Breadfruit, known as ulu, uru, mei, mos or lemai, is one of the signature crops of the Pacific Islands. The stately, long-lived trees are an important feature of the landscape, integrated into home gardens and mixed agroforestry plantings. There is a wide diversity of varieties — possibly hundreds — that have been named and cultivated by islanders.
Breadfruit, known as ulu, uru, mei, mos or lemai, is one of the signature crops of the Pacific Islands. The stately, long-lived trees are an important feature of the landscape, integrated into home gardens and mixed agroforestry plantings. There is a wide diversity of varieties — possibly hundreds — that have been named and cultivated by islanders.
The tree and fruit are celebrated in legends, stories, songs, rituals and handicrafts throughout the region. Gods and mortals are associated with breadfruit. In Kosrae, the goddess Sinlaku reigned over the heavens, breadfruit and nature. In Hawaii, the god Ku transformed himself into a tree to feed his family; in Raiatea, a father did the same for his family. Tales abound of navigators bringing the plants to and from distant islands.
The botanical origin of breadfruit is also remarkable. Breadfruit began its journey more than 3,000 years ago as a wild forest species in Papua New Guinea, where the large, tasty seeds were gathered and eaten. Some seeds were planted in gardens and the plants carefully tended. Breadfruit traveled as a canoe plant across the vast Pacific with pioneering islanders. Over time and distance, breadfruit started to lose its seeds — horticultural practices and selection of new varieties created truly seedless varieties, the kind brought to Hawaii centuries ago from Tahiti.
Breadfruit was selected as one of the canoe plants because every part of the tree is useful: the light-weight timber for canoes, houses, bowls, carved images, drums, fishing floats and tapa boards; the inner bark for tapa cloth and medicine; the sticky sap for caulk or glue and medicine; the shoot tips and buds for medicine; the leaves for plates, wraps for cooking food and kites. But the most important use was the abundant, nutritious starchy fruit that fed islanders and their animals.
Breadfruit is an energy-rich food and a good source of complex carbohydrates, fiber and minerals such as potassium, calcium, iron, magnesium, phosphorus, manganese and zinc. This nutritious fruit also provides B vitamins, niacin, thiamine and vitamin C. Some varieties have high levels of pro-vitamin A carotenoids, nutrients essential to good health. Breadfruit is also gluten-free.
Traditionally, firm, mature starchy fruit and soft, ripe fruit are baked in an earth oven, such as the deep imu of Hawaii, or in shallow cooking pits common elsewhere, in which heated rocks are covered with leaves to hold in moisture and heat. Another common cooking method is to roast mature fruit directly in a fire until the skin is blackened and the flesh soft and tender. The roasted fruit is often pounded until doughy (poi in Hawaii or kon in Micronesia) and eaten as the main starch at a meal. Freshly made coconut cream added to baked or pounded breadfruit is a delicious combination. With the arrival of cooking pots brought by Europeans, firm breadfruit could be steamed or boiled instead of using traditional cooking methods.
Breadfruit can be eaten at all stages of development. Small, immature fruit can be boiled, pickled or marinated, and has a flavor similar to that of artichoke hearts. Full size, immature green fruit can be eaten as a vegetable. Most people prefer to eat breadfruit at a mature stage, where it can be substituted for potato in most dishes. At this stage, it can be baked, steamed, boiled, fried, microwaved, grilled, barbecued and more. Mature breadfruit can also be dried and ground into flour. Ripe fruit are sweet and can be eaten raw or used to make smoothies, pies, cakes and other desserts and sweets.
There are so many culinary possibilities for this versatile fruit. It can be used to prepare tasty appetizers, salads, soups, stews, casseroles, main dishes, breads, desserts and more.
The preceding is an excerpt from my introduction to “Hooulu ka Ulu Cookbook: Breadfruit Tips, Techniques, and Hawaii’s Favorite Home Recipes.” The cookbook will be available at the Breadfruit Festival Goes Bananas from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday at the Amy B.H. Greenwell Ethobotanical Garden in Captain Cook. More information on the festival is available at breadfruit.info. More on breadfruit and the Breadfruit Institute can be found at breadfruit.org.
Diane Ragone is the director of the Breadfruit Institute at the National Tropical Botanical Garden on Kauai.
Tropical
gardening helpline
Chuck asks: I am an organic farmer with lots of papaya trees, and I need to guarantee non-GMO fruit. Your column last week talked about testing. Is there anything other than the expense of testing every tree that can be done to be sure I am growing non-GMO papayas?
Answer: Since our seed supply in Hawaii has been contaminated by the growing of transgenic papayas in East Hawaii, organic farmers or those not wishing to grow GMO fruit are advised not to save seed from their trees or plant seeds from fruit they have acquired in Hawaii unless they want to take the chance of growing GMO fruit. If you are currently growing and selling organic papayas, you definitely want to test your trees to be sure they have not been inadvertently grown from genetically modified seeds. GMO fruit cannot be grown on land that is certified organic, though you can grow GMO papayas legally now from your own seed if you wish. If your trees test positive to the GMO testing, as described in last week’s column, and you are organic you might want to remove the trees.
If you are going to test your trees, be sure not to touch the quarter-sized leaves you pick from the top of the tree. Use gloves or a plastic bag when collecting. The test is easily contaminated. Identify the tree and the sample with ID names or numbers you can trace. The South Kona College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources office at 322-4892 can give full instructions about the testing.
If pollen from genetically modified papayas pollinates your non-GMO trees, your plants and the fruit they produce will not be genetically modified, but some of the seeds in the fruit may be. The trees and fruit that grow from those seeds will be genetically modified. The best way to ensure a non-GMO papaya crops is to buy and plant non-GMO seeds and bag your flowers so they cannot be randomly pollinated. Removing all but hermaphroditic plants can also help. These produce cylindrical flowers directly on the stem that develop into pear-shaped fruit with a round, not pentagonal, stem scar. The hermaphrodites self-pollinate and only rarely accept pollen from other trees.
Ted Radovich, a professor in Sustainable and Organic Systems at UH-Manoa has helped develop non-GMO seeds for organic farmers. They are available online through the UH seed lab at ctahr.hawaii.edu/seed. Both the Sunrise and Waimanalo x77 seeds have been taken from organically grown GMO-free papaya stock. Beyond buying seeds that are non-GMO, you could also consider finding a tissue culture lab that can grow non-GMO trees for you to plant.
Helpful information on growing non-GMO papayas can be found at ctahr.hawaii.edu/sustainag/Video/org_papaya_seed.html.
Email plant questions to konamg@ctahr.hawaii.edu for answers by certified master gardeners. Some questions will be chosen for inclusion in this column.
Diana Duff is a plant adviser, educator and consultant with an organic farm in Captain Cook.