“The goats have figured out how to escape,” Heather Mohr tells a three-year-old girl during a visit to Keiki and Plow. “Koko’s a daredevil—she can lift the gate latch or balance on the ledge here. She’s named after Koko Crater,” she adds. “And this is Shaka Socks, because he’s got white marks on his paws.”

“Their eyes are so creepy!” one boy exclaims. “That’s a great observation!” praises Mohr. “How are they different? Could it be their horizontal pupils?” Mohr’s a natural with kids (real kids, but also goats). She used to work as a preschool teacher, plus she has three (real) kids of her own.

It’s all about family at Keiki and Plow, a five-acre miniature farm in Hawai‘i Kai. There are school field trips and activities like yoga, Mother’s Day brunches, music classes and a keiki gardening club. “When we were living in Waikīkī, my son made this comment about how all our food comes from Costco,” says Mohr. “It dawned on me that our kids have very little exposure to how food is created—especially here, where 90 percent of our food is imported.” After moving to Kuli‘ou‘ou, Mohr and her family started a ten-by-ten plot and ventured into community gardening. “I saw the change in my son—he wanted to learn more about food and crops. This inspired me to think about how we can bring this to the greater community, which led me to start this farm,” she says.

Open farm days change seasonally, so Mohr encourages visitors to check the web site for the schedule. At the farm, those who want to harvest veggies or eggs can purchase baskets for $10 to $40. Many families hit the crops later—beets, arugula, mint, carrots, lettuce, spinach—and make a beeline for the play area. There’s a dirt pit filled with toy trucks and shovels, a wide slope that serves as a makeshift slide, a picnic bench with kitchen tools, a rope swing, balance beams and a pirate ship. At the free-range chicken coop, kids can feed hens, collect pale blue eggs and pet the bunnies hopping among the chickens.

“I wanted to make this place fun so that kids and parents both want to visit. Sometimes families come just to play,” says Mohr. “This is what makes our farm successful: blending the two worlds of farming and family.”

keikiandplow.com