Subsistence Farming - Hawaii

(7th and 8th grade)
by Karin Payne

Our consumptive lifestyle has led us to the brink of annihilation.
We have expanded our right to live on the earth to an entitlement to conquer the earth.
Yet “conquerors” of nature always lose– Bill Mollison

Class 1
Lab- Fire making (magnifying glass, bow drill, magnesium, fire piston, choosing tinder)
Classroom- Define Sustainability, Define Nutrition (petroleum and food, inputs and outputs, local economy)

Class 2
Classroom- Before the Ships came in (Hawai’i and the Ahupua’a)
homework- write down all the foods you eat for a week
journal entry- Maku ainana living on the Ahupua’a
Lab- Cooking without metal, glass (heating rocks, bamboo containers, ti/banana leaf)

Class 3
Classroom- After the Ships came in (Hawai’i after Cook- whaling, sandalwood, disease, starvation, invasive species, cash crops, missionaries, kapu system, Great Mahele- redistribution of land)
homework- calculate the distance the food traveled to get to your door
journal entry- Maku ainana’s choice after the Great Mahele
Lab- Storing foods (lemons in syrup, vinegar, oiled/wrapped and buried, brine and dehydrated, concentrated syrup)

Class 4
Classroom- What if the Ships stop coming in (Hawai’i without outside inputs)
homework- cross off non local foods from list, determine staples
journal entry- The ships no longer come to Hawai’i (the near or far future)
Lab- Salt (bitterns, sea salt, amaranth ash)

Class 5
Classroom- Developing a Plan (meeting our nutritional needs sustainably, staple garden design, food group fact sheets, local food menus, sustainable food processing and storage)
Lab- Some “unfamiliar” Local Starches (taste testing: taro, breadfruit, air yam, cassava, dasheen, peach palm, breadnut…)

Future Classes- students and teacher present fact sheets on food items relating to the particular lab
Future Labs (in no particular order)
Fruits (experimenting with “unfamiliar” local varieties e.g. durian, jaboticaba, jackfruit, lilikoi, rambutan, soursop…)
Greens (experimenting with “unfamiliar” local varieties e.g. moringa, chaya, katuk, malabar spinach, sweet potato)
Pulses (experimenting with “unfamiliar” local varieties e.g yardlong, lablab, peanut, pigeon pea, wing bean…)
Vegetables (experimenting with “unfamiliar” local varieties e.g. coconut sprout, tree tomato, chayote, pumpkin, okra…)
Dairy (evaporating milk, hard and soft cheeses w/fig sap “rennet”, yogurt, butter..)
Meat/Eggs (pemmican, broth, brining, long term storage w/ w/out refrigeration…)
Beverages (natural sodas, tea, coffee, chocolate, kombucha, coconut water..)
Sugar (cane sugar, honey, fructose syrup, corn syrup, stevia, coconut palm syrup..)
Spices (spice mixes, sauces, chutneys, preserves…)
Ferments (tempeh, japanese nuka box, kawal- vegetarian complete protein…)
Oils (coconut, mac nut, avocado, peanut, sunflower, malabar chestnut, tallow/lard…)
Bread/Cereal substitute (dent corn, amaranth, breadfruit, cassava, pulses..)
Snacks (coconut chips, crackers, nut butter, dehydrated fruit…)
Livestock (chickens, fresh water fish, goats, cows, bees..)
Making a Solar Dehydrator

Final Presentation Dinner
Journal Entry Recitation
Garden Plans
Personal Menu (before and after)
Food Group Fact Sheets
Local-Food Dinner