Our Hilo Farmers Market is a wonderful place to visit anytime of the year, but there is something special about visiting in the weeks just before Christmas.
The colors of the season were displayed all throughout the market as if a child had gone wild with his Crayolas!
We spent at least an hour and half walking up and down the aisles and snapping photos. Everyone was smiling and when asked if I could come into their booths to take a better shot everyone was so agreeable...even if they were busy they would stop to answer any questions.
Photo: Atemoyas - a delicious cross between an the cherimoya and the anona or sugar apple. Custard-like white pulp with black seeds.
I have enough photos to do several articles, but this one today is the one I really wanted to share first.
Photo: Late mangoes - these were already to eat!
Photo: The apple bananas are plump and oh, so sweet!
Photo: Japanese (Fuyugaki) Fuyu one of the best non-astringent Persimmons they are sweet and mild with slightly firm orange pulp.
Photo: Mini Fingerling Avocadoes - compare their size with the larger avocado. These are seedless and very creamy.
Photo: The Hawaiian White Pineapple is very juicy and sweet. It is not usually grown for export and except for some that visitors take home with them, they are all consumed locally.
Photo: Our Pomagranates make their first appearance just a month or so before the Christmas Holidays and last through January. The crispy and juicy seeds are the only edible part of this fruit.
Photo: Warabi or fiddlehead ferns - delicious in salads, quiches or one of my favorites way to prepare is as a cream soup. The taste is similar to a combination of asparagus and okra. Rich in Vitamins A and C and beta carotene, they need to be blanched for several minutes to get rid of the slight bitterness.
Photo: Durian, huge fruit, supposedly considered the King of Fruits by many Southeast Asians. Many people say the taste is delicious once you get past the off-putting smell. You can smell them for quite a distance and in some countries you are not allowed to take one inside buildings, such as a tourist taking it to their hotel room to eat ;-) - I have tried Durian and can say in all honesty, I ate what I was served but am in no hurry to try it again.
Photo: Red Rambutan - the name in Malay means 'hairy little thing' and it is related to the lychee, this is another Southeast Asian fruit very popular in Hawaii. This one I love! The skin or rind is slightly rubbery to the touch and the pulp resembles a large peeled grape. The taste is sweet and they smell slightly perfumey... to reach the pulp you can pop them open with your nails.
Photo: Tangerines! The trees are loaded with tangerines this year... so many that I have seen some fallen on the ground and just left there to rot... Juicy and sweet, you can't beat a tangerine at Christmas Time!
Photo: Last but not least. Today there was someone selling baby goats at the farmers market. When my son looked at the man, he recognized him as the one who had sold him his pet white goat about 15 years ago! Steve, the goat farmer, and his wife, make several types of cheeses with goat milk and sell them at the market. The plain chevre, of course, but they also had feta and mozzarella made with goat's milk. Another nice product they were selling were tropical fruit and spiced scented soaps made with goat's milk!
In a few days I will share the photos of flowers I took at the market!
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Sonia Martinez, Gather Food Correspondent | ||||
Sonia's column, 'Tropical Taste' is a regular twice-monthly feature of Gather Essentials: Food. Sonia is a cookbook author and freelance food writer for several publications in Hawaii, and is also a Hawaii Island Journal restaurant reviewer in partnership with her son Anthony Mathis. She lives in a beautiful rural rainforest area on the Big Island of Hawaii. You can keep up with Sonia's adventures and ongoing love affair with Hawaii by joining her network, or visiting her food & garden blog at Sonia Tastes Hawaii. | ||||
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Comments: 45
Oh shut up.
We green eyed haoles don't want to hear about Hilo ten days before Christmas,
friggin White Christmas!
Great article, always.
Donna, I can't wait for you to get here either! That mango gingerbread sounds fantastic....and mangoes are my most favorite fruit! Lay it on, woman....share that recipe!
John, I particularly thought of you when I was a photographing the atemoyas....they taste very much like a cherimoya....so I know you would like them... I do love rambutan and lychees.....Lyches are a summer treat and rambutan are available in the winter...! Funny, I've never had lychee juice but have had ice cream....!....and yes, the durian is NASTY! the odor they emit is similar to when your gas stove is running out of gas....LOL
Katrina, we have invited two friends who are at loose ends for the holidays to our Christmas Eve 'noshing' spread....one dish I plan to prepare is a salad using the fingerling avos, fresh heart of palm, locally grown tomatoes and greens and my passion fruit dressing.
Joan, I had to include the photo of the durian because there is no way you can ignore the smelly things when walking through the market...;-)) - There is a local banana farm (my friend Richard who also grows those wonderful tomatoes) that is shipping apple bananas to Harry & David which they feature during the holiday season and also as a gift of the month.... Your market probably just named them baby bananas as it might confuse people to call them 'apple' bananas... the baby goats were adorable and a big draw with the crowd....The whole time we were there, they had a circle of people looking and playing with them.
Vicky, I love your Holiday icon....everytime I see it, it cheers me up! I love to see snow, but am glad I don't have to be in it! These persimmons are so different from the ones I have eaten in the past while living in the Carolinas....they don't need a 'first frost' before you eat them....they don't make your mouth pucker at all... I eat them as is, or mixed in salads and once used them to make a bread pudding that turned out delicious!
Linda, the Kona side of this island and the Hilo side are two different worlds...! We don't get as many tourists for one thing - though I'm usually glad to see them around since it means our economy prospers ;-) and most of them are always so receptive to learning about the 'new to them' things they are seeing and experiencing... I know you will enjoy your holidays with your grandbabies!
Mele Kalikimaka, y'all!
Tonia, the same thing happens to us with apples, pears, peaches and apricots.....whatever fruit is shipped here ends up mealy because it was picked too early so they could be shipped.....
My son had a pet white goat. He named him Manapua (Pua for short) - he was a wonderful pet....but of course, male so no goat milk....
Maybe this will decide you to get one or two...or three.......Pua was great at clearing land and of course was a great fertilizing machine at the same time....if we had the space, we would have brought home a couple of those cute little goats yesterday!
Debbie, I'm trying!
Thanks for another great posting.
What do you mean by an aero garden? - at first I though maybe hanging baskets...but then you mention hydroponics....
One of our good friends is a farmer who grows tomatoes of several varieties, including some heirlooms, hydroponically. They are the best tasting tomatoes in our markets. I guess it depends on the combination of nutrients - and he uses everything organic... he is also growing cukes, watercress, lettuces, garden onions and experimenting with strawberries...! He has hundreds of greenhouses with covered floors, so the stuff is all growing bug free without pesticides!
While I do like living in Michigan, I sure wish we could get fresh produce year 'round.
I made a 'green and gold pie' last night - actually a form or quiche using the nicest freshest yellow crooked neck squash and zucchini....... it turned out really good.
P.S. All that said, I have to admit my very favorite photo is of the baby goat! ; )
Debbie, the goat farm north of us has a program where people come from wherever and spend some time here and work with them, learning, etc....you might try to get some info from them... I'm not sure if the same program is active at Steve's farm...his place is south of us in the Puna district....but if you are really interested, I can check for you! That would be super!
Susan, thank you! The minute I stepped in the market that image of a child playing with Crayolas came to mind... What a riot of color that place is! Yes, I love using natural material for my decorations....be it greens, fruit and veggies or flowers....even dried materials....
I knew you would love that baby goat also!
Wishing all of you a wonderful Christmas...wherever you are!
I would love to try the atemoyas, and rembutan too.
My grandmother used to have a chiremoya tree, & I loved those.
The selection is so vibrant and inviting!!
The only thing I do not want to try is Durian.
Do the 'apple' bananas really taste like apple & banana??
No, the apple banana does not taste like apples at all...but they taste much sweeter than the regular longer type bananas you see in the store....
I don't blame you on the durian....;-)
Merry Christmas to you also!
I got in love with your farmers market may years ago because of you.
I m some how with you about durian, I had smell some thing :) while opening the fruit,it has some smelly but not that bad !!! I eat bulb they were sweet and have also some pinapple babaya smell too.I asked the srilankan fairy,about this fruit ,she told me they make coconut carries with the green unripe fruit,and they boild the seeds making diffrent kind of curries?
the fiddlehead ferns sound intresting ,and healthy,I feel thats its good for diabetic people?
Persimmons is one of my mother favorate fruits .
I realy wish to taste the Mini Fingerling Avocadoes ,looks very tasty.
when my son were in Hunololo last summer for his honey moon ,got in love with Hawain beef burger that have grilled fresh pinepple and avocadoes,he described the avocadoes as mayo substitute.
have a fresh healthy day
love
adeeba
I did not know about durian seeds used in curries. That is interesting. Thanks for teaching me something new...but I still don't care for durian ;-)