Hula, surfing, Kona coffee and Spam musubi are all at home in Hawai‘i. But did you know we have the only commercial vanilla farms in the U.S., or that cowboys roamed the Islands before the Wild West? Here are five things that are distinctive to Hawai‘i that you may not have known about. (We didn’t, either!)
Rock-Walled Fishponds
According to Hawaiian moʻolelo (stories), Kūʻula, a fisherman who possessed the power to direct and control fish, built the first Hawaiian fishpond, or loko iʻa, in Hāna on Maui. For hundreds of years before Western contact, nearly 500 fishponds were maintained across the Islands, serving as integral parts of the Hawaiian ahupuaʻa system. (An ahupuaʻa is a land division, extending from the mountains to the ocean.) The rock-walled fishponds, or loko kuapā, that Kūʻula and his descendants built are unique to the Islands, having likely evolved from fish traps that early Polynesians brought with them to Hawaiʻi. These fishponds were constructed on shallow nearshore reefs, their rock seawalls built by hand. Sluice gates, called mākāhā, connected the ponds to the ocean and allowed juvenile fish to enter. Once inside, they would eat the abundant seaweed and algae that would thrive in the ponds, thanks to the nutrient-rich runoff water flowing down from upland farms. The fish—typically ʻamaʻama (mullet) and awa (milkfish)—would get too big to swim back through the mākāhā to the ocean, making it easy for Hawaiians to harvest them.
Other types of aquaculture fishponds have been around for thousands of years in almost every coastal culture in the world. In fact, several years ago, a 6,000-year-old network of eel traps was found in southwest Victoria in Australia, built by the Gunditjmara people and considered among the earliest surviving examples of aquaculture.
But the walled fishponds found in the Islands—as part of an ahupuaʻa system—are unique and found nowhere else in Polynesia.
Most of the ancient fishponds in Hawaiʻi are gone, in disrepair or no longer in use. But restoration efforts are growing. Right now there are about 40 fishpond sites across the Islands in different stages of restoration. The 88-acre Heʻeia Fishpond on the Windward Side of Oʻahu is an example of a nearly restored kuapā-style fishpond, built between 600 and 800 years ago by the residents of the area. Its rock wall—an estimated 1.3 miles—is possibly the longest in the Hawaiian Islands and forms a complete circle around the ancient fishpond. Today, it’s cared for by the nonprofit Paepae o Heʻeia, which offers hourlong guided tours.
Vanilla
Label it as boring and basic, but vanilla’s distinct flavor makes it an essential ingredient in baked goods and popular treats like chocolate and ice cream. The warm, floral notes of the aromatic spice complement other herbs and foods. While vanilla is a ubiquitous flavor, it’s also the second-most expensive spice, following saffron.
Vanilla comes from the seeds of orchids in the Vanilla genus and grows as a vinelike plant. Saili Levi, founder of Lāʻie Vanilla Co. on Oʻahu, says the plants grow best in warm, tropical climates within 20 degrees of the equator. The vines grow from cuttings, and it takes about two years for them to mature and flower. Once the plant flowers, scrupulous labor is required to hand-pollinate the orchid for it to fruit. When the plant fruits, the pods are meticulously harvested before ripening. The pods, also referred to as beans, undergo a painstaking process that includes curing and sweating. The pods are then packaged or go into vanilla extract—a baking ingredient found in most kitchen cabinets. Levi—who officially launched his business in 2019—says the entire process takes about three years.
While the vanilla orchid is native to Central and South America, today, about 80% of commercial vanilla comes from one island: Madagascar. However, the Hawaiian Islands are the only place in the U.S. where vanilla is commercially grown.
The crop first arrived in the Islands in the late 1800s, but it wasn’t until 1998 that Hawaiian Vanilla Co. on Hawaiʻi Island became the country’s first commercial grower of vanilla. Since then, vanilla farmers have sprung up throughout the state—including Lāʻie Vanilla Co. and Lydgate Farms on Kauaʻi.
Levi, the only commercial grower on Oʻahu, actually discovered wild vanilla vines growing in Lāʻie on the eastern coast of the island—a unique find considering most people are unaware that vanilla even comes from a plant. A friend helped Levi identify the vines, planting the seeds for his niche business. Like specific grapes for specific wines, climate and soil contribute to the unique flavor of Hawaiʻi-grown vanilla. A lab on the Mainland even traced fruity notes including mango and papaya in the extract from Lāʻie Vanilla Co.
And Levi hopes to see more vanilla growers in the Islands. He has led educational tours for residents and visitors. At the end of the tour, guests take home cuttings to propagate. While Levi was learning how to grow vanilla on his own, he got a lot of things wrong. Now, he wants to help others avoid those same mistakes.
But his main goal is to teach high school students about agriculture and growing vanilla in the Islands. “If a ninth grader starts growing vanilla just in his backyard, by the time he’s a senior, he’ll have vanilla ready to harvest,” Levi says. “There are lots of dreams and plans to think about, but like vanilla, it just takes time.”
Niʻihau Shells
If you look at a map of the Hawaiian Islands, you might miss Niʻihau, the small leftmost island neighboring Kauaʻi. It may come as a surprise, then, that one of the most covetable items on this list originates from the shores of the least inhabited of Hawaiʻi’s inhabited islands.
Niʻihau shells range in diameter from 3 to 5 millimeters and come in hues of yellow, white, red, pink and brown. When strung together, they create a beautiful and unique jewelry piece that mimics and maybe even outshines a flower lei. A sign of wealth, beauty and exclusivity, a lei made of one strand of Niʻihau shells can cost a few hundred dollars—multiple strands can be priced at tens of thousands of dollars.
Its hefty price reflects the craftsmanship needed to create the lei and one’s accessibility to the island. Nicknamed the Forbidden Isle, Niʻihau is privately owned by the Robinson family with a mostly Native Hawaiian population of around 170. The island is only accessible to outsiders through invitations by Niʻihau locals, and authentic Niʻihau shell lei are made by its residents, who have been passing down the craft since before Capt. James Cook’s arrival to the Islands.
The three types of shells commonly used to make Niʻihau shell lei are kahelelani, momi and lāiki—all of which vary in color, shape and size. These shells can be found on other Hawaiian Islands, but it is illicit to term them as “Niʻihau shells” unless they were foraged on the shores of Niʻihau. Due to the lack of pollution on Niʻihau, shells found on the island have a noticeable vibrancy when compared to those found on other islands. The Niʻihau shells law, passed in 2004, ensures quality and authenticity and protects the generations of lei makers on Niʻihau whose work comprises 20% of the island’s economy.
The shells have remained timeless and invaluable to Hawaiian culture throughout their history. Niʻihau shell lei have been worn by Hawaiian royalty in official portraits—one archived photo from Queen Victoria’s golden jubilee shows Queen Kapiʻolani dripping in strands of Niʻihau shells that match her gown. Today, the shells continue to be worn by men and women around Hawaiʻi at important events, and by hula dancers at the annual Merrie Monarch Festival.
If you’re looking to purchase Niʻihau shells, they are sold in jewelry stores around the Hawaiian Islands, but be wary of their authenticity. Examine the shells’ color, luster, workmanship and uniformity of size. The everlasting reverence to the shells is a testament to Hawaiʻi’s cultural resilience, one that is carefully curated, abundantly powerful and gratifying.
Paniolo Culture
Outside of the Islands, few are familiar with the legendary and influential history of Hawaiian cowboys, or paniolo. Their traditions and brotherhood shaped many towns across Hawaiʻi, forging a culture unique to the Islands.
Cattle first arrived to Hawaiʻi Island in 1793. British navy Capt. James Vancouver offered King Kamehameha I a small herd. To ensure the cattle’s population would grow, King Kamehameha I declared a strict kapu (taboo) on the cattle, which prevented any indiscriminate harm coming to the animals.
As cattle were introduced to neighboring islands, their populations soared. Nearly 25,000 wild longhorn cattle roamed Hawaiʻi’s pastures. But the animals eventually became a nuisance, and then a danger, running rampant through villages, destroying crops and even killing people.
The kapu ended about 20 years after it was declared and Hawaiian ranching began. Then in 1832, King Kamehameha III traveled to California, then a part of Mexico, and witnessed vaquerosin action. The following year, he invited a band of vaqueros to train Hawaiian ranchers.
The vaqueros taught Hawaiians how to rope, slaughter and breed cattle, and how to work with horses (which were also brought to Hawaiʻi, as a gift to King Kamehameha I). As a result, a class of dexterous Hawaiian cowboys ensued, predating those of the American Wild West.
“The vaqueros are a hallmark of how Hawaiʻi went from cattle herders to mountain cowboys,” says Dr. Billy Bergin, author of “Loyal to the Land,” a four-volume chronicle of Parker Ranch in Waimea on Hawaiʻi Island. Bergin worked alongside generations of paniolo during the 25 years he was Parker Ranch’s veterinarian.
The paniolo, a Hawaiian iteration of the word español, took what they learned from the vaqueros and created their own styles and practices. They modeled their saddles after their teachers’ but fashioned them to be more comfortable, with a slim saddle horn to wrap rope around quickly. Bergin says that as expert canoe carvers, the transition into saddle and leather work came easy to the Native Hawaiians.
From crafting their own saddles to wearing hats adorned in lei and developing their own music, string instruments and styles, paniolo left a lasting mark on local culture across the Islands.
Early on, when cattle had become a nuisance and a danger, King Kamehameha III sought the skills of the vaqueros. Dr. Bergin says the king sent three of them to the Big Island, three to Maui, two to Oʻahu and two to Kauaʻi. “King Kamehameha III wanted every island in the kingdom to have a manner to convert a very bothersome nuisance of overpopulation into a product of agriculture that could be marketed to the ships,” Bergin says. “That’s a major contribution of his and very thoughtful to make sure all of the Islands had access to this knowledge.”
In addition to the well-known cowboy regions of Waimea on the Big Island and Makawao on Maui, small towns like Poʻipū on Kauaʻi and Maunaloa on Molokaʻi continue to perpetuate paniolo traditions not found in Western towns on the Mainland.
Saimin
Don’t be fooled: Saimin is not ramen. In fact, saimin (pronounced sigh-min) is a noodle dish that’s only found in Hawaiʻi. The word “saimin” is a combination of two Chinese words—sai meaning thin and min, which means noodle. The dish dates back to the late 1800s, during Hawaiʻi’s plantation era, but quickly spread beyond the ethnic camps. By the ’30s, saimin stands started serving the noodle dish with barbecue burgers or skewers of teriyaki beef. Bowls were garnished with kamaboko (fish cake), char siu (sweet roast pork), sliced Spam and green onions.
The noodles in saimin are what make it distinctive from other Asian noodle dishes like Japanese ramen and Vietnamese pho. Saimin noodles typically contain the same ingredients as ramen—wheat flour, sodium and potassium carbonate and salt—but are darker in color, curly and slightly chewy when cooked. Some styles of saimin can also include eggs. The noodles are served in a hot dashi, or broth, usually made from shrimp, mushrooms, ginger and konbu (dried kelp).
You won’t find saimin anywhere else in the world—but you’ll find it all over Hawaiʻi, from old school drive-ins to high-end resorts. It’s even on the menu at McDonald’s.
What’s Not from Hawaiʻi
Thought shave ice and the ʻukulele were from Hawaiʻi? Think again!
Pineapple
It’s hard to imagine sipping a piña colada or mai tai without a slice of pineapple garnishing the rim. While the prickly fruit has become ubiquitous in the Islands, it originated in South America.
Lilikoʻi
Although the fruit bears a Hawaiian name, the two varieties of passion fruit were both introduced. The purple passion fruit originated in South America and the yellow variety is believed to be native to Australia.
Bird of Paradise
This unique flower blooms throughout the Islands and even inspired artist Georgia O’Keefe during a visit to Hawaiʻi in 1939, resulting in the painting, “White Bird of Paradise.” But the Strelitzia is native to South Africa.
Mongoose
These animals were introduced in 1883 to control rat populations in sugarcane fields. But rats are nocturnal, and mongoose are not. Instead of reducing rat numbers, mongooses helped drive many of Hawaiʻi’s native birds to extinction.
ʻUkulele
In the 1880s, Portuguese immigrants from Madeira and Cape Verde brought a small guitar called the brahuingha to Hawaiʻi. King Kalākaua helped grow the popularity of the instrument, performing with it at royal gatherings.
Shave Ice
Like many local favorites, the origins of shave ice in Hawaiʻi can be traced to the plantation days. Japanese immigrants brought kakigori, a dessert of finely shaved ice flavored with syrup and condensed milk.
This story was originally published in our Fall 2022 issue, which you can buy here. Better yet, subscribe and get HAWAIʻI Magazine delivered to right to your mailbox.
