Learn why "I found an air potato!" is my catchphrase at the Pahoa Urban Food Forest (PUFF)! Probably the easiest staple food to grow here, this prolific perennial carbohydrate crop can be used in the same ways as potatoes, but without needing soil disturbance to harvest or replant every year.
A deciduous vine, air potatoes can grow on feed trees, on trellises, or amongst and on shrub and tree crops.
This is a must-have for food gardens and homesteads.
(Read more about air potatoes)
We'll talk about air potatoes (Dioscorea bulbifera) and how amazing they are, see some specimens (prize given to whoever brings the most interesting air potato!), and taste them prepared in a few ways.
We'll have lots of the common "Hawai'i" variety to take home for planting and eating, and show and tell of 3 other varieties new to the island.
We'll give out small bulbils of "Mae-sai yellow" to those ready to diversify their air potato plantings.
We'll also have a mini-celebration of mint potatoes/Hausa potatoes (Plectranthus rotundifolius), a low-maintenance deciduous ground cover and root & leaf crop.
We'll share some roots for planting those too.
We'll share seeds and starts of a few other species, including:
Ulu "Ma'afala" seedlings - *Artocarpus communis*
Rainforest plum - *Eugenia candolleana* - small fruit tree, supposed to be one of the best tasting Eugenias
Cabeluda - *Myrciaria glazioviana* - jaboticaba relative with good-tasting yellow fruit
Blackberry jam fruit - *Randia formosa* - 5?' shrub gardenia relative, with small fruit with pulp tasting like blackberry jam
Ice cream bean - *Inga edulis* (probably) - great nitrogen-fixing chop and drop, and yummy fruit if it's allowed to become a large tree
Achira "Verde" seedling - *Canna edulis* - low maintenance herbaceous root crop, biomass, and ornamental
Jamaican cherry - *Muntingia calabura* - tree maybe 30' (can be kept smaller), small tasty fruit
Jamaican lilikoi - *Passiflora laurifolia* - vigorous vine, sweet fruit without tartness
Malabar chestnut - *Pachira glabra* - easy tree with chestnut-ish nuts (but high in cyclopropene fatty acids which may or may not be harmful, so probably best eaten in moderation rather than as a major staple crop)
Mitsuba - *Cryptotaenia japonica* - AKA Japanese parsley, 2' herbaceous plant.
There may also be opportunity to get cuttings and divisions of various perennial greens.
DAY: Sunday, March 10
CELEBRATION: 11 AM til noon.
Tasting, chatting about, & showing off air potatoes.
TOUR: noon til 1, with time to chat or wander more afterwards.
We'll look at air potatoes in the wild, and probably exclaim "I found an air potato!" more than once.
PLANT GIVEAWAY: 1 PM
WHERE: Pahoa Urban Food Forest, between Habitat Tattoo and the County Council building.
ADDRESS: 15-2881 Pahoa Village Rd, Pahoa
PARK: Across the street in the parking lot next to NAPA Auto Parts.
Hope you can join us for any or all of it!
Norris
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