HERE ON THE BIG ISLAND - Hilo’s Palace Theater October 14, 2008
Posted by Kelly in : Big Island Hawaii, General, HERE ON THE BIG ISLAND, Hawaii Travel , 1 comment so far
HERE ON THE BIG ISLAND
By Kelly Moran
Hilo’s Palace Theater
Back in the 1920s, going to the movies was a big occasion. People dressed up to see and be seen; they chatted in the lobby, about the latest films, and enjoyed a sense of being guests in a fabulously decorated . . .
well, palace.
The Palace Theater in downtown Hilo, which opened in 1925, is one of only two “picture-palaces” still open in Hawaii. (Honolulu lost its exotic Waikiki Theater to demolition, leaving only the grand Hawaii Theater near Chinatown.) As with other surviving picture-palaces around the country, nowadays, a not-for-profit organization - the Friends of the Palace Theater - is responsible for upkeep and restoration. And like those other theaters, too, the Palace hosts film-festivals and classic movies: on Halloween night, it will screen the 1920 silent “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde,” with live theater-organ accompaniment.
But Hilo’s Palace does much more than just show films: with 450 seats, it’s an important local venue for theatrical presentations, a variety of performing artists, and even community meetings.
Take musicals. For the seventh year in a row, the Palace is presenting a full-scale Broadway-style musical (last year, it was “The Wizard of Oz”), with a huge cast of local actors, including children and teenagers. 
If you can get to Hilo in the next two weeks, you’ll be able to see “Once Upon One Nodda Time.” It’s a pidgin-inflected musical of fractured fairy-tales, wherein the Three Little Pigs are chased by a huffing-and-puffing mongoose; Snow White gets both a poisoned apple from “The” Wicked Queen and a poisoned papaya from “Da” Wicked Queen; and there’s a croaking chorus of (what else?) cane-toad bufos and coqui frogs.
Performers who make concert appearances on the Palace stage range from Honolulu slack-key stars to internationally renowned classical violinists to world-music percussionists. Every Wednesday at 11 a.m. there’s a 45-minute program of Hawaiiana that’s free for kids. And one evening last month, the Palace hosted a town-meeting on the subject of downtown improvement projects, with real-time opinion polling by electronic touch-pads. (FYI: most people want to see new housing built downtown, and a naturalistic park along the Wailuku River.)
In short, there’s no place in town like the historic Palace Theater. And Hilo is darned lucky to have it.
HERE ON THE BIG ISLAND - Bringing Fido and Felix to Hawaii September 10, 2008
Posted by Kelly in : About Hawaii, Big Island Hawaii, General, HERE ON THE BIG ISLAND, Hawaii Travel, Resources , 2commentsHERE ON THE BIG ISLAND
By Kelly Moran
Bringing Fido and Felix to Hawaii
“What about my dog and cat?” a friend asked. “Can they move to Hawaii with me, too?”
These Islands are unique in many ways, but one is that there has never has been a case of rabies here. Since Territorial days, in 1912, the authorities have actively discouraged people from bringing carnivorous mammals here, on the remote chance that they might be infected. And until 2003, this was enforced by a four-month quarantine for all arriving pets (except guide-dogs for the blind). If an animal showed no signs of rabies after 120 days in a Honolulu facility (housed and fed there at the owners’ expense, of course), then it could be released. Owners could visit their pets every day, but that was inconvenient unless they lived nearby, or at least on Oahu.
But most people are unwilling to leave Fido or Felix behind, even with a trusted friend or neighbor. So, what does bringing them here involve? Read the State’s rules-and-regs, and the answers to frequently-asked-questions for all the details. But the basic requirements are that a pet must have had at least two previous rabies vaccinations. A blood sample must be submitted for evaluation, to ensure that it’s free of rabies. And the pet must have an identifying “microchip” to link it with its blood sample.
This means you can forget about bringing a new puppy or kitten. After even the minimum number of shots and checkups that they need to qualify for admission, a dog or cat will be almost a full year old.
There are now quarantine stations on Kauai and the Big Island, and a “five-days-or-less” quarantine option, based on veterinary certification. But still, arriving pets may first have to spend about two days in the Honolulu facility - it’s the only port of entry - to ensure that they meet all the medical requirements.
What about bringing in other animals? Well, wolves and dingos are prohibited, but mainly what Hawaii absolutely does not want here are snakes. Recently, a few brown tree-snakes have hitchhiked here on military transports from Guam, but - fortunately - they have been captured before they could escape and go wild. While they might (might) put a dent in the coqui frog population, they would more likely wipe out the last ground-nesting native birds, and pose a threat to local people, who have never before needed to watch out for snakes in the wild. This proscription is thought to have been instigated by missionaries in the 19th century, who didn’t want the biblical tempter hanging around. But even back then, it was understood that snakes would drastically upset what we, nowadays, call the “fragile ecosystem” of Hawaii.
So, don’t complain about the lengthy quarantine period. It keeps us all safe. And it has also had the (fully intended) consequence of encouraging local adoption. The Islands are teeming with feral cats and dogs who have run away, or who have been deliberately abandoned. Shelters operated by the local Humane Societies, and the various private animal shelters, all offer free or very low-cost spay/neuter services; they do not allow any animal to be adopted without having first been sterilized. And wherever you go, you’ll see bulletin-boards and classified-ad pages offering free cats and dogs. But there are still more potential pets here than there are potential owners.
Anyone who is contemplating a move to Hawaii ought to give serious thought to acquiring their pets here.
HERE ON THE BIG ISLAND - Is Hawaii Still a Nation? September 8, 2008
Posted by Kelly in : About Hawaii, Big Island Hawaii, General, HERE IN HAWAII, HERE ON THE BIG ISLAND, Hawaii Travel , 1 comment so farHERE ON THE BIG ISLAND
By Kelly Moran
Is Hawaii Still a Nation?
Something happened in the 1890s, that has not yet been fully resolved. Last month, while most people in Hawaii were celebrating the 49th anniversary of Statehood, political activists briefly took control of Iolani Palace, in Honolulu, claiming it as the seat of a native Hawaiian government that had been illegally overthrown.
Was it illegal? After King Kalakaua died, his sister Liliuokalani became queen. She wanted to change some laws regarding land ownership, and extend the voting franchise to ordinary Hawaiians who did not own property: actions which would have undercut the disproportionally large influence that a few haole merchants had gained under her brother’s (admittedly sometimes careless) reign. So in 1893, a committee of Honolulu merchants persuaded a U.S. Marine commander to lead a company of armed men from their ship in the harbor, to surround Iolani Palace, while the merchants went inside and formally deposed Liliuokalani.
Furious, Liliuokalani sailed to Washington DC, and persuaded both President Grover Cleveland and many U.S. senators that her overthrow was illegal and should be nullified. But the merchants had allies in the Senate too, and considerable influence in the American economy, regarding the sugar trade. Within a few months, there was a brief armed putsch in Hawaii, which failed to restore Liliuokalani to the throne. Brought up on charges, she was convicted of knowing about the insurrection but failing to report it, and sentenced to house-arrest.
In Washington, despite five years of lobbying and debate, the Senate could not resolve the issue of her sovereignty; and in 1898, President William McKinley - an advocate of American’s “manifest destiny” to grow ever westward - annexed Hawaii.
Whether the queen was a victim or a tyrant, and whether annexation was a blessing or a curse, is still debated today. To make her case in Washington, Liliuokalani wrote her autobiography, Hawaii’s Story (Mutual Publications, facsimile edition, 1990); and many subsequent books have followed her lead and taken her side.
The annexationists’ case is especially well made by Thurston Twigg-Smith, grandson of one of the merchant committee’s leaders, in Hawaiian Sovereignty: Do the Facts Matter? (Goodale Publishing, 1998).
Feature films have never covered the drama, but The Trial of Liliuokalani is a provocative stage play - first mounted in Hawaii, in the 1970s - that playwright Maurice Zimring based on court transcripts.
A bill has now been introduced to the U.S. Senate, by Hawaii Senator Dan Akaka, that would grant native Hawaiians much the same status under law as Native American Indians have today, including the right to form a quasi-governmental organization. It has plenty of opponents, who claim it would create a race-based division of the citizenry; and the “Akaka bill” was tabled in the last congressional session. But Hawaii’s Republican governor favors the bill; and passing it is now a plank in the U.S. Democratic Party’s election platform.
It’s possible, therefore, that when the 50th anniversary of Statehood rolls around, next August, the nature of the day’s events may be rather different than they have ever been before.
HERE ON THE BIG ISLAND - Makai or Mauka? September 5, 2008
Posted by Kelly in : Big Island Hawaii, Featured Listings, General, HERE ON THE BIG ISLAND, Updates , 2commentsHERE ON THE BIG ISLAND
By Kelly Moran
Makai or Mauka?
Would you rather live by the sea, or on a hill?
On a coral atoll, everywhere you could possibly live is close to the ocean; but on a high island like Hawaii, you can live so far from the water that you might not even see it! Everyone who has the choice is either a makai (seaward) or a mauka (uphill) type. Which are you?
Living makai is what most people probably imagine, when they contemplate moving here. It’s almost stereotypical: swaying palms, seashells at your feet, that bracing salt air . . . . Being right on the water, or close to it, gives you the calming sound of the surf, and those cool breezes that are so welcome on hot days. Actual ocean frontage, of course, is typically the most expensive land. But sea views - from anywhere - are always in demand, and the greater the expanse of ocean you can see, the more desireable will be that property.
Just remember that, unlike the older Hawaiian islands, the Big Island has very few sandy beaches, and no one with an oceanfront lot has a truly “private” beach. By law, property owners have to provide - or at least not block - access to their section of the shoreline from the ocean or from the adjacent coast, and the public is entitled to be there, to swim, fish, etc., right up to the high-water mark. That said, though, since most of our coastline here is rocky - some of it actually being sea-cliffs a hundred or more feet above the water - there isn’t too much foot-traffic along most of our shores.
If there’s a down-side to living on the ocean, it’s the ocean itself. Salt spray fogs your windows, and leaves a crust on your furniture and clothes; it will also wreak havoc with unshielded electronics. Building-codes are particularly restrictive at or near sea-level, too, because your house is vulnerable to damage from storms, and (it must be said) from tsunamis.
Still, here are some potential makai properties to consider:
40’s Vintage Plantation Home with Million Dollar Views
Architectural Masterpiece with Private Beach on 13 Acres
*Virtual Tour*
Rare Hilo Oceanfront Estate
*Virtual Tour*
2 Oceanfront Acres with Panoramic Coastline Views
*Virtual Tour*
Oceanfront Paradise! Over 1/2 Acre, Panoramic Bay & Kaloli Point Views
*Virtual Tour*
What about living mauka? Land uphill, even with a distant ocean view, is typically less expensive than property of the same size close to the water. And mauka lots are generally bigger, too, so you may have more privacy. The temperature drops approximately three degrees (F) for every 1,000 feet of elevation, so summer days will be a little cooler, no matter how high up you go; and winter nights, if you’re in, say, Waimea or Volcano, can be be quite chilly - though quite a few houses there will have thicker walls and possibly even a fireplace.
If you want to live in the woods, you’ll have to be uphill, where there is a greater variety of trees that also grow taller and closer together than they do near the ocean. Maybe you prefer the wide-open spaces: the farm- or ranch-lands are all uphill. Many mauka parcels are almost flat, especially if they were formerly used to grow sugar cane; they can serve as a “blank canvas” on which you can create your own landscape from scratch.
The down-side to mauka living is mainly about distance: everything is a car-drive away: the beach (of course!), but also movies, festivals, and shopping. If you have to commute to work, and especially if gasoline stays as expensive as it is right now (over $4 a gallon), living uphill will be a bit costly.
Nonetheless, there are some wonderful mauka properties available, right now:
Panoramic Ocean, Mountain & Stream Views - 6 Acres
*Virtual Tour*
Cozy 2BR Home on 7.9 Acres - Private & Serene
*Virtual Tour*
Diversified Ag Business with Home on 20 Acres
*Virtual Tour*
8.3 Acres - Panoramic Mountain, Ocean and Hilo Bay
*Virtual Tour*
So wherever you choose to life, you’ll certainly agree that there’s no place like home on the Big Island!
HERE ON THE BIG ISLAND - Architectural Gems of Hilo - The Early 20th Century August 11, 2008
Posted by Kelly in : Big Island Hawaii, General, HERE ON THE BIG ISLAND , add a commentHERE ON THE BIG ISLAND
By Kelly Moran
Architectural Gems of Hilo - The Early 20th Century
In the first half of the 20th century, Hilo enjoyed an economic boom - mainly from growing sugar cane. Much of that financial bonanza was channeled into new buildings; and as you might expect, most of the architecturally interesting examples were built Downtown.
Chief among these is the Federal Building, on Waianuenue Ave.
With its tall columns, indoor-outdoor galleries on the second floor, and a tiled fountain in the courtyard facing Kalakaua Park, it’s a great example of how a turn-of-the-century public building in the classical-revival style, was adapted for our tropical climate.
Since the 1950s, Koehnen’s furniture store has occupied the huge Bayfront corner at Kamehameha Avenue and Waianuenue Ave.
But it was built in the ‘teens, as the local branch of Honolulu-based H. Hackfeld & Co., one of the Islands’ “Big Five” corporations. (Anti-German sentiment in World War I forced the owners to change its name to American Factors.)
The majority of Downtown Hilo’s buildings went up between 1900 and 1940, including almost all of the two-story structures between the Wailuku River and Ponahawai Street.
Timber-framed, and clad in wood siding, most have - or had - first-floor overhangs sheltering their sidewalk frontage from the rain.
Nearly all had - and some still have - mom-and-pop retailers or restaurants on the ground floor, and small white-collar offices upstairs.
These modest little gems aren’t in any one style; and there’s not much that’s fancy about them. But it’s a treat to look up, above the second-floor windows, or on the corners, and see the names of the builders or original owners, like S. Hata, Holt, and Wah Yuke Chock.
Sugar may have been the dominant industry here, but those companys’ offices were out of town, at their mills. These downtown buildings, the backbone and ribs of Hilo’s day-to-day economy, were where everybody else worked.
HERE ON THE BIG ISLAND - The Great Outdoor Circle August 11, 2008
Posted by Kelly in : About Hawaii, Big Island Hawaii, General, HERE IN HAWAII, HERE ON THE BIG ISLAND, Updates , add a commentHERE ON THE BIG ISLAND
By Kelly Moran
The Great Outdoor Circle
In my last blog I mentioned Hawaii’s billboard laws in passing. But they deserve a blog of their own . . . and a round of applause.
They may be unique in the United States in that they forbid the erection of billboards, not just in some places but everywhere in the Islands. And the idea of banning billboards didn’t come from “green” politicians in the 1990s, nor from hippies in the 1960s. The movers-and-shakers who successfully lobbied the government to ban billboards were women - housewives, mainly - and they did it more than 80 years ago!
They were members of a club called The Outdoor Circle, that had been formed in 1912 with the goal of keeping Hawaii green and beautiful. Some were descended from Hawaiian royalty, but many were the (mostly haole) wives of Hawaii’s mostly haole) richest and most politically influential men. Like “women’s clubs” elsewhere, the Outdoor Circle had gotten trees planted along streets and avenues. But for the women of Hawaii, that was not enough.
Despite the revenues that billboard advertising would generate, and the likelihood that billboards would draw customers to their enterprises, the businessmen of Hawaii agreed with their women-folk that, to preserve the Islands’ unique beauty, they would support laws forbidding large outdoor advertisements and severely limiting other kinds of signage.
The first of these laws was passed in 1927, and more were added as new technologies, such as neon lighting, became available. Additional laws were enacted in 1948 to prohibit aerial advertising, such as sky-writing and the towing of banners by aircraft.
Today, there are no billboards even in the densest commercial or industrial zones; and strict regulations limit the size of signs on a building that proclaim what businesses are inside. The Outdoor Circle has also taken a stand against “Admobile” trucks that don’t haul anything except a rotating set of billboard-size ads on their flanks.
Laws covering other fields comply with the billboard laws here, too. There are size limits on electioneering signs for candidates and issues; and as I noted in my last blog, after an election has been held, those signs have to come down. Under real estate law, the “For Sale” sign in front of a house or property must be removed after escrow closes.
The Outdoor Circle’s current mission statement is: “To protect Hawaii’s scenic environment by advocating for the planting and protection of trees, burying of utility lines, promoting recycling, and fighting for a billboard-free Hawaii, among other issues.” The Big Island branch of the Outdoor Circle is headquartered in Waimea.
HERE ON THE BIG ISLAND - Elections - Local Style July 30, 2008
Posted by Kelly in : Big Island Hawaii, General, HERE ON THE BIG ISLAND, Upcoming Events , add a commentHERE ON THE BIG ISLAND - Elections - Local Style
By Kelly Moran
Another political season has officially begun. The deadline for filing papers has now passed, and a total of 72 people on the Big Island are gearing up for the federal, state and county posts that will be filled this year. The island may be big, but the population is small, and most people here know the names of their County Council member, their State Representative and their State Senator. Live here long enough, and you will surely get to meet your elected officials in person.
Don’t expect any endorsements from me. What I will do, though, is tell you what to expect as election time rolls around.
If you are registered to vote on the Big Island, but can’t come to do so in person, you can cast an absentee ballot. You have until one week before the September 20 primary and November 4 general election (Sept. 13 and Oct. 28, respectively) to obtain your absentee ballots at the Office of the County Clerk’s elections division.
While the County Building is being renovated, that office has moved to the old Hilo Iron Works building, on Kam Ave. beside the Wailoa River, across from the Suisan fish market.
And if you are going to be here soon, but not on the actual election days, you can vote there, in person, any weekday during the two weeks beforehand, i.e., starting Sept. 8 and again starting Oct. 21.
Term-limits prevent our two-term mayor from running again, and eight people have filed to run for his seat, including one of the mayor’s aides, a state senator who was formerly a mayor, and two County Council members. In Hawaii you can not keep one elected position while you run for another, so each of the latter three jobs has also opened up, making the field in this year’s primary elections unusually crowded.
Three local races, however, are already decided, because no one filed to compete against two incumbent State Representatives, nor against the incumbent County Prosecutor (who had no opponent in 2004, either). Candidates can often be seen standing at busy intersections, during the morning and evening commute-times, waving at passing cars. Of course, they can’t be everywhere at once, so supporters and surrogates stand and wave in their stead. But often, you’ll see them standing alongside a life-size cutout photo of their candidate, who’s been posed with arm raised, waving, too.
You’ll also see many small campaign signs in front yards, and along the roads. But Hawaii’s strict anti-billboard laws prohibit huge signage; and all electioneering signs are supposed to be removed soon after election day.
That won’t change. But a big change is coming to the political process in the next election season: the Big Island’s State Representatives and Senators persuaded their colleagues to enact legislation that establishes a pilot project for public financing of local Council elections in 2010.
The Democratic and Republican Parties will hold pre-election rallies the night before the primary and general elections. These are big, noisy celebrations where, despite the rivalries, there is always a shared sense of joy. Remember: we all live here on this beautiful island, and as voters, we all share the responsibility to ensure it is managed in the public interest.
HERE ON THE BIG ISLAND: Battling Those Weed Trees June 25, 2008
Posted by Kelly in : About Hawaii, Big Island Hawaii, General, HERE IN HAWAII, HERE ON THE BIG ISLAND, Hawaii Travel, Updates , add a commentHERE ON THE BIG ISLAND
By Kelly Moran
Battling Those Weed Trees
A few months ago, I wrote about a tree that was brought here from Brazil
and that has gone terribly wild. It’s officially psidium cattleianum, but commonly called “strawberry guava”or waiawi (”vy-vee”), and it’s extraordinarily invasive: seeds from the fruit sprout easily wherever they fall, and are spread by birds and pigs; if the tree is cut down, it quickly regenerates from stumps and fallen branches, ultimately forming a dense thicket in which nothing else grows.
Researchers estimate that waiawi is now entrenched in more than 800,000 acres on the Big Island, and though its range may ultimately be limited by drier microclimates and higher alititudes, it is still in-filling where it’s already established, especially in Hamakua and Puna, where it squeezes out practically everything else, especially native and endemic species. It also draws fruit-flies, expanding their range, which frustrates efforts to cultivate more desireable fruit.
To fight this weed tree, the Hawaii Dept. of Land and Natural Resources, the Hawaii Dept. of Agrictulture, and the Forest Service of the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture propose to introduce a Brazilian insect called tectococcus ovatus,which severely weakens - but doesn’t kill - waiawi. It tunnels into the leaves, forcing the tree to make “galls” that contain the pest, instead of making new leaves. This is expected to slow the spread of waiwai, allowing people more time to cut thickets down and keep them down. The insect has no wings, and can move to adjacent trees only on the breeze; moreover, tests prove that it can live only on strawberry guava and on no other plant; so the release of this biological control agent is considered very safe.
Waiawi does have some practical uses. The fresh fruit, being in the guava family, are easily made into tasty jams and jellies; the wood, like other fruit-woods, makes an excellent smoke for curing meat and fish; and the trunks - if thick and straight enough - can turned into hardwood poles. So there is a small vocal contingent here, mainly in Puna, that objects to introducing tectococcus, in the name of “saving” the waiawi.
But, the USDA counters this misguided effort by pointing out that, if anyone actually wants to cultivate waiawi, or keep wild stands from being infected, they can do what farmers do for any other orchard crop: i.e., protect it with ordinary (preferably organic) insecticidal spray.
There is another invasive weed tree here that was introduced about the same time as waiawi; but it is currently being decimated without human intervention. The rose-apple (syzygium jambos), though not quite as aggressive as waiawi, tends to spread out more, and to form dark “tree-tunnel” arches over back-country roads. The fruit is rather dry: its “rose” being more of a scent than a flavor.
But rose apple trees are being attacked by a “rust fungus” disease that kills new growth and thereby starves the tree of energy. In a couple of years, many stands of rose apple will be bare and dead - and likely will be overtaken by waiawi, which is often found in the same areas.
There is a small but real danger that this rust could spread to other trees in the same (myrtle) family. The worst-case scenario would be a jump to native ohia. So Hawaii forest managers are urging the state to restrict new imports of nursery trees and other plant material that can harbor the rust. For more information about the rust,
click here.
HERE ON THE BIG ISLAND - The First Fruits of Summer June 18, 2008
Posted by Kelly in : About Hawaii, Big Island Hawaii, General, HERE ON THE BIG ISLAND, Hawaii Travel , add a commentHERE ON THE BIG ISLAND
By Kelly Moran
The First Fruits of Summer
Subtropical Hawaii does have seasons; and in the late Spring and early Summer, two of our best fruits come ripe: lychee, from China, and mango from the Indian subcontinent.
Anyone who patronized Chinese restaurants in bygone days may remember eating sweet, dried “litchi nuts,” which are to fresh lychee as raisins are to grapes, or prunes to plums. Lychee are almost never found in the wild: they’re raised in orchards of distinctive small trees with wavy, light-green leaves, that require nurturing to produce quality fruits in quantity.
Ripe lychee are about the size of golf balls, with red, rough-textured skin that you peel off by hand. The translucent white fruit tastes like an especially juicy grape. At about twenty to the pound, you can expect to pay three dollars for a pound of lychee. The original Chinese varieties had large seeds; but twentieth-century agronomists developed varieties with small, “shriveled” seeds, that enable each fruit to have more meat; so you may see those labeled “small seed,” in farmers’ market stalls, and they may be priced a bit higher. Like cherries, canned lychee retain almost all of the fresh fruit’s flavor; so if you can’t get to Hawaii during lychee season, buy a can from the “Asian” section of Mainland supermarkets.
Around this time of year, too, local farmers offer a related fruit called longon. Smaller than lychee, and with a stiff, brown skin, the fruit is much sweeter, though in a cloying sort of way; some people construe it as being rather more aromatic than flavorful. Later in the year, another relative, called rambutan, will come ripe: it has a “hairy” skin, and a taste similar to lychee though not as juicy. Rambutan also has a longer season and a longer shelf-life, so it has become extremely popular in local orchards.
The smallest mangoes are the so-called “common” variety, and they are easily spotted from the roadside. The tree is long-lived and enormous: 80 feet or higher, with 30-foot spreads, dark leaves tinged with red, and an abundance of small fruit that depend from long stems. Saplings can sprout from fallen fruit, but in general, wherever you see a mature tree now, there is or was a settlement there.
Mangoes are related - believe it or not - to poison ivy and poison oak. If you have never eaten one before, you’ll quickly discover if you are hyper-sensitive or allergic to them: you may develop a swarm of (harmless) red welts around your lips that local folks call “mango mouth.” With most people, however, this does not happen.
Common mangoes can and do ripen into sweet, juicy delights, but a few varieties have a taste reminiscent of turpentine. The trees being so big, common mangoes are also hard to pick - you need a long pole with a net or basket on the end - and may well have been stung by fruit-flies before you can even get to them. So, many are picked before they’re ripe and turned into chutney, or prepared as savory treats: local recipes for “green” mango famously include marinating the slices in soy sauce (shoyu).
It’s the cultivated mangoes that are the most consistently sweet, and while there are, technically, hundreds of varieties, they fall into just a few general categories that you’ll find in local farmers’ markets right now.
Closest to “common” in size and taste, with the same greenish skin color, are the slightly elongated “cigar” mangoes. Several varieties are larger and longer still, but have a distinctive yellow-orange skin, much like the color of the fruit itself. (In other countries, such as The Philippines, these are the mangoes that are commercially dried and packaged; and except for the absence of juice, dried mangoes taste almost exactly like fresh mangoes.) The largest mangoes are the Hayden variety, which can grow big enough for two people to share. Expect to pay about fifty cents for a common or cigar mango; a dollar apiece for the larger yellow type, and three or four dollars for a giant Hayden.
All mangoes have large, flat seeds; here’s how to get the most meat out of them: Slice the fruit the “long” way, close to either side of the seed, to yield two cupped-hand-shaped halves. Set those halves aside and peel the strip of rind from around the seed; slice off whatever meat you can, into a bowl, and then (as local folks do) suck the rest of the meat from the edges of the seed before discarding it. Now, for each of the two halves, make tic-tac-toe on the flat side with a knife, but don’t pierce through to the skin. Turn the half-mango inside-out, and you produce neat chunks of juicy mango that you can peel or slice off, into your bowl.
HERE ON THE BIG ISLAND - The Naked Truth about the Kona Coffee “Calendar Girls” June 10, 2008
Posted by Kelly in : About Hawaii, Big Island Hawaii, General, HERE IN HAWAII, HERE ON THE BIG ISLAND , add a commentHERE ON THE BIG ISLAND
By Kelly Moran
Is That Kona Coffee Really from Kona?
Between about 800 and 1,500 feet mauka of the Kona Coast, a lot of folks have been growing coffee for more than 100 years, and their beans enjoy a reputation for delivering a high quality buzz. But right now, growers in the Kona Coffee Farmers’ Association (KCFA) are buzzing like angry bees: they want the words “Kona coffee” to mean just that.
You may not know this, but if as little as ten percent of the beans in a blend were grown in Kona, it can be labeled and sold as “Kona coffee.” The KCFA wants that designation to be allowed only if 100 percent of the beans are Kona-grown; the label of anything else should prominently include the word “Blend,” and list the actual percentage of Kona beans.
Until recently, most Kona coffee beans got a fairly light “American” style of roasting, giving “Kona coffee” a reputation for being on the weak side. That may be why vendors have been blending it with more robust beans from elsewhere, although that, in turn, has made consumers skeptical of anything labeled “Kona coffee.” In fact, roasting Kona beans in the darker “French” or darkest “Italian” styles cancels any perceived weakness.
Almost anyone in Hawaii can grow coffee . . . as an ornamental: it has shiny dark green leaves and bright red berries. But getting a decent cup-a-joe from a couple of plants is far more work than it’s worth. To oversimplify: the berries have to be picked at just the right stage of ripeness, then dried and roasted with expertise. Coffee-farming is very labor-intensive, which helps to explain why a pound of 100 percent Kona coffee typically sells for more than twice the price of supermarket coffees.
But it’s that “premium” status that truth-in-labeling would help to protect.
Kona was not the first place on the Big Island where coffee was raised as a commercial crop. That was in Ola’a - now called Keaau - in Puna. Some coffee is raised there still, and some comes from up the Hamakua coast near Honokaa. But mauka Kona is the Big Island’s major microclimate for coffee. And the KCFA is part of a worldwide movement to ensure the veracity of “local” labeling. “Champagne” has to come from Éperney, France, and anything resembling it that’s made anywhere else has to be labeled “sparkling wine.” Any cheese with veins of azure mold can be labeled “blue cheese,” but only the dairy farmers of Stilton, England can call it “Stilton.”
To drum up publicity for this campaign, the KCFA has published a 2009 calendar called “The Naked Truth About Kona Coffee.” Inspired by an English stunt (which was celebrated in a movie called “Calendar Girls”), a dozen women who actually farm coffee in Kona posed for its pages - yes, in the nude. Okay, most of them are … “of a certain age.” And by posing with strategically-placed tractors or farm implements, none of them shows much skin. But hey! They’re really naked!
If you want to help them ensure that calling something “Kona coffee” is more than just a marketing gimmick, you might want to hang their calendar on your wall, or - at least - check the fine print on the label of your next bag of “Kona coffee.”
