Gearing up for the challenge

It's the eve of the Eat Local Challenge, and there are a million thoughts running through my head. Mostly about where I'm going to shop for my food (Chinatown, Whole Foods, Kokua, Foodland, farmers markets, that little produce stall on 9th and Waialae) and whether I consider soy sauce and fish sauce spices (verdict: yes, though I'm afraid I've opened the floodgates). When thinking about the pleasures I'll be giving up (like dining out and bread and olive oil), I think about what the purpose of all this is...I'm not trying to prove that we should start growing our own wheat, or that we shouldn't import olive oil; given our climate it makes more sense to import these, even factoring shipping costs. Instead, I'm trying to bring awareness to what we do have and what we should grow. Giving up olive oil seems like a silly exercise, but if I hadn't decided to, I would never have discovered Oils of Aloha's macadamia nut oil. If I hadn't given up bread, I would never have found myself mucking about in a lo'i in Kahaluu, learning about taro and poi and Hawaiian culture, in a quest to find a new starch to replace bread and rice.

One thing that I never really paid much attention to until faced with this challenge, doing research, and the current economic climate, is the idea of food security. I believe in nourishing our community, of course, but the idea that as part of the United States, that we might have our food supply cut off from us seemed like scare tactics. But I'm beginning to think that frighteningly, it's not a stretch. We are, after all, the most isolated island chain in the world, and we import 85% of our food. The scarcity of Hawaii ginger, as related by Cheryl To, of PacifiKool, could easily apply to any of our staples: potatoes, rice, meat. No one farms rice here anymore, of course...but have we now become so dependent on imported food, that if shipping becomes too expensive, or imports are contaminated, will we be unable to feed ourselves? Hearing news of food riots around the world, it's not something I want to find out...and so we need to encourage everyone to support local agriculture and seafood while we still have it to ensure that we'll still have it in the future.

Mealani's Taste of the Hawaiian Range

For years, as a food writer, I’ve covered the Big Island’s largest and best food event, Mealani’s Taste of the Hawaiian Range. I like this event because it’s all about eating locally produced food – and I mean everything is locally produced.

It starts with the ranchers of the Big Island that donate their beef cows, lamb, mutton, goat and pigs. Then the farmers donate their cabbage, broccoli, won bok, watercress, leeks, lettuces, tomatoes, cucumbers and so on. There’s mushrooms, honey, goat cheese, hearts of palm, coffee, tea, farm raised fish and abalone from the Natural Energy Lab in Kona, even bottled water from Keeau. The Taste is truly a Big Island homegrown event.

This year’s Taste is on Friday, Oct. 3 at the Hilton Waikoloa. I’m on the organizing committee this year so I have a vested interest in getting lots of folks to attend. Anyone who attends will no doubt delight in all the food to taste.

More than two dozen chefs from throughout the state are participating this year and it’s always amazing to see what delicious, creative dishes are served up at the Taste. I know I’ll be looking for the sausage made from Hawaiian wild boar by Chef Ed Kenney of Town. And a very new and special item: Hawaiian red veal from Daleico Ranch in Ka‘u. Chef Edwin Goto of the Mauna Lani Hotel will be doing veal sliders with this new tasty product that could soon be the next new protein on our tables.

Tickets for the Taste are an affordable $35 pre sale ($70 at the door). Call 808 885-5580 to order tickets or go to www.ctahr.hawaii.edu/taste

Slow Food Nation and Eat Local Challenge

I attended Slow Food Nation in San Francisco two weekends ago and had a wonderful, delicious, inspiring time listening to lectures touring the tasting pavilion (who knew that four hours would not be enough?!), staging at Coi (learning that mad scientist techniques like foams, thickeners, sous vide and essential oils can play up the fresh and local), reconnecting with friends in the Bay Area, and meeting up with friends from Hawaii who also came out for the event, despite rising airfare to the mainland. Eating local was just beginning to pick up when I lived in the city, and now that I’ve moved away, I’m jealous of everything the San Francisco Bay Area has to offer: olive oil, fresh milk and butter, endless varieties of juicy stone fruits, raw milk cheeses. But meeting up with people and thinking about the options in Hawaii, I muse…we don’t have it so bad here, either.

So I’m inspired to take up the eat local challenge. It may not be all golden peaches and olive oil as it is in the San Francisco Bay Area, but I’m pretty sure our volcanic soil has plenty of tasty treats to offer.

Through this challenge, I’m also hoping to explore another aspect of Slow Food: a reconnection with food traditions and cultures. At some point in the past, Hawaiians had no choice but to eat local. So I suspect at times that my diet will resemble theirs: fish, pig, breadfruit, and taro.

And along the way, I hope to answer some of the nagging questions in my head like:

• Does Hawaii currently have enough resources to feed everyone on the island? A lot has happened since those pre-Captain Cook days of self-sufficiency.

• Is local always better?

• How much more does it cost to eat local? Can eating local be affordable?

The guidelines of the challenge: For the month of October, to eat only foods grown in the Hawaiian Islands (goodbye flour and rice! I suspect rice paddies in Hawaii have gone the way of open space in Waikiki, but if you know of any, please let me know!)

Exclusions: Spices already in my cupboard (a lot of mainlanders also list coffee in their exclusions. We’re probably the only state for which coffee is “local”…I might start drinking it solely for that reason!).