From a cacao to ‘ulu (breadfruit), how an enterprising kalo farmer is scaling up Hawai‘i made chocolate and cooperatively farmed ‘ulu
Manao Chocolate is one of the top few largest craft bean to bar chocolate makers in the US today. It was founded in 2010 by Dylan Butterbaugh, who was born and raised in Hawai‘i, as a way to build a local business from an environmentally sustainable tree crop and support supply chain transparency.
Tamara Butterbaugh, who owns Manoa Chocolate along with Dylan, is also a chocolate sommelier. And while she’s been building out an export market for chocolate, she is also building out the local supply chain for ‘ulu, or breadfruit.
‘Ulu is what is called a canoe crop: the crops that the original Hawai‘ians brought with them to the islands nearly 2,000 years ago. The crop plays an important role in Hawai‘ian traditional culture and was a valued staple crop until around the time of statehood in 1959, when American processed foods began to dominate the scene. Bringing it back now closes a circle on a wheel that was broken by the twentieth century agricultural industrialization of Hawai‘i. In addition, ‘ulu is one of the only staple food crops to grow on trees; it helps mitigate climate change, and ensures a long term abundance and prosperity in the local food supply chain. The beautiful ‘ulu tree helps to sequester carbon, it doesn’t need soil tilling or weed control, and it is heat and drought tolerant. One tree can live for 50 to 100 years or more and produce hundreds of pounds of fruit per year.
Tamara lives in Waimānalo where she maintains a 1-acre diversified farm with loʻi kalo (taro), maiʻa (banana), ʻulu (breadfruit), niu (coconut), and kokoleka (cacao)
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Credits:
Created, produced, and hosted by Paula Daniels
Sound engineer: Keola Iseri and Rob Pera
Project support: Sue Woodard
Theme music: Caryssa Shinozawa
Logo: Reiko Quitevis, Sue Woodard
Thanks to our sponsor, the Hawai‘i Institute for Sustainable Community Food Systems at the University of Hawai‘i - West O'ahu
Thanks also to the students at Waipahu High School for sound creation (Caryssa Shinozawa, Landon Guzman, Syd Sausal) and graphic design (Ashley Alfaro, Erika Pagtulingan, Reiko Quitevis); and their teachers, Noelle- lili Edejer and Sky Bruno.
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Paula:
If you've got the time, one way of settling into this episode would be with a cup of coffee and a chocolate bar from Mānoa Chocolate. You can find it pretty much anywhere you can find craft chocolate, and luckily for me, that's in my local grocery store. Mānoa Chocolate is one of my favorite chocolate bars. It's made in Hawai’i, and this particular bar I've got in front of me shows that the chocolate was sourced in Kealakekua, which is a lovely area on the Kona side of the Big Island. So it's grown, and roasted, and made in Hawai’i. It's as good for Hawaii's local economy as it is delicious.
Mānoa Chocolate was the idea of an entrepreneur named Dylan Butterbaugh, who was born and raised in Hawai’i. He began it in 2010 as a way to build a local business from an environmentally sustainable tree crop. It's now one of the largest bean-to-bar craft chocolate companies in the U.S. The story of Mānoa Chocolate company is indeed a success story of two innovative Hawai’i-based entrepreneurs committed to a restoration of Hawai'i's ecosystems and fair relationships throughout the supply chain in Hawai’i, and around the world. And it's about more than that. It's about a vision for how a food product can shape an ecosystem of people supporting restoration of the place they live in and love.
With Tamara Butterbaugh, the owner of Mānoa Chocolate, we have a deliciously descriptive talk about chocolate. She is also a chocolate sommelier. Along the way, we learned about the importance of fair pay to cacao producers, and the very specific way that terroir can express itself in Hawai’i, down to the watershed, or ahupua’a level. So we've talked about ahupua’a, and the importance of the ahupua’a, or watershed, concept of social and environmental ecosystems in each of our prior episodes. Tamara dials into it in her own unique way.
And while she's been building out an export market for chocolate, she's also building out the local supply chain for ‘ulu, or breadfruit. So in the second part of the episode, we explore how she's working at the Hawai'i ‘Ulu Co-op to get ‘ulu to all. We talked about how she's helping to scale up ‘ulu production in the islands, and build out value-added production. Value-add in food business parlance means any additional processing which adds value after the crop is harvested, which can include chopping it up and packaging it. We'll hear more about this in Tamara’s own words, about how the ‘Ulu Co-op has grown from 10 farmers to 120, and about getting ‘ulu, as well as kalo, or taro, into grocery stores and schools.
I can't emphasize enough the value of this effort, not only because of the benefits of building up supply of a local crop, but what it means in terms of a revitalization of what we call a canoe crop. The crops that the original Hawai'ians brought with them to the islands in the first century, nearly 2000 years ago. The crop plays an important role in Hawai'ian cosmology and was a valued staple crop until around the time of statehood in 1959, when American processed foods begin to dominate the scene. Bringing it back now closes a circle on a wheel that was broken by the 20th century agricultural industrialization of Hawai’i.
In addition, ‘ulu is one of the only staple food crops to grow on trees, so it helps mitigate climate change and ensures a long term abundance and prosperity in the local food supply chain. This beautiful little tree- the leaves of which and the fruit of which show up in Hawai'ian imagery and cosmology- helps us to sequester carbon. It doesn't need soil tilling or weed control, and it is heat and drought tolerant. One tree can live for 50 to 100 years or more and produce hundreds of pounds of fruit per year.
What the Hawai'i ‘Ulu Co-op is doing is more than a step in the right direction; it’s a path forward for local food systems in Hawai’i, and a model for other regions.
So I'm glad to be having this conversation with Tamara Butterbaugh about both chocolate and ‘ulu. Be sure to stay tuned or feel free to come back for part two of this episode, as we talk about the work of the Hawai'i ‘Ulu Co-op.
I'm your host, Paula Daniels. Welcome to the 30% Project podcast.
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Tamara:
Mānoa Chocolate is a bean-to-bar craft chocolate maker. That’s really special because it's a movement and style of chocolate making that's happening in the United States that just began in the early 2000s. And it came out of a cry for people really trying to understand where their food comes from. So there was a huge disconnect between the sourcing of the raw agricultural crop and then the end user and the consumer experience. And now we're coming back to wanting to appreciate local: local sourcing, local manufacturing. So the chocolate industry is no exception to that sensibility.
And it’s a really exciting time, similar to the craft beer movement that we saw in, you know, like the 90s, late 90s and 2000s, where it went from big industrial styles of beer to supporting your local brewery. And then there was a lot more education and literacy that came along with appreciating the art of beer making. For example, people know the difference between porters, and stouts, and IPAs, and lagers, and you want to go visit the brewery and talk about the hops, and then speak a little bit of the language. That is now happening in the world of chocolate, and it's really exciting because it's a reflection of supply chain transparency. So you know, the vast majority of chocolate that's grown globally is coming from, you know, two nations in West Africa. And these communities are a myriad of, you know, millions of small farmers in rural areas, and there's a supply chain where they're being paid, very, very cheap. And their cacao is being valued as just a cheap commodity. And it goes through multiple hands and brokers before it ends up in the big industrial chocolate houses.
So craft chocolate is the complete opposite. It’s makers like my husband who travel to communities that are looking to sell their cacao, but at a price that's worth their time, and values their work and their community. So the bean to bar style of chocolate making is, is premised on direct trade relationships with growers, so that the maker, the person forging the beans into chocolate, and the farmers are directly connected. And we're able to tell that story to the consumer, and value their work, and not be ignorant about where it's coming from. And you're tasting chocolate like you would wine. And when you're doing chocolate in this style, you're sourcing beans at some of the highest prices in the world, the money is going directly to those communities, those farmers, as opposed to brokers. Because the bean is handled in a much different way, and how it's fermented, you're actually able to taste the terroir.
You know, Hawai'i is the only state in the US that has the capacity to grow cacao. And prior to the craft chocolate movement, it didn't make any sense for Hawai'i to really invest in a big way into cacao, because we were never going to compete with, you know, child slavery type prices that were coming out of West Africa. We’re one of the most expensive places in the world to do agriculture. So only recently did cacao make sense within the American craft chocolate movement and style.
Paula:
Well, I have true confessions, I have several Mānoa Chocolate bars in my cabinet as we speak. I'm an absolute fan. I think it's really delicious chocolate, in addition to everything else that you said that's really important about it. I can tell, I do love single source chocolate, so I can tell when something's from Africa, or South America, sometimes I can tell which part of South America because of the earthiness, the nuttiness, or the fruitiness, I would say. And Hawaii's cacao terroir does taste lighter to me, and maybe has a little more fruit. Would you agree with that as an assessment?
Tamara:
Oh yeah, definitely, as a chocolate connoisseur, you know that you can't ever speak too broadly. But generally speaking, you know, Dominican Republic is known for tobacco notes and spices, and African beans have that deep fudge, roasted nut, kind of earthy tones that the world is used to tasting, because that's where the majority comes from, so we kind of - our palates are used to that. Central America has to almost like, fruity, creamy, nutty tones; and then Tanzania and Madagascar - intensely bright and tropical and acidic. And then Hawai'i has a very, very wide range of flavor profiles. But compared to other regions of the world, there's a tendency to have this, like, light, floral character with a little bit of fruity notes, tropical notes, and of course within that, like, for example, Kealakekua, lately it's been showing a lot of buttery caramel tones, kind of creamy, and I want to pair it with a buttery Chardonnay; it's kind of mild and light.
I helped my husband build the company from early days and my title was chocolate sommelier. And I spent, you know, seven years in the tasting room educating customers, people from all over the world, as well as locals. We're right above Cinnamon’s restaurant in Kailua town. So we're getting this awesome mix of so many people from our local community to world travelers. It was really a neat place. And I was able to have the conversations about where chocolate comes from. But I was always really confident when I was sharing the Hawai'ian cacao that you know, people would say, “oh, no, I don't like dark chocolate, like don't even bother”; I’d say “Oh, but have you had Hawai'ian cacao?” And I always felt confident that they would love it. Even if it's the first bar off the bat, I would give them our Kona grown. And they were like,“Oh, that's dark chocolate? Wow, it tastes like raisins.” And I'm like, “Yeah!” So you're right, Hawai'ian chocolate has a tendency to be more, like, pleasant and mild and soft.
Paula:
Oh my gosh, just listening to you talk about it, I want to go run and get one of those bars. Tell me how it got started that you got involved in Mānoa Chocolate, how you even came to be in Hawai'i and in this business.
Tamara:
Mānoa Chocolate started in 2010, and this was right after my husband graduated from the University of Hawai'i at Mānoa, Dylan Butterbaugh. And he was really looking for an industry that he could be committed to building something here in Hawai'i, as opposed to having to leave his home. He's born and raised in Kailua, and that's where our factory is. And, you know, he and I are both really environmentalists, but also business minded. And so we were really committed to choosing an industry where we could essentially plant trees, we wanted to plant trees, and that was his mindset. And he didn't know what that was gonna look like.
And it was really struggling for a little while, right? Like the year or two leading up to his graduation, he’s like, “What am I going to do?” He looked at forestry reforestation projects, he looked into, you know, looking at solar industry, but he met a College of Tropical Ag student whose job it was to focus on researching the potential for cacao for the state of Hawai'i. And this was under Dr. Skip Bittenbender at CTAHR. And his name is Daniell Doherty. And Dylan was invited, they were, you know, surf buds, and Dylan was invited into the labs where this research was happening. And then he had that “aha!” moment where he realized, hey, this is what I've been looking for. This is something that has real potential, that we're planting trees in Hawai'i, and all of these farmers that are up and coming and excited about cacao, they're going to need somebody to process. We need to make sure that we're making chocolate in Hawai'i as opposed to exporting. And so that's kind of the formulation of it.
Paula:
And it's now pretty big. I mean, if it's selling throughout California, I think at least, where do you- Where are you distributed?
Tamara:
We're now in Germany, Austria, France. Mānoa Chocolate won the Salon du Chocolat, which is like the creme de la creme of chocolate awards. They do take the Salon du Chocolat to New York, but we were one of, in 2017, we were one of two American craft makers that were invited into the bean-to-bar section at the Salon. It was us and Guittard, which is the oldest chocolate maker in the United States. And so that was a huge honor. And then we ended up taking home the Award de Saveurs, I'm probably not saying that right, where we won best bar.
Paula:
Wow!
Tamara:
And it was with the Hawai'ian cacao. So that was a really special moment.
Paula:
How does that rank in terms of chocolate manufacturers in the U.S., bean-to-bar?
Tamara:
Basically, we're one of the top two largest now, in the US. If you were measuring, like not compared to Guittard or Ghirardelli, you know, but looking at craft chocolate, we're in the top few largest at this point.
Paula:
That's fantastic! You've discussed the terroir of chocolate, which I find so fascinating. And I've been able to sense it, like on a sort of a regional scale. Like I know this is from West Africa, South America, Ecuador, etc. But is there a way that we can dial into the terroir in a more intimate way?
Tamara:
Yeah, I think similar to the wine industry, designation of origin and designation of place, like you have the DOC in Italy and AOC in the United States. And people who love wine, they want to know about the appellation, which is a specific region where the wine is coming from. And if you're interested in wine, you want to hear about the soil, the climate, the rainfall patterns, the history of the place, the style of the winemaking in that region. And I think that for cacao, you know, it's not a native tree, but it is a wonderful opportunity to take that same culture of wine and apply it to our ahupua’a system in Hawai'i. Because, you know, back when I was at college at the University of Hawai'i, there was this movement of understanding. There were t-shirts that would read “Know your Ahupua’a”. And just by putting that on the shirt, it would beg the question, well, what is an ahupua’a, and the fact that people in Hawai'i may not know that is just a darn shame. And so there's, like the city and county and town lines may not necessarily match up with the ahupua’a system.
Paula:
Which is a watershed ecology.
Tamara:
Right, and it's from mountain to ocean. And it's, it's the region, and it's also kind of like the social and economic structure of that place. And each region is special, and has a history, and should be understood and honored. And so since that time, now we have our ahupua’a designation markers, which is a really wonderful movement. And so when we're building out the Hawai'ian cacao industry, I think there's a beautiful opportunity to have this be an avenue to appreciate place in Hawai'i, and talk about ahupua’a. And not create like our own Hawai'ian cacao appellation, so to speak, but actually refer to the existing ahupua’a system as understanding the specific origins of where cacao is coming from, because it's an invitation to learn about the ahupua’a. So, for example, like we have a Ko’olaupoko blend, so you've got your mokupuni, your islands, you got your moku, which is our larger districts, and then you have your ahupua’a, and then within that, ‘ili – so you can go deeper and deeper, and then wahi pana, which is like super sacred places. So just framing what you're tasting and eating in relationship to the history and culture and place that you are, it's like it gives more of a reverence to Hawai'i, and invites people in. So we have, for example, a Ko’olaupoko blend. It's got a little bit of Kahalu’u, Waimanalo, Waiahole, but just having those, that conversation with people I think is very wonderful for Hawai'i to bring ahupua’a, like, into the forefront of the taste experience. Right?
Paula:
Yeah, and understanding the connection to place and what place means as an entire ecology of place, including the people in it. You're right, it's something that the more people know about it in Hawai'i, the more rich their own experience of life there, which can be very cluttered by the necessary tasks of day-to-day living. But there's such a richness in that, in Hawai'i, that it's hard to replicate. I can't imagine it anywhere else, you know, it's a unique place in the world. So it'd be wonderful to have people who come to visit understand that as well and be invited into that knowledge.
Tamara:
Absolutely. And I do see that, you know, with the ‘Ulu Co-op, this exciting revitalization of kalo farming all along the east side of Oahu. And I'm just thinking about the up and coming young farmers who experience, you know, internships in the lo’i and wetland taro cultivation, and maybe want to have a future as a kalo farmer. I mean, back in the day, before Western contact, there were 20,000 acres of kalo cultivation feeding our local population. And, you know, I think a few years ago, it was down to 200 acres, maybe now, up and coming around 300 and growing. So it's really exciting. That's the future of Hawai'i I want to see where there's, you know, we're restoring fish ponds, and we're reclaiming ancient lo’i and bringing them into cultivation. But it's, it's feeding into going to the grocery store and getting taken to the local hotel, and it's being served, you know, as exquisite culinary dishes, but those, those kalo farmers are going to need a future and a market. And I'm going to make sure that there'll be plenty of demand, and it feeds back into those systems.
Paula:
You're at this interesting point of having both locally produced cacao and beans that you bring in, and then roast, and put into your bars, and supplying the local economy with the chocolate and then exporting as well, which seems to be what a lot of folks in Hawai'i who look at local production think is the ideal mix. I'm wondering if you have thoughts on that, about building up the local food economy, and what's being grown in Hawai'i, and what percent is being grown in Hawai'i? How much should go toward the local consumption? And then how much of an export market Hawai'i can have as well.
Tamara:
I think for ‘ulu and kalo, like, there is potential for export, but there is no reason for that right now. Right now, we're actually, there's local markets, Polynesian markets that are importing ‘ulu from Fiji.
Paula:
- or Sāmoa.
Tamara:
Or Sāmoa, yeah. So we have a lot of opportunity to close the gap and to grow more ‘ulu and kalo locally and to feed our communities first. And that's really, like, that'll keep us busy for the next 20 years. Because the beautiful thing is the Hawai’i ‘Ulu Co-op has done a wonderful job of organizing, and working on supply chain issues, and helping make it easy and convenient for farmers to be able to find markets without scrambling. I mean, there's always going to be a place, if you're an independent farmer, to sell at your local farmers market, and ask for whatever price you want, and you can always build relationships with your local restaurant that appreciates farm to table, there's, there's always going to be that opportunity. But there's also a lot of folks out there that, you know, they might have an ‘ulu tree, and they've already given as much as they possibly could to their friends and family. And at some point, the stuff is going to rot. And so if there's convenient drop off locations, where you can make sure that the food doesn't go to waste, and you can encourage people to plant more ‘ulu trees knowing that they're going to have somewhere to sell it to at scale, that's, that's what the ‘Ulu Co-op does. And I think that's where, when we can all work together, we can really achieve scale and start making big moves by supplying hospitals, hotels, schools, various institutions, so we've barely even scratched the surface. And the hotel, now I'm seeing a lot of traction with institutions, schools, hospitals, hotels, and we, it's a good problem that we cannot keep up, at the moment.
Paula:
Yeah, so how is that going? And how would you characterize, like, the scale of your operations and where you think you could get to? Is it the number of farmers, or you spoke of tons in terms of cacao, like, where's your cooperative?
Tamara:
So the ‘Ulu Cooperative has 120, now we're at around 130 farmers. And we're primarily based on the Big Island of Hawai'i, that's where it was founded. So there was originally 10 farmers that wanted to work together to find efficiencies as far as harvesting their ‘ulu and bringing it to market. So rather than each person individually looking for markets, they could work together, pick up from each other, you know, have scale in order to deliver to buyers. So that was in 2016. And since then, it's grown to, you know, about 130 farmers at this point, and they're predominantly on the Big Island. And so we have two facilities, one is in Hilo, and one is in Kona, so in Honalo, by, in the Kona areas, where we do our manufacturing and processing. So the Hilo side is, is an aggregation site to make it convenient for farmers on that side. And then we also aggregate in Kona as well, but Kona is where we have our processing. So that's where we bring in the fruit, peel, steam, and prep, and then get it ready for commercial markets.
So I would say, there's about 70,000 pounds of ‘ulu that came in last season, we were expecting a little bit more. Sometimes it's hard to forecast, but we're working with researchers and our farmer outreach to kind of project, and sometimes you don't really know. ‘Ulu’s fickle and tricky because it goes off at different times in different microclimates. And depending on how you're fertilizing, or the rainfall patterns, or the way the trees were pruned, we're still trying to learn the cycle. So we could certainly use more fresh ‘ulu, always. And we know that there are a lot of trees going in the ground that are going to start producing later. But we're at about 70,000 tons now, as of last year. And we were hoping that it would significantly grow.
And it will over time, but right now our bottleneck is actually production. Like people, and space, and freezer capacity, and time. So having the staff. And right now we happen to be, it's like late September, and ‘ulu season was a little late compared to last year. Last year, it was kind of peaking in mid July, this year has started peaking in August, and, and through September. And now we're inundated with ‘ulu. So the last thing we want it to do is go to waste. So just keeping up with, making sure that the amount coming in so quickly, you know, there's only so much staff, and time. and space. And so that's our concern at this moment.
But at the same time, I'm starting to understand the customer base and what they need, and trying to allocate our inventory from Big Island to supply other regions. And it's much better for us to be supplying, if I have a customer on Maui, I'd rather be aggregating ‘ulu on Maui, and processing ‘ulu on Maui, and fulfilling it on Maui, as opposed to shipping it between islands. It's more efficient, it's less, you know, carbon intensive. It just makes sense all around. So we are looking at taking the model that we have on Big Island and expanding to outer islands, because I know there's ‘ulu out there. It's just a matter of organizing, and seeing if we can help the supply chains on the outer islands organize..
Paula:
I'd be interested to know who you're supplying to on some of the outer islands.
Tamara:
Sure, sure. I'm really proud that Kamehameha Schools Maui is one of our best customers. And was this past year. And it's really, truly thanks to their director of food services there, a wonderful individual, Bonny Davis, who just understood what we were doing and wanted to get more ‘ulu and kalo onto the menus. And just through the relationship that we had, calling and talking things out, and she had the patience to kind of, you know, have the conversation: “Here's how much we have. Let me think about how I can get it to you. Can you give me a day to give you a price? Let me think about distribution.” You know, because it was, it took a little bit of problem solving, how can I get, how can I act like a distributor? You know, because we do have great relationships with distributors, and we do work with them.
But sometimes I just want to get the ‘ulu to the people faster than that will allow. So what do I need to do to get the ‘ulu to the customer who wants it quickly, efficiently and at a price point that they can handle? Because also, if I sell to a distributor, I don't really know what their markup’s gonna be.
Paula:
Right.
Tamara:
You know, when you're trying to bring ‘ulu and kalo into institutions, they're very price sensitive, and you don't want to scare them off, because they're already comfortable importing potatoes at a really cheap price. If we're gonna have that conversation about ‘ulu and kalo, I want to make it as price tenable as possible for them. So anyway, Kamehameha Schools has been a wonderful partner. And you know, she's just like, “Okay, well, this is how much freezer space I have. If I order, you know, like, a pallet at a time, we can get efficiencies”, and you know, I matched a price that could work for her and we just made it happen.
Paula:
That's great. I want to talk a little bit about what ‘ulu is like. You did such a brilliant job of describing cacao and bean-to-bar chocolate flavors. ‘Ulu, I'm familiar with it. But for those who might not be, like, let me, let me back up and say, I think it's a beautiful plant. And I remember driving around Maui where my, the Daniels family is from, and my grandmother pointing out the ‘ulu, the breadfruit tree, and saying, “You know, we used to, in the old days, we used to bake that.” They used to just take it from the tree and bake it, like maybe they wrapped foil, and put in the oven, and bake it, and eat it. And to us that was the strangest thing ever. We'd never even thought about eating what people call breadfruit. And we call in Hawai'i now ‘ulu, and traditionally called it ‘ulu, but it was a staple crop. Can you tell us about it?
Tamara:
Yeah, so ‘ulu, I won't be the the teller of the story of how important ‘ulu is for the Hawai'ian culture. But it is a really important crop. Especially for the māla kalu’ulu, the belt in Kona where it's hot and dry. You know, kalo is super important for other areas of Hawai’i, and you can also grow kalo mala style, or dryland style in drier areas, but ‘ulu became really important for the Kona region. And you know, there's a story of, I believe it's Kū, who, during a time of famine, sacrificed himself to save his family. So it's really, there's really important mo’olelo and cultural connection to ‘ulu. And I love that. And I always am wanting to go deeper and deeper into understanding the, the cultural side of ‘ulu, but as far as just a wonderful crop to feed people, you know, one tree can produce upwards of 500 pounds per season. So it's incredibly productive.
It grows in many different environments, wet and dry. It's wonderful for like, soil and watershed. But the ‘ulu itself, it's seasonal, so it'll produce for like five, six months out of the year. And there are different varieties that can go off at different times. So you could, in theory, really plan to have year round production if you're using different varieties. The ‘ulu is about anywhere between, oftentimes like, one pound to maybe even five pounds. And it depends on the variety, depends on the season. There's different, once it starts to ripen, you have to act quickly so that it does not go to waste, but you can utilize it at every stage of ripeness. So in the underripe stage it can be pickled, baby ‘ulu can be eaten and pickled. The traditional method was to take a perfectly, you know like, mature ‘ulu and roast it over a fire for like an hour, and that's delectable, almost perfect, you don't really need to add anything. But of course you can add butter, and like in Jamaica, they put fish inside and spices, and cut off the top.
Paula:
That sounds delicious.
Tamara:
But yeah, there's different stages of ‘ulu. So there's mature ‘ulu, which has a little bit more of a firm, the skin inside, there's a core that you have to remove. And it sort of looks like a potato, but it has this, like, these fibers throughout that aren't really, like, you can't taste the fiber, really, but it's sort of, like falls apart in strings, sheets of strings. I don't know if that makes sense, but it tastes like a potato when it's mature. But of course, it's starchy and really high caloric content, and more nutrient dense than a potato. And once it starts to ripen, it softens a little bit, almost like, a little bit more mushy and savory, almost like a, like a sweet potato. And so you have ripe ‘ulu, which is a little bit more sugar content, and then you get to baker's ripe, where it's so ripe that you actually just open up the ‘ulu. It looks like it's about to rot, but it's like perfect. You just, you can't even cut it into quarters or wedges at this point, it's lost its firm texture, and you scoop out the inside and it's almost mochi-like or pudding-like. And it can be a wonderful substitute, like in vegan baking you can use it as a substitute for eggs, you can use it in puddings, or like custards, and baked goods. And it has a sweet, it smells sweet like bread and yeah, it's really wonderful. So for the baker’s ripe we call it, we actually scoop it out, and it comes, it sort of takes the shape of a one inch high, like, almost like a mochi slab, slab of mochi, and we steam it and then you can re-steam it and just serve it with some, like cacao nibs and honey on top, almost like a mochi sort of pudding.
Paula:
Wow, wow.
Tamara:
Yeah, a lot of people want to put it in a banana bread, or in a custard
So what the ‘ulu co-op does really well is we’ll receive, we guarantee, it's a farmer cooperative, so our farmers are part owners and they’re members. Basically, cooperatives all work together towards a common goal. So we're providing services for the farmers by helping them have easy access to markets, stable pricing, be a part of a community of other ‘ulu farmers, have access to technical information, know what to do with their ‘ulu if they don't want to sell it themselves. And, really, by working together achieves scale so that we can really make an impact in the food system here locally.
But also, we solve a lot of the issues for our customers, that maybe there's a chef that doesn't know how to work with ‘ulu. They're just, or maybe they're super ma’a to ‘ulu, they know, they're very comfortable working with it, they know exactly what to do. But they have a production line, they have a banquet that they need to serve, you know, hundreds of people at a time, and so they maybe really appreciate the fact that the ‘ulu already comes, you know, at the ripeness level that they were looking for. They can order that particular - is it mature or not? Or ripe, or Baker's ripe? Is its skin-on fully cooked or is it peeled and partially cooked? Because they're going to have a menu item where they want it partially cooked because they're going to re-steam it, and they want it to hold its shape, and mix it in for an ‘ulu poke. So they don't have to worry about the logistics of having farmers come to their back door and then sorting out by ripeness. The co-op is able to take care of that side of things and then the customers can go to town. It saves them time and they can bring, you know, manage their production line easier.
Paula:
A really, really important intermediary function. And part of what seems like the infrastructure, the agricultural infrastructure for that need, in order to build out its local food production capacity not only with ‘ulu, but with other crops. With kalo you have experience with as well, it seems like…
Tamara:
Yeah, I mean, it's kind of a game changer to have kalo delivered, already peeled and fully cooked. So the chefs can just get creative from there, and re-steam. Of course kalo is, you know, kalo, there's, just like cacao and coffee and many other crops, there's different varieties and styles. And different kalo has different texture, and flavor profiles, and terroir, if it's grown mala style, or dryland, versus lo’i style, it's going to taste different, different varieties in different regions. All of that is true and beautiful. But that is not necessarily what the ‘ulu coop is doing at this time. So there's very like, niche kalo, for different, different varieties for different uses, like ku’i. And then there's, you know, kalo for every day table that, we call it like kalo pa’a, where it's it's kalo that, you know, is a palehua blend, so it's like a Palauan-Hawai'ian mix.
And at this time, what we're doing is, we've kind of expanded to other crops, local staple crops or canoe crops. ‘uala, which is Okinawan sweet potato, and kalo. Because, you know, our farmers grow other things besides ‘ulu. So it started with ‘ulu. But in order to keep our operation running and to continue serving our farmers, during the offseason we're processing kalo and ‘uala, and we also incorporated pala‘ai, which is, you know, like Hawai'ian catch-all term for pumpkin. And so we do kabocha squash and other orange squashes or winter squashes. And this has helped to, you know, keep our team working in the offseason and then also provide additional, you know, farmer revenues for our members.
So anyway, we're mixing. Right now we're dealing with getting scale, and so we're mixing kalo from all the different sources. And so that's something to understand about the kalo that we're working with. Eventually, it would be beautiful to establish ourselves enough that you have your mix ‘ulu, and at least now we're sorting by, like ripeness level and quality. Is this good quality, A grade or B grade, sorting it out and sorting by ripeness level. Eventually, as the industry develops, we could separate by variety. We're not there yet. And continue that deeper education of like, this variety is grown in this region and it tastes this way, and it's used for, it’s best use for ko’i. Or this variety is best as table taro served as a kalo poke because it's firm and it holds its texture. So we're not there yet.
And I don't want to claim like we have “the best kalo”, but really, it's functional kalo that you can use as a substitute for potatoes, and you can use in like, different meals that people are eating every day. Like American style meals where if you're going to go get breakfast in Hawai'i, why not have kalo hashbrowns, right? Why not do kalo home fries or ‘ulu home fries, if you're going to be in Hawai'i, like do it differently and source the local foods. And that becomes a bridge for people to appreciate and kind of re-invest in the style of traditional agriculture that we do want to see in the islands. We can feed into those systems.
Paula:
So you bring up a point I was thinking about is like, getting it in restaurants, having it be accepted in those restaurants also that serve the tourist industry. Is that a consumer line that you're pursuing?
Tamara:
Yeah, absolutely. There's hotels, so tourist industry, but then also I feel there's a huge opportunity for local folks to eat more ‘ulu and kalo, and that has really not been tapped. When I was brought onto the team, one of my first projects was to help launch our retail line in local grocery stores. And so we have 12 ounce packets of pre-cooked, we call them recipe-ready local staples, and it's a set of four ‘ulu, kalo, ‘uala, and pala’ai. Brightly colored, you can find it in the frozen aisle, and it's now at Times, Safeway, it's coming to Whole Foods.
And so unless you knew somebody who was growing ‘ulu or kalo and happened to, like, pre-cook it for you, or you had to go find it at a farmers market and cook it yourself, which is fine. But for example, I mentioned I'm a kalo farmer. And I would sell my raw kalo in Waimanalo at a local farmers market, and a lot of folks would be like, “nah, I don’t, you know, it's too humbug for me. I just, I don't.” And these are local folks that couldn't be bothered. It's kind of, for the busy local person who wants to grab dinner and make something quick, with this line, you can go do your milk shopping, your egg shopping, and then you can also pick up some kalo, and then in three to five minutes of re-steaming you're feeding your keiki kalo that was grown in Hawai'i. So I think there's a lot more potential there for people in Hawai'i to incorporate this into everyday meals.
Paula:
That's great. And when we were talking about schools, too, so there's the tourist markets that they could sell it, you know, probably chef driven menus in restaurants, but then your retail market that you've just described, which I think is terrific. You're right. I think that taking the preparation, you know, the processing piece so that folks can, make it easier for folks to cook it quickly. And then there's the institutional market. You talked about Kamehameha Schools. Have you had any attempts, or any interaction with the Department of Education and other public schools?
Tamara:
Yeah, so prior to my joining the Hawai’i ‘Ulu Cooperative in July of 2021, we essentially grew out of a relationship with the Department of Education. And so we were supplying the DOE, public school system for a few years. And that really helped us scale. It was a real collaborative effort where we could tap into our farmer network. The Department of Education wanted other things, like banana and papaya, and we were able to supply that as well, and kind of work one on one with the DOE to meet them where they were. We helped develop recipes for the cafeterias, educational materials. That sustained, like 70-something percent of our business for a few years. And then with the pandemic, and the school shutting down for a period of time, that business dropped off, and ‘Ulu Co-op had to kind of like rethink our economic resiliency, like how are we going to diversify our customer base as opposed to have all of our eggs in that basket? So there's a precedent of working with the Department of Education that's really great.
And I think it's just a matter of institutional will, of finding the people in the DOE to continue reaching out to local organizations and farmers, and, and working together to say, what do you have? Can we like, understand your supply? And can we create procurement goals based off of what's available? And can we start to fold in? What's out there? But right now, the relationship is, you know, we've presented to the DOE, but haven't heard much. So, I mean, there's always the opportunity, it's just you need people like Bonny Davis at Kamehameha Schools Maui to actively make those relationships happen. I think there's still, the Department of Education is looking to hire a local food procurement services manager, I'm not sure what the title is. But yeah, there's just, we're, we're not seeing a lot of movement there, but it doesn't mean that we won't.
Paula:
When you were talking about building out to the outer islands, and the production, the processing, the coordination, the networking, that seems to me like it's an opportunity for economic development in those areas; for a state investment or other investment in local processing, infrastructure, in warehousing, in storage, in transportation, all of that. Which is really important, something that the USDA is funding - local food system infrastructure throughout the country. So your thoughts on that, and how that's going in the islands?
Tamara:
Yeah, I mean, I really enjoy working, building up supply chains. And we have these partnerships on the neighbor islands. For example, we're working with the Maui Food Innovation Center as our processing partner there, we have aggregation partners and processing partners on different islands. And then, as members join, the aggregators receive, intake the fruit, evaluate for A grade versus B grade, fill in the forms, and then the ‘Ulu Co-op pays out the farmers on the business side. And then we work with our processing partners to make the product on that island. And then we send out our ops team, we teach them how to make ‘ulu to our specifications. And then I manage the sales to the customers from that island. And so that's been really great.
And I enjoy building it out on Oahu. We partnered with Kahumana Organic Farms & Cafe, and it's helping them utilize their kitchen that they already have in place, you know, with COVID as well, there's a lot more room for that. They're under-utilizing their kitchen, and they have a lot more capacity to get use out of that investment. And so they are a processing partner for us as well. The question was just getting fruit to them.
So a lot of the issues was, is the trucking, figuring out how to have everything pencil out and get it from point A to point B. You know, I'm enjoying understanding the, like the frozen storage, the YB versus air cargo, Young Brothers like the shipping freight versus air cargo and, you know, in a dream, it would be nice to have a huge freezer facility in Honalo. We're going to get to that point. But you also still want to be fulfilling your customers from each island. And you also want to start in an environment where there's more demand for ‘ulu than there is supply; you want to be able to start creating hubs for aggregation in every neighborhood so that you can actually have access to that ‘ulu and get it closer to your customer base. So I don't know if that answered your question, but you know, we're working on it every day, and it's like a puzzle that we're putting together.
Paula:
Well and those pieces that you're putting together would benefit the crops that you're aggregating, processing, distributing, as well as others that are grown in those areas, too, I would imagine.
Tamara:
So it's an opportunity to tak, that infrastructure, and - my GM, Dana Shapiro, she's always trying to, anytime a farmer in our cooperative network has an abundance of a particular crop, we’re scrambling to find a market for it, because we always want to grow, you know, value to our farmers and try and serve them as best we can. So, you know, if you're already doing things like shipping fruit and finding buyers, it's not so hard to say, “Hey, can you take this dragon fruit too? Would you be open, there's many pounds of avocado on the shipment?” So we do a lot of that as well.
Paula:
It strikes me that you are a really key gear in this effort to move toward the Aloha Plus Challenge of getting to 30% local food production by 2030. That you’re a key leverage point, providing an awful lot of infrastructure, this aggregation and technical infrastructure, marketing infrastructure, all of that for Hawai'i. And I really appreciate that. I wonder if you have any thoughts about the Aloha Plus Challenge, and what it would take to get us there. So the goal is to get to at least 30% local food production by 2030, which is in eight years.
Tamara:
I think it's absolutely doable. It's just, if we keep having these conversations; and I think the main challenge is our imagination and the sort of tendency to be, “oh, that sounds too hard”, or “that would be a lot of work”. But if there's the commitment, it's possible for sure. We have a lot of agricultural lands that have so much potential and it's just a matter of getting the right individuals working on it and connecting the dots. So I don't think it's too hard with the right attitude to make it happen as long as we can work together and just know what resources are out there, to make the connections
Paula:
To cultivate entrepreneurialism and innovation in the ways that you shared it.
Tamara:
Yeah, I mean we could be contract growing, we could do futures, we could be just working with different potential buyers to grow out what's needed. It's absolutely doable.
[music]
Tamara:
My vision, or wish for the future of what Hawai'i would be, as far as its food system, would be a robust network of many small, midsize, and a handful of large farms and a patchwork that are all connected. So, a landscape throughout Hawai'i that is agriculturally diverse, not monoculture. But many small midsize independent farmers growing the crops they're passionate about, that they want to grow. And having people, when they come to Hawai'i, see a beautiful landscape of cultivated forest systems that are actively producing food. Both value-added sort of like luxury cacao, which is also, could be a superfood, as well as, you know, there's canopies of ‘ulu, understory of cacao and kalo and ‘olena. So basically diverse farms of many different growers, but each having access to hubs that provide markets for them. So, like the ‘Ulu Co-op does, or like our buddy Benfield in Kahalu’u, who aggregates for the cacao on the East Side and the Ko'olaupoko region and, and local manufacturing and processing as well.
I want to see people come to Hawai'i and just be taken by the incredible beauty of our farms, want to go be there because they're spiritually renewing, they want to help out because they feel connected to place. So, people coming to Hawai'i that sort of see our incredible agricultural productivity and the beauty, and then also don't leave here without eating ‘ulu or kalo and understanding the cultural importance, and how great and ono it is. And then people in Hawai'i that live here, that they incorporate these foods that we eat into our everyday diet. So you're having it for breakfast, you're making it as a side with fish.
Yeah, so I just see, I just see landscapes of diversified agroforestry systems where there's easy access for farmers to focus on what they do best, and related infrastructure and hubs that are popping up all throughout the state, that are convenient so that we can get it to the right consumers. At a price that's affordable for the buyer in Hawai'i, but then also that really makes a substantial difference in farmer income and farmer livelihood so that you would want to be a farmer and can make it possible to live here and farm.
Paula: I love that vision and, and I wish along with you that it comes to be. And it seems like it could be with some effort, a coordinated effort in Hawai'i. Tamara, thank you so much.
Tamara:
Oh, thank you so much for having me. It's been really fun.
[music]
Paula: Many thanks to our sound engineer, Keola Iseri, and to Sue Woodard for Project Support. And to the students at Waipahu High School, thank you Carissa, Landon, and Sid for your sound creation. Thank you Ashley, Erica, and Reiko for graphic design. And to their teachers, Noelle-Lili Edeger and Sky Bruno. And mahalo nui loa, much gratitude, to our sponsor at the Hawai'i Institute for Sustainable Community Food Systems at the University of Hawai'i, West Oahu.