Kauai History and Edible Plants

Even though Hawaiians lived surrounded by ocean, the foundation of their society was the work of farmers. Hawaiians identified with taro, the staple crop that symbolized the Hawaiian family unit with its main root, surrounded by offspring shoots, and topped by spreading green leaves. When the first Polynesians arrived in Hawai’i, they found many native edible plants that they continued to gather and use, as well as setting out to plant the stocks they had brought with them in their voyaging canoes. The indigenous plants, many possibly known from their homelands, were incorporated into their diets, and used in ritual or other specific uses. They ate their roots and young leaf shoots of hapu’u and other ferns. Other roots and tubers were cooked and eaten including varieties of wild sweet potato and yam. Wild berries were eaten raw including ‘akala (raspberry), ‘ohelo (huckleberry), and ‘Ohi’a ‘ai (mountain apple).

Of the plants these settlers brought with them, their favorites for cooking and eating were taro, sweet potato, and breadfruit. Hawaiians invested more time and labor into growing taro than any other crop, by developing hundreds of varieties adapted to suit every type of terrain. To provide optimal growing conditions, ponds with slowly circulating water were built, along with ditches feeding water to staggered terraces. Hawaiians divided their year into 12 lunar months and two seasons. The warmer summer months (kau) were blessed with reliable tradewinds from May to October. The cooler wetter months (ho’oilo) when tradewinds dissipated were from November to April. Farming season in general ran from March when taro, sweet potato, and other crops were planted through to June when sweet potatoes could be harvested, and to September when the widescale harvesting took place.

Once harvested, taro was baked, eaten whole or pounded into a paste called pa’i ‘ai, which could be kept for a long period of time. Water was then added to create poi. Sweet potato (‘uala) was substituted for taro in drier areas, and like taro, it was cooked and eaten whole or pounded to make a poi. Hawaiians also ate the taro and sweet potato tips as greens. They also brought with them breadfruit and mai’a (bananas), and began growing more than fifty different types of bananas to be eaten raw or cooked.

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