Pile of Fruit

September 15, 2005 | In Flora, Food | No Comments

We did our usual shopping at the Kapaa farmer’s market on Wednesday and bought a basket full of fruit. When laid out on the dining room hutch, this is what it looks like:

In the back, from left to right:

• Large papaya from our tree, small papayas from our other tree (under the bananas)
• Santol, a fruit from south-east Asia that we’d never seen before despite all our adventurous eating. Of course we had to try it, so we’re waiting for them to ripen.
• Apple bananas on the stand
• Star fruit also called carambola, under some mountain apples (not real apples)
• Yellow passion fruit, also called maracuya, and delicious atemoya

Front row, left to right:

• Macadamia nuts in the shell
• Egg fruit on top of tomatoes
• Breadfruit
• Ice cream bananas (creamier and sweeter than regular bananas)
• Sugar apple (related to atemoya), mangos on top and avocado from our tree on the bottom (Hardee variety)

None of these fruits are native to Hawaii, but the Polynesians brought the breadfruit (ulu), mountain apple (‘ohi’a ‘ai), and bananas (mai’a) in their canoes. The mountain apple now grows wild in some canyons along the Na Pali coast. You can see bananas in the wild too, but they are probably the descendants of plants cultivated near a settlement, because bananas do not have seeds and only spread by sprouting from the root.

All of the links above are just from Google, but they give you a good overview of the many good tropical fruit web sites. It’s incredible how many different kinds of fruit there are in this world.

Orchids and Bonsai

August 31, 2005 | In Photography, Flora | No Comments

Another cool thing at the “county” fair last weekend was the orchid and bonsai displays. Like the farm animals, fruits, and vegetables, they were also being judged, though I suspect the orchid and bonsai clubs just like to put on a show. I must be getting older and more like my father because when I was a kid, I didn’t care that much for gardens and plant displays, but he would always take us to see them.

Sadly, there was a theft of several bonsai that night from the fair grounds, despite having security guards.

Note - These photos were taken in a tent that gave everything a red hue, so I have color-adjusted them to make them appear as if in normal daylight. You can still tell the lighting isn’t quite normal. As a principle, I do not modify my photos other than to occasionally crop them, though I will sometimes adjust the brightness, contrast, or color not to enhance, but to make it look more normal.