It’s official.A 50 pound kalo corm harvested last year at Aina ‘Ahiu Farm in South Kona has set a world record and is now included in the Guinness Book.
Clarence and Nellie Medeiros, who harvested the taro root, took the corm to be certified and witnessed at the Hawaii Ulu Producers Co-op, where it weighed in at a whooping 50 pounds. Taro usually weighs between 1 and 2 pounds, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
“Since we opted not to pay thousands of dollars for expedited verification our team had to create an account on Guinness World Records website, fill out witness forms, provide both video and photographed evidence of the weighing of the kalo and register our scale as a state approved scale,” said Hawaii Ulu Cooperative Marketing Manager Kenta Nemoto. “We waited over a year and a half to receive the official confirmation.”
They also had to have documentation from a certified horticulturist that it was indeed a taro root.
The taro had been in the ground for 15 months on a patch of dry land at 1,600 feet elevation until it was ready to be harvested in late February 2022.
The whole plant – including corm, stalk and leaves – weighed around 100 pounds, with eight keiki plants attached. The leaves reached about 9 feet 8 inches, from the ground.
“When we pulled it we knew it was big but were thinking maybe 30 pounds, but when we weighed it on our scale at home we said ‘Wow, this is huge, who knows this might be a world record’,” said Nellie.
In all, the couple estimated the taro could feed a party the size of 180 people and produce around 45 pounds of poi.
That taro was about seven times the size of the previous Heaviest Taro Guinness World Record-holder, a 7.03-pound corm grown in 2009 in Minyang, Fuding City, located in Fujian province in China.
The Medeiros’s secret ingredient? Black dirt.
“We plant according to our land,” Clarence said. “We have pockets of dirt. Where we find the black dirt that’s where we plant it.”
As for the size of the root, “It was all in God’s hands,” he said. “Also we had lots of rain and the volcano wan’t going off so we didn’t have acid rain.”
The entire taro plant can be eaten, not just the root, in a variety of Hawaiian dishes from the staple poi to lau lau and squid luau, both of which include taro leaves. And when the taro has been harvested, the bottom of the plant – the huli- can be replanted over and over again to create another generation of taro to feed the future.
Medeiros achieved this impressive feat without using any fertilizers and relying solely on rainwater, a testament to his commitment to sustainable farming through traditional agroforestry practices.
Clarence’s approach to farming is rooted in practical, low-impact methods, favoring agroforestry and a hands-of approach that lets nature do its work. Alongside his wife Nellie, he manages an extensive farming operation. In addition to taro, they grow ulu, citrus, bananas, macadamia nuts, avocados, and Maoli Heritage Coffee.
Coming from a long line of Hawaiian farmers, Medeiros learned the art of kalo cultivation from his father and grandfather. He’s also a direct descendant of Don Francisco de Paula Marin, known for introducing coffee plants to Hawaii in 1813. Over the years, Medeiros has planted dozens of breadfruit trees, delivering his taro and breadfruit harvests to the Hawaii ‘Ulu Cooperative, a farmer-owned cooperative that minimally processes Hawaii-grown staple crops for commercial kitchens and grocery aisles across the islands.
Medeiros was humble about getting the world record.
“It’s a blessing for Hawaii, the United States and for Kona,” he said.
The cooperative, celebrating its seventh year this month, recently upgraded its freezer storage capacity to provide more local crops like ‘ulu, kalo, ‘uala, and pala‘ai to Hawaii residents. The co-op aggregated over half a million pounds in the last 12 months and is looking at surpassing 1 million pounds per year within the next few years. The co-op is committed to guaranteeing a market for over 150 farms across four Hawaiian Islands.
Hawaii ‘Ulu Co-op (HUC) is a farmer-owned business working to revitalize ‘ulu (breadfruit) and other Hawaii-grown, indigenous staple crops such as kalo (taro) and ‘uala (sweet potato) as dietary staples by empowering farmers as change-makers in Hawaii’s food system. The co-op is committed to the revival of ‘ulu to strengthen Hawaii’s food security and to the value of malama ‘aina – care or protection of the earth – by using environmentally responsible production methods. To learn more about the Hawaii ‘Ulu Co-op, visit eatbreadfruit.com