Paradise Meadows Orchard & Bee Farm

09/02/2026

https://gofund.me/9b294f03c......Paradise Meadows is a 75 acre family farm in the South Point area of the Ka'u district on the Big Island of Hawaii. The farm was established 20 years ago by the family that owns it today. That family includes Scott Buske, Megan Collins, Lili Rodriguez and Scott's son Chris Buske, all of whom live and work here.

On August 15th, 2026, our area was hit by Hurricane Lala, causing catastrophic damage and widespread flooding that cut most of the Ka'u district off from the rest of the island. At the farm, we were left with no power or water (both of which have only recently been restored). The storm caused flooding that invaded and damaged our home, our art gallery, and our packaging facility in Ocean View. It also downed large trees which punched holes in roofs, and damaged our aquaponics system. All of those things can eventually be fixed..... We Are Not The People To Ask For Help But We Are In Desperate Need .....https://gofund.me/9b294f03c

08/29/2026

We've been asked by a few people if we have set up a GoFundMe -- so here it is! We really do need your kokua (support). We'll post this to all of our pages, so apologies in advance for the repetition.

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/14msVG6TGEm/

Paradise Meadows is a 75 acre family farm in the South Point area o… Lili Rodriguez needs your support for Help Paradise Meadows Survive Hurricane Lala

08/28/2026

Today is Friday, August 28th, and this is an update from Paradise Meadows Orchard & Bee Farm.

It is with GREAT joy and celebration that we can announce that water to the farm has FINALLY been restored. There is much rejoicing among all the folks who live and work here -- especially Penny who now has a full pig wallow to enjoy once again.

Now that we have both power and water, we will be open to visitors at the farm 7 days/week from 10am - 4pm and we will have both coffee and product sampling. We may be open later on some days if there is demand (and staff to greet you), so if the gate is open, please come on in.

And please feel free to order from our website (https://www.hawaiislocalbuzz.com/ ) if you cannot (or feel you should not) come down to South Point. Our entire 'Ohana continues to be very grateful for your support.

08/26/2026

Aloha. Today is Wednesday, August 26th and this is the update from Paradise Meadows Orchard & Bee Farm.

Although we still do not have county water restored, we are open for visitors and are able to make coffee again (best coffee ever!) as well as resume sampling all of our delicious Hawaii's Local Buzz goodies (cookies, macadamia nuts, chocolate treats and honey)!

We are now open Sunday through Thursday from 9am until app. 2:30pm, and are open full days (9am - 5:30pm) on Friday and Saturday. (Public bathrooms and beach showers are still closed until we get the water restored.)

We have seen them working on restoring our water service and are hopeful that soon we will be back to "normal" operations. (How soon? VERRRRY soon... 😂)

We are of course still struggling. People are still avoiding coming down to South Point, which means the visitor traffic to the farm is down to a trickle, and we depend on that traffic to provide the funds to pay our hard-working 'Ohana and feed (and care for) all of the many critters that call Paradise Meadows home. We are SOOOO very grateful for all of the support you've provided (and all of the orders you've placed on our website https://www.hawaiislocalbuzz.com/ ). We cannot thank you enough.

More updates as we have them.

08/24/2026

Aloha. Today is Monday, August 24th. The good news is we still have power and Tropical Storm Moke was never really seen or felt at the farm. The roads are reasonably clear and we're able to get repair work done now, at least in Ocean View.

At the farm, unfortunately, we still have no water. We have seen some water department folks working on it, but we have no estimated time of restoration. Without water, repairs and general operations at the farm are challenging.

We want to thank all the members of our 'Ohana of folks who work with us for their dedication -- showing up when needed, taking care of as much cleanup as they can given the lack of water, helping Chris come up with solutions for dealing with the damage and the lack of power & water, greeting the few folks we have visiting the farm, and taking care of the animals. (Special shoutout to Shannon who has been here, without fail, every day to ensure the birds and other critters are taken care of.)

We're not really sure how we'll deal with full recovery since people are very publicly being asked to NOT come down to Ka'u and the South Point area. We fully understand why, but at the same time, we have folks who need to be paid so they can eat, pay their bills, and make repairs to their own homes. Without visitors to the farm, there is very little money coming in to help us take care of these wonderful folks who are working so hard to take care of everyone and everything at Paradise Meadows. Please consider making an online purchase from us at https://www.hawaiislocalbuzz.com/ if you are able to do so.

We really appreciate all your messages of support -- it helps more than you can imagine!

We'll give you another update tomorrow.

08/23/2026

Farm update for Sunday, August 23rd:

The power is FINALLY back on!!! That's the really really really good news. The other news is that we STILL do not have water and still have no idea when that will be fixed, so although the farm (and farm stand and gallery) are open with limited hours, we still do not have bathrooms available for visitors and cannot do sampling or make coffee.

So far the storm that's following Lala has not produced rain or wind on the farm, but the system is still passing through our area so we're watching it carefully.

We will give you all another update tomorrow, so please stay tuned. And thank you to everyone who has visited, ordered from us or just sent us messages of support -- we can't tell you how much all of that means to us.

Mahalo nui loa!

08/22/2026

Aloha everyone -- today is Saturday, August 22nd, and so far nothing has really changed for us down here in South Point. We are still without power and water.

We are trying to be open from 9am until app. 2pm for those who might want to use our internet or purchase some goodies. We are still unable to make coffee, do any sampling, or provide bathrooms and beach showers due to the no power/no water situation. But you can still purchase snacks or some of Megan's gorgeous art prints.

If you can make it to the farm when the gate is open, please spend a little time chatting with the birdies. Similar to what happened during the pandemic, the birdies are starting to wonder what happened to their hordes of adoring fans. Buddy and Lani are especially perplexed.

We continue to ask for your support by ordering from our website (https://www.hawaiislocalbuzz.com/) if you can't make it down to South Point. In normal times, more than half of our revenue comes directly from visitors to our farm. As you can imagine, with no visitors or tourist traffic, we are struggling.

We are very hopeful that whatever storms roll by tonight and tomorrow will not make things worse for us here. Please do keep us in your thoughts (and prayers if you are so inclined). Will let you all know more tomorrow (or sooner if the miracle of power restoration pays us a visit).

08/21/2026

Aloha everyone -- today is Friday, August 21st, at 9:50 am HST. Paradise Meadows will be open for at least part of the day if you need to use our internet or if you'd like to purchase anything from our farm stand.

Unfortunately, we are running on a generator -- we still have no power and, more importantly, no water at the farm -- so we cannot make coffee, do any sampling, or provide bathrooms or beach showers. That said, if our gate is open, we'd be happy to see you, sell you a bag or two of coffee, macadamia nuts, cookies or chocolate, and talk a little story.

We want to keep our 'Ohana working and paid (and all of our critters fed and watered), so please come & pick up some yummy treats from us if you can. Or - hop over to our online store (https://www.hawaiislocalbuzz.com/) and order some treats from us. We really value (and need) your support.

We keep hoping our next update will be "everything is working again", but that's beyond our control, so please send good thoughts our way (and "make the repairs" thoughts to HECO!).

08/18/2026

Update from Punalu'u Bakery:

https://www.facebook.com/share/v/19PR2WaQHw/

08/18/2026

Aloha -- today is Tuesday, August 18th. (It's early here so there may be more of an update later on today.) We've had a few folks messaging us asking if we're still in business, so I thought I'd better post this.

We are most definitely still in business, but we are not open for visitors and won't be until we have water and power. We're not sure when that will be but we promise to keep you posted.

If you have placed an order for our yummy treats on our website, or if you've purchased products at the farm stand to be shipped to you that have not shipped yet, we ask you to please be patient with us.

Although we do have product made, we have no way to get it to you at the moment. We hope it will be a matter of days, not weeks, before that situation is remedied, but restoration of power and water and the operation of the post office and FedEx are obviously not in our control.

If you have placed an order that was time sensitive and want to cancel, we can do that. Please send us an email to [email protected] and let us know what you need. At the moment, email is the most reliable way to contact us.

If it's not time sensitive, though, one of the best ways to support us is to order our products online. We will get them to you as soon as we're physically able to do so, and your support is so important to us and our 'Ohana of employees in this difficult time.

More updates as we have them! Mahalo for your patience and support.