Planting Seeds For the Future – Advocacy & Education
Over the past few months, we conducted our first ever All About Kalo(Hawaiian word for taro) Series in collaboration with the Mālama Learning Center and Ka’ala Farms.
What a great time we had!
The Mālama Learning Center is a non-profit organization that brings art, science, conservation, and culture together to promote sustainable living throughout Hawai‘i to promote healthy, sustainable, hands-on learning programs that integrate culture and tradition with technology and science.
The three series of workshops taught participants all about kalo or taro.
Workshop One highlighted Growing Kalo and was held at the beautiful Kaʻala Farm, where we learned about how to plant and grow kalo, then when and how to harvest it.
In the second workshop, we returned to Kaʻala Farm to harvest and process kalo to learn what to do with the taro plant, once you’ve harvested; how to clean and process the corm and the leaves. We talked about how to process the corm into kalo flour!
In the third and final workshop of the series, Cooking Kalo, we tried out some healthy recipes made with taro, including some delicious and healthy breads! Participants brought huli (plantings) home from the first and second workshops to plant in their backyards. By the third workshop many shared pictures and observations of their kalo!
A delicious finale for the series, learning to incorporate kalo into our diet via baked goods and nontraditional foods. We made flat bread, kalo patties, banana bread, and pancakes.
One participant shared
“I was nervous to try using different types of flour for baking. After today I am inspired to incorporate kalo flour in all of my cooking!”
MAHALO to Brynn Foster with Voyaging Foods for sponsoring this workshop series and sharing how to transform kalo into flour and how to use that in our day-to-day cooking.
-Malama Learning Center
Also a HUGE MAHALO to Uncle Eric Enos from Kaʻala Farm for hosting and teaching us at their incredible learning center- we all learned so much and were inspired.