{"id":131586,"date":"2020-12-02T09:07:11","date_gmt":"2020-12-02T19:07:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/?p=131586"},"modified":"2020-12-02T09:07:11","modified_gmt":"2020-12-02T19:07:11","slug":"uh-maui-college-ulu-project","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2020\/12\/02\/uh-maui-college-ulu-project\/","title":{"rendered":"Culinary arts students participate in \u2018ulu project"},"content":{"rendered":"Reading time: <\/span> 4<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/span>
\"student
Jacob Devlin and Dawn (Kui) Hanks<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This editorial by University of Hawaiʻi<\/span> Maui College<\/a> Chancellor Lui K. Hokoana<\/strong> ran in The Maui News on November 28, 2020<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

One of the “canoe crops” brought by Polynesians to Hawaiʻi<\/span>, possibly as early as the third century, ʻulu<\/span> (breadfruit) is a food decidedly suited to our times. The mature fruit is a nutritious and adaptable substitute for a potato. It can be boiled, steamed, baked, fried, even made into crunchy ʻulu<\/span> chips. Maybe some of you opted for mashed ʻulu<\/span> rather than the traditional mashed potatoes on your Thanksgiving table. Young fruit can be pickled. Ripe—even overripe—fruit is sweet and creamy and delicious in desserts. The wood from ʻulu<\/span> trees is light in weight and was multi-purpose in ancient Hawaiʻi<\/span>. The National Tropical Botanical Garden\u2019s Breadfruit Institute at Kahanu Gardens in H\u0101na grows almost 100 varieties.<\/p>\n

Those ʻulu<\/span> trees in H\u0101na is where this story begins. It may appear to be a long—LONG—way from raising bison on the Great Plains of the U.S.<\/abbr> Mainland to cultivating ʻulu<\/span> in H\u0101na, but agriculture is agriculture, according to H\u0101na Ranch Manager Duane Lammers who actually traveled that road. “John Cadman (a chef and one of Maui\u2019s most ardent ʻulu<\/span> advocates) brought us our first trees from Kahanu Gardens and he introduced us to the ʻUlu<\/span> Co-Operative on Hawaiʻi<\/span> Island,” explains Lammers.<\/p>\n

\"students
Kaililipuhanoha Palakiko and Alexie Jan Calma<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

“This is the third year of production, and of our 100 trees, 87 are producing full tilt,” says Lammers. The fruit has to be shipped to the co-op on Hawaiʻi<\/span> Island for processing which is unwieldy, at best. “With all the disruption Young Brothers was starting to experience when the pandemic hit us, I knew it was going to get worse.” When he expressed that concern to Chef Gary Johnson, who has worked at several Maui restaurants and has done a lot of work with the Ranch, Johnson introduced him to Chris Speere<\/strong>, who heads up our Maui Food Innovation Center<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“I\u2019d been through the Maui Food Innovation program myself,” says Johnson who is now the garden coordinator for Grow Some Good, a program in multiple Maui schools. “Fortunately, I knew a lot of the players who would need to be involved. Along with Chris, we were able to fast track the partnership, including with the Department of Health.”<\/p>\n

So one Saturday morning in early October, a truck pulled up to the loading dock at the Food Innovation Center and delivered about 2,000 pounds (yes, a ton) of ʻulu<\/span>. Several of our culinary arts students were waiting. Over the course of the weekend—under the supervision of Speere and Johnson—they washed it, weighed it and cooked it in 350-pound batches to an internal temperature of 135 degrees, cut the ʻulu<\/span> in half, put them on sheet trays on rolling racks, rolled them into the walk-in refrigerator, cooled them, quartered them, seeded them, weighed them again and froze them. The following week, they were packed in 10-pound bags, then 40-pound cases, labeled and put back into the freezer. Ready to distribute. Ready to prepare, serve and eat. That process has taken place every weekend since then and will continue through December.<\/p>\n

Jacob Devlin<\/strong> is in his final semester of our Culinary Arts program. “A friend of mine was working with Nicolette van der Lee<\/strong> (director of the Sustainable Living Institute of Maui<\/a>) who was looking for someone to work with Native Hawaiian vegetables and plants. I was introduced to Chris Speere and started working on the ʻulu<\/span> project,” he says. “I had never heard of ʻulu<\/span> before. Now, I\u2019ve experimented with it in stir-fries and even in desserts. And I\u2019ve made ʻulu<\/span> scones!”<\/p>\n

\"student
Dawn (Kui) Hanks and Milmar Villanueva<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

First year culinary arts student Phrincess Constantino<\/strong> wasn\u2019t really familiar with ʻulu<\/span>, either. “In high school, I had worked with Chris Speere on an internship at the Innovation Center. So, when one of my professors asked if anyone was interested in the ʻulu<\/span> project, I thought it would be a good way to get some experience in a commercial kitchen. It\u2019s been a good and interesting experience.”<\/p>\n

The upshot? “With little lead time, the college provided us great information, leadership and enthusiastic students,” says Lammers. “It all serves as proof of concept for us and we\u2019re now looking at the possibility of building a processing plant for ʻulu<\/span> and for other products, as well, right here in H\u0101na.”<\/p>\n

As for Chef Johnson? “My purpose in this is to create a strong channel of locally grown canoe crops to be able to proliferate on the Island for our food security and sustainability. And I want ʻulu<\/span> to replace the potato in our diets.”<\/p>\n

Oh, and those tons of ʻulu<\/span>? They\u2019re being sold commercially by VIP<\/abbr> Foodservice.<\/p>\n

Sometimes it takes a village—and sometimes it takes an island.<\/p>\n

More information about the Maui Food Innovation Center<\/a> and the 东精影业<\/abbr> Maui College Culinary Arts program<\/a> can be found online.<\/p>\n

*Lui K. Hokoana is chancellor of 东精影业<\/abbr> Maui College. Kaʻana<\/span> Manaʻo<\/span>, which means “sharing thoughts,” appears on the fourth Saturday of each month. It is prepared with assistance from 东精影业<\/abbr> Maui College staff and is intended to provide the community of Maui County information about opportunities available through the college at its Kahului campus and its education centers.<\/p>\n

\"chef
Chef Gary Johnson (H\u0101na Ranch Lead for the ʻUlu<\/span> Processing Project)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This editorial by University of Hawaiʻi<\/span> Maui College Chancellor Lui K. Hokoana ran in The Maui News<\/em> on November 28, 2020.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[184,377,950,382,71,60],"class_list":["post-131586","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-academic-news","tag-culinary","tag-culinary-arts-program","tag-maui-food-innovation-center","tag-sustainable-living-institute-of-maui","tag-uh-community-colleges","tag-maui-college","entry","has-media"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131586","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=131586"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131586\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":131604,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131586\/revisions\/131604"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=131586"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=131586"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=131586"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}