In the rural district of Waialua on Oahu’s North Shore sits the loi kalo (taro patch) Na Mea Kupono, fed by springwater and tended by the Garrido-Bolosan family for decades. Plan a visit to learn about wetland taro farming and the habitat it creates for endangered species like the alae ula bird.
In the form of poi and other dishes, kalo was once the main food staple of Native Hawaiians. It was grown all over the islands in hundreds of varieties.
Its importance, though, goes beyond food. In the Hawaiian creation chant, the Kumulipo, kalo is the stillborn first child of Papa (the earth mother) and Wakea (the sky father), and thus the elder sibling of all Hawaiians.
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