An Appetite for Culture
How Maui farmers are cultivating ancient wisdom to feed a population—and a hunger for culture.
“I see this project as a total simile to the plight of the Hawaiian people,” says Pahia. “The practices that were used on this ‘āina [land] caused the degradation of nutrients. The same thing happened to the people and culture. Now we’re trying to build life in the lepo [earth]. We’re trying to build life in the kānaka [people], too.”
Kalo farmer Bobby Pahia takes you into his fields to learn about the plant that fed an ancient people.
Pahia’s Hoaloha Farm is a subsidiary of Nā Hoaloha ‘Ekolu, the restaurant group that encompasses Old Lāhaina Lū‘au, Aloha Mixed Plate, and Star Noodle in Lahaina; and Leoda’s Kitchen & Pie Shop in Olowalu. Every month, Pahia’s farm supplies 5,000 pounds of kalo to its parent company, cultural practitioners, and occasionally as poi to the general public at the Upcountry Farmers Market.
Pahia is also the president of Hawai‘i Farmers Union United’s Mauna Kahalawai chapter. He’s one of several Maui farmers working to reestablish kalo and other traditional Hawaiian foods known as “canoe crops” because they were carried in the voyaging canoes of the early Polynesians who populated these islands. It’s a pursuit that they hope will not only nourish people, but a culture as well.