Images of Old Hawaiʻi

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Riddling

Riddling – no, it’s not telling tough, puzzling stories with veiled double meanings.  It’s a process used in the making of sparkling wine (champagne – under the traditional “Methode Champenoise”.)
First, some very basics in wine making.
Grape juice has sugar; yeast is added and it ferments the juice, consuming the sugar – producing alcohol, carbon dioxide and heat.  Made in unsealed containers, ‘still’ wine has no bubbles.
In making a sparkling wine, first the winemaker makes a still wine (no bubbles) and puts it into a champagne bottle.
Then, to make the bubbles, a small amount of sugar and yeast is added to the wine in the bottle.
A bottle cap (like a Coke bottle cap) seals the bottle and it is set aside to referment; this traps the carbon dioxide bubbles produced by the fermentation of the added sugar and yeast.  This process also traps the dead yeast cells in the bottle.
After appropriate rest, it’s time to remove the yeast residue.  The bottles are put in A-frame holders and the riddling process begins.
Over several weeks of periodic turning and tapping of the bottle, the yeast residue slowly moves toward the cap.  (The video shows the riddling process.)
Now it’s time to disgorge the residue.  The bottles are set upside down in a freezing brine solution to freeze the yeast sediment and form a “plug” near the cap.  The bottles are turned upright, the cap is removed and the trapped gas shoots the frozen plug (with the spent yeast) out of the bottle.
Some extra sparkling wine tops off the bottle and a cork is added to seal the bottle.
The cork seal keeps the carbon dioxide in the sparkling wine (the wire cage over the cork prevents any possible premature decorking from the high pressure contained in the bottle.)
Chill your sparkling wine prior to serving.
To remove the cork, keep the cork pointed in a safe direction and remove the foil around the cork and wire cage (keep a thumb on the cork, just in case.)
With the cage removed, hold the cork in one hand (usually under a towel) and the base of the bottle in the other.
Turn the bottle, not the cork, slowly and gently.  You want the cork to ease off with a soft “whoof” (with the cork in your hand,) not with a “pop” – and the cork sailing across the room.
Usually, a tall, thin sparkling wine glass is best to extend the life of the bubbles in the wine (the flat, broad glass allows the gas to escape faster.)

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Tsunami in Hawai‘i

Today – March 11 – is the first anniversary of the Japan earthquake and subsequent tsunami.
               
A tsunami is a series of ocean waves generated by sudden displacements in the sea floor, landslides or volcanic activity.  In the deep ocean, the tsunami wave may only be a few inches high.  The tsunami wave may come gently ashore or may increase in height to become a fast moving wall of turbulent water several meters high.
In Hawaii, tsunamis have accounted for more lost lives than the total of all other local disasters.  In the 20th century, an estimated 221 people have been killed by tsunamis.  Most of these deaths occurred on the Big Island during the tsunamis of 1946 and 1960, two of the largest tsunamis to strike in the Pacific.
Here is a brief summary of some recent tsunami and their impacts in Hawai‘i:
1946
The tsunami of 1946 was generated by a magnitude 7.1 earthquake in the Aleutian Islands.  This tsunami struck the Big Island of Hawaii on April 1st.  The tsunami flooded the downtown area of Hilo killing 159 people and causing more than $26-million in damages.
1952
On November 4, 1952 a tsunami was generated by a magnitude 8.2 earthquake on the Kamchatka Peninsula in the USSR.  In Hawaii, property damage from these waves was estimated at $800,000-$1,000,000 (1952 dollars); no lives were lost.  The waves beached boats, caused houses to collide, destroyed piers, scoured beaches and moved road pavement.
1957
On March 9, 1957 a tsunami was generated by a magnitude 8.3 earthquake in the Aleutian Islands.  It generated a 24-foot tsunami that did great damage on Adak Island, especially to the fuel and oil docks.  The Hawaiian Islands incurred about $5,000,000 of damage in 1957 dollars.  The highest wave in Hawaii was 12-feet.
1960
The tsunami of May 23, 1960 was generated by a magnitude 8.3 earthquake in Chile.  The 35-foot tsunami struck Hilo, Hawaii causing severe damage.  61-deaths were recorded and $23-million in damage occurred.  In the area of maximum destruction, only buildings of reinforced concrete or structural steel and a few others sheltered by these buildings, remained standing – and even these were generally gutted.  Frame buildings were either crushed or floated nearly to the limits of the flooding.
1975
On November 29, 1975, an earthquake occurred off the coast of the Big Island of Hawaii.  When the quake-generated tsunami struck, 32 campers were at Halape Beach Park.  The sound of falling rocks from a nearby cliff, along with earth movement caused the campers to flee toward the ocean.  They were then forced back to the cliff by rising ocean waters.  The first wave was 5-feet high, but the second wave was 26-feet high and carried the unfortunate campers into a ditch near the base of the cliff, where they remained until the ordeal ended.  Two campers died and 19 suffered injuries.
2011
An earthquake measured at 9.0 magnitude, the sixth biggest since 1900, struck Japan on March 11, 2011.  The first tsunami waves reached Kaua‘i shortly after 3 a.m. and took about 30 minutes to sweep through the island chain.  Waves above 6-feet were recorded at Kahului on Maui and 3-feet at Haleiwa on the north shore of Oahu.  Lost homes, sunken boats, Kona Village Resort damage, and damaged piers and roads caused tsunami damage into the tens of millions of dollars; no one was killed or injured during the tsunami.
I have added some photos of tsunami impacts in Hawai‘i for several of the prior events (1946 – 2011) to a folder of like name in my Facebook Photos section.
http://www.facebook.com/people/Peter-T-Young/1332665638

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Sandalwood (ʻIliahi)

There are discussions and proposed legislation on ‘Iliahi in the legislature this year.  Here is a summary of some of the reasons on how we got to where we are with Sandalwood.
Sandalwood (ʻiliahi) has been highly prized and in great demand through the ages; its use for incense is part of the ritual of Buddhism.  Chinese used the fragrant heart wood for incense, medicinal purposes, for architectural details and carved objects.
Sandalwood was first recognized as a commercial product in Hawai‘i in 1791 by Captain Kendrick of the Lady Washington, when he instructed sailors to collect cargo of sandalwood.  From that point on, it became a source of wealth in the islands, until it’s supply was ultimately exhausted.
Trade in Hawaiian sandalwood began as early as the 1790s; by 1805 it had become an important export item.
Sandalwood trade was a turning point in Hawai‘i, especially related to its economic structure.  It moved Hawai‘i from a self-sufficient economy to a commercial economy.  This started a series of other economic and export activities across the islands.
In 1811, an agreement between Boston ship captains and Kamehameha I established a monopoly on sandalwood exports, with Kamehameha receiving 25% of the profits.  As trade and shipping brought Hawaiʻi into contact with a wider world, it also enabled the acquisition of Western goods, including arms and ammunition. 
Kamehameha used Western cannons and guns to great advantage in his unification of the Islands and also acquired Western-style ships, buying the brig Columbia for a price of two ship loads of sandalwood in 1817.
Between about 1810 and 1820, the major item of Hawaiian trade was sandalwood.  Kamehameha I rigidly maintained control of the trade until his death in 1819, at which time his son, Liholiho, took over control.
When Kamehameha I died, although Liholiho (his son and successor) should have inherited all of Kamehameha’s lands, the chiefs also wanted the revenue from the sandalwood.
Chiefs persuaded the king to give them an in on the royal sandalwood monopoly; trade continued at an accelerated rate, following Kamehameha’s death. 
In America, the Panic of 1819 (the first financial crisis in the United States) made it difficult for traders to obtain sandalwood for the China trade.
However, because the Hawaiian chiefs had become enamored of items of foreign manufacture, the islands provided an open market for goods like rum, clothing, cloth, furnishings and a host of other things.  Foreign traders shipped these goods to the islands, exchanging them for sandalwood, which continued to be in demand in China.
It was Hawaii’s first source of revenue and major debt.  Credit secured by payment in sandalwood saddled the Hawaiian Chiefs and the Islands’ struggling economy.
In 1826, the kingdom of Hawaiʻi enacted its first written law – a sandalwood tax.  Every man was ordered to deliver to the government 66 pounds of sandalwood, or pay four Spanish dollars, by September 1, 1827.  Every woman older than 13 was obligated to make a 12-by-6-foot kapa cloth.  The taxes were collected to reduce the staggering debt.
The common people were displaced from their agricultural and fishing duties and all labor was diverted to harvesting sandalwood.  This period saw two major famines as ʻiliahi was over-harvested to the point of commercial extinction in Hawaiʻi forests. 
Unfortunately, the harvesting of the trees was not sustainably managed (they cut whatever they could, they didn’t replant) and over-harvesting of ‘iliahi took place.
By 1830, the trade in sandalwood had completely collapsed.  Hawaiian forests were exhausted and sandalwood from India and other areas in the Pacific drove down the price in China and made the Hawaiian trade unprofitable.
Once reported as growing on landscape scales, today, there are only remnant patches of ‘iliahi.  Two places where it can still be relatively easily seen are on ‘Aiea Loop Trail in O‘ahu and an exclosure adjacent to the Kula State Forest access road on the way to Polipoli State Park.
It would be great if areas in Hawai‘i could be restored in sandalwood forests, to return this important legacy.