Farm Trips: Hawai'i Edition

As you can tell by the title of this post and the map at left, our most recent farm trip was one which took us far afield from Alabama. We were yearning for some local papaya, so we hopped a plane and took off to the island of Maui.

Right.

In reality, we took a family vacation. Rashmi's parents had this trip in the works for the better part of a year, and just because we're eating local doesn't mean you can back out of a free trip to Hawai'i. Anyway, what are we, masochists?

But we did want to bring as much of our local eating habits with us as possible. It's an island, right? Hawai'i must be full of self sustaining local food opportunities. They're 2,000 miles from the mainland! It would make no sense for them to import all their food! Sustainability must be a central theme here on this island that geographically is still one of the most isolated places in the world.

Not so fast. Despite a great climate for growing vegetables and a seemingly unending growing season, Hawai'i imports 90% of their food from either the US or our myriad trading partners in Central and South America. As an op-ed featured in the Honolulu Advertiser during our stay pointed out, if shipping came to a halt the islands would have a 10 day food supply. It may not make sense how this evolution of foodways has occurred, but it has happened nonetheless.

Take, for instance, the mango. Mango trees grow in Hawai'i the way oak trees grow in the south - they line streets and provide shade in public parks. It seems like they're in the front yard of half the houses on Maui. A mango tree, full of fruit, was being cut down across the street from us one morning because it was going to interfere with the powerlines. Another day, as we were eating lunch under the shade of a mango tree, a stiff wind came and knocked loose a ripened fruit that landed inches away from my sister-in-law's head. Would have knocked her out. Point is, there are lots of mangoes.

But, when you go to the store and buy a mango - unless you're in the more expensive local produce section - it's going to come from somewhere else. Like the one purchased unknowingly by my mother-in-law, pictured here, from Mexico. By some logic of capitalism it makes sense how and why this came to be. But the logic of capitalism is completely illogical for sustainability.

While we were on the island, Rashmi and I could not escape our constant thoughts about food. It's difficult to shut off thinking about something that has consumed your life for the better part of two months. This project has infected nearly every aspect of how we live. The guiltless snacking on Wheat Thins is gone. The list of ingredients alone is enough to give pause when our diet has been constructed of things we created from scratch. Seeing the raw ingredients for nearly everything you eat and scrutinizing the sources for every scrap of food changes your perspective. So, we ate as much local fruit as possible. Fresh from local fruit stands or snagged from trees, we partook of the following: pineapples, mangoes, tamarind, guava, macadamia nuts, sugarcane, coconuts, many varieties of banana, papaya, soursop, thimbleberries, starfruit, jack fruit, avocado, lychee and some others I'm sure I've forgotten. We may have been eating only strawberries here in Bama, but we had our fill of tropical fruits on Maui.

We also managed to take a farm trip. We visited Laulima Farm just past Hana on the far eastern tip of Maui. Laulima has 13 acres and has been around for a little over a decade. They grow primarily for a few restaurants in Maui, a grocery store, and the fruit stand we visited. They have 9 apprentices a year, and I must say that if I were looking to intern on an organic farm I would certainly check this place out. The day we were there, they had greens, taro, carrots, beets, ginger, and a huge variety of tropical fruits. The claim to fame at Laulima (in addition to outstanding, organic, GMO-free produce) is a bicycle-powered smoothie machine. Rashmi powered the blender for our two smoothies of banana, strawberry papaya, and coconut milk. We left with two huge bunches of kale and swiss chard, 4 big pieces of taro root, a bunch of cuban bananas, an avocado and a few papayas.

The next night we cooked an all Hawaii meal for the family - baked taro chips with fresh greens and grilled ahi tuna. Top that off with Maui Brewing Company's Big Swell IPA, and I think I could get used to life on Maui.

Because we've recently disrupted our formerly naive attitude about food, this trip presented its own unique rewards and challenges. For instance, unless you're willing to embark on the kind of obsessive "experiment" in eating that we have, it's difficult to explain how and why a peanut butter and jelly sandwich made up entirely of products from the mainland can feel like an albatross around your neck. On the other hand, we found great joy and pleasure in searching out the local foodways of Hawai'i. We'd never seen taro growing and we scrutinized each of the new vegetable and fruit plants we came across. I couldn't help but become intrigued by the variety of articles in the local paper about water wars between traditional taro farmers and the powerful sugar conglomerates. Once you find yourself thinking about food systems, your whole perspective on a place changes. I encourage you, if you've got the time and the interest, to look into eating local on your next vacation. Whether it's to Oregon or to Italy, try and figure out what's grown there and taste a little of what the place has to offer. It'll give you insight into a place that no guidebook can offer.

Also, for those of you keeping score at home, at this point Joe has gone to Cuba and Rash and I have gone to Hawai'i, while Sara has borne the brunt of Eating Alabama staying all by her lonesome in McCalla. If anybody deserves a momentary indiscretion, it's her. Fortunately, she and Joe are in North Carolina this weekend, and I imagine that margaritas are on the agenda...


Here are some photos from our trip:

breakfast _______________________________greens growing at Laulima Farms

sign at Laulima_________________ biking for smoothies


sign at Laulima_________________________ some of our purchases


taro growing_______________________________ Rash with banana tree