Me ka mahalo, Jake & Ku’u

Why We Made Spicy The Hard Way

Ok, long story long. Nīoi. If I am honest about my earliest memories of nīoi, the Hawaiian chili pepper, I would have to tell you that they are searing. That they are burned in.

“Because they know me, they know us. And they knew that whatever came next, whatever explanation justified a pile of socks, was going to be hard.”

Hawai'i's people have long inhabited a landscape remarkably dense with place names, and for those who speak the language of this place, our 'ōlelo, a landscape dense with instruction too.

Language is so full of invitation, ʻaʻole anei? Isn't it so? Each word an aural artifact, ringing, summoning, calling us back to its first speakers, to what they so eagerly wanted to tell of their time and their place and their way of being in both.

Over five installments of the History of Hawaiʻi's Deer, we've traced the journey of a tiny herd of seven animals in 1868—from far-flung India to Honolulu, from Molokaʻi to Lānaʻi, to the island of Maui—to the runaway deer numbers across Maui County in early 2021.

While legislators and hunters, ranchers and conservationists waged their public war over deer introduction to Hawaiʻi Island, a much quieter chapter of Hawaiʻi's deer history was unfolding on Maui.

In this fourth installment of our History of Hawaiʻi's Deer series, we chronicle the six-decades-long saga of attempts to introduce Axis deer to Hawaiʻi Island.

In 2024, it took 7,345 miles of off-roading, wearing out 18 sets of tires and 75 pairs of Lacrosse Boots, fielding 586 lbs of ammunition, shouldering 1.5 million lbs of deer, washing the floors 912 times, watching 321 sunrises, sharpening our knives 2,568 times, and drinking 3,369 cups of coffee.

Last week, we completed our first series of new surveys on Maui and are excited to continue them indefinitely. With each new piece of data, we’ll be able to better understand how our work is impacting the places we help care for and the extent to which we are moving closer to finding balance.

Reflecting on a year of Holo ʻAi with the launch of the film, Balance, in partnership with LaCrosse Footwear and expressing all of our mahalo for all the hands that have joined in to share food with our community. Holo ka ʻai!

During a recent Holo ‘Ai harvest, I had the pleasure of carrying deer with one such brilliant friend, Dr. Andy Galpin, a Professor and Scientist of Human Performance and host of the Perform Podcast. 

Although helping to balance Maui’s deer population will always be at the center of our mission, food-sharing has become an incredibly important and fulfilling outcome and vehicle of and for our work. And we named it Holo ʻAi.

As we grew our teams to meet the challenge of balancing Maui’s deer populations, we wanted team members to really understand the wide scope of positive outcomes they were bringing to our ecosystems, communities, and customers.

In keeping with last yearʻs end-of-year review, we wanted to share Maui Nui, by the numbers, 2023.

It becomes more and more clear — serving community is serving our mission. In searching for innovative and effective ways to continue to serve our community, we discovered that actively building better ways to share venison is actually a huge unlock for accelerating our mission goals.

The past few weeks have been both challenging and transformative. As a team, we mobilized immediately to respond to both the physical fires and protein needs.

Talking story with Tim Ferriss

Imagine a work-world where every day your teammates ask one simple question, “Is there anything else I can do to help?”

7.2 lbs per minute (ie. one deer every seven minutes). Thatʻs the goal we set each night in order to balance Axis deer populations on Maui

We believe that Humility, Work Ethic, and Emotional Intelligence are skills that, if focused on and measured, can be improved.

HHS, Part I, History of Hawaiʻiʻs Deer, Part II, and the launch of our all-new and much improved Venison 101 and Cut Guides.

2022, a year in review, living and sharing generative stories, and easily accessible protein options that offer you 10 grams of protein in under 10 minutes of prep time.

All the details on our unique work schedule, the "7 and 7," well-wishes of collective abundance for the Makahiki season, and digging through all the delicious data of an all-new nutrient density study.

Celebrating a huge jump forward in harvesting and butcher capacity on Maui as well as being able to better center Kamaʻāina Fulfillment and the launch of our new 1 oz. Sticks.

The exponential returns of Compounding Impact, History of Hawaiʻiʻs deer Pt. I, and our love of the Dry Salt Brine.

How we design our work around "Moon-fluence," taking the time for ceremony as we grow into our new space at ʻUlupalakua, and brushing up on the Barnsley Chop.

Scaling from harvesting 500 dear a year to 15,000, a deeper look into why we decided to start our Ke Au Hou Newsletter, and great tips to start grilling like a pro.