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After moving to the mainland, I started reminiscing about back home in Hawaii. It’s like what they always say, you don’t realize how much you love something or how much you’ve taken it for grants until it’s no longer there.
Growing up in Hawaii, I grew up in a Pineapple field. My house was located in a small village name Whitmore, near the town of Wahiawa, and not too far from the Army Military Base Schofield. One of the unique things about my village, is the fact that back then it was surrounded by pineapples.
Before we had internet, videogames and youtube, the pineapple fields were our playground. So after coming home from school, my brother, his friends and I would jump on our bicycles and head to the pineapple fields.
I remember seeing the workers out on the field picking pineapples, and not realizing just how difficult a job they had. Of course growing up in a pineapple field I have taken for granted how sweet the Dole pineapples are compared to some of the other pineapples I have tried here in the mainland. Oh how I miss them now.
[image source: http://www.takepart.com/article/2015/06/29/hawaii-local-food/ ]
I also remember, my family didn’t have a lot of fruit trees but we did have a neighbor who had a lychee tree. If you haven’t tried lychee yet, I highly recommend it. Every time I would see the Edmans tree start to fruit, I would get really excited. I knew that meant soon they would come to our doorstep with a bag filled of delicious lychee. One of the best ways to experience eating lychee is to pill the skin off, take out the seed and place it in the refrigerator overnight.
[Image source: http://gardener-pro-ok.blogspot.com/2011/11/how-to-grow-lynchee.html ]
While my family didn’t have a lychee tree, we did have a starfruit tree (we also called it star apple). Starfruit gets its name due to its unique shape. It was always so sweet, and frutied in plentiful amounts. I remember picking bags and bags of the fruit and handing them out to my neighbors, such as the Edmans. The fruit was so good, that I named my pet tortoise starfruit.
[Image source: http://www.tastinghawaii.com/2012/12/the-beautiful-hawaiian-starfruit.html ]
Before going off to college and eventually moving to the mainland, I remember getting my first job, picking mango. Ironically enough, prior to me working on the mango farm, I never tried mango before.
I use to be a very picky eater, and the idea of eating mango grossed me out for some reason. While during lunch one day on the farm, the boss came around and reminded us that we were able to eat some mango if we wanted too. Granted that all my other co-workers started digging in, I decided to give it a try. I can not believe I have went so many years without eating such a sweet delicious food.
[Image source: http://www.tastinghawaii.com/2012/12/the-beautiful-hawaiian-starfruit.html ]
While living in California now, it does strike me as odd why the fruit back home tasted so sweet compared to the fruit here. One of the reasons that I was told was because of the rich red dirt. While Oahu has its own legend as to why the dirt is so red, (lets just say it contains fighting and a war between different tribes), the more likely answer is due to the large amount of iron oxide present in the dirt.
[Image source: https://luckywelive808.com/living-in-haolewood/ ]
What are some fruits you miss eating from your childhood? Please share with me in the comment section below.
