(HOST) On a Saturday morning earlier this year, commentator and executive director of the Vermont Humanities Council Peter Gilbert visited a farmers market in Honolulu – and found both very different from and similar to farmers’ markets in Vermont.
(GILBERT) The farmers’ market was held in a community college parking lot on the slopes of photogenic Diamond Head. As with Vermont farmers’ markets, what made it compelling was the dynamic among the local people and culture, the land and the products for sale.
In the middle of the Pacific, Hawaii, like Vermont, knows something about local food. But, of course, the food’s strikingly different, reflecting the many ethnic groups in Hawaii – Hawaiian, Korean, Japanese, Portuguese, Chinese, Filipino, and others.
There was fruit galore -the tasty little banana Hawaiians call Apple Bananas, papayas and green papayas, lychee still in the shell, and longan, or "dragon eyes," which are similar to lychee. Vermont has countless varieties of apples; in Hawaii there are numerous varieties of mangos and pineapple. While in Vermont venders forage for fiddleheads, in Hawaii locals forage for passion fruit and guava.
There were countless vegetables; the sign for kale I initially misread as some Hawaiian word that would be pronounced KA-le.
The flowers were stunning – heart-shaped anthurium, red ginger, and oodles of orchids – pink and white; huge heliconia, which look like lobster claws, both yellow and orange; and massive, fuzzy Protea, which looked like they were fresh-picked in Jurassic Park.
There was haupia – a traditional Hawaiian coconut milk-based dessert, and honey from flowers of guava, Macadamia nut, and Christmas berry trees.
There was coconut tapioca and green papaya salad.
There was barbequed abalone, Kalua suckling pig that’s roasted in a traditional manner and served often at luaus; poi-battered fish on an organic green salad; seared ahi steaks; salmon belly and taro leaf soup; and tasty dips and dressings made from taro, a Hawaiian staple and the root that poi is made from.
There was chocolate made from cocoa beans grown on the island’s North Shore.
Hawaii is a foodie culture – people love to eat. You can get breakfast at the farmers’ market; you could order scrambled eggs and rice with Portuguese sausage, or with Kim Chee, or with Spam. People eat a lot of Spam in Hawaii. I don’t know why.
There were round loaves of airy Portuguese sweetbread and taro sweetbread, which is light purple.
There was sushi, Teriyaki miso, and Butterfish bento. There was vegetarian soup made with apples and Kabocha – a kind of Japanese winter squash; and Andagi, which are Okinawan donuts that look like donut holes as big as baseballs.
The Chinese boiled peanuts were wet and soft. There was salmon fried rice for sale, along with curries and shrimp scampi. Or you could buy pizza by the slice.
Whether at farmers’ markets in Hawaii or Vermont, the joy is in reveling in the bounty of the land, enjoying the fruits of both labor and trees, and feasting on the local sights, sounds, smells, and tastes.