Open daily with “Big Market” days on Wednesday and Saturday, the open-air market has attracted locals and visitors for the past 37 years to downtown Hilo. The market’s website says it started with Richard “Mike” Rankin and four farmers selling produce and goods out of their vehicles in 1988.
Photo Essay: A Day At The Hilo Farmers Market
Open daily with “Big Market” days on Wednesday and Saturday, the open-air market has attracted locals and visitors for the past 37 years to downtown Hilo. The market’s website says it started with Richard “Mike” Rankin and four farmers selling produce and goods out of their vehicles in 1988.
A “Big Market” day at the Hilo Farmers Market Saturday attracts kamaʻāina and visitors to downtown Hilo. The market is located at Mamo Street and Kamehameha Avenue. (Kevin Fujii/Civil Beat/2025)Chona Balicoco, left, helps shoppers in the produce section of the Hilo Farmers Market. On a “Big Market” day as many as 200 vendors can be found selling artisanal crafts, food, flowers and produce. (Kevin Fujii/Civil Beat/2025)
‘Ulu can be purchased at the Hilo Farmers Market. This breadfruit most likely won’t be found at a large, chain grocery store. (Kevin Fujii/Civil Beat/2025)
Free-range eggs sell for $8 a dozen. (Kevin Fujii/Civil Beat/2025)
Smaller in size than the Cavendish banana often found in grocery stores, the tropically grown apple bananas on sale here offer a sweet-tart flavor. Most frequently grown in Hawaiʻi, South America and Southeast Asia, they’re also known as Latundan, Manzana, Silk or Tundan bananas. (Kevin Fujii/Civil Beat/2025)A strawberry papaya is cut open for display at the Hilo Farmers Market. It’s also called a sunrise or sun-up papaya because of its reddish-orange flesh and sweeter flavor. (Kevin Fujii/Civil Beat/2025)Orchids and other flowers and plants are for sale in the market’s produce section. (Kevin Fujii/Civil Beat/2025)Wiggles finds a quiet place while beekeeper Scott Hertrick, of Kalapana, sells his honey in the bustling produce section. (Kevin Fujii/Civil Beat/2025)
Lehua Fudge’s Carmen Cosby collects sample spoons from potential customers. (Kevin Fujii/Civil Beat/2025)
Cash often completes sales at the Hilo Farmers Market. Chona Balicoco sells lychee to Maria Chaparro and her son Beto Chaparro. (Kevin Fujii/Civil Beat/2025)
The produce and food section attracts locals and visitors alike. (Kevin Fujii/Civil Beat/2025)808 N8iv jewelry maker Maile Kalahiki begins a seashell necklace. Kalahiki can make her unique Hawaiʻi-style jewelry while shoppers peruse her and a friend’s accessories. (Kevin Fujii/Civil Beat/2025)“Big Island Brian” Longerbeam, of Kurtistown, aligns his fired-ceramic honu. He makes and paints everything under his tent. (Kevin Fujii/Civil Beat/2025)Jerry Isdale, left, of Haʻikū, Maui, talks story with Brian “Bear” Gibson of Bearsong Studios. They’re separated by one of Gibson’s digital, one-of-a-kind artworks. “If you buy it here at the farmers market everyone gets the local price of $35 because you made the effort to get to Downton Hilo and meet me.” Gibson said. “Online, it’s $45.” (Kevin Fujii/Civil Beat/2025)
Almost all transactions were completed with cash. But according to the Hilo Farmers Market website’s history page, it “was the first open market in the nation to be federally approved to accept food stamps by way of a unique electronic system and EBT cards.”
Passengers from cruise ships docking at the pier can get a free ride in the Hilo Farmers Market “Van-Go” shuttle on cruise-ship days. Parking is also free.
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