Most farmers markets on the Kona side mix local fruit with produce trucked in from off-island or shipped from the mainland. Keauhou is the exception. The Kona County Farm Bureau runs it, and every vendor has to grow or make what they sell on the Big Island. That one rule is why we send people here first when they want real local produce instead of a swap meet with papayas on the side.
The Keauhou Farmers Market fills the parking lot in front of Ace Hardware every Saturday morning.
The market sets up Saturday mornings in the parking lot in front of Ace Hardware at Keauhou Shopping Center. Tents go up by 8, live music plays most weeks, and the crowd is a mix of Keauhou residents doing their weekly shop and visitors staying along Alii Drive. It stays small and walkable. You can cover every table in 20 minutes and still have time to talk to the people who grew your food.
- Location: Keauhou Shopping Center (in front of Ace Hardware), 78-6831 Alii Drive, Kailua-Kona
- Market day: Saturday, 8:00 AM to noon Best time Before 10 AM. Fish, bread, and popular produce sell out early.
- Parking: Free at the shopping center. Ample on most Saturdays.
- Run by: Kona County Farm Bureau. Everything is 100% Big Island grown or made.
- Website: Keauhou Farmers Market
What you’ll find
The produce changes with what is ripe. On a recent Saturday the tables held apple bananas in green and yellow bunches, papaya, breadfruit, soursop, mountain apple, avocados, citrus, and fresh-cut basil, cilantro, and mint. Cut flower bouquets and trays of succulent starts share space with the fruit. Get there early for fish: vendors catch it Friday and sell it Saturday, and it goes fast.
A grower weighs out fruit at his stand: apple bananas, papaya, citrus, ginger, and soursop, all Big Island grown.
A few regular vendors are worth seeking out. Arise Bakery sells organic sourdough by the loaf, including cranberry walnut, ube, cinnamon raisin, and a garlic-cheese pull-apart, with most rounds running $6 to $10. Kona Origins brings 100% Kona coffee, cacao nibs, cacao tea, and chocolate bars made from their own beans, plus fresh nutmeg for $1.50. Bee Boys, a Kau operation out of Naalehu, sells raw honey alongside propolis salve and rose-lavender balm. You will also find macadamia nuts, eggs, jams, and fresh-pressed sugarcane juice.
Arise Bakery’s sourdough lineup: cranberry walnut, cinnamon raisin, ube, coconut, and fresh-milled spelt, mostly $6 to $15.
When to go
Go early. The market opens at 8 and closes at noon, but popular items sell out by 10 and the crowd thins well before the end. For the best pick of fish, bread, and the day’s fruit, aim for the first hour. Bring cash and a tote bag. Some vendors take cards, but cash keeps the line moving, and small bills help when you are buying a $2 bunch of bananas.
Mountain apple and just-cut herbs, with trays of succulent starts behind.
Where it is and parking
The market is at Keauhou Shopping Center, 78-6831 Alii Drive, about 6 miles south of downtown Kailua-Kona. Parking is free in the center lot, and there is plenty of it most Saturdays, though the spaces closest to the tents fill first. The shopping center has restrooms and an Ace Hardware if you need anything the market does not carry.
Kona Origins sells 100% Kona coffee, cacao nibs, cacao tea, and chocolate bars made from their own beans.
Make a morning of it
Keauhou Bay and the snorkeling at Kahaluu Beach Park are both a few minutes away, so the market pairs well with time on the water. If you are buying fish, meat, or eggs to cook later, keep a cooler in the car. Mornings here warm up fast once the sun clears the hill behind the lot, and you do not want a sourdough loaf and fresh fish baking on the seat while you snorkel.
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- Cut calamansi to taste, next to jars of the jam made from it.
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- Cut flowers, breadfruit, radishes, and avocados at a tailgate-style stand run out of the back of a vehicle.
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- Rose-lavender balm, made with beeswax and propolis in Naalehu.
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- Beyond honey, Bee Boys makes rose-lavender balm, calendula propolis salve, and glycerin soap.
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- Raw Big Island honey from Bee Boys, a beekeeping operation out of Naalehu in Kau.
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- Locally grown apple bananas, sold by the bunch. Smaller and tangier than the supermarket kind.
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- Arise Bakery, a Kona sourdough baker, serving the Saturday morning line.
More Big Island farmers markets
See every farmers market on the Big Island on one map. Filter it to show only the markets open today, or any other day of the week, so you can plan around wherever you happen to be. Browse the full list on our overview of farmers markets on the Big Island.
Filter the map by day to see which farmers markets are open when you are on the island.