Tin Roof Ranch: Happy Chickens Come from Hawaii

One night I had a dream I went to the North Shore of Oahu and played with dogs, chickens, and horses under a rainbow while drinking homemade wine and beer. There were surfboards for all and two trusty, strapping, young ranch hands guiding me to the most ultimate surf spot. I hopped on a board with the dogs and chickens and did an hang-ten in a handstand on the Banzai Pipeline.

As I rode a rogue wave across the Kamehameha highway, I arrived at my vacation rental at the Tin Roof Ranch, where I spent the rest of the day eating from the garden that had Japanese eggplant and miniature pineapples. A Samoan came and hacked down a couple of coconuts for me to drink (coconut water has a lot of electrolytes). Thommi, the cabbie arrived to steal me away back to Waikiki. I said my goodbyes, caught a dove on my hand as only seen in Disney movies by princesses, and got in the cab.

There Will Be No Tears For This Dove

The Best Part

This was not a dream, except for where I surfed with the chickens and dogs and did a handstand hang-ten. The rest is real. Gary and Luann Gunder run Tin Roof Ranch, in Hale’iwa, Hawaii. They started working with the land in 2003, when it was treated like a junk yard — old cars, a refrigerator, and other gifts decorated the landscape. On the property was an old apartment building that had been trashed by previous tenants due to a careless slumlord and way too many radically tubular surfing-brah parties.

Gary, having experience in construction revamped the bungalows. He’s handmade the cement counter-tops in the kitchens and hand carved surfboards decorating the walls of the rooms. These prime spots are vacation rentals, though a couple of them house WWOOFers. I thought it was like a sub-woofer, but it’s much cooler. World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms (WWOOF) is a network where farmers allow volunteers to work and learn on a farm in exchange for housing and food.

Sustainable Farming Superheroes

Remember the awesome farmer from to documentary Food Inc. that had those giant glasses? His name is Joel Salatin and he runs a farm in Virginia. Gary and Luann model their methods after Joel. The farm is environmentally friendly, organic, and sustainable. In addition to their numerous composting bathtubs, Gary and Luann use “chicken tractors” to fertilize the land. A chicken tractor is a pen housing broilers (chickens that will be used for meat) which is moved across the lawn throughout the day. While the chickens eat they fertilize the land, making a tidy closed loop.

The egg-laying chickens rotate in and out of their chicken neighborhood that has houses, egg-laying nests, and two rooms full of fluffy dirt and wood chippings. Tin Roof Ranch produces organic, free range chickens and eggs for purchase at their local farmers’ market.

Really The Best Part

Gary and Luann may only sell chickens and eggs, but their land provides much more. They have a food garden that yields everything I would want to eat, including the shiniest Japanese eggplant I have ever seen. Everywhere you look, something tasty is growing – from the passion-fruit vine that’s intertwined with the dragon-fruit to the banana, coconut, and papaya trees that frame the entryway.

After playing with the animals and checking out the beach across the street, we return to unwind on the patio for some home-made wine, not to mention the IPA and stout beers that Gary made himself. Did I mention there was a rainbow while this was happening? Then I caught a dove. I am currently working on making that surfing dream a reality.

Thommi, our cabbie, took the biggest egg home to show his kids.