Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 14, Number 10, 1 October 1997 — The Food of Our Ancestors: Taro [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

The Food of Our Ancestors: Taro

By C I a i.r e Hughes, Nutritionist Hawai'i Department Of Healtb

Research for the 1 987 Moloka'i DietStudy

revealed that our ancestors diet was about 80 percent vegetables, mostly taro, sweet potatoes, yams and breadfruit. Today, our average daily intake is only 40 percent vegetables. White rice, introduced by Chinese and Japanese immigrants, has replaced taro and sweet potato in the diet of most Hawaiians. Adopting the dietary practices of our ancestors ean make a difference in the health of all Hawaiians. Our ancestral diet included large quantities of green vegetables and limu, foods most often neglected nowadāys. Lū'au and palula (sweet potato leaves), pōpolo, pakai, kikaweo, 'āweoweo and other herbs were bhndled into a large ti-wrapped pū'olo and steamed in the imu for daily meals. Hō'i'o and Iimu were other favorite foods. As mentioned in last month's eolumn, banana, mountain apples and berries were the only native fruits. lf we wanted to recreate our ancestors' dietary patterns, our plates would be more than three quarters full of starchy vegetables and cooked greens, with about 3 ounces of fish and perhaps 'opihi or other oeean delicacies. Eating vegetables, particularly the green leafy types, protects against illnesses that elaim many Hawaiians' lives eaeh year, mainly heart conditions and cancer. Taro, the mainstay of the Hawaiian diet, is a kinolau of Kāne, the male, the giver of life, the healer, the source of fresh water. The literature consistently states that taro was the preferred staple of the Hawaiian diet. Poi was a favorite of Hawaiians, but not of other Polynesians. In Hawai'i, water was readily available and the soil was rich and fertile. This allowed Hawaiians to perfect the skill of growing taro. Being highly skilled agriculturists and botanists, they developed many new varieties of taro from the

two dozen or so they brought with them during the first migration.

Kamakau identified several vaneties of taro whieh were preferred by ka po'e kahiko. Charles Kenn lists additional indigenous varieties: apuwai, haoka, kai, mana, hāpu'upu'u, ipu-o-Lono, lauloa, māhaha, lehua, pi'iali'i, poni, kumu, maka'ōpio, uahiopele, lola, maua, apowale, 'elepaio, mākohi, mākoko, piko, nāwao, kuoho, ualehu, heualehu, kanio, manini and mamanuea. Sadly, only a few of these taro varieties are still known. In " The Works ofthe People ofOld," Kamakau describes the process of making a lo'i, whieh could take several months, to a year. First, the ground was flooded and soaked. Embankments were then made by digging down 3 or4 feet inside the lo'i, piling the soil onto the surrounding embankment and packing its base, creating sides about 6 feet high. Next, dried hala leaves were beaten into the base of the embankment until they disappeared, then coconut leaves. Finally, large fīat stones were pounded into the lo'i floor, creating a firm base. The lo'i was again flooded with water and "treading" was done to assure a firm base so the water would not soak into the soil. Treading was a festive occasion with food and fun. Everyone mrned out - men, women, children, chiefs and chiefesses. They trampled the base of the lo'i with their feet, stirring the mud. while dancing, shouting and rejoicing. The next day, after the mud had settled to the bottom of the lo'i, the men planted the taro. Banana, sugar eane and ti, or ti, were planted on the banks of the lo'i to hold the soil, and the reddish-brown water of the lo'i was stocked with fish, like awa, pua'ama'ama, 'o'opu and āholehole. All the ingredients for a healthy diet were thus readily available. ■

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