Today I planted another taro variety called Ula‘ula Kūmū in the kalo library. Like the awa variety Moi, this kalo is named after a fish too, a tasty red goatfish called kūmū. Ula‘ula Kūmū is one the most brilliantly red stemmed kalo varieties and the corm has a slightly pinkish color that is great for both poi and table eating.
Before getting into all this farming stuff I had a much stronger connection to the ocean. Before leaving Oahu I went boogie boarding at diamond head with my roommate Gavin who got hooked on surfing at the time. Our group of friends loved to body surf at Sherwoods too.
Growing up, my father was a scuba instructor and I spent a lot of weekends at Walls in Waikiki. I loved to go fishing off of harbors and occasionally I would get to go on trolling adventures to catch ahi, ono, and mahimahi.
When I was 10 years old I had a 50 gallon salt water aquarium and I would go to Waikiki with a red dip net to collect fish. I caught all kinds of butterfly fish, puffers, wrasses, flounders and I even caught a hawaiian lionfish once. I became friends with these local uncles that were always cruising at the Waikiki benches. They ended up teaching me how to hunt for tako with a 3 prong spear.
Compared to Waikiki the waters off the Hamakua coast are treacherous. It gets deep quickly, strong currents, powerful waves and jagged lava everywhere. I’ve been here for 6 years now but I swam at Laupahoehoe point only a handful of times. Honestly I’m intimidated. There’s a lot big fish out here though and I know there must be a bunch of secret spots to catch lobsters too! I’ll stick to the land for now but one of these days I’ll revisit the ocean again.
Originally posted on 2021-12-12, part of the daily planting journal behind Ha’a Chocolate’s food forest on Hawai’i Island.