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COCONUT, NIU
(Cocos nucifera)

Niu, the coconut palm remains an enduring romantic symbol of the tropics. The principal coconut-growing regions are within 22 degrees north or south of the equator. Hawaii is near the northern limit for coconut growing, but many excellent varieties thrive although they do not bear as abundantly as they do further south. Most varieties of coconuts now growing in Hawaii were introduced within the 20th century.

Early records indicate that the coconuts brought by ancient Polynesians on their migrations from the south were smaller than modern coconuts. It has been said that coconut palms have lived in Hawaii for 1,600 years. There are still remnants of ancient Hawaiian coconut groves. Puna, on the Big Island contains the largest continuous groves in the Islands. Others are at Honaunau and Laupahoehoe on the Big Island; at Waihee, Wailua Nui and Makena on Maui, at Poka’i and Punalu’u on Oahu, at Wailua (a famous sacred grove), Koloa, Hanalei and Ha’ena on Kauai and at Wailua and on Molokai.

In legend, the coconut tree is the body of the god Ku. The whole leaf is a symbol of high rank and divine power.

Coconuts grow best on the warmer, leeward sides of the islands. The trees are often standing within reach of the ocean spray, although they may grow at higher elevations as well.

The coconut can grow spontaneously. Its buoyant husk and leathery outside skin enable it to float for three to four months in salt water and still germinate. Even so, when the Hawaiian voyaging canoes arrived there were sprouted coconuts on board. Along with the hala tree, the kukui nut tree and the hau tree, coconuts helped to provide many of life’s necessities.

It’s interesting to note that the Sanskrit for the coconut tree is “kalpa vrisksha,” the tree that produces all the necessities of life.” In Polynesia, it is a custom to plant one coconut tree for each newborn baby. The idea was that since the tree lives about the same number of years as a human being, the child would be guaranteed food for his lifetime. Coconut trees may live 60 or 70 years; some live as long as 100 years or more.

The coconut palm supplied fruit for food and drink for the Hawaiians, though not as extensively as on the coral atolls of Polynesia where drinking water from springs was scarce. Coconut water was considered the best medicine for diabetes and it was used in other medicinal preparations as well. Because there was such an abundance of choices for food, the meat of the coconut was used mostly in desserts by Hawaiians, usually in combination with taro root or breadfruit and arrowroot.

When crushed the dried meat, copra, provided coconut oil which was used for cooking, for lights, and for cosmetic or healing lotions. Opihi (limpet) shells were used to scrape the meat from the coconut shell. The oil for anointing the body and hair was obtained by placing grated coconut flesh along with some fragrant plant like maile or flowers in a wooden container. The container was left in the sun until the oil separated from the flesh, then squeezed through a strainer made from ‘ahu’awa, a marsh plant, that was then discarded.

The husk provided coarse fibers for sennit rope. The fibers are separated, cleaned and spun into sennit by twisting or braiding. Coir cordage was used for many purposes, depending on the diameter of the rope. Frequently it was used for canoe lashings and for tying stone adze heads to their wooden handles. Only rarely was it used for lashing house timbers or as twine for fishing nets. Other fibers were available for those purposes. Net supports for gourd and wooden food containers were often made from sennit. Sometimes cracked wooden bowls were repaired with sennit, and it was used to lash together the parts for knee drums or to attach shark teeth to weapons.

The leaves could be woven into mats for various purposes, but unlike the other Polynesians, Hawaiians did not use the leaflets to plait baskets. The base of the leaf or frond stalk served as a beater or pounder to firm the bank of the lo’i, taro patch. The whole leaf trimmed at base and tip and split along the midrib, was plaited to make panels for the roofs of canoe sheds. The last three feet at the tip of the front of the leaf served as a prod to poke into crevices in the reef and scare the fish. Softer leaflets were plaited into fans or into a child’s ball.
The leaf midribs became a broom or, sometimes, a shrimp snare. They were often used to string kukui nuts for a candle. The midrib was also fashioned into a loop and ball game where the loop and the flexible stem was made of braided midribs. It was also used to make a kind of jew’s harp called the ni’au kani.

The hard shell served as containers. Shells cut lengthwise were called olo and were used by the priests. Shell containers cut at right angles were called ‘apu-niu and were used by the people. Hawaiians tied wooden handles to part of a small coconut shell to make ladles, and they fashioned several musical instruments – hand drums and rattles. Shells were also burned for charcoal.

For a strainer, Hawaiians used a clean piece of the fibrous material found at the base of the leaf cluster of the coconut. This fiber was also used for food wrappers, to wrap fish bait or to contain the ball of earth when transporting rooted cuttings and young plants.

The palm heart in the center of the cluster of leaves was a delicacy, but taking it meant killing the tree. Trunks became inferior canoes and logs for building. The swollen trunk base became the pahu hula, the large hula drum. Even the dried flower cluster became a garden rake.
Old-timers say that the way to make a coconut tree “pa’a,” root wide and deep and hold firmly, is to include an octopus at the bottom of the planting hole to give the root a spread and grip like the octopus and to produce nuts as bulbous as its head. In Kona, if a tree refused to fruit, it was a custom for a pregnant woman to hug it.

The origin of the coconut is uncertain, but most likely it is from Melanesia or the shores of the Indian Ocean. The name “coconut” is from the Portuguese word for “monkey” and refers to the “eyes” of the coconut shell.

The coconut palm grows to 80 feet and bears fruit after six to twelve years, continues to bear for up to 100 years and yields about 50 coconuts annually. Coconuts form continuously during the year and often you can see nuts of all stages on the same tree at one time.
The coconut contains its maximum liquid of four cups at 4 months and reaches its full size at 5-1/2 months. As the nut matures, the meat forms around the inside of the shell. The thin, white, jellylike layer that forms first is called “spoon” coconut in Hawaii. You need a spoon to eat it. The meat hardens at about 7 months, with full maturity at one year when all the liquid has solidified into nut meat. Nuts fall from the tree at 14 months.

The fruit consists of four parts: husk, shell or nut, coconut water and coconut meat. A ripe coconut is 35 percent husk, 12 percent shell, 25 percent water and 28 percent meat. The oval coconut is six to twelve inches long, six to ten inches in diameter and weighs seven to eight pounds.

The translucent liquid, coconut water, in the cavity of an immature, full-sized dark green nut preserves the moisture of the coconut meat. Water taken from an uncontaminated nut is usually sterile. In emergencies during World War II surgeons put coconut water directly into the patient’s veins when sterile glucose was unavailable. A first class drinking nut will contain nearly a quart of the water and will be so full that you cannot hear any sloshing when you shake it. It may also have a bit of a fizz to it. The soft, jelly-like meat in the coconut at this stage is called “spoon meat.”

Coconut milk is pressed from the meat of a ripe nut. Coconuts are ripe when the green husk is yellow or starts to turn brown and the white meat is thick and firm. They usually drop to the ground at this stage. Usually there is still some water in the cavity, which is made into coconut milk.

As the coconut matures, the water is absorbed by the meat and the meat continues to get thicker and harder. The meat goes from the spoon meat stage to a rubbery stage until it gets to be about ½-inch thick and very hard with only a little water left sloshing around inside. The coconut continues developing through these stages even though it is no longer connected to the tree.

After a coconut ripens, two things can happen as it matures. If the nut has not been fertilized, the water is absorbed into the meat and it begins to turn into oil The coconut at this stage is called copra. A copra coconut will not make any sound at all when shaken and will be very light to the touch when picked up. Copra is very sweet, but can be hard to digest because of its high oil content. Copra coconuts are used to make coconut oil and soap.

If the coconut is fertilized, after all of the water is absorbed into the meat, it will sprout. As the sprout begins to grow, a crisp, spongy ball begins to form inside the cavity of the coconut. This is the food the sprout will live on until its root system is established. When leaves are visible on the outside of the coconut, the spongy material inside is filling the whole cavity. You have a choice. You can chop open the sprouted coconut and use the spongy material as food or you can grow a coconut tree.

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WAILUKU ELEMENTARY SCHOOL

On May 23, 1904, the Wailuku School (now known as Wailuku Elementary) was dedicated. At the beginning of the new century, Wailuku School was the newest addition to the other 900 schools in the Territory of Hawaii. A prominent Honolulu architect described the new building as “the handsomest school building on the island or perhaps the country.”

The school was designed by the Hawaii’s premier architect, Charles W. Dickey. (Dickey also designed the Makawao Union Church in 1917, the Wailuku Library in 1929 as well as the Territorial Office Building, and the Wailuku Sugar Company Manager’s home in Wailuku, the Baldwin Bank in Kahului and the Kula Sanitorium in the 1930’s.) It was said the stones used for building the school were of equal grade to those used to build Honolulu’s Kamehameha Chapel and were better than the stone used for the Central Union Church on Oahu.

The school had been built on what was once a cow pasture. It replaced the deteriorating wooden school building just down the road (where Wailuku Union Church is located on the corner of High Street and Kaohu Street.) The old school was deplored as an eyesore. Editorials in the Maui News called the building’s condition “immoral and unsanitary” and urged the construction of a brick building which would be “a lasting monument and pride for the community.”

School children came by train to attend the dedication ceremony. The Wailuku Brass Band played “Hawai’i Pono’i” and Charles E. King, the most lauded musician of the Territory performed.
Superintendent of Public Instruction, A. T. Atkinson, in his dedication speech, spoke to the crowd about the history of the chief’s schools, the mission and private schools and the evolution of public schools. According to Atkiinson, Hawaiians were not allowed to marry until they could read and write. Adults went to school along with children because they too needed an education. At one time, he said, there were 25 common schools and 7 Catholic schools in Wailuku alone.

Senator H.P. Baldwin laid the cornerstone and buried a steel tube “time capsule” to commemorate the event. It contained an 1866 copy of the Hawaiian Gazette, a 1904 copy of the Maui News, some American and Hawaiian coins, Hawaiian stamps, reports from the Hawaiian Commercial & Sugar Company, a 1903 government report and the constitution of the School Improvement Association.

A year later, as an Arbor Day project, the students of the school planted the royal palm trees that lined the semi-circular driveway.

During World War II, the U. S. Army commandeered the school as a headquarters and barracks and classes were held in Wailuku churches and community buildings. Most of the concrete block classrooms adjoining the original building were added in 1951.

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Standard English: What do you mean, you're in love with someone else?.
Braddah-nics: Ho, wow, man!.

Standard English: Yes, those waves are the biggest I've ever seen!
Braddah-nics: Ho, wow, man!

Standard English: I agree, that really does look like a spaceship over Haleakala Crater.
Braddah-nics: Ho, wow, man!

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PUPU-STYLE SPARERIBS

Ingredients:

     5 lb   	spareribs
     4 	cloves garlic
     1 	large piece of ginger root, crushed
     1 	teaspoon salt
     1	cup sugar
     1 	cup soy sauce
     1 	cup catsup
     1/3 	cup oyster sauce

Procedure:
Cut spareribs into 1 1/2 inch pieces. In a large saucepot, combine ribs, garlic, ginger, and salt. Add water to cover ribs, bring to a boil, lower heat, and simmer until ribs are tender, about 1 to 1 1/2 hours. Drain. Combine remaining ingredients and marinate ribs in sauce overnight in the refrigerator. Place ribs on rack of broiler pan and broil 3 inches from unit for 7-10 minutes, basting with remaining sauce. Turn and broil for 5-7 more minutes. Makes 15-20 servings.

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TEMPLES OF THE CHIEFS

In Wailuku, astride two separate hillocks overlooking 'Iao Stream, are the ruins of two huge luakini heiau, remains of the temples where the ruling chiefs of Maui prayed and where human sacrifices were offered. From the top of these ruins, you can see all of Wailuku and Kahului laid out before you and the historic, rich land called Na Wai 'Eha, the Four Waters, which were fed by by Wailuku, Waiehu, Waihee and Waikapu Streams. In the distance the beauty of Haleakala shines clearly in the early morning sun and the turquoise waters of the harbor glisten.

Ticky-tacky houses crowd against the hillocks to the north and the industrial area of Kahului to the south is a less than inspiring sight, but you can imagine being a chief standing on the strategic hill, looking out over one of the largest taro-growing areas in the islands. Thousands of Hawaiians lived here, from Waikapu to Waihe'e, among the terraces of taro lo'i, fed by the abundant waters.

Legend has it that the first small temple on the site of the Pihana (or "fullness") heiau was built by Menehune "in a single night," according to Thrum, from stones brought from Paukukalo Beach. This small temple was later expanded during the early part of the 15th century and a part of the site was used as a chiefly residence, probably around the time of chief Ki'ihewa, one of Maui's chiefs. 

The first phase of the other heiau, Haleki'i (literally, "image house"), was constructed of the smooth, rounded cobbles and boulders hauled up from nearby 'Iao Stream as one of chief Kihapi'ilani's projects. Maui's ruling chief, Kahekili, lived at Haleki'i during religious ceremonies in the 1760s when its uppermost platforms would have held thatched huts interspersed with fierce carved wooden spirit images. 

Both heiau, archaeologists say, underwent major renovation during the 17th century. In a final building frenzy that took place during the 18th century, the Pihana heiau was re-oriented to face the island of Hawaii. At that time, Maui chiefs Kekaulike, Kamehamehanui and Kahekili were fighting with their Hawaii rivals. 

In 1790, Kamehameha I and his Big Island warriors celebrated their victory at I'ao Valley with another rededication ceremony of the heiau, which featured human sacrifices. 

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