Are there any published details of Kenobi's communication with Lars family on Tatooine before ANH?

Question

From the movies we know that Obi-Wan Kenobi delivered Luke Skywalker to Owen and Beru Lars to raise on Tatooine shortly after Luke was born at the end of RotS (Episode 3).

The next think we know is Luke running into Ben Kenobi during A New Hope.

There seems to be a hint that there was at least SOME communication between Kenobi and Lars family based on him telling Luke:

Your father wanted you to have this when you were old enough, but your uncle wouldn't allow it.

(though it's possible that was referring to Kenobi offering to leave the lightsaber to Larses at the same time he dropped off Luke)

I was wondering if any details of what transpired between Kenobi and Larses in the years between RotS and ANH were noted in any canonical works (of any canon, including EU books/games/comics/etc...)?

Answer 1

Yes, in the junior novelisation of A New Hope, there's mention of an incident when Obi Wan saved Luke from dying in the desert. Evidently Owen was none too pleased and told him to go away:

Luke hadn’t seen Ben in five seasons, since the time Luke and his friend Windy had ridden a dewback into the Jundland Wastes, a rocky region that consisted of a mesa and a canyon. The dewback had thrown them into a canyon and ran off. By nightfall, the boys were bruised and tired and lost. Then they’d heard a voice calling Luke’s name. Incredibly, it had been Ben. He’d somehow found them, then guided them back to the Lars homestead. I still don’t know how he knew we were lost, or how he knew my name. But if Ben hadn’t helped us …

...

Luke knew his uncle didn’t like Ben, but had no idea why. The night that Ben had found Luke and Windy in the Jundland Wastes and brought them back to the moisture farm, Owen had become furious. Not at Luke, but at Ben. Owen had told Ben to get off the farm and never come back. I thought Uncle Owen would’ve been grateful to Ben for rescuing me. What does my uncle have against him?

This incident, and Ben Kenobi's subsequent conversation with Uncle Owen is explored in more detail in the (apparently fully canon) Webcomic "Star Wars" by Hong Jac Ca

and in the fully canon 2015 [Marvel Star Wars][4] comics.

_{^{Star Wars #015 - From the Journal of Old Ben Kenobi}}

Answer 2

This period of Obi-Wan's life is particularly undocumented. As I wrote here, the only reference in Obi-Wan's Wookieepedia article is Adventure in Beggar's Canyon. It's a paperback children's book published in June 1998, almost one year before the release of Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace. Here the interesting part of the summary form Obi-Wan's article.

The reason for Owen's anger was that Kenobi had attempted to give Anakin Skywalker's lightsaber to Luke, feeling that Luke was old enough and should be allowed to have it. Owen refused to allow it because he believed the Jedi path was a destructive one. He told Kenobi that he didn't want Luke to make the same mistakes Anakin Skywalker did, saying that he felt Anakin should have never left his mother and gotten involved with the "damn foolish idealistic Jedi crusaders" in the first place. He vehemently told Kenobi to leave and to stay away.

Answer 3

Aside from the existing answers, we see in the Obi-Wan Kenobi series that Obi-Wan was in occasional contact with Owen as of 9 BBY. The series is set after the events shown in the 2015 Marvel Star Wars comic.

During this time, they seem to have a complicated relationship. At the beginning of the series, Owen resents Obi-Wan for what happened to Anakin (who is believed by both to be dead), and finds him in Anchorhead to warn him to stay away from Luke, despite reference to an apparent prior agreement that Luke would eventually be trained. However, Owen lies to an Imperial inquisitor who shows up looking for Obi-Wan, reasoning that revealing him would endanger Luke.

By the end of the series,

the two work together to protect Luke from Reva, which leads Obi-Wan to conclude that Luke doesn't need his direct protection. He visits the homestead one last time to meet Luke, and then agrees to keep his distance.

Answer 4

In the quoted Wookieepedia article on Obi-wan it also lists a time previous to that quoted by DavRob60, where Kenobi would often visit the moisture farm in secret and once helped to recover 20 vaporators stolen by Tusken raiders. He returned them to Owen Lars who was none too pleased about Kenobi's involvement. Apparently, according to this entry on Beru Lars, at some point they were aware that Kenobi was checking up on Luke. On another note vis-a-vis Kenobi's involvement with the Lars', he protected them in this incident.