These photos of taro fields were taken from the Hanalei Valley lookout on the northern shore of Kauai.
Taro is a traditional Hawaiian crop which has been cultivated on the islands for centuries. The root of the plant is used to make a starchy paste called ‘poi’, rather tasteless in my opinion but some people love it. More than 2/3’s of Hawaii’s taro crop is grown on Kauai, much of it around the Hanalei Valley. The area has about 60 inches of rain each year which is ideal for growing taro.
Taro can be grown either as a wet (flooded paddy) or dry (irrigated) crop, although the wet crop you see in these photos has a better yield. The crops take six months to mature, so two crops can be raised on a land parcel each year. Crops are planted in a staggered fashion so that there is a continuous harvest of taro.
The root is cut from the stalks and bagged for sale. The stalks of the plant are saved with the top of the root to be planted again. Re-planted these will grow into new plants. It’s a labor-intensive crop, but I’m glad to see these traditions continue.
