About Us
The Taro Fields Story
The Beginnings...
I remember coming to Kauai as a 7-year-old Honolulu girl to visit my grandparents in Waimea... chasing dragonflies in their front yard, fishing for papio off the pier out their back yard and putting out nets at night to catch black crabs. I remember taking the "slop" (i.e. food leftovers) and doing a dumping "ceremony" into ocean waves. I remember the red dirt roads with no traffic lights in the sleepy town. I remember my grandmother, who was the town seamstress, not knowing the name of the street she lived on and never bothering to lock her door. It's bewildering to find myself back on the island of Kauai... only now owning a home and two stores called Taro Fields.
Our roots go back to my great grandfather, Magozaimon Yamane, who came here from Japan and built "Yamane Camp", renting cottages to the sugar plantation workers. He was an eccentric gentleman who built his own coffin and threw his own funeral celebration with all his friends before he died. We have a family picture of him proudly holding flowers in front of his coffin.
This simple town of Waimea exemplifies the peace and joy visitors can find in the depths of their soul, a sense of home and Hawaiian heritage dating back to the start of the history of these Hawaiian Islands. It was at Waimea that British Captain James Cook first dropped anchor in Hawaii in 1778.
Joanne Kazue Smith
Taro Fields
From these beginnings, the Smiths bought the first Taro Fields "island wear" stores on the island of Kauai.
In Hawaiian cultural legend, taro was said to have been formed by the union of daughter earth and father sky, before man was born. Thus, taro was treasured as the most important food crop. It is a tropical plant grown primarily as a vegetable food for its edible corm and secondarily as a leaf vegetable. Taro is usually grown in pond-fields know as "lo'i" which you can see on the way to Hanalei on the north shore of Kauai. Poi was traditionally prepared from taro by removing the corm "skin" and then pounding the whole flesh on a board with a stone pounder to make a thick paste. This thick paste, which is dried, diluted with water, kneaded then aged is traditionally eaten with the fingers.
The Migration to Kauai
The Smith Family rediscovered Kauai 10 years ago when Ellis, a "haole" boy from Oregon/Idaho fell in love with the beauty and simple grace of the Garden Isle. They purchased two vacation condos in Poipu and after many years of visiting the island the youngest daughter Leilani and her boyfriend Andrew Templeman moved to Kauai New Year's Day 2005. Soon after the vacation rental condos were sold and a house was purchased in Lihue. In July of 2006, the first Taro Fields store was purchased at the Lihue Marriott. Leilani and Andrew were married in September of the same year.
Later that year, the oldest daughter, Margaret, moved to Kauai and the second store was opened in June of 2007 in the Waiohai Marriott.
The Taro Fields Family welcomes you to join us in the launching of their third store -- tarofields.com. Come in and get acquainted with our merchandise and become a part of our Taro Fields "ohana" (family).
Join Our "Ohana" (family)
The Taro Fields Ohana hope that your virtual experience while viewing these pages can make you feel like you're browsing the racks the Taro Fields stores on Kauai. Let us know if you have any questions, needs or wants and we will do our very best to accommodate you. Our stores are best known for the quality of our brand name merchandise and selection with service from our warm, friendly staff. Visitors who come back year after year have become not only returning customers but a part of our Taro Fields family of friends.
The only thing better than visiting our website is for you to come to the beautiful island of Kauai and our stores so that you can meet our Taro Frields staff in person who will "talk story" with you and embrace you into our "ohana".
This is the legacy we are trying to build with our Taro Fields stores to create the kind of shopping experience where you can get top quality with a comfortable family feeling from the most beautiful place in the entire world.
Ellis Smith, CEO/Owner
Joanne Smith, Owner
Leilani Templeman, Buyer/Owner
Andrew Templeman, CFO/Owner
Margaret Yamane, Director of Marketing/Owner
Annie Smith, Writer
