Healing Plants: Kamani
By Barbara Fahs The Internet is full of sites that tout the healing benefits of “tamanu” oil. This nut tree, which is native to the South Pacific islands around Tahiti, is also present in Hawai‘i where it is known as…
Healing Plants: ‘Ākulikuli Kula, Way More than a Lowly Weed
By Barbara Fahs ‘Ākulikuli kula is a fun word to say, and the plant bearing this name has as much to offer in the kitchen as it does in the medicine cabinet. Also known as purslane and often considered a…
Composting At Home: Treasure in the Trash
By Barbara Fahs One autumn day in 1971, a young woman was busily building a compost pile alongside her new home. Two little girls, eight and nine, wandered by and asked what she was doing. “Well, I’m making a place…
Healing Plants: ‘A‘ali‘i
Attractive native for landscapes and healing By Barbara Fahs Many of us probably know the Hawaiian word ali‘i: it refers to a reigning noble of any kind. When an “a” is added to this word, it means “of” the royalty.…
Pono Practices at Honoka‘a’s Green Market and Café
By Barbara Fahs Imagine a restaurant that generates virtually no waste. Also imagine, a menu chock-full of fresher-than-fresh, organic, in season, locally produced ingredients. Wait, there’s more! Under the same roof is a small natural foods store, the only one…
Healing Plants: Vervain
Don’t whack that weed! Vervain packs a practical punch all its own By Barbara Fahs Vervain looks a bit like mint, which is its relative, so it’s easy to identify. However, it has no distinctive minty fragrance. Called ha‘uoi and…
Healing Plants: Pia
By Barbara Fahs Haupia, the ever-popular coconut pudding dessert, has been a staple in Hawai‘i since World War II. If you have ever attended a lū‘au or a local style wedding, chances are you have eaten this gelatinous culinary confection.…
Healing Plants: Lau Kahi, an All-Around Helpful “Weed”
By Barbara Fahs If you have a lawn, a pasture, or garden beds, you have probably mowed, weed whacked, or pulled out lau kahi. Commonly called plantain, this small broadleaf herb has no relationship to the plantains we know as…
A Place to Remember: POW-MIA Memorial Garden at West Hawai‘i Veterans Cemetery
By Barbara Fahs Every year we honor the men and women who have fought for our freedom on Veterans Day, Nov. 11. Susan “Awapuhi” Graffe emphasizes we should honor them every day. Awa, her husband Paul, along with generous volunteers…
Healing Plants: Māmaki, The “Stingless” Stinging Nettle
By Barbara Fahs You might have seen dried māmaki leaves for sale at your local drug store or farmers market. Tea made from this endemic Hawaiian plant is tasty and popular. Known as Pipturis albidus, māmaki is a perennial shrub…
Healing Plants – ‘Uhaloa: Wonderful Weed is Useful for Many Ailments
By Barbara Fahs Residents in lower elevations on all Hawaiian Islands might have noticed a grey-green plant growing in seemingly impossible places on their properties. The plant is not especially attractive, so many people remove it from their carefully designed…
Every Store Has a Story: B. Ikeuchi & Sons, Inc. Hardware Store
By Barbara Fahs At the gateway to historic Waipi‘o Valley, in the town of Honoka‘a, the B. Ikeuchi & Sons, Inc. Hardware Store has been serving up essential supplies to local residents since 1918. It holds the record for being…
Healing Plants: Pōpolo – Foundation of the Hawaiian Pharmacy
By Barbara Fahs Related to tomatoes, eggplant, and peppers in the nightshade family, pōpolo, also known as Solanum nigrum or black nightshade, was a common medicinal plant in Hawai‘i until modern times. Like its culinary relatives, pōpolo is a small…
Healing Plants – Mimosa Pudica: Bothersome Weed has Redeeming Qualities
Invasiveness Designation: PIER (the Pacific Island Ecosystems at Risk project) has assessed mimosa as invasive and recommends that it not be imported into Hawai‘i and other Pacific Island countries from its native locales. By Barbara Fahs A small, prickly weed…
Healing Plants: Pohe Kula
A small wild plant you want to remember By Barbara Fahs Having trouble remembering things? Perhaps you have taken Ginkgo biloba, a popular herbal supplement that is available at health food stores and pharmacies in easy-to-take capsule form. The website…
Fishponds in Hawai‘i: A Small Scale Understanding
By Barbara Fahs Sustainability is a major buzzword today. Growing food, harvesting power from the sun, buying locally produced products to rely less on foreign imports at the supermarket are values and practices that many Americans understand clearly today. Wherever…
Christmas on Parade: Celebrating the Season Island Style
By Barbara Fahs When the weather is warm, we might not feel very Christmasy. Leave it to the Aloha State to come up with original, distinctive ways to make this time of year all its own. Santa, known here as…
Kona’s Onion House: The Sydney Opera House Meets Stonehenge
By Barbara Fahs They said it couldn’t be built. Later, they said it couldn’t be repaired. Yet the Onion House stands proudly today in South Kona as a living work of art and innovative architecture. Thanks to the vision of…
Feather Art: Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow
By Barbara Fahs Na lima mili hulu no‘eau is a Hawaiian expression that means “the skilled hands that touch the feathers.” It honors the ancient art of feather lei, capes, headdresses, and other ornaments. In today’s world, it can easily…
Hopper Sheldon: Eastside Artist Brings Art and Fun to Keiki of All Ages
By Barbara Fahs Keeping pace with eastside artist Cheryl “Hopper” Sheldon can keep you on your toes. Her free “Artday Saturday” enrichment program at the Hilo Farmers’ Market attracts keiki of all ages, from 10 months to 88 years young.…
We Are All in the Same Canoe: One Island Sustainable Living Center Promotes Sustainability on Hawai‘i Island
By Barbara Fahs With a modest budget and big vision, the One Island Sustainable Living Center in Hōnaunau is accomplishing some amazing feats toward farming education and sustainability. The terms ‘sustainable’ and ‘sustainability’ are bandied about a lot today. To…
Natural Plant Medicine is Everywhere You Look
By Barbara Fahs You already know about them. Those dandelions you struggle to keep out of your lawn? Medicinal. The persistent weeds in your vegetable garden? Many of them have uses as medicine. Even some “weeds” that grow on bare…
Teas, Tinctures, and Tonics: Mamaki
By Barbara Fahs The traditional Hawaiian healing herb mamaki seems to have taken the world by storm. When you Google “mamaki” you’ll find 39,500 websites that talk about the Hawaiian version of the stinging nettle, including general information on sites…
Kava Culture—Facts and Fiction
By Barbara Fahs In Western culture, the herbal supplement Kava Kava, was popular as a sleep aid and anti-anxiety remedy during the late 1990s, until the negative results of a European study were widely publicized. (Some say pharmaceutical companies initiated…
Kukui Nut Oil for Beautiful, Healthy Skin
By Barbara Fahs Polynesians of yesterday and today have beautiful skin. This could be due to their use of the oil from our state tree, the kukui, which their ancestors introduced to Hawai‘i around 1600 A.D. Kukui trees and the…
Healthful, Tasty Recipes Using Noni (Yes, really!)
By Barbara Fahs Noni is hot. People pay big bucks for a jar of the juice, believed to be a cure for cancer, helpful for chronic respiratory conditions such as tuberculosis, influenza, asthma, coughs, colds, sinusitis and sore throat. It…
