Coconuts, Where Elegance Meets Utility. Niu Now!

Aloha kakou! 

For elegance, utility, and design perfection, today, we’re honoring the coconut palm. The Niu, or coconut palm, Cocos nucifera L., is our beloved Hawaiian coconut! 

Stately beacons, especially at the seashore. 

The niu’s slender ringed trunk ascends to a crown of fronds, some up to 9 feet long. Coconuts form at the base of the fronds, and every part of the plant is used, it’s one  of the ten most useful plant species in the world.

Here, Jessie Mikasobe Keali’inohomoku talks about the delicious phases of the nut meats! Among a lot of other things, including efforts to educate and propagate Niu culture. 

Mahalo to Jesse, as well as Indrajit Gunasekara – Uluniu Project Founder, and Dr. Manu Aluli Meyer – Kūlana o Kapolei, Chancellorʻs Office and ʻAha Niu Director.

Find out more about the Niu ohana here ⁠https://www.puuhonua-society.org/niu-now⁠

808-725-0907 

indrajit@hawaii.edu

IG at Niu.Now 

Mahalo to contributing musicians. Music programming and listing: Kit Ebersbach at Pacific Music Productions

Hope the new year opens like a coconut for you! 

Here are a few notes I made about the coconut meat:

ʻōʻio, the unripe, green nut with jelly-like flesh

haohao, as in “ka wai o ka niu haohao,” the delicious water in the maturing nut, with soft, white flesh 

ʻili kole, the half-ripe nut, with chewy meat, eaten raw with salt and poi

oʻo, a mature nut, but not brown, ripe, good for milk and cream

maloʻo, brown mature nut, with dry husk, water still inside, best stage for planting

ho’oiho, the spongy pulp in sprouting nuts; choice food (lolo)

ōkaʻa, the dry, brown, old nut with no water and meat

‘āka’a, separated from shell so as to make a rattling

sound; oil is extracted at this stage

A hui hou!