Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 29, Number 9, 1 September 2012 — ʻULU -- FOOD FROM A GOD, FOOD FOR THE FUTURE [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

ʻULU -- FOOD FROM A GOD, FOOD FOR THE FUTURE

By Karin Stanton I I I lu may be a ubiqui- * I I tous fruit tree across I I the Pacific, but in I I Hawai'i, the breadfruit has its origins in legend as a gift of love. The powerful war deity Kūkailmoku, or Kū, decided to live among the mortals, quietly tending his land and raising his many ehildren. When famine swept across his island, Kū could not stand to watch his family suffer. Kū told his wife he could save the family and their neighbors, but he must leave them forever. His wife was sad, but agreed with his decision. Kū descended into the very ground on whieh he stood. The family stayed in that spot, their

mournful tears wetting the ground. From the dirt sprouted a tiny green shoot that grew and grew until before them towered a magnificent leafy tree, laden with heavy, delicious breadfruits. The 'ulu saved Kū's family and neighbors from starvation. Through the generations, Kū has symbolized abundance and so has the 'ulu tree, providing food and raw materials that ancient Hawaiians needed to survive. "The relationship between the people and the 'ulu is one of kin-

ship," said Ryan | McCormack, Hawai'i Community College lecturer and former cultural liaison at Kua O Ka Lā ^ —

Public Charter School in Puna, on Hawai'i Island's southeastern tip. "When Kū used his power as a god to turn into a staple crop, 'ulu became the embodiment of spirituality," McCormack said. "It's not just for material or commercial use; it's seen as a natural gift-giving process. There is an equal exchange in the form of receiving spirituality and giving proper care to the plant. Eating 'ulu in a ritual setting is intimate. It's a form of prayer." Believed to have originated in Java and spread across the south-

ern Paeihe, the breadfruit tree likely arrived in Hawai'i with ancient mariners from Tahiti orFijiaroundthe 14thor 15th century, although no one is certain of the date, McCormaek said. Hawaiians soon were utilizing the tree and its offerings in almost every aspect of their daily lives. The trunk was used for surfboards, drums, eanoe parts, poi boards, and the wood for house and furniture construction. The inner bark was used for tapa cloth and the leaves later inspired Hawaiian quilt patterns. Leaf sheaths were used as sandpaper to polish utensils, bowls and personal decorative items. The young buds soothed sore mouths and throats. The white stickv

sap became glue, caulking or chewing gum. Meanwhile the fruit became as mueh a staple in the ancient diet as taro and fish. As recently as the late 1800s, huge groves of breadfruit grew in great swaths across Kona and Puna. Along the west side of Hawai'i Island, 60 square miles of land - almost three times the size of Manhattan - was nacked with

breadfruit trees, standing 60 or 80 feet tall and spreading their branches a similar distance. Thousands of pounds of 'ulu were harvested every year, with eaeh tree offering up to 200 fruits as big as the head of a grown man and weighing 10 pounds eaeh. Noa Kekuewa Lineoln, an interdisciplinary resource management Ph.D.

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CULTURE

Celebrate 'ulu > What: Breadfruit Festival Goes Bananas > When: 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 29 > Where: Amy B.H. Greenwell Botanical Garden, in Captain Cook (Highway 11 just south of mile marker 110) > Features: OHA is a proud sponsor of this event offering a cooking contest, eooking demonstrations, tapa making, woodworking, 'ulu poi pounding, music and storytelling, and breadfruit and banana workshops. > Admission: Free > lnfo: www.breadfruit.info

Kauhi Maunakea-Forth demonstrated ku'i 'ai (pounding) with 'ulu at the inaugural Puna 'Ulu Festival in March. - Photos: Courtesy Craig Elevitch Photography

Mark y Franklin holds up a Lepit 'ulu at an " 'Ulu from Rootto Fruit" workshop.

'Ulu, born from a god, symbolizes abundance.

candidate at Stanford University, has studied 'ulu for years. The most powerful chiefs, Lineoln said, gravitated toward the productive areas. "It's all about food," he said. "The more control over food and other natural resources, the more powerful and influential that chief would be. It's not an accident that the development of these 'ulu systems were also the political centers of the island. It definitely signified political organization." It wasn't

until Europeans arrived with diseases that wiped out mueh of the population and leftfewerpeople to manage the groves that the groves started to die off. In addition, as land was parceled out to cultivate coffee, pineapple and sugar, 'ulu paid a price.

"That's really when the dry lands collapsed as a system," Lineoln said. "

'Ulu was definitely still used, but it wasn't a food as mueh favored by the Europeans." Legend has it that in his parting words to his wife, Kū said, "Eat some, feed the keiki." Because the 'ulu tree reproduces through its own roots, those ancient groves continue to propagate. "You ean still see wild trees pop up in macadamia nut fields and ravines on the Big Island," Lineoln said. "Those are remnant trees, whieh is technically the same tree." 'ULU REVITALIZATION Centuries after its fabled introduction to the Hawaiian Islands, the 'ulu is making something of a eomehaek as more and more residents are looking to buy loeal, eat loeal and expand their culinary palettes. In Captain Cook on the west side of Hawai'i Island on Sept.

29, 'ulu will be recognized with its own festival at the Amy B.H. Greenwell Ethnobotanical Garden. Now in its second year, the festival drew 1,500 people to its inaugural event last fall. Another 'ulu festival in March, hosted by Kua O Ka Lā charter school in Puna, attracted more than 1,000 people. The festivals, whieh are free and open to the puhlie, are organized by Ho'oulu ka 'Ulu, a project to revitalize 'ulu as an attractive, delicious, nutritious, abundant, affordable and culturally

appropriate food that addresses Hawai'i's foodsecurity issues. Ho'oulu ka 'Ulu is a project of the Hawai'i Homegrown Food Network and the Breadfruit Institute of the National j Tropical Botanieal Gardens. "People are getting more interested - how

to eook 'ulu, caring for the trees, harvesting, how and when to plant,

pruning, all aspects," said Andrea Dean, board member of Hawai'i Homegrown Food Network. "There is an interest in . . . using traditional foods like 'ulu for food security and as a eommercial crop." Dean pointed to the number of tree saplings sold at the previous festivals as an example. Farmers and backyard gardeners snapped up 300 trees at the Kona festival and 200 more earlier this year at the Puna event. The theme of this year's Kona festival is "Breadfruit Festival Goes Bananas" and features a cooking contest, an art contest, music and storytelling, as well as workshops on caring for 'ulu and hanana trees, and a cooking demonstration with celebrity chef Sam Choy. One of the featured presenters SEE 'ULU ON PAGE 27

Angelina McCoy, left, and Hanora Lapiyalur, right, of the Mau Piailug Satawal 'Ohana shared their deep knowledge of 'ulu at the 201 1 Breadfruit Festival.

'ULU Continued from page 19

is Diane Ragone, who as director of the Breadfruit Institute on Kaua'i, is considered one of the i world's experts on the .

tree. "The breadfruit is ■ a perennial long-lived ■ tree with all the benefits Y of trees while producing an abundance of starchy fruit with verv little labor.

It's good for the environment. It's good for people," she said. "Breadfruit has been a real Pacific

staple for thousands of years. There are 120 varieties found throughout the Pacific islands." Ragone also touts the taste of the 'ulu, whieh ean be baked, boiled, roasted, steamed or even eaten raw. "If you give a breadfruit to someone who ean eook, they make the most wonderful dishes," she said. "If you eat a plate luneh, what do you always get? Rice and potato-mac salad." Instead, she says, substitute the potato with homegrown 'ulu, and you have the "ultimate mash up." "That's the quintessential recipe," she said. As a complex carbohydrate, 'ulu is also packed with fiber, ealeium, copper, iron, magnesium, potassium, thiamine and niaein, Ragone said. And it's also gluten free. "We could replace all those imported potatoes with breadfruit that you ean piek yourself right in your own yard," she said, before ticking off more of her favorite 'ulu recipes: " 'ulu French fries are fabulous. I love ehieken adobo with 'ulu. And 'ulu hash browns. And breadfruit curry," she said. "Oh, my goodness. I could go on . . . ." Ragone's enthusiasm for 'ulu appears to be catching on with Hawai'i Island residents, too. "The response to the festival has been beyond what we expected," Dean said. "It has attracted people who really are interested in eating, growing and learning about 'ulu, notjustpeople who want to be entertained for the day. It's very encouraging." The Hawai'i Island versions of

the 'ulu festival are proving so popular, there are plans to take it to other islands across the state in the next several years. Dean's fellow board member Craig Elevitch said he has been most pleased to see how many people are embracing the food security and island self-sustainability movement. "For a long time, we've been talking about how 85 percent of our food is imported and how if anything should happen, if we were cut off from food supplies for even a week, we'd be in trouble," he said. "We want to showcase 'ulu and all loeal produce as a vibrant, healthy, fresh food that is characteristic of this plaee." In addition, Elevitch and Dean said the festival is small step toward boosting and diversifying the island economy. "It's to help build loeal agriculture and the agroeconomy around fresh, nutritious and culturally appropriate foods," Elevitch said. "You need to build a strong loeal food economy, because that builds a strong community," Dean said. "It's a way to preserve ag land and also leads to healthier people. 'Ulu is the perfect metaphor for how the selfsustainability movement is growing. "It's growing like the 'ulu tree and what we're reaping is just as abundant." ■ Karin Stanton, aformer reporter/ editorat West Hawai'i Today, works for the Associated Press and Hawai 'i 24/7.

ln cooking, 'ulu is ka good substitute for potato.