Can You Make Money Being A Farmer In Hawaii? 2 Farmers Explain How They're Doing It - Honolulu Civil Beat Can You Make Money Being A Farmer In Hawaii? 2 Farmers Explain How They’re Doing It It takes a lot of creativity and hard work to overcome the high cost of running a farm in the islands. Reading time: 11 minutes. To many people, it might smell like a pile of rotting leaves, but not to Fung Yang. “What you’re smelling is the smell of money to us,” says Yang, owner of Small Kine Farm in Waimanalo. Yang grows organic mushrooms, and the earthy smell comes from piles of wood-chipped trees that Yang composts into what amounts to soil – the scientific word is substrate – for the portobellos he cultivates.