adds another place to buy local without leaving the North Shore. For vendors, it offers a recurring Monday afternoon sales window that could help turn a side business into a steadier income stream. Updates are being posted on Instagram at @anaholafarmersmarket as the market settles into a weekly rhythm.