[tcb] Still in Hawaii still
- From: Denis Dodson <coocoo@xxxxxxx>
- To: tcb <tcb@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sat, 2 Mar 2013 15:06:36 -1000
Today we went the the Second Annual Ulu festival. Ulu is Breadfruit, the
stuff they were carrying on the Bounty when the mutiny happened. They were
carrying it to the Caribbean to feed slaves. It grows all around here in
people's yards and in the woods. Big tree. They slice it and cube it and
cook it like a potato or they beat the hell out of it for a looooong time
until it is yellow goo. That's called Poi. They also do this to Taro and it
comes out purple. I don't like it much.
So we were talking to this lady at the festival who said she owned a
produce farm down the road and that she had, "SO MANY AVOCADOS!. We went
there and it wasn't a farm as much as a fruit stand and live chicken
compound. The old hermit that came out showed us a huge mango tree,
pineapple plants with little 5" pineapples, still a year from harvest, and
a big avocado tree...with no avocados on it. I asked about a tree WITH
avocados and he took us on a walk to another big tree with lots of
avocados...in a neighbor's yard, behind a fence. A good deal of the
avocados were hanging on branches on this side of the fence. So, I guess it
was their's.
We bought a couple of massive avocados and three cocao pods. This tree was
far away, so we didn't go there. These are pods, football shaped about half
the size of a football. When you open it you get a slimy inside like a
pumpkin, with beans. These you dry and roast and grind for cocoa powder.
Somebody might, but not really me. I asked a chef at the festival if there
was a practical use for an ordinary guy and he said there were recipes and
instructions on-line. We'll see.
I did some yard work at Dave's yesterday and cut back a bunch of brush and
weed-eated and worked on a lava rock wall and in Texas and Arkansas I would
have been slashed with blackberries and stung by wasps and bitten by snakes
there is none of that here. Honestly. No thorns, aside of an occasional
mosquito, no bugs, and there are no snakes.
Before we went to the festival we went to a community yard sale. Dave's VW
mechanic was there and told us that tonight at the Home Depot in Hilo
(about 45 minutes) there will be the closest thing around to a VW gathering
that happens here. There, apparently, is not much of a club here. So.
that's probably our evening.
By the way, about all of these Vanagons, I talked to an owner of one in a
parking lot last night and asked him what was the deal with so many of
these. he said he didn't know but that somebody must have brought a bunch
over, that everybody he knows bought their's there, Also, his
girlfriend/wife/friend said that there was a company called " Happy Valley
Campers" that rents them out at Hilo. So, that might explain some of the
shiny ones, but there are still lots of road worn ones.
The parking lot guy said that keeping his on the road was a "challenge",
but that if it finally died he would put it on blocks and live in it.
ALERT!! EXTRA! You know when you're driving down the road and the squirrel
runs across in front of you? Well, here it's slower, and lowered. We saw
one when Dave was driving and I said what was that, it's a freakin'
mongoose. Mongoose running around. Dave said that they were imported to
kill the rats (that are an ecological disaster on some islands), but that
it didn't work because the rats are nocturnal and the mongoose are diurnal.
How'd you like to be the guy who green lighted that move?
It is hard to bring your dog over with vaccine and quarantine rules so,
most the dogs are just interbreeding and they are all pitbull types and
yellow.
All the tall grass growing wild on roadsides and in vacant areas and in
your yard is sugarcane.
Again, these are what I think is true, but I could be completely wrong.
Don't be surprised.
Other related posts:
