Nowadays people go nuts for Mangos and lychee and `ULU.
Even to far as buying them in the store!
Don’t you all think we should have some fruit trees in our gardens? And share with friends and neighbors? Let’s plant and grow some fruits today!
As kids, mangoes were like stray kittens, people would beg you to take them! We got jobs raking up the fallen smashed ones from super tall trees for elderly neighbors.
I could never get enough lychee even tho the trees were abundant in Makiki where I grew up. Lychee enticed me to move to Wahiawa where we had two lychee trees and then planted a third.
When you offer people mountain apples or `ohi`a `ai some are enthusiastic, some will help you pick and rake up and some meet the offer with distain.
Funny.
Nutritionally they are great; lots of hydration for your body, and rich in vitamins C, Calcium, magnesium, phosphorus, and super rich in potassium.
Also known as `Ohi`a `ai, the `ohi`a that you eat (`Ai) they were carried here by ancient Polynesians in their sailing canoes, an important part of our “imported” landscapes and gardens.
What a gorgeous gift to find when hiking the low moist forests. This fruit will keep you hydrated on your hike!
And you can bring home a seed and grow it to commemorate that special hike. Surprise and share with your hiking buddies at the next festive occasion.
They are nice to grow in our gardens too. A small to medium tree with pretty leaves and bark most of the year and then BOOM! in flower so pretty magenta pom poms
A month or two later you will have that juicy ono fruit. Like jewels up in the tree canopy.
Besides eating them straight off the tree, you can slice and add to fruit salads.
Or as my niece Jalene found out for us, you can make pickles from them to savor for another day.
My friend and akamai farmer Deborah Ward makes a mean mountain apple pie and you can also make mountain apple sauce.
Add some slices to your favorite cold beverage.
You can make a lei with the smaller green and white fruit. Store the lei in the fridge and when you wear it “Fruit cooling air conditioning” ! I made one for my then boss, Sydney Iaukea at a Kupuna Hawaiian studies training session and the lei kept her cool all day.
It’s an unusual lei today. But easy to make and fun and unusual to wear.
The scientific name is Eugenia mallaccensis and they are in the MYRTACEAE plant family along with `Ohi`a lehua, guavas, rose apples, Eucalyptus, and more.
Some call them Malay apple as they are native to the Malay peninsula and southeast Asia.
We have different varieties in Hawaii, a pure white one, a seedless one, squat plump Hawaiian variety and long and big Tahitian variety.
Many grew naturally in the wet lowland tropics of Ho`omaluhia Botanic Garden and then we planted more in the “Kahua Kukui” Polynesian plants section of this amazing and FREE botanic garden in Kane`ohe.
They are easy and fun to grow from seeds. Save a seed from an ono one and plant it right away.
Besides the ono fruit and attractive flowers and tree, bringing shade and birds to yoru garden, mountain apples have medicinal uses.
The bark is a sore throat cure. If you feel a sore throat coming on or are getting a cold, scrape off some young bark, rinse it and chew it. It has lots of tannins and this truly can help ward off a cold.
The nutritious fruit will also help keep you healthy !
Citrus grow well in our Hawaii gardens, trees come in all shapes and sizes. Many people ask me for smaller fruit trees, or even shrubs and finger lime fits this to a T!
One fun one that I first heard about and got to sample while visiting gardens on Hawaii island (a few years ago) with fellow horticulturist Erin Lee is the finger lime.
It is so Fun to eat! Cut open a ripe one and just squeeze it out like wasabi paste ! Fun for keiki to learn about, grow and eat more healthy fruit.
The little fruitlets inside can be white, green, or pink. The skin of the fruit as well as the insides, comes in different colors.
So pretty and decorative for your Holiday table, whatever the Holiday is! Let’s celebrate being alive and learning to grow and eat new things from our own gardens !
And sharing with friends and neighbors!
Amazing at your next gourmet potluck! (when it safe to have a pa`ina). Imagine pairing it with home made sushi ! or on fish, or in drinks
Lee suggests growing it in a large decorative ceramic pot in full sun. Once it’s growing vigorously, you can shape it as a standard or into a topiary on your sunny lanai or party patio !
It came to us from Australia, a land of many wonderful and unusual plants.
Scientists call it Citrus australasica and it is in the Rutaceae or Citrus Family. It is also sometimes called “caviar lime”.
It is a rambling, very thorny, under-story shrub or small tree, from lowland, subtropical rain-forests, and dry rain-forests in the coastal border region of Queensland and New South Wales, Australia.
Happily, we are now growing finger limes in Hawai’i. We need to grow more of them and test varieties and find out which are best for our micro-climates.
The shrub is variable in height and its leaves and mixed in with thorns. Buds are purple, petals are white . The flowers are tiny . The fruit is cylindrical, 4–8 inches long, sometimes slightly curved, and shaped like a fat finger. Finger limes come in a range of colors, both inside and out
HOW DO YOU EAT IT?
One fun way to prepare eat this fruit is to cut the ends off and use a rolling pin and roll out the small, caviar-shaped vesicles. The fruit caviar can be used wherever you would like a squeeze of citrus. Or just cut and squeeze out the fruitlets like a tube of wasabi paste.
For a fun family pa`ina, have your keiki help you prepare your gourmet fruit platter and let them open and squeeze out the tart juicy insides.
In France they call it “lemon Caviar’ and it commands a very high price in Gourmet restaurants. They must grow them in greenhouses there.
This could be a model for us in Hawaii. A rare, pretty and flavorful gourmet treat sold for a good price. We could develop our own varieties that do thrive here.
This is true Horticulture and why the U.H. could sure use a Tropical fruit specialist to help grow our farms and support farmers.
I spoke with amazing ex UH extension agent Jari Sugano. She was growing finger limes as a hedge crop at Waimanalo experimental station. She mentioned how thorny they are.
Clients do ask me for thorny plants to help secure their homes and gardens. This could be a plus for farm security but does make harvesting tricky.
Tree crops are good for the land as they are perennials and you don’t have to work over the soil like with veg crops. This is the concept of permaculture,
Frank Sekiya and Lynn Tsuruda of Frankie’s Fruit Tree Nursery in Waimanalo are growing finger limes. I talked to them about their experience with this interesting citrus fruit.
Douglas Himmelfarb was living at the Marks estate in Nu’uanu and he gave Sekiya some varieties. The California varieties do fruit well in California but not always here in Hawaii.
Some in the field that Sekiya planted got huge, and never bore fruit. Some only a few fruits; Sekiya relates that there is so much variability.
Ken Love, a major Fruit advocate on Hawaii island, gave Sekiya some cuttings, and he say it fruits all year, and it’s the slightly pink one. The outside of the fruit is kind of purple and matures to green, if it gives a little, that’s how you tell its ripe enough to pick, the fruit will have sort of a spongy feel.
We have so many micro-climates and soil types in Hawaii, that we all can experiment with which ones grow and fruit best in our own ecosystem. People have had them in their yards for a while, says Sekiya and some grew well, and yet barely fruited,
They graft finger limes and can also start them from cuttings. Grafting is quicker, but it’s a practice and skill that not many have today. (Something to learn and practice, while we stay safely at home ?!)
Root stocks (the bottom part of the graft) are important. As many people prefer smaller trees, for semi dwarf trees ‘Rubidoux trifoliate’ were advised at one time for their dwarfing effects, but as Tsuruda says, ‘We don’t use the Rubidoux trifoliate anymore since citrus trees grow fairly slowly in Hawaii and are easily pruned’.
‘Heen naran’ is a good root stock. It’s from India, U.H. highly recommends it. It’s Good for most citrus here in Hawaii. The Botanical name for Heen Naran is Citrus lycopersicaeformis. (The fruits of this root stock are small, round, super seedy inside, and look something like a tomato, Lyco is a Latin name referring to tomatoes, as in the healthy lycopene, we’re encouraged to eat more of)
‘Some people like it it for New year’s décor, as the size and shape fits very well on the mochi stack since it’s an inch in diameter. It’s very productive and very seedy’, says Sekiya.
The U.H. has had Trees at Poamoho Experimental Station for 30 years, all grafted with the Heen Naran root stock, which seemed to survive over 30 years while some others were grafted to different root stocks.
Most Citrus of the good, preferred varieties are sweet all year not only summer. Only the pummelo seems to be sweeter in summer than in winter.
Sekiya says that Tristeza virus is what can weaken and kill Citrus trees, the root stock helps them be stronger and more resistant and vigorous. Life of a citrus is 20-30 years here in general, and with heen naran maintains good growth.
Sekiya as Chef, says he just put some finger limes on fish the other night, ‘on salmon and saba, and says that it tastes really good and adds some crunch!’.
Some people put it in beer, and it doesn’t dissolve like limes so at end you have these fish egg like things to chew on’.
I found out writing this that you can eat the fruit of cashews and its high in vitamin C and good for your teeth and gums.
Linda Neumann who has a farm on Kaua’i helped me learn more.
It would be a pretty, and fun fruit tree to add to our gardens. Lots of other useful and yummy things come from Cashew trees.
For years we had a Cashew tree growing at Foster Botanic Garden. It’s in the Economic section of the garden. In this section we grow plants with various economic value or potential such as herbs, spices, medicines, food, and even poisons.
The main thing we were taught about cashews, is “Handle with extreme care”. If it is not ripe enough, or too ripe Abunai! (Danger in Japanese) It is hard, and possibly toxic to harvest and process the hard-shelled seeds (nuts). You need to harvest at just the right time, and then extract the seed carefully. Juice from the shell around the fruit may burn your skin.
That is why I’m happy to buy this heart healthy nut at the store!
Interestingly the toxic principles in the shell may make a good insecticide! Research continues.
The Latin name is Anacardium occidentale, (“Ana’ means upward, and “Cardium” refers to the heart). Cashew is in the Mango family, Anacardiaceae. Cashews are native to Brazil and Tropical America
Relatives include Fruit trees like Mango, Wi or Otaheite apple, Hog plum (my Honey’s favorite, one grows and Fruits in Foster Garden). Christmas berry tree is related. Poisonous relatives are poison ivy and sumac, and the Marking nut tree.
Flowers are greenish yellow, fragrant and grow in panicles. Bees like to visit and pollinate the flowers. The trees can grow up to 40 feet in ideal conditions, we usually find shorter, wider trees here in Hawaii.
The fruit and nut are very interesting to see. The “fruit” that catches our eye is actually a “false fruit” or pseudocarp. Some call this a “cashew apple” Being Eurocentric they called all kinds of tropical fruits “apples”!
The actual fruit (botanically speaking) of the cashew tree is a yellow or red kidney shaped drupe that grows at the end of the cashew apple. The drupe develops first on the tree, and then the pedicel expands to become the cashew apple. The true fruit contains a single seed, which is generally considered to be a nut.
Aren’t plants wonderful and Complex?!
The attractive colorful and juicy fruit is an adaptation to attract fruit eating animals to aid in seed dispersal.
Although it is perishable, we can eat the fruit and make value added products like wine and fruit roll ups.
Cashew trees favor well drained soils and regular watering to get established. The flowers like it dry, just like mangoes. They benefit from leafy mulch. Keep turf grass well away from the root zone.
Today it is mainly grown commercially in Brazil and India. We do have some intrepid farmers in Hawaii who are growing trees and even selling products. I salute their courage. Farming and marketing etc., is not easy!
Recently my friend Kaui Lucas, who is a Trained Permaculturist, was talking to me about her Cashew keiki trees. She showed me these cute and vigorous keiki, that she is growing on her sunny lanai, protected with chicken wire.
Lucas got an email from the Department of Agriculture about a seed giveaway from Hinshaw Farms. She said “Frank Hinshaw is the cashew guy. He invited me to go visit, we could make a holoholo day out of that ! Super sweet guy and he was so helpful. The farm is at “Poamoho”.
A few years ago, My Friend Elizabeth Reigels and I went on a kalo and farm kokua, Gourmet Foodie and Educational event and on the Reppun farm. We visited a gorgeous tree that was loaded with ripe fruit. The fruit are very pretty and interesting to see.
This tree was so attractive and productive that it got me thinking cashew might be a viable crop for backyard growers and even for diverse mixed Fruit tree farms.
This would maybe be a good crop to grow more of in Hawaii. Especially if we grew it like old-time Hawaii farmers did, and like Permaculture and Regenerative Agroforestry plant scientists do now.
That is, grow a diversity of tree species, not a single Monoculture or plantation style. Layers of tall and short trees, shrubs, and groundcovers all grown together. Leave the leaves and let them naturally decompose and enliven the soil.
This diversity keeps the plants and soil health and helps capture rainwater and let it percolate down to our aquifer. It’s also more enjoyable to work in the Diverse cool shady spaces, cultivate and harvest than in a Monoculture, plantation, chemical using style of tree farming.
Besides eating cashews raw, roasted or salted, have you ever had cashew cheese? It is a bit labor and time intensive to make but it is so creamy and delicious. And it has less of some of the less healthy parts of yummy cheese: no cholesterol (since it is from a plant) and only healthy nut fats.
There is a farm in Moloa`a on Kauai with more than 200 Cashew trees. Linda and Scott Neuman started in 2002, are learning about which varieties grow best and how to harvest, dry and roast. Check them out online and buy some of their locally grown products. The Farm is called Neu Mana Hui farm.
They have an abundance of other crops too, including figs. Interestingly they used a ‘chicken tractor’, a mobile coop that lets the chicken’s control, and eat weedy grass and fertilize trees and crops too. Akamai, no?!
The oil around the nut is toxic and needs to be handled with care.
As Neumann says: “Our farm has 2 employees: my husband and myself. We do all the planting maintenance and production of our product. I have spent a lot of time trying to educate on the “toxic” product….
People get confused. Old school way is to throw the nuts into a fire and then crack to get inside. That smoke is toxic.
The cashew is fruit where the seed grows outside the fruit. The nut is the seed. The seed itself is covered by testa a covering like you see on a peanut. That protects it from CSL fluid which is in between the exterior shell and the testa. (cashew seed liquid)
That substance is used for many products in paint, brake fluid and other products. Some methods of processing capture the CSL we do not. The CSL will peel the skin on your hands.
We use gloves when handling the shells. A lot of people ask about growing cashew, cashew grow well in most areas of Hawaii, but the equipment is costly and difficult to obtain.”
The CSL fluid, or cashew seed liquid, and it has insecticidal properties (Makes sense no, since it would protect the seed from insects and grazing munching herbivores).
Traditionally the nuts would be thrown on a fire and smoked open. This smoke extremely toxic.
There is now an expensive machine to open the nuts safely. The Neumann’s do this and don’t bother with the seed oil
BUT what a diverse and useful crop for Hawaii’s future as we wean ourselves off toxic tourism. 30,000 visitors a day is way too many. Let us grow some nuts instead, and support local farmers, chefs, and True value-added businesses.
Keiki Cashew trees grown by Kaui Lucas. Wire protects them from pests. And they enjoy an ocean view.
One of the best gifts to others is our time. Time helping or encouraging someone in their garden.
So many Kupuna love to garden but may have a hard time with tasks like lawn mowing and weeding or Pruning and debris removal. Why not offer this loving kokua to someone in your Ohana, or an elderly neighbor who is getting to an age, or state of fragility that some hana Hau`oli, happy work, would give them a lift !?
We have a neighbor who is a widow who loves her home and garden, but I hear her concerns. She is so happy and relieved when the weed eater crew shows up. Her family is large, but they don’t seem to know how to run the lawn mower. Hint hint
Sharing produce from our gardens is another free and generous gift to share. Just pick it, wash it and maybe wrap it up in a basket with some colorful ribbons, and garden greenery. Awesome gift and Holiday décor too.
If you’re still OK financially, support one of our local garden shops and go shopping! Buy some pretty flowering plants, orchids, herbs or vege starters. Seeds or Bulbs like Narcissus, or Amaryllis or Caladiums an exciting gift for gardeners !
Potting mix (I always look for the locally crafted ones) is always welcome, and even offer a little muscle if some plant of theirs needs re-potting into a larger or decorative (or heavy) pot. Cinder to mix with the potting soil makes a great soil for plants or to top dress and beautify their garden. (Cinder repels slugs too)
High quality garden clippers, a new sharp handsaw, or an extendable grip pruner, great gifts ! a decent pair of gloves, a bit waterproof or with finger grips.
The Electric battery-operated lawn mowers and string trimmers are an improved technology that is quite epic! We tested one for my Father in law’s lawn and it had so many plusses! It was QUIET! So, we could mow early while its cool and not disturb the neighbors. The battery was a bit heavy, but it held a charge for at least three mowings (and he a had a big yard with St. Augustine grass, so that was a good test !) Not having to mess with or purchase gas and oil is another major plus. Its also great for our environment !
String trimmers are next on my list, battery operated, quiet and again no smelly, spillable gas and oil to deal with.
The electric lawn mowers are also easy to start; just the push of a button. Amazing ! and what a thoughtful and akamai gift !
Locally grown Christmas trees :
I love the smell of the mainland trees BUT so many pests! Nasty insects, wasps, slugs, murder hornets and even snakes can hide and ride aboard a tree and get established in Hawaii.
Give a growing plant, like a Cook pine in a pot. These grow well and even make good houseplants.
Buy a tree from a local tree nursery like Helemano farms. They have Cook pines, and some of the more fragrant trees like Murray and Leland Cypress and Carolina Sapphire trees. My sister Mimi Bornhorst Gaddis Loved the Norfolk pine wreath. She reminded me to tell folks to go up, enjoy the day and give a nice tip to the tree cutters and loaders, all hired from the community for the holidays.
Mimi loves the open branch structure of a Norfolk, as she says ‘they so nicely showcase my precious heritage ornaments’. Plus, it’s what we grew up with.
Our neighbors the Osorio ohana recently moved up to Wahiawa, and Mary is finding all the kewl things about that lovely upland town. They went to Helemano Farms too as a family, for a fun and safe Covid outing and this is what she said:
‘Absolutely in love with our big and beautiful tree. The first fresh one we’ve had in a while and it’s Super Fresh because it was grown right here in our town of Wahiawa. Who knew there was a Christmas tree farm here?! Last week the girls and I had fun picking it out and today it came into the house. We’re trying to figure out how to mitigate the risk of the (newly adopted) destructive dog. Really looking forward to decorating it.’
Just love supporting local family businesses!
The Osorios got a Cypress tree; they chose the greener one says Osorio. (One type has more greyish needles, and one is greener and Brighter)
`A young Hawaiian man helped us get the tree secured to the van, they were so Delightful and Eager to help us. They come and cut it exactly the size you want and make sure its safely loaded. There were lots of young local boys, happy and eager to kokua.’
More farms are growing Christmas trees on the Neighbor islands too. This is a great thing for us to support and perpetuate. Grow and buy local, support each other and keep alien pest species OUT.
You can check the website for Helemano Farms in advance to see what various sizes and varieties will cost.
As Mary Osorio said, ‘The cost was comparable to the shipped in kind. We’ve paid $120 in the past for a big, imported one. This tree that we love so much cost $90. Just so folks know….. ‘
Pic by Mary Osorio: Lehuanani and Hali`a Osorio with kolohe rescue Dog, Ho`aka, in a field of home-grown holiday trees. An Anuenue or rainbow points to the most Golden of Local grown trees !
Pink Zephyr lilies in gravel mow curb strip in Manoa
By Heidi Bornhorst
Recent heavy rains have brought on the gorgeous blooming of Rain Lilies. This is an old-fashioned Hawaii garden plant that many of us cherish.
I first learned about them from my Mentor and Hanai Tutu, May Moir. She always encouraged the golden flowered form in her rock garden, and in an old concrete driveway that served as a rustic garden path. She taught me how to collect and grow more from seeds.
Their Latin name is Zephyranthes and we have several color forms that grow well here in Hawaii.
Moir had the yellow and the white flowered ones in her garden. I have the yellow one in my garden and along my mow curb. When they bloom, I think of May Moir and all that she shared with me. What a Friendship garden gift!
We were visiting my Aunty Hilda Kaneshiro in Manoa and I noticed some nice sidewalk mow curbs that had the pink flowered one. Later I stopped to get some pictures of them.
I’ve also been noticing the yellow ones in sidewalk strips along Palolo Avenue and today I stopped to try and get some good pictures of those.
We all want to encourage people not to cover our island with concrete, right?
Concrete and other impermeable surfaces restrict rainwater from trickling down and recharging our aquifers. Excess hard surfaces like roads and walkways, and cement driveways and even the mow curbs, leads to flooding down slope; freshwater runoff into our oceans and prevents the groundwater recharge that is vital to all our future.
We call these impermeable surfaces and they are NOT good ! Our aina needs to drain and keep fresh water on land and going down into our AQUIFER. This is for us and for future generations
On average it takes 25 years for rainwater to land, trickle down through the lava, and past the lava dikes, and down, down to our underground fresh water.
If it all runs off down slope it can cause flooding, and that fresh water is not good for the Ocean and our coral reefs.
Flooding water is not that fresh, its full of junk. Oil gas yard chemicals and more. We really don’t want that in our Moana, our lovely ocean….
The mow curb is public property and homeowners are supposed to maintain a grassy strip that will drain. Some people get tired of maintaining the grass and concrete over this strip.
This is illegal. They city will come and rip out the concrete and restore drainage. And charge the expense back to the owner. So please, keep it draining, gangy !
And it is not neighborly, or pono for our aina. Please everyone, let’s kokua and do the right thing. Water is vital for all of us.
Having a gravel strip with Zephyranthes lilies is a creative landscape solution that is also pretty. It saves the time and energy, gas oil and noise of maintaining, mowing and edging a grass strip.
You can choose pink white or yellow flowers. Zephyranthes are a lily and you can grow more from the bulbs. Ask for this nice Xeriscape garden plant at your favorite nursery or garden shop.
If you don’t like the gravel look, you can grow them at the edge of your lawn. This is very pretty with the bright flowers Blooming cheerfully amidst the green grass
Or you can grow them in large pot with well-drained soil.
Golden form of Zephyranthes lilies
HOW TO GROW Zephyr lilies :
After a good rain and mass blooming cycle, some of the flowers develop seed pods. After the three valved seed pods ripen for a bit, they split open, revealing stacks of flat black seeds in each seed pod. You can grow more plants from these seeds.
Or you can dig out the bulbs and grow more that way.
You can also ask for them at your favorite garden shop, such as Ko`olau Farmers.
Call a landscape nursery like the Nii nurseries in Hawaii Kai, or Kobas or Sharon’s Plants in Waimanalo.
Zephyranthes are in the lily family Amaryllidaceae. The Scientific name has Greek origins: “Zephyrus” is the God of the West wind, “Anthos” means flower.
They are native to the Americas, and there are at least 70 species. They do hybridize and breeders opt for different colors and enhanced drought tolerance.
Other common names are Magic lily, Fairy lily, Atamasco, and Zephyr lily.
A funny note, to me is that the strange WEST winds we’ve been having lately, (a very odd wind direction for Hawai`i) coupled with rain, did that all trigger the Zephyr lilies to bloom ? (Note the Latin name !)
Heidi Leianuenue Bornhorst is a landscaping consultant, gardener trainer, and specialty VIP garden guide. She has been a professional horticulturist for more than 33 years. She is also a Certified Arborist. You can contact her via email at heidibornhorst@gmail.com or at 739-5594.
It’s amazing to see our Quarantined Community excited about growing vegetables. I wish everyone success! Neighbors engaging Keiki, and sharing.
Every day I’m grateful for my ohana, neighborhood and Community. Mahalo Hawai’i folks !
Who thinks we need more Community gardens, for those with no land?
Three generations of my neighbors; Sarah, Avery and Alina Rosier, went shopping together and reported 3 stores were out of potting mix! Some nice big expensive potted plants followed them home ! They did endeavor to persevere and found the potting mix. They are growing `uala or sweet potato in pots in the back yard. And sharing rooted slips with our neighbors.
I reminded them gently that vegetables, herbs and most flowering plants grow most productively in full sun and with daily gentle watering. Morning is the best time to water and now many of us can do that because we’re not rushing off to work or taking kids to school in the morning.
So, get up early enjoy the sunrise and give your plants a drink.
As you water, LOOK and observe your plants. Turn over the leaves as you water and search for incipient pests. Rub them off the undersides, shoot with water. If the insect pests are bad, spray with soapy water (one tablespoon per gallon of liquid Dish soap) this smothers and kills sap-sucking insects like aphids, scale, and whiteflies.
Do a slug and snail patrol :
Don’t touch them! Teach your Keiki.
My kolohe neighbor Li’i Pat likes to gleefully salt them or stomp on them and watch their colorful guts come out. BUT this still exposes him and everyone else to Rat lung worm disease (spread by those yucky aliens: slugs, snails and rats)
Not to be mean, but every one of these pests eliminated, and Cleanly disposed of, is good for us and our Hawaiian environment.
My landscape architect and Natural Gardener friend, Brenda Lam has the tools and techniques down, and I add a bit of plastic recycling (if you have plastic, use it more than once and then properly dispose):
Small bucket or jar of salt
Tongs
Chopsticks
Plastic bags
Plastic forks (recycled from your plate lunch)
Sluggo Plus
Sanitation – dispose of them, bagged in the rubbish can.
Patrol early or late and after it rains
Capture, salt, and bag
Trash the salted, jarred slugs, in a plastic bag.
I worry that many will have limited success and give up on food gardening. I have some tricks and hacks to help:
Grow perennials
Grow plants adapted to Hawaii and to Your micro-climate
Buy Keiki starter plants
Full sun
Hose nearby
Daily tending
Observation
Perennial vs Annuals for Hawaii gardens
Daily Slug patrol
What is a perennial
A Long-Lived plant, vs. an annual. Annual plants grow for just one season or one year.
Here in Hawaii some of them don’t follow those rules ! we could just call them “fairly short-lived plants”. But we might as well learn the right Horticultural terminology as we educate ourselves and our ever inquisitive and Akamai keiki!
My friend Ben Kam shared Chaya with me. This must be cooked, boiled for 20 minutes first. It has milky sap, which is a caution for us, but it is super ONO! Before cooking it is high in hydrocyanic acid. Some say you can safely eat up to five leaves raw a day but cooking works for me!
I made an `ulu lasagna, with Chaya “spinach” the other day. Lasagna is my husband Clark’s favorite but HO! Lots of work and dishes! But with Covid 19 quarantine, it is good to practice long slow cooking skills, rather than getting depressed watching TV or online news.
Chaya is also called Tree spinach and scientists call it Cnidoscolus aconitifolius and place it in the Euphorbiaceae plant family.
It is easy to grow stick a big cutting (1/2” wide by 6-12” long into the ground or a big pot and water daily.
Togan or Green long squash. Retired Fire Captain, John Drake grew one and was excitedly asking when to harvest it? You want it not too big or it will be junk, too tough and woody for eating.
One name is Tabugnao according to Gourmet chef and gardener Carol Hasegawa
The Smooth one is Hyotan and the Fuzzy one is Togan according to Corliss Yamasaki
Long green squash
Recipes from Carol Hasegawa 5/28/2020:
Filipino style
Tabugnao Carol Hasegawa
Brown pork (or use roast pork – I like this better) in garlic and little oil till caramelized
Add sliced squash w/a half-cup water
Let steam till squash slightly cooked
Add sliced tomato (gives flavor to dish)
add some shoyu for final flavoring
Simmer till soft to your liking
Japanese style:
Add dried ebi (dry shrimp) in water ( not sure how much you are making but maybe 1 c of water)
Add sliced squash – cook till slightly cooked
Add ¼ c shoyu and 1/8 c sugar
Simmer
Marungay, Kalamungay or Moringa, the Ben tree native to India but now a “new” superfood for all
You can grow it from Seeds, I did this for my Dad when he mentioned that all the great native Hawaiian plants, I was growing were not much good for human food and that Food plants were important to him.
Generally, we grow Kalamungay from Cuttings, Jimmy Lorenzo, my Epic Waianae farmer mentor recommends one-inch cuttings about two feet long. Poke them directly into the ground and water daily.
Once it is growing well, harvest regularly and keep the plants in pick-able reach.
Traditionally we eat this in stews, in soups and so on. As Robin Sunio taught me, add the leaves to your soup at the end. Just a gentle simmer for a minute and they won’t be bitter, and this preserves more nutrients.
The Green juicers discovered Moringa and add it to juices and smoothies. I thought, Yikes! You can’t eat that raw! But you can, the young tender leaves are fine. Ono and nutritious.
You can eat the flowers, leaves, and young seed pods. The root is also edible and tastes like horseradish.
Nobody that I know of in Hawaii has eaten the root, we are too busy growing and eating the other good parts ! But we do love horseradish, so one day I plan to sample some of the roots.
Leaves are valuable for our gardens and for living soil. Akamai farmers of old used and valued leaves to create and maintain good soil. Good soil is “alive” with beneficial microorganisms.
Some people rake up and throw away their leaves. To me, leaves are way better for our gardens than chemical fertilizers.
I consider them to be GOLD for the garden. Do you need some exercise at a safe social distance? GO out and rake up some leaves! Raking is good for your arm muscles.
Its fun for keiki and ohana too, just keep your distance from each other, if anyone has been traveling or exposed at work or school.
What is the best kind of leaves?
Monkeypod
Koa
Fine leaved legumes like Kiawe
`Ulu
Whatever you have!
Nitrogen fixers like monkeypod, koa and kiawe are great. The smaller the leaves, the more surface area, and the more rapidly they decompose, releasing nutrients that are available for plants to uptake and use.
`Ulu or breadfruit leaves make excellent soil building compost and they are so petty too!
Any leaves will work. Bigger leaves like those from Mango, Lychee, mountain apple and Avocado can be cut up or shredded to make them decompose more quickly.
If you grow Anthuriums, these big leaves that don’t break down quickly are useful intact. We grew up using hapu’u, Hawaiian tree fern trunks for Anthuriums and orchid potting medium. But its not sustainable to use hapu`u, it better to let them grow in our gardens and rainforests. SO, a trick I learned from my old Foster Botanical Garden Boss and sensei, Masa Yamauchi: use lychee or mango leaves for potting medium in your anthurium pots.
Cut them up with clippers and soak them in a bucket for a while. If you have a chipper or shredder those make nice fine leaf cuts. You can also run the leaves over with a lawn mower to get them into smaller pieces.
If you trim get your trees trimmed professionally, have them chip the leaves and branches too. This makes excellent mulch and compost. Make sure the chipper has sharp clean blades.
Or mix fine textured and large leaves
I went up to my neighbor Cindy’s and harvested leaves out of her green bin.
She likes a neat yard and does daily raking. And even though she’s my good friend, and a very good tidy gardener, she THROWS THEM AWAY!
Her gardeners (grass cutters) had been there and they dumped a bunch of grass in the bin too. I DON’T want the grass! It might have weedy seeds and has too much nitrogen. So, I had to separate it all and lean down into the bin to get the good leaves. And then the rain and wild winds came too!
All in all, it was quite a workout ! I loaded up the bags, buckets and boxes of leaves and brought them home to my garden.
I had priority plants that I want to give extra nurturing to:
Food plants
Rare Hawaiian banana variety that is struggling
Rare gingers
`Ohi`a lehua
Palapalai ferns
Rare native Hawaiian Hibiscus, koki`o ke`o ke`o, H punaluensis.
I distribute the leaves, and watered them in.
Adding water helps “stick” the leaves in place and starts the decomposition process. With this wild wind I don’t want them blowing all around.
One of our goals for simple sustainability, is a Fruit tree in every yard, even on your apartment lanai. For years Mark and Candy Suiso and their extensive extended ohana, participated in the epic Fruit sharing event known as Mangoes at the Moana.
This was Mark’s simple message for all the ten years we staged this educational and fun, Ono for Mango fruit, local fun foodie event. Remember when every yard had at least one fruit tree, lots of vegetables, all kinds of things for the family to eat and to share?
Share with ohana, gifts for the neighbors, take a generous bag to work, etc.
Kupuna Pua Mendonca of Hawaii island shared some simple wisdom with me at an Aquaponics training conference in Hilo: survival trees to grow are avocado, niu or coconut, and `ulu or breadfruit. Those healthy fats and oils will get you through times of hardship and scarcity.
You’ve heard the scary news that we have one week of food on grocery shelves in Hawaii. Should we get cut off from imports, its handy to have some degree of self-sufficiency.
So, lets grow some survivor supplies in our gardens. I was visiting my great gardener neighbor Joan Takamori and admiring her plush and fruitful garden. She always has something to share and we learn from each other as we talk garden story.
Takamori asked me about a macadamia nut cracker. She had an abundance of macadamias from her mother’s garden.
I laughed, recounting our nutcracker as kids. It was a big pohaku in the dry stack rock wall, that was flat on top and had an almost perfectly sized mac nut puka. We would set in a nut, and hit it “just right” with a small sledge hammer. Sometimes it cracked open perfect, sometimes we smashed too hard and sometime the nut went flying!
This is how I learned (without knowing it) about scarification, a technique to help tough thick shelled seed to germinate and grow. The nuts we nicked that flew down the side sloping yard, were able to grow into seedlings.
Once when we had a cousin swap, I took a big paper bag of macadamia nuts to my Aunty Ruth in California (what a hostess gift, such an elegant bountiful paper bag!)
I told them how we cracked mac nuts at home. But no! Californians have a better plan! And my Uncle Merle was an Engineer. He had a vise in the garage. It was a big thrill for my cousins’ many friends in their neighborhood, to come over and everyone got a turn cracking a nut. (Sort of like Tom Sawyer getting all his pals to paint the fence, I later thought, with a laugh!) Akamai uncle Merle!
My Aunty then roasted the nuts in the oven and covered them with chocolate. Back home we generally just ate them raw.
I told Joan all of this and how my friend Nyna Weisser had researched nut crackers online and found a great one. Not cheap but perfect cracking. Nyna would hand us nuts and the cracker at a party. Fun for all the friends!
Joan Takamori and I also spoke about how macadamia nuts are another tree that more of us should propagate and grow.
They are a pretty tree with deep green ruffly leaves and very pretty and fragrant flower stalks. If you look closely at the flowers you will see that they look like miniatures of one of our favorite modern-day Florist ornamentals: Proteas.
Mac nuts are in the Proteaceae plant family and they are native to Australia.
I asked Joan about where her folks got their macadamia tree. She didn’t remember it being in the yard forever, and She has a theory.
‘My dad did bonsai my mom didn’t drive; she knew how to catch bus everywhere. I think she stole that tree from him and set it free in the yard’ says Takamori.
We never had it growing up. I think mom planted it, maybe about 10-15 years ago. She wanted to see it flower and fruit, although it would’ve made a kewl bonsai. Its now a very fruitful tree. I want to grow more of them, so I’ve been collecting seedlings, from under her tree to grow and share and plant in my current garden.
Mac nuts need to be scarified to germinate. The thick hard shell is nicked or filed down a bit so water can penetrate and activate the embryo of the seed to grow. Plant them in pots with quality potting mix, and water daily, until they get big enough to go into the ground.
You can also buy them already growing. Ask for them at your favorite garden shop. Or for even more fun, call ahead and visit a fruit tree specialty nursery. Buy some mac nut trees to grow and maybe another fruit tree for a friend or neighbor to grow.
Heidi Bornhorst 