Haleiwa Taro Festival
For those of you who had asked what an open Market is. It’s any large lot that is set aside to sell food and or crafts on a specific day. In the case of the Haleiwa Taro Festival it was combined with the Open Market.
Haleiwa is on the north shore of the island of Oahu. It is a small town with coffee shops, unique shopping and where all the surfers like to stay. For me it is a get away from town and a little bit of country. I do the vast majority of my blogs about this area.
These are some of the things that went on at the festival. I will divide this blog into about 4 parts so that I can show you what I saw the day I visited the market/festival.
Hawaiian Taro
These are the first entries into the Taro contest. Which I understand were small for a contest.
Here in Hawaii Taro is made into Poi. It used to be a staple on everyone’s table years back in the islands but now poi has become very expensive. It is a labor intensive crop that used to be grown by families but not many do it anymore.
Taro root or corm
This corm is steamed and pounded into poi. I did not eat this when I first came to the islands. People who did not know better would say it tasted like paste so I believed them. Now I realize that though it is bland in someways it is delicious if you can get it fresh. That is rare.
Wood ready to be shaped into a poi pounding boardThe Hawaiian shaped the poi board with a stone adze.
This is how they carved out the poi board with a stone adze.
These are the finished poi boards
This is a well used poi board
While at the festival there were a couple of young men in Malos (loin cloth) pounding poi. But I was not about to pay $5.00 to take their photos. One day I will go through my archive of photos to show what it looks like to pound poi.
