# Marrow of History: Pumpkin crop as strategy in Hawaii's Agro-food System Development ## Abstract This research examines the historical role of pumpkin as a strategy in Hawaii's agro-food system development over the past 250 years. Drawing from Follow-the-Thing and microhistory methodologies, the paper offers a unique perspective on the changing dynamics of food system development in Hawaii after western contact. By tracing the role of pumpkin in a singular place over time, the paper uses this lesser crop as a lens to understand the changing perspectives and strategies of food system actors navigating a shifting economic landscape. The paper examines the timeline of pumpkin in Hawaii, from its seeding by colonial exploration to its modern-day resurgence in popularity. Overall, the paper demonstrates the power of small stories and objects like the pumpkin to frame the paradigm of eras and narrate complex historical developments. By examining the history of pumpkin in Hawaii, this paper provides valuable insights into the changing dynamics of Hawaii's agro-food system development and the strategies employed by food system actors over time. ## Crop in/as Agrarian Strategy ## Abstract In reviewing nearly 250 years of pumpkin in Hawaii the crop emerges as a strategy of sorts, considered here as a facet through which to explore food systems actions and actors over time.Pumpkins in Hawaii have a unique and fascinating history. As an approach, this compilation works to frame agrarian change through a crop as context. Drawing from Follow-the-Thing and micro history as methodologies, this compilation endeavors to tell the story of food system development in the Hawaiian islands after western contact in the late 18th century. While pumpkin as a crop has had a limited role in Hawaiis food system development, parsing the varied roles it has fulfilled within the strategy of manifold food system actors over time offers a mechanism to articulate the history of Hawaii’s agro-food system development. To wit, the minor role of the crop enables a history to be told that focuses less on the dominant crop development more commonly shared. Sugarcane, pineapple, and diversified crops have been primary foci of myriad histories of agriculture in the islands. The pumpkin however, by dint of its position as a background actant, offers a means to understand how Hawaii’s food system has been restructured through integration with increasingly global trade. In collating and reviewing the history the pumpkin in the islands this chapter will demonstrate how, over time, the draw of shifting markets has shaped the dynamics of foodways in Hawaii. The pumpkin through this lens can be considered then as a tool wielded by various and often competing actors navigating a shifting economic landscape. ## Literature Review I will explore assemblage theory [@deleuze.guattari_1987], actor-network theory [@latour_2013], food regimes [@mcmichael_1997; @bernstein_2006], with resilience theory [@holling_1973] @dwiartama.etal_2016 explores food systems as assemblages, rice @levelly.dufeu_2016 explore AFNs as market assemblages. case of rice @friedmann.mcmichael_1989 on global food regimes @latour_2013 on ANT @law_1992 on ANT @busch.juska_1997 on ANT and global agriculture @goodman_1999 on overcoming nature/society dichotomy in agro-food studies with ANT @dwiartama.rosin_2014 further assesses resilience thinking compatibility with actor-network-theory @dwiartama_2014 on melding food regimes and ANT to understand how the global food regimes work was used to assess local system development. Cases of New Zealand's kiwi industry and rice in Indonesia. @dwiartama_2017 on resilience and transformation as ongoing processes of negotiation between actors, both human and non-human. Case of disease in NZ kiwi @ona-serrano.viteri-salazar_2020 on ANT and food Leave out these? @darnhofer.etal_2010 on farm scale resilience @darnhofer_2020 conceptualizing farming in relational terms @comi_2020 how precision ag makes 'distributed farmers': assemblages of human and material actants making decisions and enacting farming @lendvay_2021 on More-than-human agency and the transforming rural assemblage. Case of watermelon @contesse.etal_2021 on non-human agency in sustainability transitions @elton_2023 on plant agency in pandemic global foodways cropscapes offer a methodological historical lens, drawing from mobility @bray.etal_2019 on cropscapes @bray.etal_2023 on elaborate on cropscapes and scales of history @bastos_2020 on plantation as cropscape in Hawaii @marcus_1995 on multi-site ethnography (precursor to follow the thing) @cook_2004 on follow the thing. Papaya, includes Hawaii @herrero.etal_2015 draws from ethnographic follow (ie @marcus_1995 & @cook_2004) and ANT (ie @latour_2013) and provide guidelines for the development of multi-sited cartographies of agri/cultures Maybe @deroest.etal_2018 do a nice job contrasting the development specialized farms with economies of scale at the cost of diverse farms with economies of scope. This might be helpful to use when talking about agrofood system development in Hawaii over time, and also to nod towards where we might want to head. Finally, @mcgowran.donovan_2021 on disaster risk management assemblage ###### old notes the method of follow-the-thing (Marcus 1995) >mapping commodity networks that connect people in vastly different and distant locations. >This strategy extends efforts of scholars inspired by world systems theory to document the flow of natural resources from colonies to metropoles. Recent studies focus, however, not on raw materials but, rather, on everyday consumer goods from apparel and footwear to flowers and, especially, food. @dwiartama.rosin_2014 on mixing resilience theory and ANT @bray.etal_2019 on history and 'cropscapes' @bastos_2020 on plantation in Hawaii? ## Methodology The Follow-the-Thing method, framed by @marcus_1995, termed and popularized by @cook_2004, draws from world systems theory and ethnographic methods to articulate the temporal lifecycle of production, processing, distribution, and consumption of a commodity across space. Often focused on quotidian consumables (papaya [@cook_2004], OTHER CITATION), the method operates as a multi-site ethnography within a static, often modern, timeframe tracing a crop or good across space. As a variant on this approach, this chapter instead traces the role of a crop in a singular place over time. Serving as a site from which to demonstrate the changing dynamics experienced and narratives employed by food system actors over time, this singular crop becomes a mechanism to detail the multiple means of navigating rapidly evolving social, economic, and ecological landscapes. In detailing the history of the pumpkin in Hawaii, this chapter serves to set a context from which the subsequent analysis of shifting risk, resilience strategies, and food emergency governance will unfold. In lieu of a sweeping history of food system development in the islands, the chapter sets seed to understand the ground from which a growth of actors and perspectives in food crisis operate. Further, this chapter endeavors to explore a novel method to frame the historical development of a regional food system as in integrates with global forces. Through detailing a crop as micro-history this chapter follows a thing through time to highlight and delineate critical junctures in Hawaii’s agrofood system development. Over the course of two and a half centuries the pumpkin… FtT data: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/anti.12596 FtT overview: http://aspect.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Stephanie-Sodero-A4-Guide.pdf ### Towards Analytical Approaches (Anew?) While thinking about pumpkin as strategy in food system development (see [[Pumpkin in Hawaii - Research Notes]]) I stumbled across a [twitter query about micro histories](https://twitter.com/ParisNoire/status/1584164165643403264). Unfamiliar with the term I threaded through and that led to a [course (and to some degree topic) overview](https://manyheadedmonster.com/2020/07/20/teaching-microhistory-small-things-big-questions-and-a-global-pandemic/). Microhistory engages small stories and persons (vs say paeans to the good and the great) to frame the paradigm or world of the time, often in ways that challenge existing historical narratives. This reading led into other realms like '[global microhistories](https://academic.oup.com/past/article-abstract/222/1/51/1505605?redirectedFrom=fulltext&login=false)' and 'object biographies'. The latter of which calls to mind talking/speaking objects which I find conceptually fascinating and ever something I'd like to work with. Part of the power of talking objects must come in part from the *power to name*, which circles us [back to microhistories](https://manyheadedmonster.com/2013/01/14/microhistory-subjects-sources-anti-fascists-and-adam/) with > if we want to find a definition we also need to ask a question: Who decides what is and isn’t ‘proper microhistory’? ==The power to name things is a very great power indeed, one traditionally reserved for deities and patriarchs==. It feels like part of the katabasis of doctoral work to emerge with a conferred power to name. Conferred by institution, committee, and peers. The power to name intrigues here because I've been considering the titling and approach of this work to parse a detailed singular history in a single place over a *long-duree* time period. ### Pumpkin as strategy in food system development The phrasing of "pumpkin as strategy in food system development" in a way gets at actor-network theory, but in this work I consider the pumpkin less as an actant and more as a site, a vessel through which worlding and lifeways are manifest. Of particular interest is how this changes over time and across settings and actors within Hawaii. Similar to the follow-the-thing method, but distinct in that it is following the thing (pumpkins) not through a snapshot of material culture, but through multiple material cultures as they thread together within shifting contexts to try and tell the story of the world around it. In this way my approach hopes to draw from microhistory via small object as embodiment of context; follow-the thing via parsing object in material culture); and conceivably even a bit of '[vibrant matter](https://www.dukeupress.edu/vibrant-matter)' via biophysical agency of object in structuring capitalist arrangements). This last idea, biophysical facets shaping capitalist arrangements is in the vein of TERM FOR THE IDEA ( a la @boyd.watts_2013, hard tomatoes hard times?CITATIONS?? ). This is demonstrated elsewhere in Hawaii's agrofood system through commercial production of seed corn, queen bees, seed potatoes, and aquacultural seedstock (clam, oysters), broodstock (shrimp) and spawn/fingerlings. - -[] expand on the biophysical shipping bottleneck **Some initial takes from compiling the timeline:** - 1770s: seeded by colonial exploration - 1820s: cultivated for early commercial interaction (whaling provisions) - 1840s: idealized as potential international export, used in rationale for land development and white settlement - 1850s: integrated into cropping systems, exports boom and crop available in supply at all major ports - 1860-70s: Framed alternatively as the past (small holder production) and future (unmet export opportunity). Crop used as staple alternative during poi price spike. ^8b0813 - 1880s: Pumpkin vine fiber used in Hawaiian crafts and weaving. Crop grown by former plantation laborers. - 1890s: crop impact from pests prompts biocontrol introduction - 1900s: staple alternative and famine fare with loss of traditional foodways (pumpkin poi) - 1910s: Crop advocated for production by WWI Territorial Food Commission - 1920s: 30% of small farms produce pumpkins. Molokai Homesteaders produce pumpkins, some shipped to Oahu. Piggly Wiggly begins vending imported canned pumpkin. - 1930s: Molokai homesteaders make pumpkin poi when kalo unavailable (or in short supply) - 2000s: pick-your-own pumpkin patch events begin - Competition lost to imports? - Market recapture as agritourism strategy - alternative income strategy - Size and weight make it more feasible to grow here? - 2010s: Local market capture by agroinvestment firms (also used in their outreach events) ## A Timeline ### 1770s **February 1778** > Captain Cook, on Sunday, February 1, 1778, left on the island of Niihau one ram goat and two ewes, a boar and a sow of English breed, and the seeds of melons, pumpkins, and onions. > @stubbs_1901 ![[Screenshot 2023-05-03 at 4.44.49 PM.png]] @beaglehole_2017 >Cook in his journal stated that seeds of melons, pumpkins (Curcubita pepo), and onions (Allium cepa) were planted on his first visit in 1778. These are the first plants for which there are known introduction dates. To assure an adequate supply of provisions on subsequent visits the early voyagers often planted vegetable and crop seeds and introduced livestock to the Islands. > >Pumpkins, melons, and onions were planted, the first non-Polynesian exotics in Hawai'i. @nagata_1985 > plants and animals left by early navigators, which altered productive techniques just as the other goods changed consumption habits . Among the plant introductions were melons, pumpkins, and onions ( by Captain Cook ) @morgan_1948 Vancouver, according to Wyllie in 1845, did not note (find?) production of pumpkins ### 1780s ### 1790s > By 1791 seamen were able to trade for pumpkins and watermelons. [@greene_1993, pp. 116] **1796** January William Broughton, Captain of the Discovery, found that "pumpkins and melons were in no great plenty" [@broughton_1804, p. 35] February 19th > We passed the S. E. point of Onehow [Niihau] in 35 fathoms ; observed in the latitude of 21° 45′ 50″ N., when the S. E. point bore N. 77° 30′ E. two or three miles, the extremes to the N. 10° W. We steered along shore, and at length came to in Yam Bay at 2 P.M. in 29 fathoms, coarse, sandy bottom. ==Some canoes came off the next day bartering yams, potatoes, water-melons, and pumpkins : our boat also in the evening arrived laden with roots==. [@broughton_1804, p. 46] **1798** August 21st Ebenezer Townsend Jr., aboard the sealing vessel Neptune, notes pumpkin present on Oahu and Hawaii islands. > At 6 o'clock, evening of the 12th of August, 1798, we made the long wished for island of Owyhee (Hawaii), the east end of which bore SSW, distance 12 leagues. Very high land. Stood in under snug sail through the night and in the morning were about five leagues distant. We then attended to our armament, loaded our carriage guns and took such precautions as were necessary to guard against the treachery of Indians. Ran close in with the island, when ==a canoe came off with a couple of Indians, a few potatoes and a couple of pumpkins==. We were not pleased, after rounding the ship to get them on board, that their cargo was so trifling. August 26th > I found the Island of Wahoo (Oahu) a delightful one. The harbor (Honolulu harbor) is a good one but rather narrow to get in. The ship lay rather in the bay as it is generally difficult to get into the harbor but by warping. I have a draft of this harbor which I have copied from one in the possession of Capt. Stewart. The lands are in the highest state of cultivation, everything of luxurious growth; the sugar-cane finer than any I have ever seen, I think rather larger than at Ow-hy-hee (Hawaii) and, as at that Island, ==you here see the bread-fruit, coconut, plantain, sweet potatoes, taro, yams, banana, which are native productions, and watermelons, muskmelons, pumpkins, cabbages and most of our garden vegetables introduced by foreigners==. > <https://evols.library.manoa.hawaii.edu/bitstream/10524/642/1/RP04.pdf> ### 1810s **1819** French naval officer Lieutenant Camille de Roquefeuil notes, while touring the islands with commercial interests in mind, that > European vegetables constitute but a small part of the native diet, even though the climate and soil of the Sandwich Islands are favorable to growing them. Only those that require little labor, such as pumpkin-squash and watermelon, can be found; the natives rarely raise any others. > https://evols.library.manoa.hawaii.edu/server/api/core/bitstreams/5949d494-2ca7-49bf-aea9-142e352ebc13/content ### 1820s > Early western visitors also introduced a number of plants that they hoped Hawaiian farmers would cultivate and make available for ship provisioning; watermelons and pumpkins are two such examples [Ellis, 1963, as cited in @allen_2004] > French beans, onions, pumpkins, and cabbages, have also been added to their vegetables, and, though not esteemed by the natives, are cultivated, to some extent, for the purpose of supplying the shipping. @ellis_1826 (from 1823 journals) Revered CS Stewart, a 'late missionary' notes the presence and destination of various crops: > Other esculent plants, cabbages, onions, pumpkins, squashes, cucumbers, beans, radishes, &c.—the seeds of which have been brought by the Missionaries and other foreigners, are becoming abundant: but they are cultivated almost exclusively for the refreshment of ships, and the tables of foreign residents. [@stewart_1830, p. 146] ### 1830s ### 1840s **06 Jul 1844:** RC Wyllie notes pumpkin among various crops, but expresses design for foreign capital and examples to drive and expand local agricultural industry. > Chief productions of the Islands. The Islands produce maiz, wheat, rice, potatoes, yams, bananas, in row-root, beans, peas, melons, pumpkins, cabbages, onions, radishes, lettuce, grapes, pine-apples, papayas, oranges, lemons, figs, straw-berries, gooseberries, cucumbers, olives, tomatoes, chiremoyas, sugar, coffee, mustard-seed, cotton, indigo, silk, hemp, cocoa, tobacco, ginger, turmeric, kukui-nuts, and cattle of all kinds; so that they afford a wide range of products for the reward of native industry; but I repeat, foreign example and capital are wanting to stimulate and direct that industry. > <https://www.newspapers.com/clip/111894518/chief-productions-of-the-islands/> **September 7, 1844** > Squashes per hund. $8 to 10. > [Polynesian, New Series, Volume 1, Number  16. Page 67.](https://nupepa-hawaii.com/2020/05/07/market-prices-in-honolulu-1844/) **September 1844** > A few sample prices for provisions (Honolulu : 1844) follow : > - Potatoes, $2. 50to $3 per bbl. > - Sweet potatoes , $1.25 per bbl. > - String beans , $1 per bushel > - Corn (maize ) , $4 per bushel > - Tomatoes , 75cents per bushel > - Pineapples , 50–75cents per dozen > - Oranges , 25-50cents per dozen > - Watermelons , 371/2-50cents per dozen > - Cabbages , 12 1/2cents per dozen > - ==Pumpkins and squashes , $1 per dozen== > - Beef (to families ) , 6cents lb . ( to ships ) , 6 1/4cents lb. > - Fowls , 25cents each > - Eggs , $1.25 to $2 a 100 > - Pigs , according to size , 50 cents to $2 each . > (Prices obtained from F.W. Thomson, late high sheriff, and published in The Friend, September 1844.) > [@morgan_1948, p. 107] **Saturday, March 25, 1848** Increasing foreign capital and labor are pitched as a means to address declining whaling industry visits to the islands. > As these islands are abundantly capable of supporting a population of at least a million, or about ten times their present number of inhabitants, we would strongly recommend the propriety of supplying the prospective lack of agricultural laborers, by the introduction, on a large scale, of foreigners. There are no more industrious, useful, or quiet people among us, than the few Chinese who have come here to settle. Their close attention to whatever business they engage in, is proverbial. Their desire to amass property is the apparent cause of their industry, but we think it may also be attributed, in a great degree, to their laborious habits, learned in their native country, and . brought here along with them. These people agree well, socially, with the natives. Most of them are naturalized and married to native females, with whom they are in general in high favor. We believe in the principle of amalgamation as a means of preventing the decrease of the native population. It ought to be encouraged much more than it is at present. ==We know there have been and are still, perhaps, certain persons on these islands who advocated the reverse of this doctrine, whose ideas of the Hawaiian nation, extended no farther than a hundred thousand half civilized, half clad, men, women and children, whose principal employment was to be the raising of potatoes and pumpkins for whale ships.== > <https://www.newspapers.com/clip/111919491/pitch-to-increase-ag-in-lieu-of-whaling/> > Domestic exports from Honolulu for the year 1849 > Pumpkins: $200.50 > (in comparison over $32K in sugar was export that year) > [source](https://www.newspapers.com/image/49878131/?terms=pumpkin&match=1) ### 1850s > Export-oriented agriculture first became popular in the 1850s with Irish and sweet potatoes, onions, pumpkins, oranges, molasses, and coffee, much of which was shipped to the U.S. West Coast. @azizifardkhales_2019 Pumpkin cultivated: - in [Hookena](https://imagesofoldhawaii.com/hookena/) - on [Lanai by LDS missionaries](https://imagesofoldhawaii.com/city-of-joseph-in-the-valley-of-ephraim/) **1850** Jose Davis' boat, with his wife and two other couples, blows off course and 300 miles out to see en route from Molokai to Maui. Those aboard sustain themselves sucking on pieces of pumpkin until they are rescued by the *Wanderer*. <https://www.newspapers.com/clip/3304151/wanderer-rescue-2/> **Royal Hawaiian Agriculture Society [@society_1850]** 47,640 pumpkins shipped from Lahaina to California between Aug 28 1849 and Aug 10 1850. @society_1850 The average whaling ship said to store 500 pumpkins (and 50 bbls of Irish potatoes). <https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Transactions_of_the_Royal_Hawaiian_A/7RgTAAAAYAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&bsq=pumpkin> > https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Melon_Fly_in_Hawaii/5AgoAAAAYAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1 **Saturday, February 09, 1850** > Variety of seeds imported with an eye to possible export crops for California. One of which is 'Boston Marrow Squash'. > <https://www.newspapers.com/clip/111895964/garden-seeds-imported-for-distribution/> > Saturday, March 16, 1850 > <https://www.newspapers.com/clip/111895791/garden-seeds-imported-on-the-ship/> Saturday, May 25, 1850 > Rev. Mr. Parker, of Kaneohe, has sent us a specimen of what these islands are capable of raising. It is a fine New England pumpkin. weighing 20 pounds, and measuring 40 inches in circumference, raised from seed imported in the Carolus in February last. We cannot see why pumpkins cannot be raised in large quantities for export to California, for they are much superior to the squash in their keeping qualities, and would keep well for fur or five months, and vessels in our harbor would soon be filled if they could now be bad. > <https://www.newspapers.com/clip/111895731/imported-pumpkin-seeds-grown-and/> Saturday, August 31, 1850 Robert Crichton Wyllie, Minister of Foreign Relations of His Majesty the King of the Hawaiian Islands, in an address to the Royal Hawaiian Agriculture Society, finds the islands 'indebted' to Captain Cook (among others) for helping increase the productivity of the islands; his part through leaving pumpkin seeds (among other things) on Niihau in 1778. > <https://www.newspapers.com/clip/111898764/wyllies-address-to-royal-hawaiian/> Exports of pumpkin from the country: - Honolulu (and Kauai): 4678 - Lahaina: 62,016 <https://www.newspapers.com/clip/111919775/imports-exports-etc-1850/> **1852** Royal Hawaiian Agriculture Society, recognizing the recent export volumes, identify pumpkins as a crop whose exports could increase with access to steamer ship and Western US. > <https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Transactions_of_the_Royal_Hawaiian_A/7RgTAAAAYAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&bsq=pumpkin> RHAS to provide a silver medal for best pumpkin > <https://www.newspapers.com/clip/111901016/rhas-to-provide-awards-for-agricultural/> 3000 pumpkins harvest and ready to be shipped out from Lahaina, meanwhile resting under a hau tree. Saturday February 28, 1852 > My attention was mostly taken by a large Hau tree on the premises, the boughs of which are supported by props, extending over a piece of ground at least 400 feet in circumference. This makes a splendid shelter for casks of oil, molasses, &c., for which it is generally used, but at the time I saw it, it was sheltering about 3000 large pumpkins, purchased for my friend Capt. Lyons. Although the greater part of these pumpkins would make a man exclaim, if he had to carry one far, "there s no pumpkins about that," still they look as nothing under this wide spread tree. > <https://www.newspapers.com/clip/111901078/hau-tree-in-lahaina-shading-pumpkins/> **October 1852** ![[Polynesian_1852_10_09.webp]] A [for sale ad](https://www.newspapers.com/clip/111901163/sales-ad-for-nuuanu-estate-includes/) for a large Nuuanu home boasts its fruit and vegetable set up. - ==Maybe earliest example of food development of house site as market pitch in the islands?== - Ad was still being printed July 1854 **1853** R. H. Agriculture Society notes the benefits of intercropping papayas and pumpkins. **Saturday, June 25, 1853** - only 500 pumpkins **1854 jokes** 800 pumpkins exported from Honolulu, as well as 2650 from other ports. **1856** Mary Jane "Kulani" Fayerweather Montano ([b. May 14, 1841](https://nupepa-hawaii.com/2018/02/25/mary-jane-fayerweather-montano-tells-her-story-1923/)) in recounting her life (in 1893), notes that when she moved in with the Chamberlain's of Waialua at 14, that pumpkins were grown in succession with corn. > The climate was beautiful and so was the green corn field. Where the corn had been pulled up there were fields of yellow squashes and pumpkins looking big enough to house a family of pigs, all just what you read about in children’s story books. > <https://nupepa-hawaii.com/2018/02/28/mary-jane-fayerweather-montano-story-part-3-1893/> A letter to the editor proposes encouraging settlement by industrious agriculturists ("working white men") on small farms (25-50ac) between Kailua and Kealakekua in Kona. Loggers grow many crops already for use and sale to ships already, pumpkin included. > <https://www.newspapers.com/clip/111918603/letter-to-editor-re-expanding/> Clippings shows pumpkins among other crops now produced in volume in Kona / Kealakekua and available cheap to vessels. - Nov 1856: <https://www.newspapers.com/clip/111920403/kona-has-plenty-oranges-sweet-potato/> **1857** Series on the ports of the country finds pumpkin in supply at each - Jan 1857: Kealakekua https://www.newspapers.com/image/168598650/?terms=pumpkin&match=1 - Feb 05 1857: Honolulu https://www.newspapers.com/image/168598835/?terms=pumpkin&match=1 - Feb 12 1857: Lahaina https://www.newspapers.com/image/168599109/?terms=pumpkin&match=1 Gilman and Co of Lahaina begin advertising, among various other goods, pumpkin in "constant supply" during shipping season and available on short notice. - https://www.newspapers.com/clip/111921912/gilman-and-co-advertisement/ **1858** A tornado whirlwind in Lahaina laid waste to home and crops. Pumpkin crop flood https://www.newspapers.com/clip/111921710/terrific-whirlwind-at-lahaina/ Kona's agricultural expansion outlined, including pumpkin and potato crop > https://www.newspapers.com/clip/111922318/update-on-kona-agriculture-expansion/ **1859** Island products, pumpkins included, now regularly available in Victoria BC, by way of California > Business at Victoria. To judge from the advertisements in the Victoria newspapers 44 Sandwich Island produce" is quite a conspicuous part. What with "Live Stock," "Sugars," "Sweet Potatoes and Pumpkins," and "Pulu," considered 44 equal to feathers and better than hair," and obtained cheap "from the sole importer of it for California." ==Honolulu was "some pumpkins" on the Victoria exchange==. Board at first class hotels was $1 per day, and a single room "with pulu mattress" was $1 per week. > https://www.newspapers.com/clip/111967297/business-at-victoria-island-produce/ ### 1860s **1864** 475 pumpkins exported from Honolulu [@hopkins_1866, p. 41] **1869** > Among exotic plants introduced, the most important are the coffee-tree, cotton, indigo, tobacco, wheat, the Irish potato, cocoa, the grape-vine, orange, citron, melon, cucumber, pine-apple, fig, tamarind, guava, and various fruits; beans, onions, cabbages, pumpkin, and other vegetables.   > Hawaii; The past, present and future of its island kingdom; An historical account of the Sandwich Islands (Polynesia): by Manley Hopkins, Hawaiian Consul-General, second ed., revised and continued, xxvii+map+523p, New York, D. Appleton and Co., 1869. [page 39](https://llmc.com/OpenAccess/docdisplay5.aspx?textid=243886&page=68&returnresults=C9AmXer3cIzF7hucthhbY3Ac4blPYeBKR137t5XQa4SLaS%2baxb91FYPGRbWRQ5vWWWk6lleiRZbbBSMnmRCp9Z3R%2fMoaCcNgfGmw%2fVqzYnL6m4xfPlRQn%2b%2f%2f%2f6T8wbwtHNSzo0PdVP7gCP6qfdowUufA2jKttx%2fIBe%2f%2fc5bPZLWi2gluUkgA7aZx9UlxaP%2fEPZl09WWgRsNSSEqpDHtwCwwUmeBg768NieddOWmAtQhqy0n8MKo2nQ%3d%3d) Volume/Year 1869 ### 1870s "pumpkin straw" a fine fiber from the vines was used for weaving and crafts > A few years later, sometime in the 70s, he encouraged us to send Hawaiian fancy work to the Berlin exposition. I made pumpkin straw flowers made from the white, satiny fiber of the pumpkin stalks and a few months afterward I received a gold locket and chain as a prize. It was sent on in care of Dr. Hoffmann. > https://nupepa-hawaii.com/2018/02/28/mary-jane-fayerweather-montano-story-part-3-continued-1893/ A red and white sloop called 'Pumpkin Seed', owned by W. Williams, often participated in races around Honolulu during the mid 1870's and early 1880s. By 1882 the regatta became a regular feature of Kalakaua's birthday [cite](https://www.newspapers.com/image/174893183/?terms=%22pumpkin%20seed%22&match=1) > 1875 yacht race for the King's birthday https://www.newspapers.com/clip/108074135/w-yachtrace-27nov1875/ > 1878 loss of race: https://www.newspapers.com/image/49682469/?terms=pumpkin&match=1 > 1880 surprise win, and follow up loss: https://www.newspapers.com/image/78613545/?terms=%22pumpkin%20seed%22&match=1 **1871** Pumpkin produced on small farms to supply whalers is posited as the past, which now gives way to businessmen investing in staple commodities of the world. Machinery is posited as the primary expense to date. > ==The most important interest in this country, at present, is the planting interest. The most important production of the country is sugar. Formerly the annual visits of ships here for the purpose of refitting and recruiting, was the main dependence, not only of the seaport towns, but of the whole people. The grazier, who supplied beef, depended upon the demand of the shipping for a market; the small farmer, with his little field of potatoes, melons or pumpkins, looked forward to the time when tho whalers should arrive, as the time when he could dispose of his produce and realize a fair remuneration for the labor expended by him in the cultivation of his crops. Now the annual visit of these ships is a matter of secondary consideration. Enterprising and patriotic men have, in a great measure, changed the business of; the country "by investing" capital in the cultivation of sugar, rice and other staple commodities of the world;== in too many cases, as we are all aware, to their own loss. Many of them have expended fortunes in the work of. inaugurating this change in the business of the country, and have met with reverses. The result of their labor, and the capital invested by them, has in no few instances inured to the benefit of others, as is not unfrequent in other cases of new enterprises in new countries. ==It may now be said that sugar-growing in this country is no longer an experiment is a fixed fact;== and we believe that nearly all of our plantations are fairly prosperous, yielding to the present proprietors fair returns for their labor and tho capital invested. From the experience of the past they have found, that the Only way to success is by tho utmost economy and care in their expenditure for labor, material and. machinery. The great cost of the necessary machinery on the sugar plantations has, we may say, been the chief expense in starting them. > https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-hawaiian-gazette-small-farm-producti/112148899/ **1875** Article I of the The Reciprocity Treaty of 1875 while primarily about sugar, also enabled the free trade of vegetables, presumably including pumpkins. > Arrow-root, castor oil, bananas, nuts, ==vegetables, dried and undried, preserved and unpreserved==; hides and skins, undressed; rice; pulu; seeds; plants, shrubs, or tree; muscovado, brown, and all other unrefined sugar, meaning hereby the grade of sugar heretofore commonly imported from the Hawaiian Islands, and now known in the markets of San Francisco and Portland a " Sandwich Island Sugar ;" syrups of sugar-cane, melado, and molasses; tallow. ([source](https://morganreport.org/mediawiki/index.php?title=Reciprocity_Treaty_of_1875)) **1876** irrigation systems enable gardening in honolulu, their productivity signaled as only needed capital and labor.. > Thirt years ago there was hardly a tree in the town of Honolulu; it stood on a barren, treeless plain of ashes, scoria. and alluvial soil. Water being required for the shipping, and brought from the hills to the port, a distance of three miles, first one, then another householder applied for permission to draw water for domestic and garden purposes from the conduit pipe, until the government of the day increased the size of the main and supplied the town as well as the shipping with water. The result is seen to-day in gardens possessing the finest and greatest variety of tropical trees I have ever seen, bearing fruit of all kinds and descriptions; producing vegetables, potatoes, pumpkins, melons, strawberries, grass of a verdure all the year round that English gardeners would envy, and all this the result of irrigation. There is abundance, a never failing supply of water on the hills at a distance of two to three miles from the sea. The gardens of Honolulu show what can be done for the waste lands around the coast by irrigation. Capital and labor are only wattling to make these island a garden of Eden - the climate has no drawback. > A Brief Description of Honolulu by W. Laird Macgregor https://www.newspapers.com/clip/112148347/irrigation-systems-enable-gardening-in/ > Also [published in 1877](https://www.newspapers.com/image/49669416/?terms=pumpkin&match=1) full-orbed and transcendent glory > An exchange editor who was evidently brought up under a good grandmother, with daily associations with pumpkin pies, exclaimed : " The pumpkin-pie season is again breaking upon the nation in full-orbed and transcendent glory." > https://www.newspapers.com/clip/112148605/the-pumkin-pie-season-is-again/ **1877** Increase of price of poi leads to other foods being consumed more, often rice, occasionally fruits, and unripe pumpkin. > Kona, Hawaii, July I8th, 1877. > Mr. Editor: In your issue of June 23d, you speak of the unusual high price of the Hawaiian staff of life - "poi." The same remark may be applied to this, and other sections of this Island. It appears from all accounts, has been more severely felt this year, than for many years past, especially in the districts of Kohala, Kau and Kona nei: the price being a hundred, or a hundred and fifty per cent higher, than was ever known before, and, consequently, - as in Honolulu, the people, both foreigners and natives, are driven to the necessity of subsisting on the Chinese staff of life - "rice." For instance, we meet with natives from Kekaha, - and ask them what they find to subsist on in that section? they invariably answer - rice. Again, we meet with other parties who live some 25 miles in an opposite direction, when the same question is asked, and they answer - rice. But many of the natives are too poor to be able to afford them selves such a luxury as rice, consequently, they are obliged to subsist on fruits, such as mangoes, bananas, pine apples, mountain apples or ohias &c., this being the season when such fruits ripen. Other natives subsist on ki root, hapu, pala, and green or unripe pumpkins. > For the past month, we have been blessed by many refreshing showers, and the face of mother earth is wearing a beautiful mantle of green vegetation and produce generally, is in a very flourishing and thriving condition, and there is every prospect that in a few months more, the native staff of life will be plentiful, "So mote it be." - G.W.H. > https://www.newspapers.com/clip/112148710/letter-to-the-editor-about-poi-price/ Presumably these strategies are in response the 1877's El Niño drought, [as noted in Nupepa reference frequency](https://journals.ametsoc.org/view/journals/bams/99/1/bams-d-16-0333.1.xml) ### 1880s **1882** In Spring 1882, a 135 lb pumpkin grown at Simon Kaloa Kaʻai's place (between his stints as Minister of Finance and Minister of the Interior). The pumpkin was put on display at wholelsale and retail grocer Mr. A.W. Bush's Fort Street storefront. A few months later Bush had another display of pumpkins, this time however imported from New Zealand. **April 15, 1882** > A pumpkin grown at the Hon. S. K. Kaai's place at Moanalua, was exhibited yesterday at the store of Mr. A.W. Bush on Fort street. It is a monster, weighing 135 pounds and is thirty inches in diameter. > <https://www.newspapers.com/clip/112149394/135lb-pumpkin-grown-in-moanalua/> **June 07, 1882** > Mr. A. W. Bush has imported some splendid pumpkins from New Zealand, a number of which were arranged in front of his store on Fort Street yesterday afternoon and attracted a good deal of attention. It seems very strange that we should send 4000 miles for supplies of a vegetable which ought to grow here like a weed. The fact is but another instance of the way in which almost all of what should be the minor industries of the country are neglected. > <https://www.newspapers.com/clip/112149691/aw-bush-imports-pumpkins-from-new/> ![[A.W. Bush Grocery.png | Ad in @bowser_1880]] **Saturday, November 11, 1882** Dependence upon sugar as a primary single crop is viewed as just as precarious as a time when whale oil was the product fueling the islands' economy. RHAS work is viewed as enabling small farm operators and competing with California in the production of grains. The history of grain production and milling are lifted up as a time to return to, with view of exporting grain abroad and suppling Honolulu's chicken feed market. Gargantuan pumpkins, and other crops and stock, on display will stimulate diverse production on Hawaii soils. > EDITORIAL ARTICLES. (from the Daily Pacific Commercial Advertiser.) > We are glad to learn that a lively interest is felt in the country in the encouragement of our Royal Hawaiian Agricultural Society. ==A while ago the financial prosperity of this country depended upon the products of the sea. There was only one crop, and that was oil. Now the prosperity of the country is dependent entirely on the soil,== and still we have only one crop and that is sugar. We ought to have a hundred different crops, because we combine the advantages of the tropical and temperate zones. We can not only raise more sugar to the acre, but we can produce more wheat, barley, oats, potatoes, turnips and other roots and fruits of all kinds, than any other country, temperate or tropical. ==Let people be stimulated by discussion, by prizes and by competitive exhibitions and we will astonish the world with our 200-lb. pumpkins, our 100-lb. delicious melons, our 10-inch diameter turnips, our prize wheat 80 bushels to the acre, and Indian corn ever so much more.== At an elevation ranging from 500 to 2000 feet above the sea level, our *kula* or uplands will surpass in grain and fruit production any thing that California has ever done. When grist-mills were running in Wailuku, over twenty years ago, we have known eighty-six bushels of good wheat to be threshed out of a measured acre of land. Now what is the plant required for the production of a crop of wheat? A good moline plow, a span of horses, and a pair of stout arms. ==It is true we no longer have mills to make our own flour, and one schooner load of grain would overstock the Honolulu market for chicken feed, but if attention was given to grain raising on our uplands, we might be sending cargoes of grain abroad==. It is ==a pity that all our agricultural energy should be confined to one plant, and that one attended with such risk that it is like going into gold mining or stock gambling to undertake sugar planting==. Only strong-handed and bold operators can win. ==But in the varied capacity of our wonderfully fertile soil there is an opportunity for the weakest hands and the smallest means.== Now it is to be hoped that our Royal Hawaiian Agricultural Society will stimulate a more varied production from the soil. All well-wishers of these islands will be delighted to see a good Hawaiian Agricultural Show. The King, as President, will popularize the exhibition. We all want to see what the country has been doing in the improvement of fine horses, choice breeds of cattle, superior wool stock, valuable poultry, and the various products of the soil. We cannot conceive a more entertaining and instructive exhibition than such a one as a zealous and faithful agricultural society can get up in this city. Let us imagine it gotten up in the Park or elsewhere, and contemplate the fine array of superior animals that could be brought together. Horses from the best stock of Kentucky; cattle from the Durham, Devon and Jersey breeds; sheep from the famed Rambouiliet and Infanta stocks; the rarest of Dorkins, Cochin China, Hamburgs, and Dominique fowls; with tables groaning under pyramids of choice and assorted fruits, and crowning all, a floral display that would reveal to the stranger not only the marvelous capacity of our soil, but the exquisite taste of our lady florists. We long to see this agricultural show, and many correspondents are prompting us to discuss and stimulate its realization. The names comprising the Board of Management are a guarantee of its success. > <https://www.newspapers.com/clip/112377656/boostering-of-rhas-refernces-giant/> **November 29, 1882** By the early 1880s, pumpkin vine fiber was used for hats and craft production. St Louis College aid fair, stalls with 'Hawaiian products' including hats from pumpkin vine fiber. Notably, Native Hawaiians are the only listed users of the fiber. > The right hand stalls were reserved for Hawaiian products, amongst which the cocoanut carvings were specially noticeable and the ==hats and hat ornaments of the scraped skin of the pumpkin vine.== > <https://www.newspapers.com/clip/112379475/st-louis-college-aid-fair-stalls-with/> **Saturday, May 05, 1883** RHAS first annual agricultural & horticultural Show schedule of prizes includes an award for best pumpkin. > <https://www.newspapers.com/clip/112380038/rhas-first-annual-agricultural/> **Saturday, November 24, 1883** Pumpkins are grown on an estate in Kalihi, noted that they are for use by the household though various fruits are grown for sale. A notice to all parties seeking Portuguese contract laborers precedes the story of travel from Honolulu to Kalihi to visit the estate. > <https://www.newspapers.com/clip/112380394/1883-pumpkins-grown-on-estate-in-kalihi/> **February 1884** The second annual RHAS show also includes a prize for best pumpkins. Advertising the the second annual event took place over months. > <https://www.newspapers.com/image/259208934/?terms=pumpkin&match=1 **Saturday, September 20, 1884** Portuguese produce pumpkins on short leased land in Punchbowl, interest in purchasing the land is noted. > The Portuguese who have made the makai slopes of Punchbowl blossom as the pumpkin vine, and grow green as the aspiring corn, have leased their little holdings on very short terms. Many of them have means to purchase, if easy installment are obtainable. Almost all of them are said to desire to purchase their holdings. They have demonstrated that their capacity for improving the soil under discouraging circumstances and it is hoped that they will be accorded a chance to acquire title. > <https://www.newspapers.com/clip/112381266/punchbowl-portuguese-produce-pumpkins/> **1889** Braided slippers made of pumpkin vine by Princess Liliuokalani has are included among the Hawaiian exhibits at the Exposition Universelle in Paris. Other pumpkin vine items by other crafters included as well. > https://www.google.com/books/edition/Catalogue_of_the_Hawaiian_Exhibits_at_th/RAw1AAAAMAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=0 ![[Screenshot 2023-05-03 at 3.41.12 PM.png]] ### 1890s **February 1, 1891** Surveyor J.S. Emerson reports on camp at Ohepuupuu, Kapua, South Kona >The weather is magnificent, the mountain signals clear and distinct and almost free from clouds all day… Puu Ohau & Makolehale signals have been remarkably distinct for such a great distance. Keawekaheka, since leaving Puu Nahaha has sunk from view… ==I feel rested and refreshed with a supply of proper food after some days of scanty fare. The few natives about here live on fish & a wretched substitute for poi made of wheat flour. I had to live on sweet potatoes, squash & dry fish for a week, while waiting for supplies… There are no decent stores this side of Hookena.== It is exceedingly dry weather, so the natives say, and all my fresh water has to be packed long distances from the few water holes up in the woods. May they not give out yet a while. >[source, pp. 71](https://www.kumupono.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/2002_07_05_Kipahoehoe-Kapalilua-Kona-Hawaii-PDF.pdf) **1896** Pumpkin crop noted as useful for animal feed in 'THE HAWAIIAN ISLANDS: THEIR RESOURCES AGRICULTURAL, COMMERCIAL AND FINANCIAL" produced by the Republics' Department of Foreign Affairs in 'Chapter V: Agricultural Possibilities' >==Pumpkins and squash grow to an enormous size and yield an immense quantity of feed, much relished by cows and pigs.== >https://www.gutenberg.org/files/29383/29383-h/29383-h.htm Around 1898 melon fly introduction from Japan begins to harm pumpkin and related crop productions. > https://www.google.com/books/edition/The_Melon_Fly_in_Hawaii/5AgoAAAAYAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1 **1898** @musick_1898 notes pumpkin production in diverse gardens tended by Chinese in Nuuanu valley on Oahu > There were beautiful vegetable gardens in which the Chinamen not only raise pineapples, yams, and rice , but melons, pumpkins, sweet corn, sweet potatoes, and other products of the tropics and the temperate zone . However he also notes his confusion over calabash gourd and pumpkin... > During this day's journey I saw a tree bearing some kind of immense fruit, which in the distance looked like large pumpkins, tho I was told they were a species of gourd known as the calabash gourd . I was too tired to go near enough to investigate the strange phenomenon , and can not state positively whether the pumpkin or gourd grew on the tree or upon a vine that ran up and twined about it . One never sees any thing in this country familiar to a native of the temperate zone, and I was prepared for any strange freak of nature. ### 1900s **1901** > Pumpkins and squashes do very well and sometimes bear for two years. The fruit has to be gathered every month. @stubbs_1901 **1903** Pumpkin vines provided a fine fiber used sometimes in the manufacture of woven hats > From a few ugly strands of tough grasses, from a delicate fiber taken from the inside of a pumpkin vine, or even from the stem of the dainty maiden hair fern, hats of the jauntiest type imaginable are made > https://nupepa-hawaii.com/2015/03/27/kilipaki-and-lauhala-hats-in-honolulu-1903/ > “We have also planted about two acres in pumpkins which are also doing well. As papaias and pumpkins make good hog feed combined with the cooked offal from the slaughter house. it is only a question of time until we will have sufficient food for all the hogs we can raise.” > (Report of the Superintendent of the Leper Settlement, BOH Annual Report, 1903, as cited [here](https://imagesofoldhawaii.com/john-emil-van-lil/)) ### 1910s **1917** Boston Marrow squash is among the crops recommended by the Territorial Food Commission for growing in response to WWI > Prepared by the Territorial Food Commission, assisted by the United States Experiment Station, for the information of all people in Hawaii who want to grow food crops. > https://www.newspapers.com/clip/112187101/territorial-food-commission-planting/ ### 1920s > A significant feature in the vegetable exhibit was the large number of cucurbitaceous fruits, including squashes and pumpkins grown at comparatively low altitudes. For many years these, with the exception of a few varieties, have been almost impossible of successful production because of the prevalence of the melon fly (Dacus cucurbita). The large number of specimens shown would seem to indicate that the melon fly's natural enemies introduced by the Territorial Board of Agriculture and Forestry have had an appreciable effect in checking the pest. @station_1919 > One of the most interesting observations in Kona was that of the successful growing of squashes, pumpkins, watermelons, and even muskmelons. For the last 20 years it has been impossible to grow muskmelons or cantaloups in the Territory because of the devastations which resulted from attacks of the melon fly. The parasites introduced to control this insect have proved a success in this respect. @hawaiiagriculturalexperimentstation_1920 > Number and per cent of the 277 small farms producing, number of farms selling, and the number of farms using each of the following vegetables, over a twelve months period. > 30.7% of small farms were producing **1925** LDS homesteaders HOOLEHUA 1923-1926 by William Kauaiwiulaokalani Wallace III A family in Waikapu is convinced to more to >in 1925 the county agent for the Hawaiian Homes Commission Mr. Pia Cocket was busy on maui recruiting families to go and homestead on Molokai. At this point the homesteads at Hoolehua were not doing very well and the homesteaders did not have enough water to irrigate their crops. ==When he came to Waikapu, Maui the people directed him to my great-grandfather tutu Moses Makaiwi Sr.. The people of Waikapu knew the Makaiwi family very well. This family was known for their ability to live off the land. They had the largest banana, sweet potatoe, taro, squash, and pumpkin patches in Waikapu. Sseeing the ability of tutu Makaiwi, Mr. Cocket strongly encouraged my great-grandfatherto leave Waikapu and to go to Molokai to help the homesteaders succeed on the land.== > >The challenge was given who will help the homesteaders notes taken from my personal interview with my granduncle Edward makaiwi the entire idea of the homestead and its future success could be challenged if the hawaiians on molokai failed moses makaiwi sr0ne4w srng vwty uifijr awty told mr cocket he would move to molokai but he also said that he would take his entire family to molokai with him the makaiwi family believed in the true relationship tionship of the ohana within this relationship everyone had a job to do no one could get away without doing any work if the ohana was lazy they would eventually starve and be without the necessities >https://scholarsarchive.byu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1018&context=mphs **1928-29** Jared G. Smith, one time Special Agent in Charge of Hawaii Experiment Station, notes the 'Hawaiian Pumpkin' in a series of articles within The Market Basket section of The Honolulu Advertiser **6 Jun 1928** > Loads of pumpkins and watermelons are going down Kakulae road to the Kaunakakal wharf bound for Honolulu. On one load of "millions," sat two happy Hawailans, their noses in a luscious, red slice of ripe melon, oblivious to everything but present enjoyment.. > https://www.newspapers.com/article/honolulu-star-advertiser-molokai-news-no/155008982/ **26 Jun 1928** Governor Finds Molokai Farmers Satisfied and Making Progress: Executive Returns From Hawaiian Homes Commission Lands Visit and Reports Seeing Demonstration of Real Success On Territorial Lands >"In going to any such community you will always find some families that are optimistic while some are a bit down hearted; but the best demonstration of the success of the project is the good crops that have been obtained from the fertile fields there, and when I say crops I mean the harvests of Irish and sweet potatoes, corn, pumpkins, watermelons, peanuts and tomatoes." >https://www.newspapers.com/article/honolulu-star-bulletin-governor-find-mol/155009019/ **29 Jun 1929** Piggly Wiggly selling Del Monte brand pumpkin sold in No 2 $1/2$ cans for 14 cents >https://www.newspapers.com/article/honolulu-star-bulletin-pumpkin-in-piggly/155009073/ **17 Nov 1928** > Hubbard squashes from Waianae at 7 Vic a pound: Hawaiian pumpkin pumpkins at 5c; and "Chinese" pumpKins at 4c to 5c. > <https://www.newspapers.com/clip/112983718/jared-smith-notes-hawaiian-pumpkin/> 24 Nov 1928: On reviewing Thanksgiving in history >  luffas and benincasias, cream squash, hubbard and summer squashes and "Hawaiian' pumpkin are plentiful and cheap. >  <https://www.newspapers.com/clip/112983477/jared-smith-on-thanksgiving-foods/> 08 Dec 1928: on market options, again in chinatown > Hawaiian pumpkin is plentiful at 6 cents a pound, cut in pieces; hubbard squashes, 8 cents; Chinese squash, 5 cents; > <https://www.newspapers.com/clip/112983563/despite-inclement-weather-markets/> **19 Jan 1929**: While finding 'nothing new', winter vegetables at Chinatown markets in ample supply : > There is nothing new in winter vegetables at the River and King street markets, but supplies of green beans, carrots, eggplant, kohlrabi, beets, daikon, cucumbers, green onions, shelled limas, Hawaiian pumpkin and spinach are large. > <https://www.newspapers.com/clip/112983327/plenty-winter-vegetables-are-found-in/> 23 Feb 1929 > A stack of "Hawaiian" pumpkins have arrived from Kona. They are cut and sold by the piece. ><https://www.newspapers.com/clip/112983646/hawaiian-pumpkins-arrive-from-kona-cut/> ### 1930s Novemaba 19, 1931, Z. P. Kalokuokamaile, a [renowned scholar](https://www.facebook.com/Kanaeokana/photos/a.1898432697058667/2526965824205348/?type=3) from Napoopoo, South Kona, Hawaii, shared hen 82 years old > I built the Salmon store, while going to Honolulu to purchase pounds and barrels of salmon, and began to sell it with much success. And then the time came when government workers arrived and demolished the grounds surrounding my store; destroyed was my sweet potato, sugarcane, bananas, pumpkin, along with my store; the loss was $250, and until this day I have not been paid a cent. > <https://nupepa-hawaii.com/2014/02/05/z-p-kalokuokamailes-genealogy-1931/> Hoolehua families grew pumpkins, for a time pumpkin (mixed with flour) overtook taro as the poi staple. > The Hoolehua families planted annually large quantities of corn, and many of them pumpkins, melons, tomatoes, cucumbers, sweet potatoes, squash, peanuts, and minor amounts of other vegetables such as beans, onions, and cabbages. Indeed, few dry land products hav~ remained untried. There are still vivid memories of "pumpkin poi," a mixture of flour and pumpkin, which took the place of the traditional taro poi as a staple food. A large amount of the corn was sold, or else fed to livestock which was being accumulated. [@keesing_1936, p. 57] > Mediterranean fruitfly and other, insects destroy the melons, and Irish potatoes have so far been a "total failure." Where a crop comes through to the point of harvest, the proceeds from its sale may hardly m~et the cost of production. Success with any product usually brings over-production in the following year, hence a glut. [@keesing_1936, p. 58] > Due to the homestead program, the Pālā‘au-Ho‘olehua region had the largest population of native Hawaiians in 1930. Of the 1,031 residents, 826 were Hawaiian. Families farmed a variety of crops in Ho‘olehua, including corn, melons, tomatoes, cucumbers, pumpkins, sweet potatoes, squash, peanuts, beans, onions, and cabbage. Pumpkin poi became a staple for these homesteaders. Though dryland agriculture had successes at Pālā‘au-Ho‘olehua Homesteads, constant care was needed to combat hardships caused by droughts, winds, and pests. > https://dhhl.hawaii.gov/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/April-18-19-2022-HHC-Packet-Molokai.pdf ### 1940s > There is no good reason why we should buy from the mainland any beets, cabbage, cucumbers, parsnips, pumpkins, squash or turnips. These are opportunities generally overlooked by our farmers. In addition, these same areas, now under cultivation, are adapted to the increased production during the winter months of other items such as asparagus, carrots, cauliflower, celery, bell peppers, and tomatoes. @hawaiiterritorialplanningboard_1939 **1940** > 97 percent self-sufficient for pumpkins > <https://www.newspapers.com/clip/113453467/facts-on-island-food-crops-1942/> **1946** - Foods Used by Filipinos in Hawaii [@miller.etal_1946], notes pumpkin as crop, various parts eaten, and some recipes. The di - > Several varieties of pumpkin and squash are important food plants in the Philippines. In Hawaii many Filipino families grow the vines in their yards or gardens, and use as food not only the large orange-colored fruits but also the surplus blossoms and tender young tips of the vines. The blossoms are not ordinarily seen on the market, but bunches of the squash or pumpkin vine tips, about 12 inches in length (each bunch weighing a pound or more) are sold by vegetable vendors and stores catering to Filipinos. Only 3 to 6 inches of the very tender tip that breaks off readily are commonly used, but more may be utilized according to the taste and economic status of the housewife. - > The squash flowers are cooked with a little pork, tomato, and seasoning. The tips are cooked and used as a salad or in combination with other vegetables, seasoning, and fish or bagoong. The squash fruit is cooked alone and seasoned with bagoong, or combined in cooked dishes with other vegetables, fish, or meat. Combined with coconut milk and sweetened, the fruit is used as a dessert. - Squash or pumpkin flowers are a fair source of calcium and iron and a poor source of phosphorus. They are fair sources of vitamin A but after cooking retain negligible quantities of ascorbic acid. Preliminary tests showed the flowers to have little or no thiamine. - Squash vine tips and young leaves are a fair source of calcium and thiamine and a good source of phosphorus, iron, and vitamin A, but contain practically no ascorbic acid after cooking. - The squash sample analyzed contained about 15 percent carbohydrate, a value greater than is usually reported for winter-type squash. Squash fruit is a poor source of calcium and iron and a fair source of phosphorus. - Pumpkin and squash with deep yellow flesh are excellent sources of vitamin A. They are only fair sources of thiamine and ascorbic acid on the weight basis, but they may constitute good sources of these two vitamins because they are usually eaten in relatively large quantities. ### 1950s **Saturday, April 01, 1950** Loss of craft knowledge, the making pumpkin vine flowers, is noted in an impersonation of society folk from 70 years prior. https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-honolulu-advertiser-pumpkin-stalk-fl/124109910/ **July 15, 1950** [40 tons of pumpkin forecast for July harvest on Maui](https://www.newspapers.com/article/honolulu-star-bulletin-40-tons-of-pumpki/124110446/) ### 1980s **1983-1990** UH School of Architecture and UH Foundation led what was initially called the *The Great Hawaiian Pumpkin Carve-in*  https://www.newspapers.com/clip/112986426/pumpking-carve-in-uh-architecture/ https://www.newspapers.com/image/274073428/?terms=%22hawaiian%20pumpkin%22&match=1 **1984** The Great Hawaiian Pumpkin Party  https://www.newspapers.com/clip/112983168/pumpkin-carving-at-uh-architecture/ **1985** Third Annual pumpkin carve by UH architecture 1986 4th annual 1987 1989 ### 2000s **2000** Aloun Farms hosts Hawaii's first pick-your-own-pumpkin patch on four acres in Kapolei. <https://www.newspapers.com/clip/112986616/aloun-farms-hosts-hawaiis-first/>  **2001** Hawaii Preparatory Academy parents association hosts [10th annual](https://www.newspapers.com/clip/112986680/hpa-pumpkin-patch/) Pumpkin Patch event with field decorated with [real pumpkins](<https://www.newspapers.com/clip/112986654/hpa-parents-association-hosts-event/>). Iolani School also hosts pumpkin patch events **2004** Second annual Molokai Food and Business Expo features island grown 'Hawaiian Pumpkin' <https://www.newspapers.com/clip/112986537/molokai-grown-hawaiian-pumpkin-featured/> **2007** Aloun Farms annual pumpkin patch festival event in Kapolei  <https://www.newspapers.com/clip/112986522/aloun-farms-hosts-pumpkin-patch-2007/> **2009** East Maui farmers in Wailua Valley plant pumpkins instead of kalo due to the lack of available water. Well over a century of stream diversion by Alexander & Baldwin for sugarcane reduced instream flow available to other farmers. >The taro patches to the north were fed by water from Waiokamilo/Kualani Streams (flowing through Lakini). Staff hiked about 400 meters northwest along the lower ditch until reaching a location where the entire Wailua Valley could be viewed. Steven Hookano explained the overlay of the valley, who maintained each general area where taro was cultivated at the time. The middle ditch could be seen to run across the center of the valley. It mainly feeds taro patches belonging to the Nakanelua and Young (Steven Hookano’s uncle) families. The upper patches in the center of the valley were overgrown with grass whereas most of the lower patches were cultivated at the time of the visit. Hiking back along the lower ditch, ==the farmers explained that pumpkin (instead of taro) was planted along the lower ditch due to the lack of water==. > >DLNR CWRM Field Investigation Report of Wailua Valley Taro, East Maui >https://files.hawaii.gov/dlnr/cwrm/activity/iifsmaui3/FI2009020901.pdf ![[FI2009020901 pumpkin.png]] ### 2010s From 2013-2019, Anna Peach operated Squash and Awe Farm in a Lalamilo farm lot on the Big Island. https://squashandawe.com/a-behind-the-scenes-look-at-establishing-a-tiny-heirloom-squash-farm-in-hawaii/ **2013** Joe Kennedy waxes about the 'filipino/Hawaiian' pumpkin in the Molokai Dispatch <https://themolokaidispatch.com/the-amazing-local-pumpkin/> **2014** Glen Teves, County Extension Agent of UH CTAHR's Cooperative Extension Service - Molokai, references the Boston Marrow variety among examples of *C. maxima* in a [Molokai Dispatch article on squash](https://themolokaidispatch.com/eggs-of-the-earth/) and the April 2014 [Molokai Native Hawaiian Beginning Farmer Newsletter](https://gms.ctahr.hawaii.edu/gs/handler/getmedia.ashx?moid=2923&dt=3&g=12) > Recent crosses with the Japanese variety, Ichiki Kuri has created bright orange-skinned kabocha, including Sunshine developed by Johnny’s Seed. Many Native American tribes had closely related varieties, including Arikara from the native American tribe of the Dakotas, Lakota from the Sioux nation, and candy roaster from the Cherokee of the Appalachians. Other C. maxima varieties include Buttercup, Banana, Uchiki Kuri, ==Boston Marrow==, Hubbard, and Turk’s Turban. Pumpkin grown for Halloween on Kauai by Dow and Esaki's Produce > “People didn’t know we could grow pumpkins,” said Earl Kashiwagi, owner and operator of Esaki’s Produce. He delivered 4,500 pounds of pumpkins to the Kauai Fall Festival on Sunday and still has more. > ... > Peter Wiederoder, Kauai site leader for Dow, said they got some 90-day pumpkins to plant, but no one accounted for the Westside heat, which forced the pumpkins to mature in a little more than 60 days. > >“We had to harvest early, and store them for Halloween,” he said. “We had about a thousand pumpkins in storage.” https://hawaii-agriculture.com/pumpkin-aplenty-thegardenisland-com-local/ **2017** OHA newsletter https://kawaiola.news/olakino/season-gratitude-recipes-nourish-kino-mauli/ Celebrate Makahiki with kabocha pumpkin soup, imu chicken, and garlic mashed ʻuala. Photo Courtesy: Roots Cafe  **2019** Stream diversion by Alexander & Baldwin reduced water flow in East Maui to the extent that kalo producers > The company has diverted streams from East Maui to its sugarcane fields since before the overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom. After more than a century of diversions, the 2016 decision forced the company to release several streams, replenishing Wendt’s land and other properties. land was so dry before their stream was restored that they planted pumpkins rather than taro >Wendt says for many years, A&B’s diversion of streams made it nearly impossible for him, his sons and many of his neighbors to cultivate taro. > > Mahealani and Ed Wendt’s land was so dry before their stream was restored that they planted pumpkins rather than taro. > @hofschneider_2019 > https://www.civilbeat.org/2019/05/this-native-hawaiian-taro-farmer-has-been-fighting-ab-for-decades/ **201?** Hawai‘i ‘Ulu Cooperative begins aggregation, processing, and marketing of palaʻai May 2019 >Kurisu told Big Island Now that at KTA, “95% of our leafy vegetables in the produce department are locally grown; 100% of our papayas, pineapples and bananas are locally grown; 100% of the melons are purchased locally when in season. ==Our pumpkins are locally grown during Halloween…== In the produce department, we try to support local first. >https://bigislandnow.com/2019/05/21/is-food-sustainability-possible-in-hawaii/ ### 2020s **Hawaii Seed Growers Network** **2020** UH CTAHR researchers cross an Hawaiian pumpkin (*Cucurbita moschata var. Shima*) a Puerto Rican variety ‘Taina Dorada’ to explore cultivars transitioning from conventional to organic setting. > Interest in the development of organically grown vegetable crops has risen over the past decades due to consumer preferences. However, most crops that have desirable consumer traits have been bred in conventional growing conditions, and their transfer to an organic setting is challenging. Here, the organically grown Hawaiian pumpkin (Cucurbita moschata) accession ‘Shima’ was crossed with the conventionally grown Puerto Rican variety ‘Taina Dorada’ to develop a backcross (BC1) population, where ‘Shima’ was the recurrent parent. A total of 202 BC1 (‘Shima’ X F1) progenies were planted in a certified organic field, and twelve traits were evaluated. We used genotype-by-sequencing (GBS) to identify the Quantitative Trait Loci (QTL) associated with insect tolerance along with commercially desirable traits. A total of 1582 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) were identified, from which 711 SNPs were used to develop a genetic map and perform QTL mapping. Reads associated with significant QTLs were aligned to the publicly available Cucurbita moschata genome and identified several markers linked to genes that have been previously reported to be associated with that trait in other crop systems, such as melon (Cucumis melo L.). This research provides a resource for marker-assisted selection (MAS) efforts in Cucurbita moschata, as well as serving as a model study to improve cultivars that are transitioning from a conventional to an organic setting. > <https://www.mdpi.com/2311-7524/6/1/14/htm> [Kalani Akana, PhD.](https://kawaiola.news/author/kalania/) notes pumpkin growing in a post on [Camping](https://kawaiola.news/ka-naauao-o-na-kupuna/camping/) that is a remembrance of Elizabeth Kauahipaula. >At Leleiwi, Kauhipaula said, “We camped here \[Keaukaha] during the summer.” And the students exclaimed, “Wow!” She said, “My father cultivated plants, pumpkin, sweet potatoes and watermelon on that hill. He fished with a throw net or fishing pole. I played on the boulders and looked for limpets and sea cucumbers. Sea cumbers were the favorite of my mother, that and eels. If she got loli she was very happy.” Her father would gather sea cucumbers to sell at the Chinese store. Her mother would gather lau hala to make mats and hats to sell in town. When they had sufficient funds, they would buy sugar, crackers, and perhaps bolts of material for the family. The family’s task was to make a living. They didn’t just go to the beach to relax. October 24, 2020 Mahi Pono grown pumpkins > People purchased pumpkins and other items at the first annual Mahi Pono Fall Harvest on Maui. The fundraiser was a benefit for Imua Family Services and its community-based program that serves Maui County families by providing resources that assist keiki with overcoming developmental learning challenges. (Photo: Mahi Pono)  >The funds were raised from Mahi Pono’s first annual Fall Harvest which included pumpkin sales on Oct. 24 at Yokouchi Family Estate. The drive-thru festival provided the Maui community with a safe, ohana-friendly way to celebrate Mahi Pono’s first fall harvest while supporting Imua Family Services and its community-based programs. >https://www.mahipono.com/news-and-updates/mahi-pono-donates-10000-to-imua-family-services **2021** OHA lists pumpkin among foods, mostly 'local' and traditional fare, with potential to boost immunity > To boost your immunity, make sure that plant foods comprise at least 50% of each meal. An easy way to ensure you get a variety of nutrients is to eat plant foods from each of the following color groups every day (see examples): > -**Red & pink**: Tomatoes, watermelon, red bell pepper, apple, guava, dragonfruit > -**Green**: Spinach, bok choy, taro leaves, wakame or green ogo seaweed, cucumbers, cabbage > -**Orange & yellow**: Oranges, mango, papaya, pumpkin, breadfruit, Mana Ulu taro > -**Blue & purple**: Eggplant, Okinawan sweet potato, grapes, blueberries, Lehua taro - **White & brown**: Banana, onions, garlic, potato, mushroom, soursop **2022** January 2022  Hawai‘i ‘Ulu Cooperative (HUC) partners with Hawaiʻi Food Service Alliance (HFA) to distribute HUC's line of par-cooked, chopped, and frozen palaʻai (pumpkin) (along with ulu, kalo, and ‘uala) to various local grocers. HFA's internal announcement leans on local food security narratives: Hawaiʻi Food Service Alliance and the Hawai‘i ‘Ulu Cooperative are teaming up to address Hawaiʻi’s food security and self-sufficiency concerns by stocking retail supply chains across the state with locally grown staple foods that honor Hawaiʻi’s history, culture, and unique sense of place. [source](https://www.hfahawaii.com/hfa-partners-with-hawaii-ulu-cooperative-to-bring-hawaii-grown-staples-to-neighborhood-retailers-across-hawaii/) **2023** April 2023 **Oahu Land Crunch Leads Aloun Farms To Expand Acreage On Fertile West Kauai** >Aloun Farms, one of Hawaii’s most prolific producers of Chinese cabbage, green beans, pumpkin and sweet corn, made a name for itself in Central Oahu in the 1990s as a local food producer focused on edging out vegetable imports. > >Its future is taking shape in West Kauai where, since early 2022, the company has planted hundreds of acres of watermelon, eggplant, zucchini and pumpkins https://www.civilbeat.org/2023/04/oahu-land-crunch-leads-aloun-farms-to-expand-acreage-on-fertile-west-kauai/  **2024** Puuohoku ranch Kukui grove chat - uncle Bobby Alcon shared poi palaai was his favorite ## Production & Export Numbers ![[Exports of Selected Ag Products, 1848-1854 (@morgan_1948).png]] **1855**: Domestic exports from Honolulu - 500 pumpkins - > https://www.newspapers.com/clip/111919011/custom-house-statistics-for-1855/ **1856:** **1864:** 475 pumpkins exported from Honolulu @hopkins_1866 **1929:** > Acreage of all vegetables harvested for sale in the Territory and the number of farms reporting production : 1929.' > In addition to the above, turnips, ==pumpkins, beets, Irish potatoes and radishes are grown on over 25 per cent of the farms==, and sweet corn and peas are produced on over 20 per cent of the farms. > @armstrong_1937 **1936-1937:** > average monthly receipts in pounds > - from the Mainland US: 540 > - Estimated territorial production in pounds: 60,000 > @cady_1937 **1948-1950** @1950 Statistics of Diversified Agriculture in Hawaii ![[Screenshot 2023-05-05 at 10.59.36 AM.png]] **1909-1951** @philipp_1953 ![[Screenshot 2023-05-05 at 10.56.21 AM.png]] **2020-2021-2022** Pumpkins | Metric |2019 |2020 | 2021 | 2022 | | ---------------- | --------|-------- | -------- | -------- | | Acres | (D)|95 | 95 | 90 | | Production (lbs) | (D)|610,000 | 530,000 | 500,000 | | Farm Value ($) | (D)|$720,000 | $570,000 | $575,000 | 2019: https://hdoa.hawaii.gov/add/files/2022/02/202202vegrv.pdf 2020-2022: https://www.nass.usda.gov/Statistics_by_State/Hawaii/Publications/Vegetables/2023/202302vegrv.pdf ## On Pumpkin Poi Poi palaʻai (pumpkin poi), was common enough to be included in [Wehewehe](https://wehewehe.org/gsdl2.85/cgi-bin/hdict?e=d-11000-00---off-0hdict--00-1----0-10-0---0---0direct-10-ED--4-------0-1lp0--11-haw-Zz-1---Zz-1-home-pumpkin--00-3-1-00-0--4----0-0-11-00-0utfZz-8-00&d=D29923&l=en). Similar to other poi like poi palaoa ([definition](https://wehewehe.org/gsdl2.85/cgi-bin/hdict?a=q&r=1&hs=1&m=-1&o=-1&qto=4&e=q-11000-00---off-0hdict--00-1----0-10-0---0---0direct-10-ED--4--textpukuielbert%252ctextmamaka-----0-1l--11-en-Zz-1---Zz-1-home-poi%2Bpalaloa--00-4-1-00-0--4----0-0-11-00-0utfZz-8-00&q=poi+palaoa&fqv=textpukuielbert%252ctextmamaka&af=1&fqf=ED#hero-bottom-banner), [nupepa](https://nupepa-hawaii.com/2012/10/03/poi-made-from-wheat-flour-in-kalawao-and-kalaupapa-1879/) [recipe](https://kaiwakiloumoku.ksbe.edu/article/recipes-poi-palaoa)). Use of both poi palaʻai and poi palaoa are noted on Molokai as a replacement for kalo [[@boggs_1977, [nupepa](https://nupepa-hawaii.com/2012/10/03/poi-made-from-wheat-flour-in-kalawao-and-kalaupapa-1879/)] > Rachel Naki's description of life in Wailau valley before 1919: > Hard as it may have been where they grew up, ==pioneers on the homestead lands at Hoolehua all stressed how much harder the early days had been there==. The solution for them had been relentless effort--and prayer. This is the recurrent theme of work upon the land. All available resources also were used. Surplus water from the nearby plantation was rescued, a tank was built to store it, and taro was planted. But ==there wasn't much water and taro was scarce. They ate pumpkin in place of it--"pumpkin poi" it came to be called.== People went hungry in those days. Parents would feed the children in the evening, drink a little water, and then go down to Moomomi Beach at night to catch fish and crabs. The children did not realize until later that their parents were starving. Work was hard. Some recall planting corn by hand, as children, guiding the mules, piling dirt around the shoots on hands and knees in windswept fields, and tying down the watermelon vines to keep them from spinning around in the wind. The kuleana of their former homes seemed idyllic by comparison. [@boggs_1977] https://www.kumupono.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/MaKaeo110-Appendix-A-1.pdf [Transcript of Robert “Lopaka” Kalani](https://www.kumupono.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/MaKaeo110-Appendix-A-1.pdf), born in 1939 at Pä‘ia, interviewed by Kepa Maly: > KM: Your küpuna were so knowledgeable about the resources of the ocean and the land. People look at ‘äina like this now and they think oh why would anyone live out here? But you know they knew where the water was, they knew how to take care of themselves. > RK: That’s right. ==My grandpa them used to grow pumpkins, potatoes.== > KM: Even down at the house down here? > RK: Yes, ==down in Makena. And the squash. And my mom said you know what grandpa them used to do, they used to get the dirt, the lepo and put it in between the lava rocks in the stone wall and you throw the seed inside there and let them grow.== > KM: Amazing! > RK: Yes. And the vine is all over the stone wall. > KM: Sweet potatoes like that, the pala‘ai, the pumpkin, the pü, squash like that? > RK: Yes, yes. KM: I was told that your uncle grew tobacco too? Do you…? > RK: Yes. > KM: I guess that must have been a pretty strong smoke for them. [chuckles] > RK: He grew tobacco. In fact when we would come down [chuckles], had this big leaves, just go get the stick and hit it. Oh my uncle would say, “Get away from there!” > KM: Yes, you were wrecking his crop. [chuckling] > RK: And now today, I think, “Aye, they was smoking the weed!” Group: [laughing] > KM: Interesting! ==They were living down there and able to grow adequate crops== just to take care. Wow! > RK: ==If no more poi, they had the ‘uala. == > KM: Ku‘i, make poi ‘uala? > RK: ==Make poi ‘uala, make pumpkin poi, when the pumpkin grows. And then when they went to town of course then they would get the poi and come home.== They used to make their own down there. Hawaii's pumpkin poi was distinct from other foods of the same name elsewhere in the Pacific. For example in [Pitcarin](https://www.newspapers.com/image/539104949/?terms=%22pumpkin%20poi%22&match=1) or Tahiti which were a coconut milk sweet drink or baked with co ## 'Ōlelo Hawai'i - [ipu kālua](https://www.trussel2.com/HAW/haw-i.htm#ipukalua) .  n. baked pumpkin or squash. - ipukalua [i-pu-ka-lua].  s. The name of a vegetable. - [ipu pū](https://www.trussel2.com/HAW/haw-i.htm#ipupu).  same as [pū₃](https://www.trussel2.com/HAW/haw-p.htm#pu), a general name for pumpkin and squash.[](https://www.trussel2.com/HAW/refs.htm#Gram.) - ipupu [i-pu-pu].  s. _Ipu_ and _pu_, fruit of the squash kind. A pumpkin; a squash. - [‘Opū pala‘ai](https://kawaiola.news/columns/olakino/opu-palaai/). lit. Pumpkin Stomach – Said in ridicule of one with a large protruding abdomen. –‘Ōlelo No‘eau #2537, ridicules a person with fat stomach. - [pai palaʻai](https://www.trussel2.com/HAW/haw-p.htm#paipalaai).  n. pumpkin pie. - [palaʻai₁](https://www.trussel2.com/HAW/haw-p.htm#palaai).  n. original name for pumpkin (_Cucurbita pepo_), as well as squash, named for their resemblance to a long-extinct gourd of the same name. see also [pū](https://www.trussel2.com/HAW/haw-p.htm#pu). - [palaʻai](https://www.trussel2.com/HAW/haw-p.htm#palaai).  n. pumpkin. see [ipu](https://www.trussel2.com/HAW/haw-i.htm#ipu) - [palaʻai](https://www.trussel2.com/HAW/haw-p.htm#palaai) [Kepanī](https://www.trussel2.com/HAW/haw-k.htm#kepani).  n. kabocha, Japanese pumpkin - [poi palaʻai](https://www.trussel2.com/HAW/haw-p.htm#poipalaai).  pumpkin poi - [pū₃](https://www.trussel2.com/HAW/haw-p.htm#pu).  n. general name for pumpkin or squash. also [ipu pū](https://www.trussel2.com/HAW/haw-i.htm#ipupu), [palaʻai](https://www.trussel2.com/HAW/haw-p.htm#palaai).[](https://www.trussel2.com/HAW/refs.htm#Gram.) - pu.  A gourd; a pumpkin; a squash; _pu_ lima, the hand _doubled up_. See the verb, 4. - [pūpalaʻai](https://www.trussel2.com/HAW/haw-p.htm#pupalaai).  n. pumpkin. cf. [pū](https://www.trussel2.com/HAW/haw-p.htm#pu), [palaʻai](https://www.trussel2.com/HAW/haw-p.htm#palaai). [](https://www.trussel2.com/HAW/refs.htm#Gram.)[(Galuteria 48)](https://www.trussel2.com/HAW/refs.htm#Galuteria) ## Other tidbits to be timelined ### In fishing as *palu* Glazier [-@glazier_2019] notes the use of pumpkin as *palu* (bait/chum) > Hawaiians developed distinct kinds of palu and approaches for attracting diferent species. For instance, vegetable matter such as taro and pumpkin were traditionally used to attract and train ‘ōpelu at ‘ōpelu ko‘a along the Kona side of Hawai‘i Island (Abbott 1999; Glazier 2007: 91). Pumpkin was used for feeding and catching fish, as noted by @titcomb.pukui_1951: > Fishing grounds were never depleted, for the fishermen knew that should all the fish be taken from a special feeding spot (ko'a) other fish would not move in to replenish the area. When such a spot was discovered it was as good luck as finding a mine, and ==fish were fed sweet potatoes and pumpkins (after their introduction) and other vegetables so that the fish would remain and increase.== [@titcomb.pukui_1951, pp. 12] > They [humuhumu] were caught by lowering a basket with cooked pumpkins or sweet potatoes as bait into a school. They ate greedily. [@titcomb.pukui_1951, pp. 74] When used as bait, pumpkin would be grated, as noted by Fred Kaimalino Leslie in a 2001 interview by Kepa Maly: >KM: What did you feed them? >FL: Mostly taro those days. Pumpkin you can use pumpkin. >KM: Pala‘ai. >FL: Pumpkin, taro you grate ’em. ><https://kaiwakiloumoku.ksbe.edu/article/kanaka-insights-keohohou-mitchell-myra-luika-maile> ### In mele > Hula master Joseph Keali‘iakamoku ‘Īlālā‘ole-o-Kamehameha (1873–1975). Born in Puna, Hawai‘i, ‘Īlālā‘ole descended from both Alapa‘inui and Kamehameha I. It is through another of his high-ranking ancestors—his grandfather Kupake‘i, a rebel chief of Ka‘ū—that ‘Īlālā‘ole inherited "‘Āhia," the hula kālā‘au that lives to this day as a result of the efforts of his cousin and student Mary Kawena Pukui. Given below are the two "new" verses of the "‘Āhia" collected by Helen Roberts from J. P. Hale. Roberts identifies Hale’s version as having been composed at Kahuku Ranch, Ka‘ū, in 1875. This nine-verse version, however, consists of the older ‘Īlālā‘ole text with the new verses inserted between the fourth and fifth verses of "Uncle ‘Ī’s." The corrected text, orthography, and translation are those of Kawena Pukui as handwritten in the Roberts’ manuscript. > Hele a o luna a palaai momona *The one above is as plump as a pumpkin* > O ka nelunelu o ka opu‘u *With the soft plumpness of a bud* > A he meli ka hoa e like ai *This mate is like honey* > Waiu kahe o ka nahele *And the flow of milk in the forest.* > Where ‘Īlālā‘ole’s text is built on the native images of bubbling water, swaying lehua, fragrant hinahina, and the forest’s dizzy spinning, these =="cowboy" verses compare lovers to plump pumpkins, honey, and flowing milk.== We suggest that these are the verses composed at Kahuku, and that they were appended in 1875 to the older and more delicate mele inoa. > <https://kaiwakiloumoku.ksbe.edu/article/mele-ahia> ### Around Kona as a crop Pearl Pualani Lincoln Dinson (1932-1988) Tracy Bryant, as told by her mother Darlyn Pilialoha Dinson: > Grandma could cook. She would go out in the coffeeland and come back with “stuff” to cook. I didn’t know at that time that it was pumpkin, squash, eggplant, and other vegetables that were abundant on our property. I always thought she was just finding stuff to cook from the forest because we couldn’t buy real vegetables like carrots, celery and potatoes from the grocery store. > <https://kaiwakiloumoku.ksbe.edu/article/kanaka-insights-dinson-pearl-pualani-lincoln> Myra Luika Maile Ke‘ohohou-Mitchell, interviewed by Kepa Maly in July 2002, reports that her grandfather planted, among other crops, pumpkin: > KM: ‘Ae. Kou pā ‘āina makai nei, ua kanu paha o tūtū i ka ‘uala? > *Yes. Your lands here, near the shore, did your grandfather plant sweet potatoes* > MM:     ʻA‘ole, i uka, kula. Hala ‘oe i ke ala nui ma Kāhikolu, ‘ehiku eka ma laila. > *No, it was above on the kula. You pass the road by Kāhikolu, there are seven acres there.* > KM:     ‘Oia ka ‘āina kula? > *Oh, the kula land?* > MM:     ‘Ae. Kanu ‘oia i ka ‘uala me ka ‘ulu, a me ke kalo. Pau loa kēlā mea. > Yes. He planted sweet potatoes, breadfruit and taro. All of those things.*  > KM:     Pala‘ai paha, pū? > *How about pumpkin, squash?* > MM:     Pala‘ai, i kai nei me ke kō maoli. > *Pumpkin down here near the shore and native sugar cane.* > <https://kaiwakiloumoku.ksbe.edu/article/kanaka-insights-keohohou-mitchell-myra-luika-maile> William Johnson Hawawakaleoonamanuonakanahele Paris Jr. (“Uncle Billy”, born 1922), interviewed by Kepa Maly in April 1996 > KM: So this is Ho‘omanawanui’s hale here. > BP: Trousseau Road is right, if you go a little; you see the gate, that’s where the Trousseau Road came down. > KM: So this pā [enclosures/walls] where the niu [coconuts] are now, you’d said it was a pā niu, pā mahi‘ai [coconut grove and garden plot]? > BP: ‘Ae [yes]. > KM: So for more dryland cultivation down here. You know, with perseverance and hard work, but they aloha [love] so much the land eh. > BP: Yes. > KM: They didn’t tire of working it. Even this niu is nice too, the hua [nuts], small, you know. > BP: You know, when you make palu [bait chum], we use the oil from the niu ka‘a [the dried coconut meet that rolls around in the unbroken nuts]. You know, when you get that coconut that goes caaraca, raca, raca [mimicking the sound of the rolling coconut]. You use that one. > KM: And look at this small one like that, nice for make ‘ūlili [a native musical instrument, rattle]. > BP: Makai of the paddock, mauka side here, belongs to Allan Wall, but we use it, and then this is Ackerman. There land is on the other side. > KM: Yes. So Ho‘omanawanui’s time, and when you were young like that, he was still growing things down here? > BP: Yes. > KM: ‘Uala [sweet potatoes] and ... > BP: Pumpkin. > KM: Ahh—pala‘ai [pumpkin] like that. > <https://www.kumupono.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/1999_02_26_Keauhou-to-Kaawaloa-Kona-Hawaii-PDF-2.pdf> ### Nupepa results https://nupepa.org/gsdl2.5/cgi-bin/nupepa?e=q-0nupepa--00-0-0--010-TX--4--samano+---text---0-1l--1en-Zz-1---20-about-%5Bsamano+%5D%3ATX--0013samano+-1-0000utfZz-8-00&a=q&r=1&hs=1&fqv=palaai&fqf=TX&qt=1&fss=&t=0&query=palaai As discussed by Greene et al. (1993) and supporting literature, certain items were highly valued by the indigenous residents: > During the early Western contact period, Hawaiian farmers were able to increase the production of goods and commodities to meet the traders’ demands and satisfy the needs of the ali‘i without a major dislocation of island economics. Hawaiians quickly learned the value of their goods and showed a strong ability to barter. On Hawai’i [Island], early traders found plentiful sugarcane, breadfruit, coconut, plantain, sweet potatoes, taro, yams, bananas, and hogs, as well as introduced oranges, watermelon, muskmelon, pumpkin, cabbages, and garden vegetables (Townsend 1888)…It was not long before Hawaiians began to demand clothing, cloth, pitch, four, and other western products. As described by one trader, “the islanders…ceased to care for objects of mere ornament, and preferred in their trafc cloth, hardware and useful articles”. (Jarves 1843b: 125) (p. III-C-3) ## Hawaiian Pumpkin - A mix of kobocha and European squash that resists Hawaiian wasp stings [source](https://www.tastingkauai.com/blog/hawaiian-pumpkin-soup/) - Hawaiian pumpkin (Cucurbita moschata) accession 'Shima' [source](https://www.mdpi.com/2311-7524/6/1/14/htm) - Kibei Nisei in Hawai'i were often called "Japan bobora" One interviewee explained that since the color of the Hawaiian pumpkin is yellowish, the Hawai'i-raised Nisei called Kibei Nisei "bobora," [^1] a pejorative term used for someone who is "yellow on the outside and yellow on the inside as well." Nisei, on the other hand, were often described as bananas, "yellow on the outside, white on the inside" implying they had assimilated to mainstream American (white) culture. [Social Process in Hawaii](https://scholarspace.manoa.hawaii.edu/server/api/core/bitstreams/f714136a-ef0c-4518-9526-543486fbd573/content) [^1]: According to the Encyclopedia of Japanese American History (Niiya 2001:133), this expression was taken from the Portuguese word for pumpkin and supposedly came into use after Japanese contract laborers sprinkled pumpkin seeds onto their thatched roofs, causing pumpkins to grow. Portuguese immigrants, who settled in the Kumamoto prefecture, arrived in Japan as early as 1567. ## Errata ## Varieties Noted - Boston Marrow - Butterfly Brand canned Boston Marrow squash label - https://www.thehenryford.org/collections-and-research/digital-collections/artifact/83383#slide=gs-484411 - Kona Crepe - Kona Crepe pumpkin variety - covered in the Federal Register (~1942) for maximum price control during WWII - Hawaiian pumpkin 'Shima' ### Culinary Breeding Network > Glenn Teves of the Molokai Extension Office and Jay Bost of GoFarm Hawaiʻi were co-hosts of the online seminar, _Tropical Squash_, on the Culinary Breeding Network’s YouTube channel. > > Glenn and Jay collaborated with Linda Wessel Beaver of the University of Puerto Rico and Edmund Frost of Commonwealth Seed, a farmer breeder with whom both they share germplasm. > https://cms.ctahr.hawaii.edu/fcs/SiteAdm/Alumni-News-Articles/ArtMID/51791/ArticleID/1974/Extension-GoFarm > View the **[Zoom](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ec2LNtsbi68)** presentation. ## Samantha Robinson - pumpkin season is hurricane season ## Glenn Teves call ?/?/2023? - focuses more on moschata varieties, they are hardier in the islands - they will cross with kabocha varieties is planted - we could've grown a lot of pumpkins in Hawaii, but Japanese and Okinawan preferred hyotan and togan (benincasa) varieties - benincasa used as root stock to grow watermelons in Waianae to address a fusarium wilt - winter melon soup from benincasa, de-seeded then hot soup is poured in and sides are scooped out - Glenn taken by Alvin (UH food science) to Taiwan, he brought back some seeds and have now - Jay Bost is part of Utopian Project growing squash (and taro) in North Carolina - Poi Palaai still made by families on molokai - Poi palaoa likely less so.. - Homestead act success demonstrated on molokai based on evidence of production of pumpkin and watermelon ## Anna Peach zoom 03/27/2023 - been traipsing about Mesopotamia collecting and growing pumpkins - people still reach out to talk about pumpkins, but also still make some fun about one being so engaged in pumpkin as an interest - the crop has many layers - Family & Meaning on Kabocha Crop in Lalamilo - in lalamilo the crop is very integrated in first, second, and third generation japanese farmers - there was a sense that if the [kabocha] crop failed, the family had been failed - snails and slugs became a carrier for mixed lettuce in the area, and kabocha could've helped get folks through the lettuce concerns - strains of kabocha seeds were carried forward between generations - anna offered up some other seeds for folks to try in their "gardens" - turns out the seeds she'd left ended up being very productive and the producer was pleased with the volume of crop - lima beans (black and white peruvian variety) she was growing were also quite popular - anna's effort was to find a variety resistant to pickleworm - the worm was likely brought in with a cucumber crop from florida - a benefit of the crop is that it does not carry any foodborne risk - "i could roll it in manure, and then hose it down, and it's fine" - Origins - family generations of farmers - lived previously in kukuimaile and would see kabocha along the highway - when she came back some years later, didn't see the kabocha growing along the roadside - - in march of 2012, came back to the island and was gardening for a family, they had a kabocha that was quite hardy - looked up USDA import and crop data, and found that research data was not longer being collected because there weren't enough producers to make the data allowable to share - seemed like the crop was failing, and got interested to trying and bring back kabocha production - went around and talked to producers, including Chris Robb, and learned that squash crops being grown were destroyed by pickleworm - made a list of all the crops that people told her had failed, and then looked to see what was in common. all were pepo species, but the variety she was interested in (moschata) seemed to be more resilient. - essentially, pick some failure and try to have a comeback. - Boston Marrow? - knows of/about marrow varieties - UK friends didn't find marrow too tasty - marrows are british varieties - In early seed catalogs the Boston Marrow was a darling - possibly renamed as an added ribing to the english post boston tea party - always associate marrows with England - variety differences - maxima get sweet initially, but that can attract various pests, requiring additional care - moschata get sweeter with age - 98% of squash want a spike in heat that is sustained (say a hot summer) and then cool down - hawaii's climate means that some of the kabocha here become perennial here - can however take forever to produce - after a first harvest can prune the vine back a bit and if the roots aren't disturbed later crops can appear, though often with less productivity - Other - ==don't normally get two years from squash== - a common approach was kabocha thrown in with the compost heap that would reseed - a small cannonball looking kabocha started being imported - possible vector - weren't as tolerant to powdery mildew or shade - the local kabocha failed at some point, possibly from - tahitian squash, popular in california, overside butternut looking - found a LOC image of a kabocha/japanese squash from 1854 or so - another looked more like a butternut - looked like the black kabocha anna would grow - so maybe similar to what was brought over by japanese plantation laborers - a landrace varient - worth looking into how melon fly got into hawaii - ==old timer's rumors were that california growers didn't want hawaii to be successful== - ==med fly and possibly melon fly were intentionally introduced to cripple hawaii's ag industry to reduce competition with california growers== - sense is that from citrus to other crops there was - Hawaii has five or so types of fruit fly, nearly all of them. with the five nearly any food crop in hawaii will be impacted - med fly - melon fly - oriental fruit fly - multiple subtypes found in hawaii - old farmers question how things got to hawaii, sense was that the pests showed up before imports increased considerably - ranchers had reached out to see what was growing on their various lands, found [fig leaf/malabar gourd](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cucurbita_ficifolia) - like spaghetti squash on the inside - only one in its species so it doens't cross - ==was the crop popular in hawaii in the 80s?== - we import pipinola to the state! - used on her farm to make little structures