Huila Farm: Our Story
Established by Nicola “Nick” Lesourd, and his wife Jaime Lesourd, Huila Farm Hawaii is located in Volcano Village on Old Volcano Road situated on a 1-acre agriculture lot. Huila, in ʻŌlelo Hawai'i, translates to “wheel”. Inspired by stories of horse and buggy transport to Halema‘uma‘u Crater and the collection of vintage wagon and tractor wheels on site from Nick’s family farm in Bakersfield, CA. Huila Farm seemed to be a fitting name and was the perfect fit for a farm catering to people on the go.
Huila Farm: Unearthing Roots
Nick comes from a long line of farmers; his maternal great-grandparents immigrated from Portugal (Souza) and Italy (Destefani) where they began farming in Bakersfield California. The Italian side of Nick's family immigrated in 1891 initially working in dairies until 1922 when they started their own (photo of small dairy). Eventually their children continued farming in Bakersfield starting with 80 acres in 1936 and expanding to 4,500 acres. In addition, Nick's father was a grape grower in the South of France. After military service, Nick began farming in Hawaii to rediscover his roots.
Goals and Core Values:
Our goal is to provide convenient and consistent quality produce within the community of Volcano.We strive to live by the market gardener principals and utilize organic best practices. As a participant in the Go Farm Hawaii AgXcel program, Nick embarked on a 7-month farming journey working hard to better achieve this goal.
We established Huila Farm in 2022, farming 1/8 acre while also participating in the AgXcel program and farm at Alae. Many lessons have been learned through the Go Farm program and we have since realized we should only focus on growing produce exclusively in Volcano. In the upcoming years we will be refining growing processes and our farm infrastructure in Volcano to accommodate demand.
In the United States Coast Guard Nick lived by the service core values; Honor, Respect, Devotion to Duty.
HONOR: Modifying these core values and applying them to Huila Farm we strive to Honor our community, customers, and farming best practices.
RESPECT: We respect this beautiful and special island that we call home, and we ensure we are preserving and maintaining the ʻāina for our community as well as the future generations.
DEVOTION TO DUTY: Lastly, we remain devoted to providing produce for the community and Hawaii Island to assist in alleviating food insecurity.