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Natural History

Milo
(Thespesia populnea)

The earliest Hawaiian settlers brought the seeds of the fast-growing milo trees in their sailing canoes. The plant is widespread from East Africa to Eastern Polynesia but probably originated in Madagascar. Because the seeds float well and are not killed by salt water, it has dispersed widely to the beaches of the Indo-Pacific.

However, in Hawaii, at least, the trees were introduced by early voyagers because they were extraordinary useful. Stands of the trees make dense shady spots along the sun-baked beaches. Cordage was fashioned from its inner bark and its non-flavor imparting wood was used for calabashes and other serving pieces. The tree's massive root system allows it to grow well on sandy beaches in full sun. It is often used in modern plantings around seashore houses and resort areas to help hold the sand against erosion by wind and sea.

Besides this, milo was used all over Polynesia as a medicine. In Hawaii, a laxative was made from its seeds and a bark infusion was commonly used to treat mouth infections and sometimes eye injuries. In Tahiti the crushed fruit or its sap was applied externally to relieve headaches (a custom also reported from Malaysia), rashes, ringworm and other skin ailments and centipede bites. Natives of the Cook Islands use the crushed fruit in remedies for urinary tract infections and abdominal swellings, often in combination with noni (Morinda citrifolia) fruits and green and yellow ti leaves. The bark combined with hibiscus is made into an infusion for infants with teething problems.

In other parts of Polynesia, various parts of the plant were used alone or in combination with other herbs to treat diarrhea, stomach ailments, thrush and other mouth infections, stomach aches, coughs, relapse fever and rheumatic fever. It is sometimes used as a purgative as well.
The walls of the milo fruit were sometimes used to produce a yellowish-green dye for kapa.

The modern milo tree grows to a height of 30 to 50 feet. It is a round-headed upright tree with a spread of 30 feet. The branches ordinarily spread widely, more or less horizontally, and the trunk attains a maximum diameter of about two feet. The bark is thick and corrugated.

According to one expert, at one time milo was known to reach great size, similar to the koa. At maturity these forest giants had trunks that were six feet in diameter and standing as high as 65 feet tall. However, large milo trees are now very rare. Like the koa, they are vulnerable to many introduced insect pests including termites. Even in pre-contact times access to such trees was very limited. Like the giant koa trees, the largest milo specimens were used to build war canoes.

Milo is a relative of the hibiscus, hau, okra, cotton and 'ilima. Its leaves are heart-shaped, three to five inches in width. The flowers are bell-shaped and about two or three inches in diameter. They look like a small yellow hibiscus flower, to which it is a close cousin. The flowers are a pale yellow color when fresh with a dark red spot near the base, very similar to the hau blossom. As they fade during the day, they wither into purplish pink twist.

The flowers are followed by five-parted capsules which are slightly flattened on each end. These capsules turn brown and hang on the tree a long time. The fruit and seed capsules are round and woody. Each of the five cells of the capsule contains a wooly seed. One way to distinguish a milo tree from the look-alike hau bush is to check the seed capsules. Milo seed capsules do not open.

There is a Hawaiian proverb which refers to the use of the leaves, blossoms or seeds of the milo in love magic, hana aloha. It says, "He milo ka la'au, mimilo ke aloha." (Milo is the plant; love goes round and round.)

The wood of the milo was greatly esteemed for making wooden bowls and other food containers. It has a rich brown color with an attractive grain and is capable of taking a high polish. The beauty of the wood has earned it the nickname, "Pacific rosewood." It has no unpleasant-tasting sap to contaminate the food and is durable and resistant to decay in water. Only kou wood was more popular for this use in old Hawaii.

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Lucky You Live Hawaii

Forty Years Ago . . .

Here's an interesting look into the cost of homes in Hawaii, found in the 90th edition of Thrum's Hawaiian Almanac and Standard Guide, published in 1968: "Statistics on one-family homes insured under FHA Section 203 reveal that Hawaii ranks either first or second (behind Alaska) in most categories of housing costs, according to a report released in 1968. Moreover, these costs are increasing at a much faster rate in the Islands than elsewhere in the nation, thereby widening the gap between Hawaii and the rest of the country."

The report takes data from FHA Homes 1966, a study prepared by the Statistics Section of the Division of Research and Development in the Federal Housing Administrations Dept. of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).

According to the number-crunchers, the average property value for new homes, back in 1966, was $27,533 in Hawaii, or about 52.1 percent over the national average. Since 1960 this average increased 27.3 percent in Hawaii and 20.8 percent nationwide.

Among existing homes that year, the average property value in Hawaii was $27,595. This exceeded the national average by 78.5 percent. Increases since 1960 amounted to 37.3 percent in the islands but only 15.9 percent for the entire country.

High land prices accounted for much of the difference. The average market price of the site for FHA homes in Hawaii was 40.9 percent of the total property value for new homes and 45.1 percent of the total value for existing homes. Corresponding Mainland ratios were only 19.6 and 20.6 percent, respectively. Since 1960 the site cost in Hawaii, they said, increased 73.2 percent for new homes and 94.4 percent for existing homes.

According to this report, the 1966 Hawaii averages exceeded those on the Mainland by 217.7 percent for new homes and 291.0 percent for existing homes.

In addition to this, Hawaii ranked near the bottom among the 50 states in average lot size, average calculated area of the dwelling, and average number of rooms. Construction costs were high --$16.13 per square foot in the islands compared with $12.16 per square foot in the rest of the country. Site costs in Hawaii were also higher than the national averages: $1.68 per square foot for new Hawaii homes and $1.92 per square foot for existing homes, four times more than the corresponding national averages of 52 cents for new homes and 45 cents for existing homes.

In other words, things haven't really changed much, when you think about it. Owning a piece of Paradise has apparently been an expensive proposition for a long time now.
 

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Braddah-Nics Lexicon

STANDARD: I didn't mean that.
BRADDAH-NICS: Nah, nah, nah....on'y joke.

* * * * * *

STANDARD: That's too bad. Russell's upset and he can't seem to change his attitude.
BRADDA-HNICS: Auwe! Russell some hemajang and he no can adjustamacate 'em.

* * * * * *

STANDARD: I am not happy with this crewcut that barber gave me.
BRADDAH-NICS: Aiee! Da bahbah jus' wen' buzz my head!
 

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Local Grinds

Chicken Long Rice


Ingredients:

Procedure:

Put chicken into a five quart saucepan. Add two quarts of the water, salt, and ginger. Bring to a boil, skim, lower heat, and simmer for forty minutes. Remove from heat and drain contents; save broth.

Shred Chicken and set aside. Put broth, onion, bouillon cubes and the remaining one quart water into saucepan. Bring to a boil. Add long rice, lower heat, and cook covered for 5 minutes.

Turn off heat and let stand about 30 minutes. With kitchen shears, cut long rice into approximately 3-4 inch lengths. Stir in chicken and serve.

Sprinkle with green onions. Makes 6 to 8 servings.

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Spotlight On…

Hana

One popular slogan adorning tourist t-shirts proclaims, "I survived the road to Hana." Tourists heading out that way are frequently advised that the "journey is the thing." Often, they rush through the winding road, get to the end of their motion sickness-inducing trek, and stand around complaining that there's no "there" there.

The thing about Hana is it's a real place. People live, work and die there, and they really are not into the tourist thing much. The beauty and tranquility of the place is real, the history is acknowledged and appreciated but not made much of, and the sense of family, community and neighborliness is not a put-on show.

During the 1920s Hana was the urban center for an estimated population of 12,000 people living in small villages along this part of the coast. When the sugar mills closed down after World War II, many folks had to leave to find other work. Around that time, a San Francisco entrepreneur, Paul Fagan, bought plantation land and set a herd of Hereford cows to graze in the old cane fields. His ranch is still there and so are the cows. Fagan also opened one of Hawaii's earliest non-Waikiki resorts. Both the ranch and the resort, now called Hotel Hana-Maui, are Hana's economic backbone.

Hana gets more than 90 inches of rain every year -- more than enough to keep it lush and green. Bamboo, fruit trees, wild gingers and other tropical flowers and ferns abound along the road to Hana, as do the freshets and towering waterfalls all along the ravines and cliffs.

The modern, cliff-hugging road, which wends its way through more than 600 twists and turns, over 54 mostly one-lane bridges that mark the streams and ravines, and through lush ginger-scented rain forests, fern-covered rugged cliffs and bamboo groves, was opened in the late 1920s. It was pretty much "unimproved" for a long time. Now the road's mostly graded and paved highway and it isn't such a trick to survive it.
 

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