(Photo courtesy of Hooulu ka Ulu)

MEDIA RELEASE

The Amy B.H. Greenwell Ethnobotanical Garden in South Kona will host “Breadfruit Festival Goes Bananas” 9 a.m.-3 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 29.

The festival is free and open to the public.

The annual event celebrates the cultural and culinary aspects of breadfruit and banana, both of which were nutritionally important food staples and played a major role in the cultural, material and spiritual life of ancient Hawaiians.

Internationally renowned Hawaiian celebrity chef Sam Choy will conduct the keynote cooking demonstration. There will be a buffet luncheon, cooking contest, music and entertainment, presentations by agricultural experts, art exhibit, cultural demonstrations and much more.

The event is now in its 2nd year and takes place at the Amy Greenwell Garden, located in the kaluulu, the historic upland agricultural belt of the Kona Coast where Hawaiian inhabitants formerly grew an enormous amount of sustainable food crops.

Mixed agroforestry systems here — banana, sweet potato, taro and others — with breadfruit as an overstory crop were once a key Hawaiian cultural and agricultural resource.

So productive were the breadfruit tree groves in this area, that it is estimated that they produced more than 35,000 tons (or 70,000,000 pounds!) of breadfruit annually, supporting a very large and flourishing Hawaiian population.

The Breadfruit Festival Goes Bananas brings into focus the much larger educational initiative Hooulu ka Ulu — Revitalizing Breadfruit, sponsored by the Hawaii Homegrown Food Network and the Breadfruit Institute of the National Tropical Botanical Garden.

The project has as its goal the promotion of breadfruit as a tasty, nutritious, abundant and affordable food that addresses Hawaii’s food security issues.

Currently, Hawaii imports about 85 percent of its food, making it one of the most food insecure in the Pacific. Prior to western contact in 1778, however, the Hawaiian people were among the most skilled farmers and expert horticulturalists on the planet, sustainably producing crops that supported and nourished large indigenous populations for centuries.

The festival celebrates this once-rich culture of breadfruit and its forest companion, banana, and raises awareness about the important of these crops for increasing Hawaii’s food security.

For information on the festival, breadfruit, food sustainability and more, call 808-756-9437 or visit www.breadfruit.info