Thanksgiving is a time to celebrate our blessings. Unfortunately we often take our blessings for granted. Recent reports from our Farmer to Farmer project contacts in Haiti made me realize again how blessed we are to live in Hawaii. Haiti is a beautiful country that shares the island of Hispaniola with the Dominican Republic.
Thanksgiving is a time to celebrate our blessings. Unfortunately we often take our blessings for granted. Recent reports from our Farmer to Farmer project contacts in Haiti made me realize again how blessed we are to live in Hawaii. Haiti is a beautiful country that shares the island of Hispaniola with the Dominican Republic.
With almost 30,000 square miles of land surface on Hispaniola, our island is not even as big as some of their forested mountain country. Although Haiti is considered the poorest nation in the western hemisphere, it has wonderful scenery and delightful people. Because of an undeserved infamous reputation, few folks visit there. The Dominican Republic as its neighbor, is noted for super baseball stars, great beaches and wonderful scenery. Unlike Haiti, it has a booming tourist industry. On the other hand, Haiti is still recovering from a mega earthquake that killed more than 200,00 people in the Port au Prince capital and is now dealing with a cholera epidemic. In Hawaii, we do have our share of difficulties, but they pale in comparison to places like Haiti, West Africa and the Middle East.
The tropical regions of the world have many places with as much or more beauty than Hawaii, and there are many places where you can find good folks. What is so unique about us is that not only are we a beautiful and friendly spot, we have a form of government that allows us to live in relative safety and prosperity.
Our form of government attempts to allow for rule of the majority with protection of the minority. It is just enough capitalistic that it rewards free enterprise and just enough socialistic that most folks have food, shelter and medical care. Some readers might disagree, but this is compared to most tropical African, Asian or American countries. Haiti, for example, fought for freedom from the French centuries ago, but its own internal politics have left it a country where one never really feels safe. Most people live very close to hunger, illness and a relatively short life span. They are enduring, tenacious and hard working people, but without an environment that allows their talents to prosper, they basically get now where. Some of the farmers with whom we worked, would be millionaires if they were living in a place like Hawaii, and yet there, they barely survive.
Sometimes we forget how fortunate we are. We complain about this and that, but when we returned earlier this year from West Africa, I literally kissed the rocks at Keahole Airpot!
Some times it seems that Thanksgiving is about eating too much rich food and the worry that the weight gain is likely to continue until New Years or maybe Easter. Unlike much of the tropical world, we don’t usually have to worry about hunger. However, it is the perfect time to sincerely give thanks for all the many blessings around us. Not only do we live in one of the most beautiful places in the world, we are blessed with the abundance of a great variety of food crops.
Hawaiian gardeners may grow many tropical fruits like bananas, citrus, mangoes, and avocados, but often overlook some favorites from warm temperate climates like apples, peaches, pomegranate, figs and persimmons that can also be grown.
Let us focus on persimmons, for example. Persimmons are among the holiday fruit found at the market now. Also known as the “kissing fruit,” the persimmon grows here and produces heavy crops. The rather familiar name comes from the puckering qualities of unripe fruit. Many folks have been calling to ask about its culture.
Aside from the amorous tendencies, the persimmon has long been a popular dooryard fruit in the cooler upland sections of Hawaii. The generic name, Diospyros, literally means “food of the Gods”. This prestige began ages ago in China and Japan.
The flavor of the fruit is excellent. It is a concentrated food because all of the sugar is quick energy producing dextrose. However, most persimmon varieties are astringent or puckery, until fully ripe.
Persimmons do best upon lighter upland soils that are well drained. You are in luck if your property has a good soil but if it doesn’t, be sure to spend some time on improving the soil with fertilizer and compost.
Persimmons like full sunlight and ample “elbow room”. So, the planting site should be an open space no closer than 20 feet from the nearest tree canopy.
If the planting site is a lawn area, practice clean cultivation around the trunk of the tree. In removing weeds do not dig deeply, as many feeder roots of the tree grow close to the surface of the soil.
Fertilizer requirements for persimmons are vague. But, the trees seem to thrive on applications of a good garden fertilizer mixture containing nitrogen, phosphorus and potash plus minor elements. A standard type such a 1-1-1 is satisfactory. Apply the fertilizer in the spring about the time the tree starts to leaf out.
Two close relatives of the persimmon can also add interesting and delicious fruit to your garden and table. The Black Sapote, Diospyros ebenaster, from Mexico is grown occasionally in Hawaii.
The tree is evergreen, up to 25 feet, with a fairly compact rounded habit and handsome in aspect. The leathery leaves are bright green and shiny. The fruit is round, from 2 to 5 inches in diameter, and dark olive green at maturity with a conspicuous persistent green calyx like the persimmon. The thin skin encloses a soft pulpy flesh which is a dark chocolate-brown in color and gives the name of the fruit. The pulp is soft and sweet. Addition of orange, lime or lemon juice improves the flavor of the fruit that may be eaten fresh or cooked.
The m
Mabolo (Diospyros discolor) is rare in Hawaii except on Round Top, above Honolulu, where it can be found growing wild. This Philippine tree is of medium size, with leathery, oblong, pointed leaves 4 to 10 inches long, light and smooth above, much paler and more or less silky or hairy beneath. The fruits are 3 to 5 inches in diameter, covered thickly with short reddish brown hair. The flesh is cream colored, rather dry, sweet and aromatic, usually with several rather large seeds. Seedless forms are known with moister and sweeter flesh of good quality.
Sunset’s New Western Garden Book will give you some ideas on what and how to grow. Check with local nurseries for these fruit trees and many more to make your home gardening a fruitful Thanksgiving cornucopia.
This column is provided by the University of Hawaii College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources.