This morning I was up early trimming trees. I'm taking a break before, I load it into my truck and drive to Hawaiian Earth Products Windward, Ltd. (Kailua).
Location: Kapaa Quarry Rd. – go left at fork in road immediately
past Tsf Station – HEP is immediately on right side of
road just past the fork. Still lost call: 261-5877
I plan to grab a few buckets of free organic mulch to use in our dry land taro patch. June is the month we will replant the keikis taro plants, my Grandfather gave us on our last trip to Kona. If I had a wood chipper, I would be able to save my self a bunch of time and physical energy. If anyone know of someone that want to get rid of a chipper please let me know.
The Tree in the back with the light green is a Kukui nut tree.
The photo with me and the polo saw shows a Jambul, Java Plum or Portuguese Plum. "Malabar plum"
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:
The Candlenut (Aleurites moluccanus), is a flowering tree in the spurge family, Euphorbiaceae, also known as Candleberry, Indian walnut, Kemiri, Varnish tree or Kukui nut tree.
Its native range is impossible to establish precisely because of
early spread by humans, and the tree is now distributed throughout the New and Old World tropics. It grows to a height of 15–25 metres (49–82 ft), with wide spreading or pendulous branches. The leaves are pale green, simple and ovate, or trilobed or rarely 5-lobed, with an acute apex, 10–20 centimetres (3.9–7.9 in) long. The nut is round, 4–6 centimetres (1.6–2.4 in) in diameter; the seed inside has a very hard seed coat and a high oil content, which allows its use as a candle (see below), hence its name.
The nut is often used cooked in
Indonesian and
Malaysian cuisine, where it is called
kemiri in Indonesian or
buah keras in
Malay. On the island of
Java in
Indonesia, it is used to make a thick sauce that is eaten with vegetables and rice. Outside of Southeast Asia,
macadamia nuts are sometimes substituted for candlenuts when they are not available, as they have a similarly high
oil
content and texture when pounded. The flavor, however, is quite
different, as the candlenut is much more bitter. Because the nuts
contains
saponin and
phorbol, they are mildly toxic when raw.
[1]Several parts of the plant have been used in traditional medicine in
most of the areas where it is native. The oil is an irritant and laxative and sometimes used like castor oil. It is also used as a hair stimulant or additive to hair treatment systems. The seed kernels have a laxative effect. In Japan its bark has been used on tumors. In Sumatra, pounded seeds, burned with charcoal, are applied around the navel for costiveness. In Malaya, the pulped kernels or boiled leaves are used in poultices for headache, fevers, ulcers, swollen joints, and gonorrhea. In Hawaiʻi, the flowers and the sap at the top of the husk (when just removed from the branch) were used to treat eʻa (oral candidiasis) in children.
In Ancient Hawaiʻi, the nuts, named kukui
were burned to provide light. The nuts were strung in a row on a palm
leaf midrib, lit one end, and burned one by one every 15 minutes or so.
This led to their use as a measure of time. One could instruct someone
to return home before the second nut burned out. Hawaiians also
extracted the oil from the nut and burned it in a stone oil lamp called
a kukui hele po (light, darkness goes) with a wick made of kapa cloth.
Candle nuts are also roasted and mixed into a paste with salt to form a Hawaiian condiment known as inamona. Inamona is a key ingredient in traditional Hawaiian poke. It is the state tree of Hawaiʻi.[2]
Hawaiians also had many other uses for the tree, including: leis from the shells, leaves and flowers; ink for tattoos from charred nuts; a varnish with the oil; and fishermen would chew the nuts and spit them on the water to break the surface tension and remove reflections, giving them greater underwater visibility A red-brown dye made from the inner bark was used on kapa and aho (Touchardia latifolia cordage). A coating of kukui oil helped preserve ʻupena (fishing nets). Kukui represents the island of Molokaʻi, whose symbolic color is the silvery green of the kukui leaf.[3] The nohona waʻa (seats), pale (gunwales) of waʻa (outrigger canoes) were made from the wood.[4] The trunk was sometimes used to make smaller canoes used for fishing.[5]
In Tonga, still nowadays, ripe nuts, named tuitui are pounded into a paste, tukilamulamu, used as soap or shampoo.
Modern cultivation is mostly for the oil. In plantations, each tree
will produce 30–80 kilograms (66–180 lb) of nuts, and the nuts yield 15
to 20% of their weight in oil. Most of the oil is used locally rather
than figuring in international trade.
Jambul (Syzygium cumini) is an evergreen tropical tree in the flowering plant family Myrtaceae, native to India, Pakistan and Indonesia. It is also known as Jamun, Nerale Hannu, Njaval, Jamblang, Jambolan, Black Plum, Damson Plum, Duhat Plum, Jambolan Plum, Java Plum or Portuguese Plum. "Malabar plum" may also refer to other species of Syzygium.
It is also grown in other areas of southern and southeastern Asia including the Philippines, Myanmar, and Afghanistan. The tree was also introduced to Florida, USA in 1911 by the USDA, and is also now commonly planted in Suriname. In Brazil,
where it was introduced from India during Portuguese colonization, it
has dispersed spontaneously in the wild in some places, as its fruits
are eagerly sought by various native birds. such as thrushes, tanagers and the Great Kiskadee. Scientific synonyms include Syzygium jambolanum, Eugenia cumini and Eugenia jambolana.
A fairly fast growing species, it can reach heights of up to 30 m
and can live more than 100 years. Its dense foliage provides shade and
is grown just for its ornamental value. The wood is strong and is water
resistant. Because of this it is used in railway sleepers and to install motors in wells. It is sometimes used to make cheap furniture and village dwellings though it is relatively hard to work on.
Jamun trees start flowering from March to April. The flowers of Jamun are fragrant and small, about 5 mm in diameter. The fruits develop by May or June and resemble large berries. The fruit is oblong, ovoid, starts green and turns pink to shining crimson
black as it matures. A variant of the tree produces white coloured
fruit. The fruit has a combination of sweet, mildly sour and astringent flavour and tends to colour the tongue purple. The seed is also used in various alternative healing systems like Ayurveda (to control diabetes, for example[1].), Unani and Chinese medicine for digestive ailments. The leaves and bark are used for controlling blood pressure and gingivitis. Wine and vinegar are also made from the fruit. It has a high source in vitamin A and vitamin C.
