Natural History

PINEAPPLE, HALA KAHIKI
(Ananas comosus)


Some say Christopher Columbus discovered pineapples growing wild on the island of Guadeloupe in the Caribbean in 1493. He traded some trinkets for it, probably. The Indians called the fruit "nana". The Spaniards called it "pina" and took it back to Europe where people called it the "fruit of kings." In Europe they are still called "ananas."

In Europe the pineapple became the symbol of hospitality and a luxury available only to the aristocracy. It was so popular in England that a certain nobleman actually rented pineapples for festive occasions. In France, King Louis XIV's passion for pineapple made it royal.

The first written account of pineapple in Hawaii appears in Spanish horticulturalist Don Francisco de Paula Marin's diary in 1813, when he mentions planting pineapples and an orange tree. Hawaiians apparently looked at it as an outsider. They called it, hala kahiki, "screwpine from a foreign land." By the mid-1800s, pineapples had gone wild and were being successfully cultivated as well. In 1863 whalers in Kailua-Kona were being provisioned with pineapple.

That's the usual story. There is another. In Puna, Ka'u and Kona on the Big Island as well as at Kaupo, Maui, wild varieties of pineapple called Wild Kailua have been considered a native plant. The Hawaiians used the fragrant "eyes" (maka) of the pineapple rind for leis and also ate the fruit. Apparently, around 1500, a Spanish vessel was wrecked near Kona and speculation is that it carried pineapple, native plants of the tropical America, for the crew. It is possible that the Wild Kailua pineapple came from that vessel or from other Spanish vessels that found their way to the Islands.

In any case, by 1901, a commercial plantation began operating. That was the year James Dole organized the first of today's modern pineapple companies. He began raising pineapples on a few acres at Wahiawa, Oahu. From 1922 to 1992, much of the island of Lanai, which was then owned by the Dole Corporation, was planted in pineapples, the single largest planting on Earth. (It was replaced by tourism after 1992.)

On Maui the Baldwin family began pineapple operations in 1903. The endeavor continues still as the Maui Land and Pineapple Company. If sugar was King, then pineapple was the Queen of island industry. By 1920, the total exports from Maui amounted to 730,000 cases of fruit.

Smooth Cayenne is the commercial variety now grown in Hawaii for both fresh and processed fruit. It was introduced in Hawaii in 1885 after a "considerable search" for an improved variety.

Another variety of pineapple, popularly called "Sugarloaf," is low in acid. It weighs from 7 to 10 pounds and has cream-colored, sweet flesh and a heady aroma. There is an absence of serration on the leaves of the crown, making it easy to harvest. Sugarloaf makes a good backyard plant, producing several crops throughout the year from the original plant.

Pineapples are a herbaceous perennial plant of the bromeliad family. It got the name from a vague resemblance to the pinecone. The tough rind, which is deep yellow or brown-green, has small hexagonal sections that fit together like a puzzle. Each of these sections is a botanically individual fruit. They merge to form the pineapple. The Chinese name, "Phoenix Pear" refers to the legendary bird that consumes itself by fire and then is renewed from its ashes. This is appropriate because the cactus-like pineapple plant grows from its own crown, the leafy part at the top of the fruit.

The fruit develops from a cluster of tiny lavender flowers on a short stalk growing from the center of the leaves. It is a collective fruit made up of many small fruits. The flowers fuse with the bracts to become fleshy and eventually form a fruit. It takes about six months for a commercial pineapple to mature. In home gardens, it can take up to two years.

The fibrous chewy pineapple core is the original flower stalk. For many locals, it is their favorite part, a carryover, perhaps, of time spent working in the pineapple cannery.

It is interesting to note that, according to one source, hummingbirds are prohibited in Hawaii because they are the main pollinators of pineapples, and pollinated pineapples produce undesirable hard seeds within the fruit.

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Arts & Culture

Alphabet Soup, Maui Style

Samuel Alexander and Henry Perrine Baldwin were the founders of Alexander and Baldwin (A&B) and East Maui Irrigation Company (EMI). Both were descendants of Maui missionary families and they began their association on Waihee Plantation as manager and assistant. The business partnership between these two men began in 1869 with the purchase of 11.94 acres of Bush Ranch for $110.

In 1876 Alexander, who was then the manager of Haiku Sugar Company, proposed to the company stockholders that they undertake the building of a major ditch for irrigating their sugar plantations. The Hamakua Ditch Company was organized and owned by the Haiku Sugar Company, T. H. Hobron/Grove Ranch Plantation, Samuel Alexander and his brother James, and Henry P. Baldwin.

Alexander secured rights from the government of King Kalakaua to collect water from the slopes of Haleakala to the east of Haiku Plantation, between Honopou and Nailiilihaele streams. The license required that the project would be completed by September 30, 1878 or all improvements would revert to the government.

The fledgling company completed the Hamakua Ditch in September, 1878, a few days within the time limit set by the lease. It extended from Nailiilihaele stream, intercepting the Kailua, Hoalua, Huelo, Hoolawa and Honopou streams as well as smaller streams along the way. The ditch was shorter than planned (17 miles rather than the estimated 25 miles) and much more costly than anticipated ($80,000 rather than the planned $30,000), but it was done on time and was servicing Haiku fields by July, 1877. This was the beginnings of the East Maui Irrigation Company, which became one of the largest privately owned water companies in the United States.

Meanwhile, during the next decade Alexander and Baldwin's plantation was incorporated as the Paia Plantation and included Haliimaile Plantation (Grove Ranch), East Maui Plantation and Seaside Farm. The agency of Alexander and Baldwin (A&B) was established in 1894. At its inception, A&B posted a net profit of $2,627.20 in 1895.

Between 1872 and 1900, the company took over more land and sugar mill operations.The corporate partners gained control of Hawaiian Commercial and Sugar Company (HC&S) in October 1898. Alexander and Baldwin became the agent for HC&S. By 1898, Alexander and Baldwin had bought out the two main railroad lines on Maui, the Kahului Railroad Company and Maui Railroad and Steamship Company.

By 1900 (at the time of its incorporation), Alexander and Baldwin, Ltd. had accumulated assets of $1.5 million. These assets were transferred to the new corporation, A&B, Inc.

A& B became a Hawaii corporation with principal office in Honolulu and a branch office in San Francisco. The first Board of Directors included Joseph P. Cooke, Wallace M. Alexander, James B. Castle, Henry P. Baldwin and Samuel Alexander. Henry was elected president.

In 1904, Sam Alexander was struck by a boulder while hiking with his daughter to the edge of Victoria Falls. Seven years later, Baldwin died at the age of 68 from failing health. The company kept on going, however.

After A&B acquired control of HC&S, work on the first of the big ditches, the Lowrie Ditch, began in July, 1899 and completed in September, 1900. This was followed by the construction of the Koolau Ditch, built in 1904 –1905, which extended the water collection system another ten miles toward Hana, around the Koolau Range to Makapipi in 1904.

On June 23, 1908, Alexander and Baldwin formed the East Maui Irrigation Company to succeed the 1876 Hamakua Ditch Company. Its purpose was to develop and administer the surface water for all of the plantations owned, controlled or managed by Alexander and Baldwin.

EMI's boundaries were from Nahiku to Maliko and included all the area where surface water was developed. West of Maliko gulch was controlled by HC&S. Another section of the island was added to the system when A&B gained control of Kihei Plantation in 1908.

Over the years, new ditches were constructed. The new Haiku Ditch was completed in 1914 with a capacity of 100 million gallons per day (mgd). It was mostly tunnel, partially lined, with a length of 54,044 feet. Kauhikoa Ditch was completed in 1915 with a capacity of 110 mgd and a length of 29,910 feet. Wailoa Ditch was started in 1918 and finished in 1923. This last is mostly lined tunnels with a length of 51,256 feet. Its original capacity of 160 mgd was later increased to 195 mgd. Once the ditch systems were completed, EMI began building water development tunnels.

EMI's collection system had 388 separate intakes, 24 miles of ditch, 50 miles of tunnel and twelve inverted siphons as well as numerous small feeders, dams, intakes, pipes, and flumes. The largest ditch, the Wailoa Canal has a greater median flow (170 million gallons per day) than any river.

Supporting infrastructure included 62 miles of private roads and 15 miles of telephone lines.

The water source for all of these ditches was primarily surface runoff from a total watershed area of 56,000 acres. Of this watershed, EMI owned 18,000 acres. The remaining 38,000 acres belonged to the state of Hawaii.

The state issued four licenses, named Huelo, Honomanu, Keanae and Nahiku to EMI for water arising on government land. Each license was initiated at different times and dealt with differing conditions. The value of the water was determined by its accessibility and distance from the fields and the price was tied to the price of sugar. The state's share was determined by the percentage of rain falling on government land.

The last of the four state-issued water licenses to EMI expired in 1986. A&B and EMI alternately hold revocable year-to-year permits from the State of Hawaii at flat monthly fees. EMI supplies Maui County between 850 million and 1 billion gallons of water per year for domestic purposes.

In 1905 A&B bought a part of the Matson Navigation Company, the major shipping line operating in the territory. (By 1969, they owned the Matson Navigation Company.)

In 1929, the new headquarters for the corporation opened its doors in the Alexander and Baldwin building in downtown Honolulu.

Meanwhile, the corporation sold its sugar interests in Kauai and consolidated the Maui operations into an enlarged HC&S in the 1930s while continuing pineapple operations as well as sugar plantations in Kahului until 1960s.

After World War II, the company entered into land development and real estate. They formed the subsidiary Kahului Development Company and began developing Kahului as a planned community, mostly for the benefit of workers who were affected by the shutdown of the plantation camps. It subsequently became A&B Properties.

In 1948, HC&S, based in Puunene, and Maui Agricultural Company, based in Paia, merged. (The latter had been formed by the founders as a merger of seven smaller independent East Maui sugar plantations.) Alexander and Baldwin owned about 35 percent of the stock in HC&S and Maui Agricultural. This merger consolidated all of A & B's sugar plantations on Maui under HC&S. In 1962, HC&S merged with and became a division of Alexander and Baldwin. EMI became a subsidiary of A&B.

HC&S continues to cultivate raw and specialty sugars and molasses and also generates and sells electricity to the County of Maui. Matson Navigation provides service to Hawaii, Guam and Micronesia as well as transpacific service between China and California.

A&B Properties now operates and manages commercial properties in Hawaii and in California. Their portfolio of investments was begun in 1989 with reinvestment from the proceeds of the sale of landholdings in Wailea. The company's residential developments include the Bluffs at Wailea, a 170-unit single family residential subdivision at Haliimaile, Kai Malu at Wailea, The Ridge at Wailea and The Summit at Kaanapali as well as Keola La'I, a residential condominium and commercial space development in downtown Honolulu.

The company remains the only "Big Five" company that still cultivates sugar cane. (The other Bigs were C. Brewer and Company, Theo H. Davies and Company, Amfac, and Castle and Cooke.) A&B still owns about 88,000 acres throughout Hawaii with large concentrations of land on the islands of Maui and Kauai and remains one of the largest landholders in the State of Hawaii.

Other companies under the A&B umbrella include the Kauai Coffee Company (established in 1987), the Kauai Commercial Company, a general freight and construction services company that grew out of the Kauai Railway Company, the Kahului Trucking and Storage Company that started out in 1879 as the Kahului Railroad.

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Braddah-Nics Lexicon

STANDARD: Is it possible?
BRADDAH-NICS: What? Can or no can?

* * * * * * * *

STANDARD: That's not true.
BRADDAH-NICS: Not!

* * * * * * * *

STANDARD: You are not listening to me.
BRADDAH-NICS: Eh! Deaf ee-ah!

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Local Grinds

Sweet & Sour Pork

Ingredients:

• 2 lbs. Pork cut Adobo style
• 3 garlic
• 1 can pineapple chunks
• 2/3 cups Aloha shoyu
• 3 tsp. Apple cider vinegar
• 1 cup of brown sugar
• 1 tsp. Cornstarch
• Salt & Pepper to taste

Procedure:
Boil pork in a pot on high heat, with cover open slightly, until meat is tender about an hour. While your pork is boiling grab a mixing bowl and pour shoyu, vinegar, juice from the pineapple can, brown sugar, garlic, salt and pepper. Mix well. When pork is tender, rinse well and remove all water. Return it to the stove on medium heat and add mixture and pineapples in. Stir well cover and let simmer for 15 minutes. Mix the cornstarch with some of the gravy from the pot until well blended in a cup or bowl then return it to the pot. Stir once more then turn off.

Mac Salad

Ingredients:

• 1 ½ cup elbow macaroni
• 7 baby carrots or 1 regular carrot
• 1 egg
• ¾ cup Mayonnaise
• 1 tbsp. Vegetable oil
• Salt & Pepper to taste

Procedure:
Boil water in a saucepan on high heat, when water reaches a boil add in oil then macaroni and the egg. Cook egg and macaroni for 20 minutes or until tender, strain and rinse under cold water until it has cooled down completely. Let it sit and drain in a colander. Clean egg seperately and put into a bowl on the side. Grate carrot(s) into a large mixing bowl then chop the egg very finely and add it in with the carrots. Add the mayonnaise and the macaroni. Mix well to evenly coat. Add salt and pepper then let it sit in the refridgerator for at least 15 minutes.

Deep Fried Ice Cream

Ingredients:

• 4 pieces of sliced bread per serving
• 1 container of vanilla ice cream
• 3 eggs
• 1 cup of vegetable oil
• 10 graham crackers
• 2 tbsp. Brown sugar

Procedure:
Cut the crust off for each piece of bread used. Scoop a hand-sized ball of ice cream onto a piece of bread. Place another bread on the top so that it looks like a ice cream sandwich. Cut two more pieces of bread into halves and use these to cover all four sides of the ice cream sandwich. Cup the bread covered ice cream and shape it into a ball making sure that all ice cream is hidden. Foil the ice cream ball tightly and let it freeze for at least 25 minutes. Beat the eggs into a bowl. Mash the graham crackers in a ziploc bag until it is crumbs. Add in the brown sugar and shake until well mixed.

Pour crumb mixture into another bowl. Put a saucepan on the stove on medium to high heat and let it heat up for at least 15-20 minutes. Check the oil by placing a tiny drop of egg inside. If it starts sizzling and turns the egg droplet crispy quickly, then it's ready. Take only one ice cream ball out of the freezer to prevent the rest from melting. Remove it from its foil wrapper, roll it into the eggs and make sure it is completely covered, then roll it in the crumb mixture well. Place it into the saucepan and let it sit for about 35 seconds or until it is golden brown, then flip and wait again until the opposite side is golden brown.

Remove from saucepan and into a plate of paper towels to remove excess oil. Plate it and add any garnishments like whipped cream and chocolate syrup. To enjoy it properly, eat it right after cooking.

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