Grow Aloha: Breadfruit

Let’s dive straight into the big question: What’s so special about breadfruit? Dr. Ragone shared her thoughts on what makes this tree unique.

“Breadfruit is so special for many reasons, primarily that it’s a perennial, long-lived tropical tree that grows in a lot of environments and conditions and produces an abundance of nutritious food with pretty limited inputs.”

Dana shared her take on why breadfruit stands out as a staple crop.

“Breadfruit is one of the only staple foods on Earth that grows on a tree, which makes it inherently more resilient to climate change, big weather events, and helps it to provide all these environmental benefits which most staple foods that are annual field crops–like rice, potatoes, cassava–just can’t provide, because trees are kind of magical in that way. They not only sequester carbon but help to prevent soil erosion, protect our watersheds, and create habitat. To me that’s the first standout feature.”

For Kyle, breadfruit offers a sense of resilience and hope that is really representative of Pacific Island communities.

I think being able to have a tree crop that produces starch–food–year after year and can really handle the weather extremes and the different soil conditions, again is something that is really uniquely Pacific Island. And even in the context of climate change where the world is all doom and gloom, there’s this kind of hope. I think so much about breadfruit is this sense of resilience. We can grow it in these alluvial soils along a river bank, but you can also grow it where there basically is no soil on an atol. So it’s a crop that really has evolved over thousands of years to be able to thrive in these different conditions. To me that’s one of the most distinct and unique parts about breadfruit.

We asked Dana to share her most memorable experiences with breadfruit, also known as ʻulu in Hawaiʻi.

“Some of my most cherished memories with ʻulu are from our farm. Our family has a farm in South Kona. It’s actually structured as a worker co-op so my husband and I are co-owners with another four people. And we started planting the ʻulu trees on the farm and caring for some trees that were already existing on the farm while I was hāpai with our oldest daughter. And I have very strong memories of being extremely morning sick but trying to plant ʻulu trees (laughs). So some of my first memories of my pregnancy with Leia were from the early days of the farm where we were clearing and planting. Those trees are now giving fruit. So whenever I go back to those trees that I planted when I was hāpai, I think of her and that time period in our family, which is really sweet memories. And it shows just how quickly really the ʻulu give back–that my daughter is now eight and these trees can feed our family full meals.”

Kyle’s most memorable experiences with breadfruit are also centered around family.

“I have four children and they were all born and raised in Fiji. One of the customs there is that when the last bit of the umbilical cord falls off, you take it and you plant it underneath a tree. The idea is that your child is grounded and they hopefully won’t go wayward. With my second child, we planted the umbilical cord under a beautiful breadfruit tree. Each time that I look at that tree and I see how prolific the fruiting is, and the fact that we even had a big cyclone come through our farm–category four cyclone–it got all battered up but still, the tree flourishes. So to me, it’s symbolic of what I hope my children will grow up to be like. Resilient and fruitful.”

Dr. Ragone has journeyed throughout Micronesia, Polynesia, and Melanesia to study the diverse varieties of breadfruit found in the Pacific. Among her many experiences, she recalls visiting the last known surviving tree of a unique breadfruit variety.

“A memorable experience with a breadfruit tree was when I was doing field work in the Pacific islands to document and describe varieties of breadfruit, working with local agricultural extension agents and farmers. We visited this one farm in the back of a valley that had been abandoned. There were breadfruit trees but they were all covered with vines and you could barely see the leaves sticking out. The farmer told me that that was the only tree of that variety left on the entire island. This was in the Cook Islands. He said it was a very tasty, good variety but for various reasons there was only one tree left. But the good news from that is that variety is conserved in our breadfruit conservation collection at Kahanu Garden.”

Breadfruit has long been an important staple crop across Oceania. Breadfruit trees are also a primary component of many traditional agroforestry systems in the Pacific.

“I think the most interesting agricultural production systems with breadfruit were traditional breadfruit agroforests that you’ll see in many islands in the Pacific where breadfruit is the signature canopy tree and then it’s interplanted–whether it’s on a hillside or low areas–with myriad other crops and plants such as flowers or ornamental and food crops that people want to eat and use,” said Dr. Ragone.

“I think some of my favorite breadfruit farming systems are found in Vanuatu,” added Kyle. “In Vanuatu, your status as a farmer is determined by the amount of diversity you have on your farm. So often we have these indicators of like, how big you grow or how much of something, quantity. But in traditional Melanesian systems, in Vanuatu and in other parts of Melanesia, there’s this status that’s attributed to diversity on the farm. So they’re growing these seeded varieties, and they’re collecting the seed from the breadfruit, planting them out, and they’re looking for variations, looking for differences. And they do the same thing with sweet potato and taro varieties. Of course, we know now that has amazing resilience in terms of on-farm production, to be able to have such agro-biodiversity. And it is so important to really understand and appreciate that diversity, because that is the Pacific. I just want to encourage us to think about our gardens, not just to think about how big or how much we grow of something, but to have diversity as a measure or indicator of being a successful farmer.”

Now having explored some of what makes breadfruit so special, you might be wondering: What’s the best way to eat it?

“I really like it the traditional way in the Pacific Islands and in Jamaica and the Caribbean where it’s roasted directly in a fire and then you peel off the blackened crust,” said Dr. Ragone. “Then you can eat it with coconut cream or other things. That’s the traditional way. I don’t prepare it that way [at home] so I always enjoy it when I have a chance. But when I prepare it myself I like to steam it and then use that as hash browns or nachos, or make an au gratin with it. You can do a lot of different things with it at that starchy stage.”

Added Kyle, “I love being able to be out on the farm or somewhere in the bush, being able to build a fire, being able to just throw a couple of breadfruit in there without any cooking utensils, let them char all the way on the outside–in Fiji they call it tavu–then get a stick and peel the charred bit on the outside and then you have a beautiful snack. There’s something very primal about the fire and the fruit and it being able to fill up your belly. So I think that’s probably my favorite way.”

“My favorite way to eat ʻulu is probably to make desserts with it,” said Dana. “There’s several desserts that I really like making with ʻulu. We make an ʻulu flan when the fruit is ripe, where we blend it with condensed milk and evaporated milk and make kind of a sugar syrup and it’s delicious. It’s a very dense flan with a great flavor. Everyone in the family likes that one. You know, ʻulu is just so easy to throw into dishes that you’re sort of making from whatever you have in your fridge, like a stew or a salad or a patty burger. I feel like it incorporates really well with other ingredients and all sorts of other ingredients. But one of our family’s favorite savory dishes is scalloped ʻulu where we slice it pretty thin and then we cook it in the pan with some onions and then we add milk or cream, you can also use coconut milk, and then just let it simmer so the fruit really absorbs all that liquid and flavor. And then after it’s nice and soft you put grated cheese on top and then you bake it in the oven until all the cheese melts. So good.”

We asked Dr. Ragone, Kyle, and Dana what their hopes are for the future of breadfruit.

“My hope for the future of breadfruit is that people in the Pacific islands where it has grown for centuries if not millennia, continue growing it, and they continue conserving their traditional varieties and sharing the knowledge about them to their children and their grandchildren because it’s such an important part of their culture and their environment,” said Dr. Ragone. “Globally, I would like to see more people planting more breadfruit trees in tropical areas for food security and reforestation. I’d say plant a tree today and within a few years youʻll have a tree that produces fruit. There’s so many people now who are growing breadfruit so there’s a lot of community and people you can learn from and you can share your fruit with and there’s a lot of information and resources about breadfruit from the Breadfruit Institute and other organizations. So plant a tree and look forward to the abundance of food you will get from it.”

Added Kyle, “One of my visions for hopefully where breadfruit goes is that this community of breadfruit people across the Pacific is really connected and has a shared vision for not only protecting the diversity of the crop and cultural significance but really promoting the crop. And as we’ve seen at Fest Pac that was recently hosted here in Hawaiʻi, even people in Hawaiʻi, cultural practitioners, are just becoming really aware of how much is out there across the Pacific. I hope that in the breadfruit community we will also be able to continue to realize how much information, knowledge, and genetic diversity exists and it will foster this sense of community.”

“I hope that ʻulu will become re-incorporated into people’s day-to-day meals and that we’ll see a lot more ʻulu trees planted all over the place, in public places, backyards, and commercial farms,” said Dana. “Breadfruit trees are so beautiful. They’re just gorgeous. I can’t think of another tree that’s quite as iconic as breadfruit, to me and in Hawaiʻi and across the Pacific. The significance of ʻulu in Hawaiian culture is something that’s very relatable today and has a lot of applicability at this time in the world and for human civilization in terms of ʻulu being a crop of resilience and a crop of adaptation. The story of Kū giving his life to save his family and his people from famine, ʻulu is that crop. And I think at this time in the world with so much uncertainty and upheaval it seems at times, I think ʻulu just offers so many solutions, both literally and symbolically.”

Interviews were edited for clarity and length. Artwork by Carly Lake.