“I’ve been coming to poi day since 2001, “ his eyes crinkled in a smile as he fiddled with his fishing net, “I like to come meet people and talk story.” Charlie said.

‘Uncle’ Charlie was one of many old timers I met who showed up every Thursday to make poi as part of a tight knit ohana (family in Hawaiian) at Waipa ahupua‘a.  However the 84 year old seemed much more interested in showing off his fishing net skills rather than making poi, but his son was working hard at ensuring the poi was processed and more than doing the work of two people. Charlie’s son wasn’t alone, I looked around and saw a mix of Hawaiian old timers, young men, middle age women, and a smattering of twenty-something students. The crowd of poi makers were made up of local people from Kauai and a few mainland part time residents.

And then there was me, a visiting tourist looking for unique experiences in Hawaii; I definitely found it.

What is Poi?

Poi is a Hawaiian dish made from the fermented root of the taro plant, which has been baked and pounded to a paste. It sort of looks like a purple, sticky taffy – but it tastes more like a bland paste. Fresh poi is slightly sweet and edible all by itself. Each day thereafter the poi loses sweetness and turns slightly sour, due to a natural fermentation. According to the old timers I spoke to, the more it sits and sours, the better it is. Hawaiians often eat it with meats and fish.

This is a unique food to Hawaii only – you won’t find it anywhere else. However, the average age of taro farmer is 60, the farming of taro is literally dying off and it’s not showing signs of expanding. The development of these new community distribution networks will provide a potentially exportable model of local food distribution that will become increasingly important as the cost of shipping food continues to rise nationwide. Through educational opportunities and entrepreneurial training that utilize expanded gardens and the new facilities, the project will increase community-based, family-based farming, distribution, and consumption of healthy, locally grown foods, and improve skill levels of low-income children, youth, and families in these areas.

Waipa Foundation

The goal of Waipa Foundation is cultural preservation. It’s been around since 1982 and has a nonprofit status. It exists to sustain cultural food and farming heritage in the area. Specifically this centers around taro and the ahupua`a (native Hawaiian land divisions) as an example of healthy interdependent relationships between people and earth’s natural resources. Poi making is just one of their programs. The Foundation works with local taro farmers who produce the purple root plant, and purchase it from them at competitive rates. They then turn around and make poi thanks to the help of volunteers every Thursday and then distribute it out across the island to locals at cost; keeping the poi heritage alive. The foundation also participates actively in the local farmer’s markets and they hold school programs and various lectures for the community.

Waipa is able to put forth these efforts because it’s funded by the King Kamehameha Foundation (similar to another Hawaii farm I recently wrote about on Oahu )

The Poi Day Process

continue to remaining article here: http://www.ottsworld.com/blogs/unique-experiences-in-hawaii-kauai-food/ 

Sherry Ott is a travel writer and digital nomad. She left her corporate job in 2006 to see the world and now she manages two successful travel sites, Meet, Plan, Go and Ott’s World.