Na Mahi `Ai - The Farmers

Coffee farming is a long-standing tradition on the slopes of Kona's Mt. Hualalai. Before Jeeps became the pack animal of choice, most farm families kept "Kona Nightingales," named for their "sweet" singing at dusk. This engaging pair is from Leilehua Yuen's line of "Historic Hawai`i" hand silkscreened greeting cards. For more information contact Yuen Media Services: yuen@ilhawaii.net.

     Hawaiian agriculture impressed the early European explorers with its quantity and quality. Breadfruit orchards, taro fields, and other crops lay in well ordered plantings extending up the slopes of the islands.
     Regulated by their religious calendar, the Hawaiians kept to a strict schedule of planting and harvesting. Kapu and custom were followed to insure a fruitful harvest. The entire process was accompanied by prayer.
     Some of the agricultural plants, such as breadfruit and taro, were considered forms of a god or ancestor. These beings had transformed themselves during times of famine, providing their followers with food at the expense of ending their own earthly lives. Thus, the growing and eating of food must be done with respect for their sacrifice. The mahi`ai, or farmer, had to be knowledgable in both the ways of growing plants and the ways of the gods.
     With the loss of the old religion, enforcement of the agricultural kapu also ended. When Hawai`i moved from the traditional diversified agriculture of the Hawaiians to a plantation economy, many of the ancient practices were lost. Without nurturing and propagation, many unique varieties of valuable food plants died out, leaving a dietary vacuum which was filled with foreign foods.
     Today, Hawai`i is moving from the single crop plantation economy back to diversified agriculture. Old management practices, updated for new crop varieties and marketing needs, are coming back into use.
     The University of Hawai`i Agriculture department is continually developing new strains of crops adapted for growth in the tropics. The results of this research can be found in the farmers' markets and roadside stands scattered about rural Hawai`i. The tightly sheathed ears of Manoa Supersweet corn are an example of a temperate crop which has been selectively bred to produce a tropical strain. Taro, at one time the most honored of Hawaii's crops, fell into disfavor over the years. Its paddies were termed "swamps" and filled for condominiums and other development. The ancient staple is enjoying a comeback. Whole families are returning to taro cultivation, and production has even reached the point where Hawai`i is exporting a limited amount.
     The modern mahi`ai may use computers instead of priests to determine planting schedules, but they are again teaching their children the value of aloha `aina, love for the land.