Macadamia Nuts | Images of Old Hawaiʻi

October 20, 2022 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Pāhoa

Early settlement patterns in the Islands put people on the windward sides of the islands, typically along the shoreline. However, in Puna on the Island of Hawaiʻi, much of the district’s coastal areas have thin soils and there are no good deep water harbors. The ocean along the Puna coast is often rough and windblown.

As a result, settlement patterns in Puna tend to be dispersed and without major population centers. Villages in Puna tended to be spread out over larger areas and often are inland, and away from the coast, where the soil is better for agriculture. (Escott)

This was confirmed on William Ellis’ travel around the island in the early 1800s, “Hitherto we had travelled close to the sea-shore, in order to visit the most populous villages in the districts through which we had passed. But here receiving information that we should find more inhabitants a few miles inland, than nearer the sea, we thought it best to direct our course towards the mountains.” (Ellis, 1823)

An historic trail once ran from the modern day Lili‘uokalani Gardens area in Hilo to Hāʻena along the Puna coast. The trail is often referred to as the old Puna Trail and/or Puna Road. There is an historic trail/cart road that is also called the Puna Trail (Ala Hele Puna) and/or the Old Government Road.

This path was essentially the main thoroughfare through the Puna district before the late-1800s. Pāhoa was oʻioʻina (a resting place) on the trail. (Papakilo) Then it grew to become the principal town of lower Puna.

The evolving trail (first by foot, then by horse, cart and buggy, and finally by automobile) likely incorporated segments of the traditional Hawaiian trail system often referred to as the ala loa or ala hele. (Rechtman)

The full length of the Puna Trail, or Old Government Road, might have been constructed or improved just before 1840. The alignment was mapped by the Wilkes Expedition of 1804-41. (Escott)

People who traditionally had lived along the Puna coast were moving toward Hilo and into the more fertile upland areas of Puna in order to find paid work and to produce cash crops for local markets and for export.

The focus began to shift to the center of the Puna District and the developing sugar and related industries near ʻŌlaʻa, Hilo and the volcano region.

Before the turn of the century, railroad operations began – with lines running into Hilo. A main railroad line and several feeder lines were constructed in the early-1900s from Keaʻau to locations in lower Puna District.

The major line ran from Hilo through Keaʻau to the Kapoho area. A branch line ran from the ʻŌlaʻa Sugar Mill up past present day Glenwood. A second branch line ran to Pāhoa town.

Some suggest this is how Pāhoa received its name. “Then the train was put in from Hilo to Puna. One spur went up into Pāhoa; it was like a dagger into the forest. I‘m told this is how Pāhoa got its name. (Pāhoa means dagger.)” (Edwards; Cultural Surveys)

People began to work in the inland areas to grow sugarcane. The new road, the Pāhoa branch of the railroad, sugarcane agriculture and a logging venture all combined to create Pāhoa as a population center in the region. (Rechtman)

Macadamia nuts and papaya were introduced in 1881 and 1919; at the turn of the century, large-scale coffee cultivation was attempted. Over 6,000-acres of coffee trees were owned by approximately 200-independent coffee planters.

This fledgling industry couldn‘t compete with more successful ventures located in other districts, and after a few decades the coffee industry in Puna was abandoned. (Cultural Surveys, Rechtman)

By 1901, sugar dominated the island’s industry and landscape, and Hilo was the epicenter of production and export. Railroads connected sugar mills and sugar plantations in Hilo, the Hāmākua and Puna. The railroad also connected the mills to the wharves at Hilo Bay.

Early on, one of the major export items transported by the railroad was timber. Starting in 1907, the Hawaiian Mahogany Company began cutting trees to clear land for sugarcane. The logs were brought to Pāhoa Town to be milled, then sent to Hilo Harbor and eventually shipped to the US Mainland as railroad ties for the Santa Fe Railroad.

The lumber mill facilities and the railroad line that served them were located near the center of town where the Akebono Theater is located.

In 1909, the company was renamed Pāhoa Lumber Company. In 1913, the main mill facilities were lost in a fire; it was rebuilt that year the company was renamed the Hawaiian Hardwood Company.

The company closed down in 1916 when the Santa Fe Railroad ended its contract to buy lumber. The defunct company then leased its mill facilities, buildings and railroad tracks to the expanding ʻŌlaʻa Sugar Company. (Rechtman)

Today, Pāhoa Town has a main street – the former highway route before the construction of the by-pass road – that still retains much of the original street-wall of plantation-era structures, as well as some significant stand-alone buildings.

Most of the uses are commercial or civic. The County has acquired a large tract of land within Pāhoa Town, which presents a significant opportunity for community revitalization and a possible catalyst for economic activity. (Puna CDP)

August 26, 2017 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Mānoa – Home of Hawai‘i’s Commercial Agricultural Ventures

Mānoa translates as “wide or vast” and is descriptive of the wide valley that makes up the inland portion of the ahupuaʻa of Waikiki. The existence of heiau and trails leading to/from Honolulu indicate it was an important and frequently traversed land.

Mānoa Valley was a favored spot of the Ali‘i, including Kamehameha I, Chief Boki (Governor of O‘ahu), Ka‘ahumanu, Ha‘alilio (an advisor to King Kamehameha III), Princess Victoria, Kana‘ina (father of King Lunalilo), Lunalilo, Ke‘elikōlani (half-sister of Kamehameha IV) and Queen Lili‘uokalani.

In early times Mānoa Valley was socially divided into “Mānoa-Aliʻi” or “royal Mānoa” on the west, and “Mānoa-Kanaka” or “commoners’ (makaʻāinana) Mānoa” on the east. The Ali‘i lived on the high, cooler western (left) slopes; the commoners lived on the warmer eastern (right) slopes and on the valley floor where they farmed.

Mānoa is watered by five streams that merge into the lower Mānoa Stream: ‘Aihualama (lit. eat the fruit of the lama tree), Waihī (lit. trickling water), Nāniu‘apo (lit. the grasped coconuts), Lua‘alaea (lit. pit [of] red earth) and Waiakeakua (lit. water provided by a god). (Cultural Surveys)

In 1792, Captain George Vancouver described Mānoa Valley on a hike from Waikīkī in search of drinking water: “We found the land in a high state of cultivation, mostly under immediate crops of taro; and abounding with a variety of wild fowl chiefly of the duck kind … “

“The sides of the hills, which were in some distance, seemed rocky and barren; the intermediate vallies, which were all inhabited, produced some large trees and made a pleasing appearance. The plains, however, if we may judge from the labour bestowed on their cultivation, seem to afford the principal proportion of the different vegetable productions …” (Edinburgh Gazetteer)

The well-watered, fertile and relatively level lands of Mānoa Valley supported extensive wet taro cultivation well into the twentieth century. Handy and Handy estimated that in 1931 “there were still about 100 terraces in which wet taro was planted, although these represented less than a tenth of the area that was once planted by Hawaiians.” (Cultural Surveys)

“(T)he valley is under almost complete cultivation of taro”. “(T)he whole valley opens out to view, the extensive flat area set out in taro, looking like a huge checker-board, with its symetrical emerald squares in the middle ground.” (Thrum, 1892)

In 1825 an English agriculturist named John Wilkinson, who in his younger years had been a planter in the West Indies, arrived at Honolulu on the frigate Blonde. He had made some arrangement with Governor Boki, while the latter was in England, to go out and engage in cultivating sugar cane … and, probably, rum. (Kuykendall)

Although sugar cane had grown in Hawaiʻi for many centuries, its commercial cultivation for the production of sugar did not occur until 1825. In that year, Wilkinson and Boki started a plantation in Mānoa Valley. Within six months they had seven acres of cane growing and processing. The sugar mill was later converted into a distillery for rum. (Schmitt)

Over the years, sugar‐cane farming soon proved to be the only available crop that could be grown profitably under the severe conditions imposed upon plants grown on the lands which were available for cultivation. (HSPA 1947)

At the industry’s peak a little over a century later (1930s,) Hawaii’s sugar plantations employed more than 50,000 workers and produced more than 1-million tons of sugar a year; over 254,500-acres were planted in sugar.

The sugar industry is at the center of Hawaiʻi’s modern diversity of races and ethnic cultures. Of the nearly 385,000 workers that came, many thousands stayed to become a part of Hawai‘i’s unique ethnic mix.

Hawai‘i continues to be one of the most culturally-diverse and racially-integrated places on the globe. And remember, commercial-scale sugar production started in Mānoa.

That was not the only plantation-scale agriculture started in Mānoa. In 1885, John Kidwell started a pineapple farm with locally available plants, but their fruit was of poor quality. That prompted him to search for better cultivars; he later imported 12 ‘Smooth Cayenne’ plants.

An additional 1,000 plants were obtained from Jamaica in 1886, and an additional 31 cultivars, including ‘Smooth Cayenne’, were imported from various locations around the world. ‘Smooth Cayenne’ was reported to be the best of the introductions.

Kidwell is credited with starting Hawai‘i’s pineapple industry; after his initial planting, others soon realized the potential of growing pineapples in Hawaii and consequently, started their own pineapple plantations.

The “development of the (Hawaiian) pineapple industry is founded on his selection of the Smooth Cayenne variety and on his conviction that the future lay in the canned product, rather than in shipping the fruit in the green state.” (Canning Trade; Hawkins)

The commercial Hawaiian pineapple canning industry began in 1889 when Kidwell’s business associate, John Emmeluth, a Honolulu hardware merchant and plumber, produced commercial quantities of canned pineapple.

Emmeluth refined his pineapple canning process between 1889 and 1891, and around 1891 packed and shipped 50 dozen cans of pineapple to Boston, 80 dozen to New York, and 250 dozen to San Francisco.

By 1930 Hawai‘i led the world in the production of canned pineapple and had the world’s largest canneries. And remember, the first commercial cultivation of pineapple and subsequent canning of pineapple started in Mānoa.

Other smaller scale agriculture activities across the Islands also started in Mānoa. Wilkinson, noted for starting commercial sugar in Mānoa, also started commercial coffee in the Islands in Mānoa Valley.

Coffee was planted in Mānoa Valley in the vicinity of the present UH-Mānoa campus; from a small field, trees were introduced to other areas of O‘ahu and neighbor islands.

In 1828, American missionary Samuel Ruggles took cuttings of the same kind of coffee from Hilo and brought them to Kona. Henry Nicholas Greenwell grew and marketed coffee and is recognized for putting “Kona Coffee” on the world markets.

At Weltausstellung 1873 Wien (World Exhibition in Vienna, Austria (1873,)) Greenwell was awarded a “Recognition Diploma” for his Kona Coffee. (Greenwell Farms)

Writer Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain) seemed to concur with this when he noted in his Letters from Hawaiʻi, “The ride through the district of Kona to Kealakekua Bay took us through the famous coffee and orange section. I think the Kona coffee has a richer flavor than any other, be it grown where it may and call it what you please.”

By the 1930s there were more than 1,000 farms and, as late as the 1950s, there were 6,000-acres of coffee in Kona. The only place in the United States where coffee is grown commercially is in Hawaiʻi. And remember, ‘Kona Coffee’ was the same as that in Mānoa Valley.

Another commercial crop, macadamia nuts, also has its Island roots in Mānoa. Macadamia seeds were first imported into Hawaiʻi in 1882 by William Purvis; he planted them in Kapulena on the Hāmākua Coast. A second introduction into Hawaii was made in 1892 by Robert and Edward Jordan who planted the trees at the former’s home in Nuʻuanu Honolulu. (Storey)

“Brought in ‘solely as an addition to the natural beauty of Paradise’ (Hawaiian Annual, 1940,) it was not until ES (Ernest Sheldon) Van Tassel started some plantings at Nutridge in 1921 that the commercial growing of the plant began. On June 1, 1922, the Hawaiian Macadamia Nut Company Ltd. was formed.” (NPS)

The Van Tassel plantings were at ʻUalakaʻa on a grassy hillside of former pasture land (what we call Round Top on the western slopes of Mānoa Valley.)

Mo‘olelo (Hawaiian stories) indicate that Pu‘u ‘Ualaka‘a was a favored locality for sweet potato cultivation and King Kamehameha I established his personal sweet potato plantation here. ‘Pu‘u translates as “hill” and ‘ualaka‘a means “rolling sweet potato”, so named for the steepness of the terrain.

In order to stimulate interest in macadamia culture, beginning January 1, 1927, a Territorial law exempted properties in the Territory, used solely for the culture or production of macadamia nuts, from taxation for a period of 5 years.

In just over 10-years (1933,) “the Hawaiian Macadamia Nut Company has about 7,000 trees in its groves at Keauhou, Kona District, Hawaii, which are now coming into profitable bearing. The company has also approximately 2,000 trees growing and producing in the Nutridge grove on Round Top, Honolulu, or a total of 9,000 trees.” (Mid-Pacific, October 1933)

Macadamia nut candies became commercially available a few years later. Two well-known confectioners, Ellen Dye Candies and the Alexander Young Hotel candy shop, began making and selling chocolate-covered macadamia nuts in the middle or late 1930s. Another early maker was Hawaiian Candies & Nuts Ltd., established in 1939 and originators of the Menehune Mac brand. (Schmitt)

In 1962, MacFarms established one of the world’s largest single macadamia nut orchards with approximately 3,900-acres on the South Kona coast of the Big Island of Hawaiʻi.

Today, about 570 growers farm 17,000 acres of macadamia trees, producing 40 million pounds of in-shell nuts, valued at over $30 million. Additionally, nuts are imported from South Africa and Australia, who currently lead the world market, with Hawai‘i at #3. (hawnnut) And remember, commercial cultivation of macadamia nut’s started at Mānoa.

One last thing, Mānoa was home to the Islands’ first dairy; William Harrison Rice started it at what was then O‘ahu College (now Punahou School.) Later, Woodlawn Dairy was the Islands’ largest dairy (1879.)

As you can see, what became significant commercial-scale agricultural ventures in the Islands – Sugar, Pineapple, Coffee and Macadamia Nuts – all had their start in the Islands, in Mānoa.

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Manoa_Valley_from_Waikiki,_oil_on_canvas_by_Enoch_Wood_Perry_Jr.-1860s

Taro Lo’i Agriculture in Mānoa Valley-(UH_Heritage)-ca_1890

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Manoa-back of valley

Manoa-Lantana and Kiawe-PP-59-6-006

Buggies on Mt. Tantalus, Honolulu, 1900s.

Old Manoa Valley-1924

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Manoa-PP-1-4-024

Workers loading sugar cane-1905-BM

Chinese_contract_laborers_on_a_sugar_plantation_in_19th_century_Hawaii

Pineapple_1900

Hawaiian Pineapple Company Canning Lines, Honolulu, O‘ahu, 1958

Coffee

Nutridge-Van_Tassel_Tantalus Home-HonoluluMagazine

January 26, 2016 by Peter T Young 1 Comment

Nutridge

For at least 40,000 years, Australian Aborigines have lived in macadamia heartland. As hunters and gatherers, they had an intimate understanding of their environment.

The wild macadamias usually grew in dense rainforests, with competition from other trees and absence of light resulting in their producing few nuts.

However, trees growing at the edge of the rainforest or where the Aborigines had encouraged them by burning around each tree generally produced annual crops.

Macadamia nuts were a treasured food but a very minor part of the Aboriginal diet due to their rarity. (McConachie)

In 1828, Alan Cunningham (explorer and botanist) was the first Western person to record the macadamia. Other names for Macadamia Nuts are Bush nut, Queensland nut, Queen of nuts, Macadamia, Bauple nut, Boombera, Jindilli and Gyndl.

In 1857, German-Australian botanist Ferdinand von Mueller gave the genus of this plant the scientific name Macadamia – named after von Mueller’s friend Dr John Macadam (although, allegedly, Macadam had not seen a macadamia nut tree, or even tasted the macadamia nut.)

Macadamia seeds were first imported into Hawaiʻi in 1882 by William Purvis; he planted them in Kapulena on the Hāmākua Coast. A second introduction into Hawaii was made in 1892 by Robert and Edward Jordan who planted the trees at the former’s home in Nuʻuanu Honolulu. (Storey)

The Van Tassel plantings were at ʻUalakaʻa on a grassy hillside of former pasture land. Mo‘olelo (Hawaiian stories) indicate that Pu‘u ‘Ualaka‘a was a favored locality for sweet potato cultivation and King Kamehameha I established his personal sweet potato plantation here.

‘Pu‘u translates as “hill” and ‘ualaka‘a means “rolling sweet potato”, so named for the steepness of the terrain. (It’s above Makiki and also called Round Top.) Within the valley is a quarry where the basalt outcrop was chipped into pieces to make octopus lures. That is believed to be the origin of the word ‘makiki’ – a type of stone used for weights in octopus lures.

Historical attempts at cultivation in the Makiki-Tantalus area included a coffee plantation by JM Herring along Moleka Stream in the late-1800s (valley conditions proved too wet for coffee beans to flourish) and Hawai‘i’s first commercial macadamia nut plantation along the west side of Pu‘u ‘Ualaka‘a.

“Van Tassel, President of the Hawaii Macadamia Nut Company, Ltd, became interested in the possibilities of this nut for creating a new industry and had so much faith in its future that he organized in 1922 the present company for the purpose of commercial production and has been its guiding spirit ever since.” (Mid-Pacific, October 1933)

“At the present time, the Hawaiian Macadamia Nut Company has about 7,000 trees in its groves at Keauhou, Kona District, Hawaii, which are now coming into profitable bearing. The company has also approximately 2,000 trees growing and producing in the Nutridge grove on Round Top, Honolulu, or a total of 9,000 trees.” (Mid-Pacific, October 1933)

Nutridge was the name for Van Tassel’s home and grove. In 1925, Mr. Van Tassel commissioned architect Hart Wood to design his residence at Nutridge.

Wood was at the forefront of the movement to create a style of architecture in Hawaii which would appropriately reflect a sense of place.

One story high, the house is essentially devoid of ornate embellishment and follows an extremely original layout with the lanai (porch) serving in the capacity of a hallway, providing direct access to the bedrooms. Such an arrangement accentuates the sense of outdoor living.

Also by placing the rooms in a serial manner, the architect provided each room with cross-ventilation taking advantage of the trade winds. The dwelling’s double-pitched hipped roof would become a common feature in the evolving ‘Hawaiian style’ of architecture, and adds to the building’s low profile. (NPS)

That year, the Territory granted Van Tassel a 50-lease on Nutridge. By 1934, there were about 25-acres planted on Tantalus. (CTAHR)

Commercial processing of macadamia nuts began in 1934 at Van Tassel’s new factory in Kaka‘ako. The nuts were shelled, roasted, salted, bottled and marketed there as “Van’s Macadamia Nuts.” (Schmitt)

Nuts went from the farm on Round Top down through the flumes into trucks to his processing warehouse in Kakaʻako, where they were then sold. This plantation remained in operation until the 1970s and discontinued when the Honolulu processing plant suspended operations. (NPS)

In its heyday, celebrities such as Clark Gable, Carlo Lombard, Frank Sinatra and Dina Merrill visited and stayed at the Nutridge House.

The macadamia nut trees and the remnants of the historic flume system used to collect and transport the nuts remain on the slopes of ‘Ualakaʻa today. In 1981, the house was nominated and placed on the National Register of Historic Places and is part of the Hawaii State Park System, Pu‘u ‘Ualaka‘a State Wayside in Tantalus.

For approximately 30-years, the historic house has been cared for and occupied under a permit by Rick Ralston, the founder and former owner of retail icon Crazy Shirts.

Ralston invested significant sums of money and devoted considerable time and energy in meticulously restoring the historic house which might have otherwise been lost due to years of neglect. The house had been quietly maintained and used as a residence. (DLNR)

Recently (2013,) DLNR issued a revocable permit to Discovering Hidden Hawaiʻi Tours, Inc for commercial events at the Nutridge property, including luaus (‘The Big Kahuna Luau’) and other similar events, tours and special, small scale events and non-profit and community use purposes.

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March 26, 2015 by Peter T Young 2 Comments

The Perfect Nut

If you have every watched the game being played, your first thought (question) is if there really are any rules associated with it.

The first publicly recorded Australian Football match took place between Scotch College and Melbourne Grammar on the rolling paddocks next to the Melbourne Cricket Ground in 1858.

Each team selected its own umpire. Scotch College chose Dr John Macadam, Melbourne Grammar School Tom Wills. What qualifications Macadam had for the post, we don’t know. After three playing days, the game ended in a draw with each team kicking one goal. (University of Melbourne)

No, that is the basis of this story.

How about? … John Macadam, the man who on March 3, 1862 delivered the first-ever lecture at the Melbourne University Medical School and who went on to become Professor of Theoretical and Practical Chemistry at Melbourne University in 1865.

No, that’s not it either.

However, it’s the same John Macadam in each story … as well as the story that follows.

Given the diversity above, it shouldn’t surprise you that John Macadam is the namesake for the macadamia nut. (Although, allegedly, Macadam had not seen a macadamia nut tree, or even tasted the macadamia nut.)

In 1857, German-Australian botanist Ferdinand von Mueller gave the genus of this plant the scientific name Macadamia – named after von Mueller’s friend Dr John Macadam, a noted scientist and secretary to the Philosophical Institute of Australia.

John Macadam, scientist, medical doctor, philosopher and politician, was born in May 1827 at Northbank, near Glasgow, Scotland. (His name has often been misspelled with a capital “A” as in “Adam.”)

Although in ill health by March 1865, he went to New Zealand to give expert testimony as an analytical chemist in a murder trial involving the use of poison. Along the way, he fractured his ribs in rough weather.

Subsequently, he developed pleurisy (inflammation of the moist, double-layered membrane that surrounds the lungs and lines the rib cage) and died at sea on September 2, 1865 (at the age of 38.) (CTAHR)

Let’s look back.

For at least 40,000 years, Aborigines have lived in macadamia heartland. As hunters and gatherers, they had an intimate understanding of their environment. The wild macadamias usually grew in dense rainforests, with competition from other trees and absence of light resulting in their producing few nuts.

However, trees growing at the edge of the rainforest or where the Aborigines had encouraged them by burning around each tree generally produced annual crops. Macadamia nuts were a treasured food but a very minor part of the Aboriginal diet due to their rarity. (McConachie)

Macadamia seeds were first imported into Hawaiʻi in 1882 by William Purvis; he planted them in Kapulena on the Hāmākua Coast. (Purvis is also notable for importing the mongoose – to rid his Hāmākua sugar plantation of rats.)

A second introduction into Hawaii was made in 1892 by Robert and Edward Jordan who planted the trees at the former’s home in Nuʻuanu on Wyllie Street in Honolulu. This introduction became the source of the principal commercial varieties cultivated in Hawaiʻi. (Storey)

The Macadamia Nut is Australia’s only native plant to have become an international food. Although an Australian native, the macadamia nut industry was started in Hawaiʻi (Australian farmers did not take advantage of the tree until 1950.)

In 1922, Ernest Sheldon Van Tassel organized the Hawaiian Macadamia Nut Company to produce and process macadamia nuts. Two orchards were established by this company: one (‘Nutridge’) on the Tantalus slopes overlooking Honolulu at an elevation of about 900 feet, and the other at Keauhou at about 1,800 feet elevation on the Island of Hawaiʻi. By 1934, there were about 25-acres planted on Tantalus and about 100-acres at Keauhou. (CTAHR)

The first major attempt at large-scale commercialization of macadamia nuts was made in 1948 by Castle & Cooke, Ltd., in their venture at Keaʻau on the island of Hawaiʻi. Later, another of the former ‘Big 5’ companies, C Brewer and Company Ltd, bought out C&C and changed the name to Mauna Loa Macadamia Nut Corp. (Hershey’s later bought the Mauna Loa brand.)

Then, in 1962, MacFarms of established one of the world’s largest single macadamia nut orchards with approximately 3,900-acres on the South Kona coast of the Big Island of Hawaiʻi.

The harvesting season for macadamia nuts runs from August through January. During Hawai’i’s cooling autumn months, mature macadamia nuts safely protected by sturdy shells and husks drop to the ground, and farmers hand-gather or mechanically harvest.

Under favorable conditions, a ten-year old tree can produce up to 150 pounds of in-husk nuts. De-husking is the first step needed. Next, a drying process decreases nut moisture from about 25 percent to 1.5 percent. Equipment that can exert 300 pounds of pressure cracks the shells. The raw kernels that emerge are now ready for grading, roasting, final drying and processing. (olsontrust)

Macadamias are a high energy food and contain no cholesterol. The natural oils in macadamias contain 78 per cent monounsaturated fats, the highest of any oil, including olive oil.

Macadamias are also a good source of protein, calcium, potassium and dietary fiber and are very low in sodium. The protein component of nuts is low in lysine and high in argentine. (BaupleMuseum) Horticulturalist Luther Burbank is credited with calling macadamias the ‘perfect nut.’ (NY Times)

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