LIHUE — The Office of Hawaiian Affairs has awarded a $7,000 grant to the Breadfruit Institute of the National Tropical Botanical Garden to help support “Breadfruit Festival Takes Root.” The Kaua‘i event — scheduled for Sept. 15 — is being
LIHUE — The Office of Hawaiian Affairs has awarded a $7,000 grant to the Breadfruit Institute of the National Tropical Botanical Garden to help support “Breadfruit Festival Takes Root.”
The Kaua‘i event — scheduled for Sept. 15 — is being planned by the Breadfruit Institute.
“The festival will celebrate the cultural, culinary and horticultural attributes of two of Hawaii’s most important staple food crops — breadfruit and taro,” states a release Monday from NTBG. “Plans for the event include cooking demonstrations, cultural activities, and presentations.”
The Breadfruit Institute, in collaboration with the Hawaii Homegrown Food Network, has already held festivals on other islands as part of the Hooulu Ka Ulu — Revitalizing Breadfruit project.
“I would like to thank the Office of Hawaiian Affairs for recognizing the importance of both breadfruit and taro in Hawaiian culture and for lending its support to our first festival of this kind on Kaua‘i,” Dr. Diane Ragone, director of the institute, said in the release. “We hope that through events such as these, as well as workshops, tree plantings and publications, that there will be a resurgence of breadfruit use in the Islands.”
NTBG’s Breadfruit Institute’s primary conservation collection for breadfruit is located at NTBG’s Kahanu Garden on Maui, with additional plantings in NTBG’s McBryde Garden on Kauai’s south shore.
