Haleiwa Taro Festival and Open Market

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.

 

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