Institute promotes ulu for food, reforestation PO‘IPU — Sunday marked the first appearance of The Breadfruit Institute at the annual Christmas in the Gardens event at the National Tropical Botanical Gardens on the South Shore, said Nani Kaluna of NTBG.
Institute promotes ulu for food, reforestation
PO‘IPU — Sunday marked the first appearance of The Breadfruit Institute at the annual Christmas in the Gardens event at the National Tropical Botanical Gardens on the South Shore, said Nani Kaluna of NTBG.
“This is the first year breadfruit trees are available for farmers, nurseries and people who have been on wait lists,” said Ian Cole of The Breadfruit Institute.
The Breadfruit Institute at NTBG in Hawai‘i was founded in 2002 with a mission to promote the conservation and use of breadfruit for food and reforestation.
Cole said propagation of new breadfruit trees had been limited, but through research the institute is now able to supply quantities to satisfy the demand statewide.
“This is the first time The Breadfruit Institute has been part of the Christmas in the Gardens,” Kaluna said. “We plan to utilize them in our other upcoming events.”
The Breadfruit Institute is working on a bigger release of trees in May, Cole said. On Sunday he sold out of all the ulu, or breadfruit, trees he brought over from Maui.
Cole spent the day discussing the various aspects of ulu, including the institute’s initiative to respond to critical global food security issues by expanding plantings of good quality breadfruit varieties in tropical regions.
He said the variety being sold was the ma‘afala variety, which does not grow tall and can be managed effectively through pruning.
Kaluna said in addition to the institute, there were 33 craft vendors, five food vendors, three masseuses, an activity station manned by students from Kawaikini Charter School and a booth of hand-crafted items offered by the NTBG volunteers.
Lisa Moke and Susan Allyn of Savage Shrimp were repeat vendors and said they are in the process of getting a permanent spot at Kukui‘ula Village.
All of this was tied together by the continuous offering of entertainment with award-winning slack-key artist Paul Togioka waking the sun. Others included harpist Anela Lauren, Dr. Matthew Miller, Bernard Almeida and Tsunami Taiko, who closed the day’s events.
• Dennis Fujimoto, photographer and staff writer, can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 253) or dfujimoto@kauaipubco.com.
