Most of what I would tell you about is from my own experience because I’ve found just reading about the plants is way different from actually growing them. (go figure!)

You got five categories here: edible ground covers, perennial vegetables, fruiting vines, edible trees and edible shrubs. For me, to qualify as “edible landscaping” the plants have to be low-maintenance…otherwise, you’re farming or something. This is all stuff you can just let grow with perhaps a yearly maintenance cycle—some pruning and the addition of nutrients to the soil. They also have to be nutritious and something you could conceivably live on.

It’s important to note that most plants, and especially trees, require fairly intensive care at first to make sure they’ve established themselves, so take that into account when you plan your edible landscape.

Now, right off the top, you know fruit trees are a good idea, but most fruit trees require maintenance, and this is especially true of many of the varieties you would find in a nursery. On this list are all trees that will do OK even if you don’t keep them up. It’s important to note that for some of the plants here, “low-maintenance” also means “potential to be weedy and invasive” so it’s all about choosing where you grow them.

I’m just going to give you the common names if I don’t know the latin right off hand here, I’ll come back and finish that later.

Groundcovers

Sissu Spinach
Okinawan Sweet Potato
Jungle Peanut (Arachis hypogaea)
Pineapple (plant ‘em tight!)

Perennial Vegetables

Kale (particularly dinosaur, Ethiopian varieties)
Collards
Poha (physalis)
Tomatillo
Cherry Tomato
Taro (wet areas)
Niʻoi (bird peppers)

Vines

Lilikoʻi (passiflora give them a tree or something that can handle a lot of weight to grow on)
Jamaican Lilikoʻi
String Beans, Lima Beans, Wing Bean (they die back and reseed themselves)

Shrubs

Katuk (Sauropus androgynus)
Chaya
Edible Hibiscus (hibiscus manihot)
Pigeon Pea
Surinam Cherry
Noni
Cocona (solanum sessiliflorum)
Coffee

Trees

Moringa (Ethiopian variety is best)
Peach Palm
Citrus (not dwarf or other delicate varieties; too high-maintenance)
Avocado (best to go with a market-grade variety, not a volunteer; also mix seasons with your varieties)
Mango (not the common mango, which is way too big a tree)
Eggfruit
Breadfruit
Lychee
Papaya
Banana (not really a tree; needs lots of moisture and fertility: don’t bother if you don’t have a great spot for it)

As best as I can recollect, here’s what we had:

• Scalloped purple sweet potatoes in kaffir-lime coconut milk
• Alii mushroom (king oyster) macadamia nut loaf
• Compote of papaya, poha berry (physalis), cocona and honey
• Roast ulu (breadfruit) with a roselle sauce
• Braised ʻopihi (limpets) in coco water and garlic chives
• Massaged kale salad with poha and tangerine
• Fennel-pineapple salad
• Purple sweet potato mash
• Basil-garlic chive mac-nut cheese
• Honey-glazed coconut meat
• Basil nut cheese and tomato salsa on pumpkin flat bread
• Crispy kale
• Guacamole with ulu chips
• Greens salad with lilikoʻi (passionfruit) dressing
• Coconut water with pomegranite juice
• Kambucha fruit drink
• Grapefruit vanilla honey granita
• Orange sweet potato pie
• Raw sweet potato pie with banana-nut crust and coconut cream sauce
• Bananas Foster with Koloa rum

Let me know what I missed or got wrong…

Serving the feast

Macadamia nut loaf with grilled Alii nushrooms

The thanksgiving plate

I have baked bread of various kinds in restaurant settings through the years, most recently at the (now defunct) Lotus Root in Kapaa. Lisa, too, has baking experience, also most recently at the root. We knew it was possible to make our own bread without much drama.

When we lived with Rich and Virginia in Maui, Virginia had a homemade rye bread she made regularly, a slightly sour, pure rye bread which was naturally fermented with a starter (technically, a “sour”). It rose and bubbled and poured into the loaf pans like a thick batter. It was hearty in a way that most things called “hearty” are not, because most of the time the word is used simply because it sounds good–not here. “Virginia bread” is nourishing and substantial, very good toasted. “Is” because we met up with Virginia last month at a wedding at Anini beach, and she passed some of her starter to us.

A satisfyingly crusty wholegrain and rye loaf.

At first, we made a few of her delicious pumpernickel-style loaves, sour, toothsome and moist. But I wanted to explore a broader range of styles and went looking for ways to get the crusty European-style hearth breads we are generally unable to get from a local baker. What I learned was that people had been figuring out how to do this at home with simple, reliable techniques for some time now.

So, after reading up a bit, I began working with cold fermented doughs. It’s been incredibly satisfying and productive making these breads. It works into my day very well; no need to spend several hours in the kitchen, everything is done in short bursts of activity punctuated by waiting (also known as doing something else). One big advantage (there are several) of working the fermentation cold is you can ferment from 8 hours to 4 days–whatever works for your schedule. Now, once you take it out, form your loaves and proof them, they must be baked when ready, so you can’t

Seed Bread: an assertive crust, a fine, moist crumb and loaded with seeds.

have quite so much flexibility with the bake-off phase.

I’ve been following Peter Reinhart’s latest book, Artisan Breads Every Day, and it’s been quite a successful and inspiring jumping-off-point. My desire is to make more densely whole-grain breads than the book contains, but he gives you the guidelines to proceed. We have been making our own sprouted grain flours (meals, really) by sprouting whole grains, then drying and grinding them in the Vita-Mix. I have been mixing these sprouted grain meals with commercial organic flour at about 50/50, far heavier than Rienhart’s recommended 80/20 blend. The results have been delicious.

The Dooleys arrive in the hood

It was just after we got our chicks which added to our entertainment.

And Laura showed up with a surprise guest, a baby pig that she was pig sitting. Anakin and Izzy were extremely happy to hang with little piglet as was most everybody here. I think the little guy had a turn being carried in everyone’s arms at some point during the day.

This was also the day that the Chicken mansion got moved into it’s current location in the garden. See the moving the chicken coop entry for more on this exciting adventure!

I later learned that the pods were a criollo variety (criollo basically means ‘wild’) which is the basis for all of the best-quality chocolate made. Criollo beans, which have a distinctive character, are often blended with the more plentiful and bland forastero beans to achieve a flavor profile by the chocolatier.

Our goals with the cacao are modest here; chocolate production on a resale scale would require a lot more planting that we will be able to do. We’ll use the beans to make cacao nibs which are useful and delicious on their own. Of course, small-batch chocolate for our own use will be part of the plan as well.

Now comes the big moment of truth, can we sell any of this stuff?

At last: eight weeks, thousands of dollars and a rather daunting pile of official paperwork later, it is here. I can tell you this is an exciting moment!

We had a bit of a time cutting the seal on this sucker…

Jonathan seems to have the right technique: see that look of determination? That seal is breaking.

It opens…

Wond’rous things lie inside…

It’s packed full, spaces filled with small goods, big pieces fitted in like a Tetris game. Our housemate at the time, Joseph, lends a hand.

Included in the shipment was quite a lot of stone—statues, water gardens, planters, stone niches. That stuff is heavy, we hoisted it into the truck and shifted it to the lawn. Some of the pieces were too big to lift, so some friends from the construction site across the street brought their loader over.

That Ganesha statue Lisa is watching seemed small in the shop, but here, it was far more that we could carry. The loader came in real handy, I tell you! Thanks to Dean Sillman here, the contractor on the construction across the street.

When the unloading was done, the house was full, the yard was full and so was our storage container. Eric is in charge of the colored baskets we filled spaces with.

Of course we had lists and manifests to check: here Lisa and Eric inventory some of the nice handmade paper goods we brought in.

Lisa’s brother Dick, his wife Margaret and son Eric came to stay for a while. They were at a crossroads and were considering where they might live, and our little island was up for consideration. This was very fortunate for us because we were going to need a lot of help. It was fortunate for them because they wanted to be somewhere warm.

There’s a road that goes deep into the mountains not far from our house—it leads to the base of Mt. Waialeale, right to the bottom of a 3,000-foot cliff that becomes strewn with waterfalls after a good rain. Problem is, you don’t want to be there after a good rain, so we seldom get to see this wonderous sight! We took a little day trip to the area, deep in the rainforest, crossed by dozens of clear streams and irrigation tunnels. This photo was taken from inside such a tunnel to the open pool beyond.

Back on the ranch, we had just gotten in a new shipment of plants—bamboo from our friend Rich’s farm over on Maui. Six dwarf bamboos (Bambusa multiplex) for our roadside hedge, and two very special timber species, Bambusa oldhamii. This plant is also known as “giant timber bamboo,” even though at 80 feet it is one of the smaller of the timber species. They went into the ground very unimpressively like so:

We’ll get back to these later, as I’m sure it will be impressive then.

Dick is really quite handy in the shop and he took on the task of building our bathroom vanity. We kinda let that ride with the temporary vanity that Aleister put together last year, but we got big things coming up and the bathroom needs to be finished. I had some plans lying around and soon Dick was cutting and assembling the new vanity countertop.

Applying the formica is always a tense moment as you really only get one attempt. The glue sticks instantly, so getting it laid out beforehand and planning the application is essential. We couldn’t have a square countertop, either—that would be too easy! Looks a bit like a piano top now that I see it like this, but according to the plans in the computer it will fit perfectly into the space. We’ll see about that.