Tents were set up outside MCC's $17 million Pa'ina Culinary Arts Center, which opened in September 2003. Its food court was packed with diners enjoying entertainment and a breakfast buffet set up for the opening. MCC Chancellor Clyde Sakamoto said the Kahului campus is a good site for the event, which will be held from 7 a.m. to 1 p.m. Fridays.

"It's like a market but it's really a classroom" that's educating the community about the importance of agriculture to the local economy, Sakamoto said.

MCC student Carlen Crockett of Waiehu, who picked out tuberose stems at the Paradise Flower Farms tent, said she likes farmers markets because of their affordable prices.

"This gives me an excuse to come to school on Fridays," she said. "My boyfriend is in the culinary arts program, so this is good for him, too."

Lesley Shaw-Gook of Quesnel, British Columbia, also stopped to buy flowers. "We always go to the Saturday (swap meet) and this is new. We like to support local farmers," she said.

At the Makawao Mushrooms tent, shoppers gawked at cabbage-sized fungi that resembled coral heads. Rocky Chenelle said the farm generally sells all the mushrooms it grows at two other farmers markets during the week. "This is a different clientele," he said.

Chenelle said he was disappointed more farmers didn't participate and that a number of booths featured non-produce items such as baked goods and plastic back scratchers. Still, he said he turned out to support the new venue.

The Aloha Friday Farmers Market was launched by the newly formed Maui AgMarketing Coalition. Steve Rose is executive director of the coalition and chairman of the Made-in-Maui trade council under the Maui Chamber of Commerce. He said the market was started to bring local produce to local people and visitors. Many farmers can't compete with off-island growers, according to Rose, because of the high cost of production and land on Maui.

"Farmers are shut out of the real markets, price-wise," he said.

Holding the farmers market at MCC also is an opportunity for local growers to connect with the school's culinary arts students who will become Maui's future chefs, Rose said.