Sustainability Studies

Sustainability and Practice in Hawaii

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Vegan Lilikoi (Passionfruit) Gelato Recipe

Local Food, Sustainable Food. (Part 2)

Vegan Lilikoi-Passionfruit Gelato

Vegan Lilikoi-Passionfruit Gelato

Even though this isn’t a food blog we are talking about food this round at Sustainability Studies so I thought I would share a favorite recipe of mine. A way to use local, sustainable foods. This is made with all locally grown, organic Hawaiian ingredients.

2 bananas (or apple bananas)

1 lilikoi (aka passionfruit)

1. Take the two bananas, cut them into pieces and throw them in the freezer. You should use just-ripened bananas – not brown. This will eliminate the banana flavor once they are frozen.

2. The next day put the frozen banana chunks in a blender or food processor. Pulse the blender and then spin on high until the bananas are pureed just barely.

3. Cut and scoop the insides out of the lilikoi and add them to the bananas in the blender.

4. Blend together until a whipped gelato consistency is formed. The lilikoi seeds do not need to be crushed.

5. Enjoy!

The frozen banana (when blended) creates an ice-creamy consistency and doesn’t have much of a banana flavor. However, if it does have a hint of banana flavor (when adding riper bananas) it still tastes great with the lilikoi.

Delicious, local, sustainable, homemade, vegan gelato!

Passiflora edulis

Passiflora edulis (Photo credit: Wikipedia)


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Local Food, Sustainable Food. (Part 1)

Locally sourced veggies from Ma'o Organic Farms

Locally sourced veggies from Ma’o Organic Farms

“Food is the unifying fabric of humanity, connecting us to the earth and each other.” – Ed Kenney, chef/owner at Town Restaurant in Kaimuki.

Couldn’t have said it better myself. Food is what keeps us alive and, with the right food, is what keeps us healthy. If we are going to talk about sustainability we should be talking about food. In the next few installments of Sustainability Studies we are going to talk about food in Hawaii.

The Hawaiian Islands are natural-resource-rich islands. For example, in my backyard alone I have so many papaya trees that I have to give fruit away to keep from wasting any. I don’t even have to water those trees for them to keep producing fruit. On the island of Oahu (possibly not even the island with the most fertile soil in Hawaii) we have a lot of local farms with quality fruits and vegetables, many of them being organic. However, the islands are still heavily reliant on outside food sources. It’s hard to see chickens roaming the roads and beaches on the North Shore yet when I go to buy eggs, the cartons are all stamped with that infamous “mainland” stamp.

What can we do to create a more sustainable food system in Hawaii? It all comes down to going local.

1. Support local farms and fishermen. Go straight to the source whenever possible or sign up for a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) box, delivered full of fresh, seasonally and locally grown fruits and veggies.

2. Grow your own food whenever possible and swap with neighbors if you can to get a good variety.

3. Go to farmer’s markets. Every section of Oahu has a farmer’s market at least once each week. They are often cheaper than buying from the grocery store and are much more fresh and tasty. BONUS: they are usually a good spot to get to know people in your community.

4. When eating out, eat at restaurants that cook with locally sourced, organic foods. Keep a lookout for “farm-to-table” restaurants.

After all, there is nothing more satisfying than the benefits of eating food that you put work into, drinking from a fresh, local coconut, or biting into a ripened apple banana.

English: Papaya

English: Papaya (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Do you have any ideas for going local and supporting sustainable food systems? Comment below.

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Tour de Trash – Waste Management Education in Hawaii

Last month (on my birthday!) I signed up for a free day-long “Tour de Trash” on Oahu. This tour was probably the best thing I could have done to learn about how trash is managed in Hawaii. It’s a very interesting and complex process and one that should be taken seriously. The fact that these tours are offered (for free) is a great step toward educating people about where their trash goes and encourages people to abide by the “THREE R’s”:

REDUCE

RE-USE

RECYCLE

….in that order!

On this tour we visited the Waimanalo Gulch Landfill…

The RRR Recycling Services…

Schnitzer Steel Hawaii…

The H-Power Waste-to-Energy Plant….

and Hawaiian Earth Products composting center…

To sum up the order of how things are processed from when they enter the bin to how they are managed is as follows:

1. Waste is placed in three different bins – Brown bins for trash, Blue bins for recyclables (in Hawaii that’s plastics 1 and 2 and corrugated cardboard), and Green bins for Yard Waste

2. Waste is picked up curbside by county trucks or personally taken to drop-off facilities.

3. Recyclables are taken to RRR Recycling Services where they are sorted and sent for processing. Some recyclables are sent to the mainland U.S. for processing, others are sent as far as China.

4. Yard Waste is sent to Hawaiian Earth Products to be composted into soil and mulch (which is free to those willing to come pick it up!).

5. Trash (non-recylables and non-compostables) are sent to facilities where contents are sifted through to take out any metals to be sold and recycled (Schnitzer Steel Hawaii), burned by H-Power to create energy, and/or (as a last resort) buried in the Waimanalo Gulch landfill near Kapolei.

Obviously the best way to avoid all of the nastiness that comes with handling and managing trash is to REDUCE your level of waste. The next best way is to become educated on how you can help to manage the waste that you do generate in order to help us become a more sustainable Hawaii.

If you are interested in learning more about waste management in Hawaii or taking a free Tour de Trash visit Opala.org.

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