week three: 'ulu quilt

they say you have a year to give a newly married couple a gift. i've taken that advice a bit liberally and this gift is maybe a year and a half after the actual wedding. but hey, it's handmade! and what a great opportunity to continue celebrating your marriage.

so i read somewhere that the 'ulu (breadfruit) tree symbolizes marital bliss. i have never been able to find that reference again, so the specifics of why that is are lost to me, but i have a lot of respect for the 'ulu; its abundance and versatility made it a great companion for polynesian voyagers to bring on the long canoe journeys across the pacific. if you've never had the opportunity to eat 'ulu it can range from potato-like (and makes great chips, mashed, steamed, baked), to sweet-fruity dessert-like, depending on the variety and ripeness.

anyway, the seed was planted (so to speak) in my mind >2 years ago to make an ulu quilt for my friends jake and nicole's wedding. what better wish could you give someone for their wedding than marital bliss?

i chose the fabrics at fabric mart, a store in our neighborhood with a dizzying array of aloha prints. this is also the store i got my lovely curtain fabric and the camouflage water-repellent fabric i used to sew a cozy for our little bbq grill (these projects apparently happened when i was in blogging hiatus-mode). they've got pretty great prices, and i have to say i respect them for having a website called fmart. 
i misjudged the amount of fabric i'd need for the wall hanging quilt i was making. well, no. what actually happened is that i was bullied by the filipino aunty in the store into buying less than i knew i needed for the project because it was the end of the roll and she was giving me a deal on it. and i guess because i'm chinese i totally played into that. my thought process went something like "well, it's about 3 inches less than i really want for this quilt, but it's a deal..." so i made do.

the process of cutting out a pattern for hawaiian quilting is really fun - like cutting a fabric snowflake. i decided to do the breadfruits in a lighter green to accent, and made up a hexagonal quilting pattern that i think makes them look real. other than that the process is pretty tedious, pinning and then hand-appliqueing and hand quilting inside and out of your design. this is the second hawaiian quilt square i've done, the first was a lehua blossom for my mom. 

while i'm counting this as one of my 52 projects in 52 weeks, it obviously did not take me a week to make.  it took me quite a while to complete, and i'll dispense with excuses about that and suffice to say i'm excited to send it to them. so if you're a friend who has gotten hitched in the past, um, several years and you haven't gotten a gift from me yet - don't lose hope. 

ho'i'o: foraging for fiddleheads

 

on the continent they're called fiddleheads. here in hawai'i they're known as ho'i'o. unless you're from maui - then they are pohole. or if you're japanese, in which case: warabi. these are my current vegetable obsession. closely followed by watercress - but more on that later.

i have had the incredible good fortune of spending a lot of time lately in waiahole, where my friend maile lives with a waterfall, taro patches, gardens, and a very sweet dog. maile invited us out a few weeks ago for a "true food sovereignty experience" - foraging in near her stream for young fern shoots. i love foraging. it's so satisfying. i think i could spend all day rummaging around in ferns taller than myself, hunting for those tightly curled little fronds, bursting with life. the first time we picked we were advised not to be careful with the rest of the fern leaves - the mature ones. the more you knock those down the more the plant send out new shoots, and i have been reaping the bounty on that advice as new shoots come up weekly.

you can eat them right there while you're picking; raw they have a kind of what my aunty wanda calls "gneah-gneah" quality to them. meaning, i think, that they leave a bit of a texture on the roof of your mouth. i would describe ho'i'o as the cross between asparagus and okra. but much prettier. it's got that firm, watery, tasty quality of asparagus with a bit of the slimy this-must-be-good-for-me quality of okra.

 the most popular way to eat ho'i'o is in a salad, where you blanch the ferns and combine them with opae (shrimps), tomato and onion.  i tried a number of different dishes using ho'i'o, like stir fried with leftover ahi poke and chili peppers. or sauteed with carmelized onions. i also made my own version of ho'i'o salad, adapting grandma ho's recipe for watercress salad. this went over pretty well at a couple of potlucks, so i'll share that recipe with you here.

ho'i'o salmon salad

1 block tofu, drained and cubed
2 tomatoes, diced
3 green onions, finely chopped
1 package bean sprouts (1/2 lb?), blanched
1 can salmon
1 can bamboo shoots, sliced thin
1 can baby corn
as much ho'i'o as you like, blanched

sauce
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 Tbs sesame oil
3/4 cup soy sauce
juice of 1/2 lemon

just layer the ingredients in an order that's visually appealing - with the ho'i'o on top to showcase it, and then pour the sauce on top. obviously all of those ingredients are optional - i added the bamboo shoots and baby corn, that does not feature in grandma's watercress salad - which she was sure to let me know.
there aren't any photos of this salad because, well, when i'm cooking for a potluck i'm usually running late. so here's a photo of  one of what they look like in a pan. i'd love to hear about any other dishes you've tried with fern shoots - leave a comment!

thanks to maile for the photos and for the experience!

hawaiian quilting

while i was in hawai'i over january i decided i wanted to try my hand at hawaiian quilting. quilting has a rich history in hawai'i, intricately wound up with the social and political forces that have shaped what hawai'i has gone through in the past century. as i understand it, the quilting craft came to hawai'i with the missionaries. prior to the fabric quilt influence, bedspreads in hawai'i were made from kapa - tree bark, beaten and felted together and decorated with inked stamp designs. when hawaiian women picked up the fabric quilting craft, they created a unique quilting technique and design that is readily identifiable as particularly hawaiian.

hawaiian quilt design motifs reflect nature - often plant forms, and they radiate out from the center in a geometric design. this effect is created by folding and cutting fabric like you would a paper snowflake - which unfolds into a multi-faceted design. hawaiian quilts are hand appliqued - meaning you stitch the snowflake design by hand onto a background, and then the quilting is done by hand as well, often echoing the shape of the center pattern, like ripples of water.
because the craft was taking form in hawai'i amidst serious political and social upheaval in the form of first missionary and then capitalist influences, there is an interesting story to be told in the quilts made by hawaiian women.
during the period of the illegal u.s. overthrow of the sovereign hawaiian government, you saw many quilts in hawai'i incorporate the hawaiian flag into their design. because loyalty to the sovereign hawaiian government (and eventually hawaiian culture itself) was forbidden during that period, many of these "beloved flag" quilts were made to be reversible, with the flag motif hidden underneath. the most exciting thing i learned today is that queen lili'uokalani made an incredible quilt during the 10 months she was imprisoned in 'iolani palace, following the u.s. coup that deposed her and her efforts to lead her people to reinstate their sovereign government. in the center of the quilt are the words, "imprisoned at 'iolani palace ... we began the quilt here ..." it's worth clicking to take a closer look at the details, she embroidered dates of the events of the overthrow, her close friends and supporters' names, the hawaiian flag and kalakaua coat of arms. i love acts of creative acts of resistance - and this beautiful work blows my mind in a number of ways.

so i really can't follow that historical legacy with my own modest first attempt at hand quilting, but that is what this blog is about - so here goes.
i chose the lehua pattern for my quilt block. lehua is the red blossom of the ohia lehua tree - which is one of the kinolau, or body forms of the fire goddess pele. the ohia lehua tree is one of the first plants to grow on recent lava flow beds. i wrote my honors thesis about pele and the hawaiian struggle against geothermal energy development, which my mom helped me with editing, and i was making the quilt for her so i figured she's appreciate it.
cutting out the design like a snowflake was really satisfying - an entirely new technique for me. however, i was running late to catch my flight back home when i chose to cut out the design (i know, not the best time to do craft work, especially with a new project - but i really wanted to have some handwork to do on the long plane ride) so i ended up breaking one of the cardinal principles of snowflake cutting - leave the middle corner intact. so when i unfolded my design on the plane i realized my parts were all disconnected since i hadn't placed the middle point on the corner to cut. oops. marty helped me problem-solve that situation by creating the star-shaped space in the middle of the flowers while allowing them to "high five" on the edges.

i actually think this ultimately improved the design, though next time i'll know to take more time with my cutting. the applique piece actually went pretty quickly - i was probably halfway finished with it by the end of the flight, but hand quilting the rest of the piece took me another month. you're supposed to measure a finger's width between your echo lines when you're quilting around your design, but i couldn't seem to keep my lines that far apart, so i ended up doing a whole lot of close together lines, which took a while.

i was also learning to make those tiny tiny stiches by hand. the book i was reading said expert quilters get about 10 stitches in per inch. i definitely was not achieving that level of accuracy, but i did make a lot of stitches.

here's what the underside of the quilt looks like with those stitches.

ultimately i made the quilt square into a pillow, since i wasn't about to hand stitch an entire quilt, and i think pillows are more functional and comforting than wall hangings.
mom got it in the mail this week and was very excited. in fact, my coworkers say they could hear her phone excitement from the other side of the room.

this is the card i sent with the package. thanks to hannah for the fabric.

solidarity crafts

e ala e - israel kamakawiwo'ole
[click that play button, this is the soundtrack for this post]

to wrap up the series of hawai'i reportback posts, i offer a different kind of craft: activism.
marty and i are both involved with creative direct action, and when we're home visiting kaua'i we do what we can to stand in solidarity with kanaka maoli - native hawaiian people - and support the struggles for self-determination, cultural revival, and environmental preservation.
on our previous visit to the islands, we talked about direct action, social movements, and roles for allies in solidarity organizing with katy rose, host of kaua'i community radio's show, out of the box. You can listen to our interview here.


during this last visit, we were called to action by the incredible attempt of hawai'i's governor, linda lingle, to steal and sell lands belonging to the native hawaiian people. governor lingle has filed a u.s. supreme court appeal to overturn the moratorium her own supreme court has put on selling off lands that were held "in trust" for native hawaiians since the illegal overthrow of the hawaiian government in 1893. these lands are commonly referred to as "ceded" lands, though they were "ceded" to the u.s. government by the very people who called for and supported the military coup that deposed queen lili'uokalani and then instated themselves as the new "provisional government," under the leadership of lorrin a. thurston and sanford b. dole (yes, Dole as in pineapples).


as if kanaka maoli aren't suffering enough from displacement, occupation, cultural and physical genocide, this is governor lingle's attempt to once and for all dismiss any claim that native hawaiians have any rights to their own land. really, that's what she's saying.


marty and i joined the kaua'i alliance for peace and social justice for a sign-holding demonstration on the main highway in lihu'e, kaua'i, supporting native rights and calling on lingle to withdraw her supreme court appeal. we made a number of signs for the demonstration, and a banner featuring the first flowers marty has ever painted on a banner (they look good, right?) these are some photos of the signs we painted.

that last sign aunty nani is holding refers to the akaka bill - a congressional bill introduced by senator daniel akaka of hawai'i that would give native hawaiians the same recognition as native americans. this might sound like a good thing, since kanaka maoli don't have any recognition right now, but it in fact would quash the claim for sovereignty and obfuscate the fact that native hawaiians never gave up their sovereign rights. and as marty and other native americans say of native recognition by the u.s. government, "you do not want to be treated like an indian in this country."
many see the "ceded lands" attempt by the lingle administration as paving the way for passage of the akaka bill, especially now with a democratically controlled senate and the support of president obama. read the open letter to president-elect barack obama, urging a moratorium on the akaka bill - written by kanaka maoli kupuna - elders.


our signs made a reappearance this week at another sign-holding demonstration on kaua'i - marking the 116th anniversary of the illegal overthrow of the sovereign hawaiian government. an estimated 5,000 people demonstrated in waikiki on friday, with the same message of opposition to the governor's attempt to sell "ceded" lands.
more to come this year, as the state prepares to mark the 50th anniversary of "statehood."

imu cooking

next in the series of hawai'i reportback is the imu.
imu is the traditional hawaiian pit oven, dug into the ground and filled with hot lava rocks. traditional foods cooked in the imu include pua'a - pig, 'ulu - breadfruit, and 'uala - sweet potato, which are wrapped in ti leaves and placed in the pit with the hot rocks, on top of juicy mai'a - banana stumps, leaves, and burlap and then the pit is filled in with dirt to seal the baking process. one of my favorite dishes is laulau, where your pork or fish is wrapped first in lu'au leaves - kalo (taro) leaves, and then wrapped in a ti leaf package.
we dug a pit into some friends' yard this year around the holidays to do an imu. we prepared breadfruit, sweet potato, kalua pork, and pork laulau, as well as a bunch of turkeys that were bought in a sale frenzy, some rice pudding, and coconut stuffing.


since it had rained every day for weeks, the wood was a bit wet and we had some difficulty getting the fire started to heat the lava rocks. however, using new technologies such as the leaf blower and some hardwood pallets snagged from a local business, we were able to get up and running.

word to the wise: don't get too involved in your firestarting to notice if your hair has started burning off.
as the rocks were heating, we were chopping and crushing the banana stumps, which are very high in moisture and provide the steaming effect for the imu. this is a great material to use because bananas reproduce asexually from suckers that shoot off the side of the plant, so when a banana tree bears fruit it must be cut down (or it dies on its own) to provide room for the next shoot to emerge.

once the fire burned down and the rocks were sufficiently hot we covered them with the banana stumps and then laid our food on top of them. as you can see the steam is working its magic already.


from there the food gets covered first with banana leaves.


then with palm fronds.

usually the next layer is burlap, but we used a couple of tarps.

from here the edges first get sealed shut with dirt.


and then the whole thing is buried.


and then you leave it cooking for several hours while you go fly kites.


and when you get back you do the process in reverse.
you dig out the dirt.


and peel back the tarps.


and it looks like a crazy sea organism.


and then you check the turkey to make sure it's done.


and shred the meats.


and the feast is on.


thanks to my stepmom, kat, for the photos.