KAPA‘A — Bales of hay lined with pumpkins of assorted sizes and garnished with helpings of wheat, colorful gourds, maple leaves and a smattering of Halloween icons greet customers at Esaki’s Produce in Kapa‘a. “People are buying early this year,”
KAPA‘A — Bales of hay lined with pumpkins of assorted sizes and garnished with helpings of wheat, colorful gourds, maple leaves and a smattering of Halloween icons greet customers at Esaki’s Produce in Kapa‘a.
“People are buying early this year,” said Earl Kashiwagi, the manager at Esaki’s. “We’re getting into the atmosphere of the season.”
Halloween marks the start of a brisk business season for the wholesale produce distributor as a string of holidays quickly follow.
Thanksgiving utilizes some of the fall-oriented items from Halloween, and on the heels of that culinary-oriented holiday comes Christmas and New Year’s, both heavily oriented toward culinary arts and dining.
“The pumpkins don’t grow as productive here, so we import all of these,” Kashiwagi said. “They are not really pumpkins, but squashes. We grow squashes, but these types just don’t do well here.”
Kashiwagi said people who carve jack-o-lanterns don’t realize they’re working with squashes.
“We have the Jaradale pumpkins, which chefs use for making pumpkin pies because of its flavor and deep rich color,” Kashiwagi said. “The true pumpkins which are grown locally are the kabocha, which can be found at the farmers markets. They were brought here from Asia and other parts of the Pacific.”
The pumpkin jack-o-lantern was adopted by immigrants who arrived in America in the 1800s during the Irish Potato Famine, bringing with them the traditions of Halloween and the use of jack-o-lanterns, states the Answers.com website.
Traditionally, these lanterns represented the souls of the departed loved ones and were placed in windows or set on porches to welcome the deceased, also serving as protection against malevolent spirits or goblins freed from the dead.
These lanterns were carved from turnips, potatoes or beets and lit with a burning lump of coal or a candle.
However, turnips were not readily available in America so the pumpkin was used and found to be an adequate replacement, becoming part of Halloween celebrations in America. Kashiwagi noted there are very few Halloween celebrations south of the equator because of the reversal of seasons.
The jack-o-lantern protects people from Jack, an Irishman known for his drunken meanness on All Hallows Eve, the belief being Jack would take the light instead of bothering anyone.
Legend has it Jack got so intoxicated on a Halloween that his soul started to leave his body. The Devil saw an opportunity to claim a victim, but Jack begged the Devil for one last drink. Jack tricked the Devil into turning himself into a sixpence to pay for the tab, which Jack put it in his wallet with a cross-shaped catch.
In an effort to be released, the Devil made a deal to leave Jack alone for a year. Following the year, the Devil returned on All Hallows Eve to claim Jack’s soul, only to be tricked by the Irishman again.
A victim of drink, Jack passed but was turned away at the gates of Heaven because of his meanness. The Devil refused him at the gates of hell, throwing him a burning lump of coal from hell which Jack put inside a turnip, becoming known as Jack’s light on his eternal wanderings.
“There are actually jack-o-lantern pumpkins which are available,” Kashiwagi said. “They are meant for carving and have a thinner outer shell. But we stay with these which are reasonably priced.”
Kashiwagi said Esaki’s Produce also gets into the atmosphere of the season, offering its employees pumpkins to carve and judged by its management.
“The whole atmosphere of the place is because Carol Gibson is so creative,” Kashiwagi said. “We buy other people’s rubbish (hay bales, maple leaves) and she turns it into a holiday setting.”
He added that employees who are new to the island always are impressed with the decorations in the employee lunch area.
“They always look around and comment about how it’s like eating in a picture book,” he said.
He said trying to preserve the atmosphere of a season is one of the hardest things he has to do.
“The chefs and hotel people can do amazing things if they get into the spirit of the season,” he said. “This is the hardest part — to get people into the spirit.”
• Dennis Fujimoto, photographer and staff writer, can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 253) or dfujimoto@ thegardenisland.com.
