Kia'i Farm of Waialua is stewarded and run by couple Nicci Lee & Jerry Lee Heller.
ABOUT NICCI-
Nicci Lee is a Chinese, Hawaiian, Caucasian creative from Oahu. Her Chinese grandmother's family came to the islands to work in the plantation of Honokaa. Her Hawaiian Grandfather was a secret revealed by a DNA test after her grandparents and parents had passed. The DNA test revealed William Kaholokula as her Grandfather.
Nicci's background as a creative is wide ranged. Her career includes Interior Design, Floral Design, furniture design and production, clothing design and production, video production, marketing, building, owner of retail shops and now farming.
ABOUT JERRY-
Jerry moved to Maui when he was 16. He was a skate, surf and moto beach bum until he moved back to SF area to bartend. He was on the forefront of San Francisco’s bartending and club scene for the next 10 years. He was hired to design, develop and host events all over the world. He then moved to Bali and became a clothing desiger while hosting events in Indonesia.
Jerry moved back to Lahina, Maui, where he worked on his building business to design and build resturaunts on front street and residential all over Maui. When his daughter was 14 they moved to Kailua, Oahu.
In 2022, Jerry and Nicci married and became a design & build duo, building all the AG structures on the farm as well as their home. Finally, in 2024, he designed and built Coco & The Sage with his wife Nicci where they could combine many of the skill sets they collected over a lifetime.
HOW THE FARM CAME TO BE-
Nicci had a lofty goals of finding farm land on Oahu. When Dole began selling their farm land in Waialua, Nicci's dream of farm land ownership came to pass.
At the start of 2021 she found partners, Brady and Aubrey Yee and purchased 5 acres of previously owned Dole land on the Kaukonahua stream. Her and the Yee's, also very spiritual in nature, set out to build a place where Nicci could not only build her home and farm but also place where her and her partners could create space for community healing.
Nicci and Jerry met when Nicci first acquired the land and began working with Jerry to build it. They fell in love very quickly and began weaving their dreams together. Jerry and Nicci wanted to create food sovereignty for themselves, their daughters, Mahina La'akea and Ava Rose and the community. And they both wanted to learn and explore building offgrid solutions for farm life. They started out by building a container home and different food and flower production AG structures.
Since they became land stewards, the 2 couples and their families have opened spaces for private events including breath work, sound bowl healing, women's circles, weekend retreats and more. Within the first 2 years the partners have created all kinds of beautiful community spaces including a large outdoor entertaining deck, a large open grass area, a food forest, an orchard, multiple other spaces for education, flower & food processing, a temple and a yoga shala,.
WHERE YOU CAN CONNECT WITH NICCI & JERRY-
COCO"S TRADING POST-
Nicci owns a local, unique, one of a kind finds, retail shop, Coco's Trading Post. Here she sells home goods and gifts, collected items, vintage and products grown and produced at the farm. She calls it modern aloha. Collectables from Hawaii and all over the world. All hand crafted supporting artists.
COCO & THE SAGE-
In May of 2024 Nicci and her husband Jerry opened medicinal elixir cafe, Coco & The Sage. In this beautiful moody bar/cafe they funnel organic fruits and herbs from local farmers through drinks to the community. All drinks are non-alcoholic and medicinal. They serve organic coffee, tea and dreamy hand crafted mocktails. In addition the menu hosts aruveydic options as well as certified herbalist tinctures you can add to your drinks. They are medicine magic makers at this sweet little cafe tucked into their Coco's Trading Post shop in Haleiwa town on the North Shore of Oahu.
