My Summer Vacation: Niu NOW

I am not sure whether my body is reacting to the increased exercise and I am more fatigued or if staying up about an hour later than usual last night affected me this morning. Either way, I slept through my alarm this morning. When I got up it was about half an hour before the Niu NOW webinar. Today the presenters shared recipes of various dishes made with coconut. Vilsoni started with a dish called ʻikou which is Rotuman version of laulau.

All the events start with a welcoming pule.

He gets his kalo leaves from MAʻO's farmers market stall in Kakaʻako.

You can vary the ingredients except for the kalo & niu.

Traditionally ti leaves are used instead of foil.

You can bake others things along with the ʻikou.

Someone asked about other uses for kalo leaves and Vili shared about just using them as a side vegetable. The most important thing is to boil or steam them long enough that the oxalate crystals in the leaves break down.

Then Indrijit showed us how to make uluniu. This is a new dish they created to use the ulu and niu at the farm; it is not a Sri Lankan dish. He also talked about features for a good coconut grater and how to tell when a coconut is ready for eating (always).

This is the stage of niu he uses for grating & making coconut milk.

A good grater should be round, slightly cupped with a hole in the center & with a long neck.

If you do not have a grater, these are the steps to do.

Both pieces & grated coconut are blended with water to get the ʻmilkʻ.

The same tree will give different age of nuts.

Ulu is ripe when it is yellow; it will not ripen off the tree.

Cut in to chunks & put in pot with water.

Boil until tender.

When ulu is cooked add coconut milk.

All 14 growth stages of niu can be eaten.

And Noe showed us how to make the Tongan fruit drink, ʻotai. Traditionally, it was not made with watermelon which is not native to Tonga, but it has now become the main ingredient wince it is so plentiful & cheap.

Grate the watermelon.

Removing the niu husk.

Grating the niu.

Adding grated niu to the watermelon.

Usually fresh pineapple is used.

Add enough water to make enough for how many people are there.

All the webinars end with a thank you oli.

This is Day 14 of the Unicorn Challenge (Week 2 Day 7); it is a Fast Day with Active Rest. The sunrise walk is a great example of Active Rest. As part of my Active Rest Day, I spiralized 3 hakurei and put them in the leftover beet vinaigrette sauce; I added more vinaigrette. The pigments from the beets have given the hakurei a light pink color.

Two more orchid blossoms fell off today. There are now only 2 left on the flowering stalk.

It looked like it was alternately sunny & cloudy today in Kapaʻau. The LG was doing his bimonthly ER duty at Kohala Hospital; the timing of his FB COVID update coincided with the sunny spike in the Tesla app.

It was very sunny in the morning with patchy clouds in the afternoon.

This was shot about 2 pm.

There were 121 new COVID-19 cases reported today for a total of 14,553 known cases. There were 3 new deaths reported bringing that total up to 212. The 7-day average for Oʻahu is 54 with a 2.3% positivity rate. There were 1216 active cases and a 79% recovery rate. The number of cases on Lānaʻi has grown to 79 and is expected to increase even more due to a big testing push done over the weekend. Hopefully most of the people on the island (pop. ~3000) have been tested so they know how widespread it is.