Pololu Valley...Camping Trip or Weather Battle?

Pololu Valley is almost at the northern tip of the big island, it is a magical valley where time slows down and dreams come true...you go in one person and come out with new perpectives and hopes. There are multiple valleys in a row starting with Waipio and ending with Pololu...all of which can be hiked to by a long, winding, hiking trail that looks like something in a tropical, botanical garden.
A few blog posts may be required to write about the adventure in its entirety...but

Mike's birthday was April 10th and what better way is there to spend your birthday than in a beautiful valley communing with nature. We stayed from the 9th to the 14th, an excellent amount of time to really learn about the valley and ourselves. The morning of Mike's birthday we got to see an incredible sunrise! We could actually see the sun break over the horizon without any clouds blocking the view...

Most people would have packed it up on the second day because of high speed winds and off and on torrential rains with the odd sunny moments. But we said bring it on!! Our tent was sturdy and unmoved by the weather which is nice because the last one we had might have collapsed under conditions that weren't so forceful.

Some friends of ours showed up on Tuesday for some windy, camping fun. Spirit (literally her legal name) was gifted a six person tent by some people in Hilo...due to the large size of the tent no one else felt it was necessary to bring another tent, except one boy who had a two-three person child's play tent...or at least that's what it looked like. The person that gifted it to her should be kicked in the butt or Spirit should have put the tent up for inspection before carting it all the way to pololu...it was a disaster!!! It didn't heave one of the corners intact for stacking and all the ropes for securing on the outside were broken. When I was setting it up for them all I said was, they might get one use out of this tent...

And of course the wind and rain were really, extra forceful that night. From my tent it sounded like torrential rain and pounding wind (my tent didn't move a muscle).

Next morning we awoke and crawled out of our tent and saw their tent in a devastating heap on the ground. All of their things were soaked and there were two people huddled together under a tree. It looked like they had survived a natural disaster or something. They had all ended up sleeping in the tiny tent and there were 5 people!! Spirit said she stuck with it until it was just about to completely horizont, she finally had to abandon ship...

Unfortunately I don't have pictures of the destroyed tent but I hope I described it enough...here are
some beautiful pictures!

We definitely learned something on this trip, don't trust people with free tents!! Always open and put up a free tent before traveling over a hundred miles to go camping with it and possibly have a plan B...

Feelin a little coco-nuts!

Ever try knockin’ a coconut out of a tree with a rock?

It don't work so good…

In fact, when you do get accurate with a large enough rock to make contact with a green coconut, you end up making a nice thonk while the nut laughs at you, suggesting ‘uh, I ain't about to let go here, bonehead, so give it up.’ Same sentiment applies to the stick and swinging towel methods, with just slightly more derision and mockery from the tree.

So I guess in order to get to that sweet water, looks like a little climbing is necessary.

Ever try climbing a coconut tree sans equipment?

It don't work so good…

In fact, I couldn't do it at all without tearing up my thighs and forearms.

Hmmm...time for a little youtube tutorial…

Found a couple easy ideas pretty quickly…

The simplest was a burlap sack loop wrapped around a bushman's feet while he hopped his way up a massive tree effortlessly like a human inchworm. The burlap provided simple leverage and support along the rough tree surface.

Pretty cool.

Should be easy enough to make…

Okay, no sack to be found here...but some plastic shade cloth should do the trick.

And I also found a heavy woven cotton strap that might be useful as a support system for the hands…

Cool, let's rock!

We rolled into Hilo on Tuesday to do some community service singing at a couple old folks homes (one of our weekly rituals) and during our lunch break, a nut-filled tree on the beach seemed to call my name…’hey freak’, it said, ‘come risk your neck for a chance at drinking my sweet sweet nutty water, if ya got da guts’...

I got da guts!

Game on baby!

Okay...shoes off...plastic shade cloth in place...let’s do it!

The early scoreboard? Coconut tree: 1, Mike: 0

The shade cloth sucked. A little too slick, and tied a little too wide. All I had left was that thin band.

Worth a shot at least…

Tied a stirrup for one foot, and extended it back to the other with another knot securing it…

Round 2…

Hop, hop, hop…

Bloody thing works like a charm!

With a pocket knife in hand, and a quick sawing motion, all of a sudden it was raining coconuts!

Woohoo!

Michelle caught the action shot of the first bunch falling to the ground.

Sweet!

We ended up with six, leaving the rest of the seeds to naturally run their growth course…

Be responsible for what you take, don't be greedy, and you can live in harmony with nature forever...some good advice.

Not sure who said that, though…

Oh yeah, ‘twas me:-)

We macheted open a couple of the young stones for a smoothie dinner of banana and papaya in coconut water, and weren't disappointed. Sweet and delicious!

Climbing a coconut tree was another awesome first, and looking forward to climbing another one.

Don't foresee getting bored of drinking coconut water anytime soon…

In fact, I'm craving some of that yummy water right now.

Excuse me while I go wake up Michelle to see if she's up for a little midnight tree climbing;-)

Mike

IT'S A BOY!!

It's tough to believe we've been living on a fruit farm for as long as we have without asking anyone about the availability of jackfruit in the area...when one day we did just that...to which the response was, ‘we have a jackfruit tree right there…’ (insert jaw-dropping face here)

What is jackfruit some may ask?

Only the largest, most delicious treefruit known to man, that’s all. Michelle and I found good ol’ jack in an Asian market in Toronto. Not sure what record weight has been recorded to date, but we saw one at market in excess of 30 pounds...not too shabby for a hanging fruit…

There was one lonely jackfruit hanging all this time right under our very noses! Yeehaw!

The tip on ripeness came down to when it began to share its heavenly aroma...it wasn't quite there, but we were ecstatic nonetheless.

A few weeks of patient waiting ensued, and finally the magical day arrived...and not a second too soon! As I walked to the tree in preparation for harvest, and yelled out ‘rats’, Michelle had no idea how literal I was being. Seems another smaller critter got a hankerin’ for that juicy fruit goodness during the night, and bored out a couple fruit pockets. Damn rats with excellent taste in fruit!! (insert crazy old man shaking fists in anger graphic here…)

The fruit flies were amassin’ too. No time to waste! A quick surgical slice, and little jack was free to rush down to the intensive care of my cutting board.

Oh the aroma!!

A quick quartering of precious jack revealed a massive treasure trove of seed filled fruit pods, each soft and ripe to a degree we've never come close to witnessing.

The jackfruit we've found at market have been tasty, but many times a bit tough or stringy. The ends of these fresh pods quite literally melted in the mouth. Spectacular! And so much of it!

We ended up filling a large, and I do mean LARGE, stainless steel bown full of fruit. Enough for days of sharing with the others here at the farm. A small batch for Mikey frozen and stashed in the freezer, and the jackfruit experience was complete. Jackfruit is quite excellent no matter how you find it, whether fresh, frozen, or dried, but if you truly feel the need to be alive, I highly recommend the tree ripened jackfruit experience. One more kickass gift from God and mother nature. Thanks to both!

Rock on!

Mike

Ulu-la-la

Yeah, we continue to be swamped with endless jobs around the farm, leaving us with too little time for blogging...but this post has been long overdue...it regards the greatest discovery we’ve made so far...possible the greatest fruit now in our arsenal of awareness…

Enter the breadfruit!

From this point on known as ulu…North Americans have probably never heard of ulu, let alone tasted it, unless they have some family or relations near the tropics.

Michelle and I found it once in Toronto at an asian market, and tried it raw. Wow, it sucked. We later on found out that the natives cook the hard fruit in one of many ways before eating. Apparently it is used as a potato-type starchy vegetable when cooked.

Sounded lame to us…

We finally came across it again here and weren't all that excited about it, until we realised that people were cooking the fruit while it was in its unripe state, which begged the question ‘what does a fully tree-ripened ulu taste like?’

A quick search of the internet uncovered one person's description claiming ripe ulu is like ‘a cross between durian and jackfruit’. A cross between durian and jackfruit??!!! Are you freakin’ kidding me??? Possibly our two most favorite fruits combined, mixed into one heavenly package? Surely you jest!

If you are fruity naive, let me give you a quick rundown on durian and jackfruit...jackfuit, which you will meet firsthand in the next blog, is the inspirational taste for juciy fruit gum. Get your skis shined up, motherfucker. Durian is custard-like sweet filling found in a massively spiny coconut-like ball of awesomeness. Some people find the ripe smell of a durian repulsive, but those people a smell-impaired pinheads with no sense of appreciation for God's little slices of heaven raining down on us from the trees above. A perfectly ripe durian is a desserty treat unlike any fruit you've ever tried…I highly recommend…

Anyhoo...these are some big boots to fill...and our quest to find a ripe ulu began…

Enter the farmer’s market…

While perusing the local goods during the weekly Sunday event, our neighbours from a local farm apparently heard the word of our quest for the perfect ulu, and gave us a couple to try...cha-ching! Phase one complete...acquire ulu! Our first acquisition did not provide us a tree-ripened fruit, but it was a start nonetheless. We decided to let one ripen, and do some cooking experiments with the other one..

Enter the mad scientists…

Hmmm…ulu french fries?? Ulu pancakes? Ulu hashbrowns? Let's try it all!

We baked the ulu for an hour, and cut sections to try for each.

Shredded ulu for pancakes and hashbrowns, sliced ulu for frying in some coconut oil…

Ulu fries? Kickass!!!

Ulu hashbrowns? Yes!!

Ulu pancakes?...not quite there yet...more on that one later…

Hmmm...cooked ulu is actually pretty cool after all! If you're not a stickler for the raw fruity diet, ulu gives you some amazing options to still have all the joys of a root vegetable, but in a glorious fruit form that hangs lovingly from a tree, offered freely by the plant, instead of having to be slaughtered like the poor unfortunate tuber.

If one were so bold, I'd be willing to wager a fully deep fried ulu is superior to the spud. It's nice to have a fruity option to continue one’s love affair with the french fry...and with a little tomato-avocado/cider vinegar concoction on the side fer dippin’, the fruity extravaganza was complete!

So far ulu has rocked our world!

Enter the ripened ulu…

After waiting a few short days, our ulu began to soften rapidly. It became a sack of mush. Time to sample! Our conclusion?

The soft gooey innards of the magnificent ulu had lived up to the hype! Awesome! And this wasn’t even fully tree ripened. Imagine when fed fully with all the sugars from the tree! Joy overload!

We collected as many ulu as we could from neighbouring farms and found some in the wild.

Discussing ulu at market, a gentleman suggested using the ripe ulu as a base for pancakes, not the hard stuff. Brilliant!

And thicken with what? What else, ulu flour! Woohoo!

We tried it the next time we got hold of a ripe ulu, and the pancakes didn't disappoint.

Ulu...superfood of the new millennium?? My vote is yesssss!!!!

Awesome in smoothies too!

If every second person had an ulu tree in their front yard, the sham of world hunger would be eradicated.

Nature provides it all for us...offering freely from the arms of the loving trees without any need for the killing of any animal or plant.

Ulu, you rock!!

Mele Kalikimaka!

Mele Kalikimaka!

This is my favourite Christmas song and has been since I was little, now I am finally in Hawaii and I get to say it. It's a little dream come true, might be lame but it makes me happy.

Merry Christmas, hope your day is filled happiness and love!

Pirates of the Pacific

After a day of heavy weeding at a neighbouring organic farm, helping them prepare for market, we took a little trip to the ocean. Michelle posted some images in the last entry, but let me tell you about the magic of the place. The feel was something out of a Hollywood shlocky pirate movie. We found ourselves standing atop 50 foot cliffs with giant waves crashing in on the rocks below...it was truly a jaw dropping experience! The smell of the salt water mist is something I will never tire of…neither did I seem to tire of exclaiming ‘wow!’ or ‘awesome!’ every time a massive wave crashed on the shore.

There was a rock grouping that jutted out into the water that was climbable to take one out to a lava tower sitting on the ocean. Standing atop that rocky peak was like standing on the bow of a giant ship sailing freely over the powerful and awe-inspiring ocean, invoking feelings of respect and humility for the energies at hand, but stirring that need in the human soul to pursue the exhilaration of adventuring freely into the unknown...my crappy words can't convey the sense of liberation held in that moment on the rocks...the energy of the crashing waves exploding against the cliffs, and the gleam of the near-setting sun reflecting off the water is something that every human should experience once before leaving this fascinating realm.

I’ll never tire of sitting along a coast and watching massive rolling waves crest in...generated from untold energies somewhere on a massive globe of endless wonder and possibility….awesome!!!

And on a site note, we found a wild papaya tree in that same area...Michelle got up on my shoulders, and was just able to reach the ripe bottom fruits. It was an unpollinated tree...the papaya had no seeds! But sweet and yummy nonetheless. Further down the way, my we found several wild noni trees.

Noni is a pungent white fruit that has been used medicinally here for ages. Mainstream health stores carry the juice. I've been collecting noni and fermenting it in the traditional Hawaiian way - stuff em in a jar, and leave em in the sun...works like a charm! The juice seeps out rather quickly once a ripe noni has been plucked from the tree. They become translucent within hours of being in the sun, and begin giving off a smell much like ‘ripe’ blue cheese! Definitely not the fruit for marketing to the holiday crowd...but I love it! Morning ritual has become drinking a couple ounces before going running and watching the sun rise (although it's cloudy most mornings due to being on the rainy side of the island). I will get a picture of the sun rising over the ocean at some point...

My morning runs have also become my morning fruit collecting adventure. Each day I pass heavy fruiting lilikoi vines (yellow passion fruit) and collect whatever has fallen onto the road during the night...the juice from these babies will make you wonder why you ever spent a lifetime shovelling snow and eating food that's been picked unripe and shipped a thousand miles on a truck...lilikoi rocks!
Came home with a coconut 2 days ago, and a wild avocado yesterday...
Gotta go now, time for a morning run...
Will tell you all about the discovery of breadfruit and the joys of macheteing coconuts tomorrow...
Live big!!!
Mike

New Help Exchangers...

One week ago four Chinese girls arrived at the farm and will be staying here for 2 weeks. They came to try to learn to speak English more fluently and to experience Hawaii...

Needless to say, there is always the sound of giggling and excitment...and a lot of repeating words, you don't realize how silly squash sounds until you've said it about 30 times. I've been doing a lot of spelling out words and repeating syllables, at least I know where my vocabulary has gotten lazy. Another issue is using slang and teaching them incorrect English...gotta be careful.
Here's a picture of three of the girls sitting on the rock...

They are really nice girls and I've connected with them a bit, I enjoy hanging out with them. They think Mike is funny because he always hunts for fruit and carries his travel spoon and fruit knife for whenever he find some free tropical fruit...he is always prepared! Today I stood on his shoulders to pick a papaya in a park, it was very fun. Here's a pic of the park with the ocean cliff that we went to...didn't think to get a pic of the papaya harvesting but I'm sure this will do...

We're getting ready for Christmas here, they have a huge celebration on Christmas Day and about 200 people show up for it...should be crazy! It's also weird not to have snow...or cold weather to make it seem like winter. Feels like summer but it is getting a wee bit chilly here...got down to 72 degrees the other day and I had to wear long pants!

Tootles

Michelle