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Hawaiʻi Scene on Social

But hold on, is it bad luck to even joke about this? Oh no, now we've repeated the joke! Ahhh!

Pali Tunnel i Stock 182908571 16x9

<title>Hawai‘i Scene on Social: Pork over the Pali</title>

Today's social media find comes from kenekethegreat, tunneling his way to laughter.

Hawai‘i Scene on Social: Pork over the Pali

But hold on, is it bad luck to even joke about this? Oh no, now we&#039;ve repeated the joke! Ahhh!  

Pua headshot

Puanani Fernandez-Akamine

Viewpoints

Hawaii History

, preeminent 20th century Native Hawaiian scholar Mary Kawena Pukui wrote: “Members of the ʻohana, like taro shoots, are all from the same root. With Hawaiians, family consciousness of the same ʻroot of origin’ was a deeply felt, unifying force, no matter how many offshoots came from offshoots.”

Traditionally, our moʻokūʻauhau (genealogies) establish us as Kānaka ʻŌiwi – the Indigenous people of Hawaiʻi. It is from this foundation of moʻokūʻauhau that we have pilina to our ancestors, to this ʻāina, and to one another; an identity established by bloodlines, lineage, and connection.

It was not until the 1921 Hawaiian Homes Commission Act was passed by the U.S. Congress, with language defining “natives” as those individuals having 50% or more Hawaiian blood, that the idea of “blood quantum” to determine our Hawaiian-ness was introduced into the consciousness of our people and began to redefine how we saw ourselves.

[{"type":"text","text":"A tool of dispossession"}]

The idea of blood quantum to determine indigeneity is an invention of settler colonial governments designed to dispossess Native Peoples from their lands.

In Canada, the 1876 Indian Act, still in effect today, determines who receives “status” from the government. “Status Indians” must be 50% or more Indigenous and are eligible for a variety of benefits not available to the rest of the population. Whether or not a person identifies as Indigenous, or practices Indigenous culture and traditions, is irrelevant to the designation.

Mi’kmaq attorney and professor Pamela D. Palmater writes: “There is a long-term effect of this type of legislation: that every single First Nation in Canada effectively has an extinction date, a day when that Nation’s last registered Indian is born.”

In the Americas, blood quantum first shows up in 1705 in Virginia when the colony adopted an “Indian Blood Law” limiting the rights of Native Americans with 50% (or more) Indigenous ancestry and affording greater rights to those with less than 50% ancestry.

Then in 1887, Congress passed the General Allotment Act (the “Dawes Act”) which gave the U.S. president the power to break up communally held tribal lands into parcels of about 160 acres that were then “allotted” to individuals – typically heads of households. The law was designed to push Native Americans from tribal land ownership to private land ownership, ostensibly to encourage independent farming and economic prosperity.

At the time, an estimated 138-150 million acres were under Tribal authority and control. According to the Native Governance Center, under the Dawes Act “the federal government used blood quantum to determine allotment eligibility and also granted Native people with lower blood quantums the ability to sell their allotments. Any unallotted ʻsurplus’ land [in the end about 90 million acres] was sold to non-native buyers. The federal government used this strategy to further strip Native nations of their land base.”

In other words, the government “gave” portions of land already controlled by the Native Nations to their individual members and when there were no more tribal members “eligible” to receive a land allotment based on blood quantum, the government kept the rest (about 65% of the original acreage) and sold it to non-natives.

The “Indian Reorganization Act” of 1934 ended the forced allotment of tribal lands as the federal government changed its policy to one of recognition of tribal governments and the promotion of self-government – so long as they conformed to an American model. However, it also formalized blood quantum as the federal tool for defining Native American identity and tribal membership, replacing kinship-based membership systems.

“Blood quantum emerged as a way to measure ʻIndian-ness’ through a construct of race. So that over time, Indians would literally breed themselves out and rid the federal government of their legal duties to uphold treaty obligations,” explained Dr. Elizabeth Rule (Chickasaw) an assistant professor at American University in a 2018 NPR interview.

According to the Native Governance Center, the Indian Reorganization Act resulted in many Native nations adopting “boilerplate constitutions” developed by the federal government that included using – for the first time – blood quantum as the basis for tribal citizenship.

[{"type":"text","text":"Deciding who is Hawaiian"}]

According to Dr. J. Kēhaulani Kauanui, a professor of Indigenous Studies at Princeton University, “the blood quantum rule operates as a technique of state craft that undergirds dispossession” noting that “U.S. governmental bodies have used blood quantum classifications both historically and in the present to appropriate Native lands and promote cultural and biological assimilation to the advantage of whiteness.”

Hawaiian Blood: Colonialism and the Politics of Sovereignty and Indigeneity

, focuses on the U.S. imposition of blood quantum on Hawaiians codified in the Hawaiian Homes Commission Act (HHCA) of 1921.

As her research documents, the legislation initially proposed by Hawaiʻi’s Congressional Delegate, Prince Jonah Kūhiō Kalanianaʻole, defined Native Hawaiians as all Hawaiians “in whole or part.” Members of Congress, however, were uncomfortable with an all-inclusive definition of Native Hawaiian and pushed for a new definition. Eventually, 1/32 became a hypothetical example and later, the newly proposed standard.

Kūhiō saw the HHCA as “belated justice” and emphasized in his testimony before Congress that Hawaiian dispossession, depopulation and economic marginalization had to be remedied. Its purpose, therefore, was rehabilitative and inclusive.

The greatest opposition to the HHCA came from Hawaiʻi’s wealthy corporate plantation and ranch owners. They sent their representatives to Washington, D.C., to voice their dissent to Kūhiō’s proposed legislation. Unwilling to give up their access to trust lands, they proposed “full-blood Hawaiian” as the most appropriate definition.

Kauanui asserts that the blood quantum criterion emerged as a way to avoid recognizing Hawaiian entitlement to the lands desired for the homestead program. “Key players in the HHCA hearings redefined ʻneed’ in racial terms by using blood quantum as an indicator of social competency, where those defined by the 50% rule were deemed incapable to look out for themselves,” she said.

“Hence, in the quest to control Hawaiian land and assets, blood quantum classification emerged as a way to undermine Kānaka Maoli sovereignty claims – not only by explicitly limiting the number who could lay claim to the land, but also by reframing the Native connection to the land itself from a legal claim to one based on charity.”

This was evident in the testimony of attorney William B. Pittman at the Congressional hearings in December 1920 on behalf of Raymond Ranch (now Ulupalakua Ranch) and other interests.

Arguing that the legislation should only apply to full-blooded Hawaiians Pittman said, “I do not believe the delegate [Kūhiō] will object to that – that it be confined to the full blood instead of the half blood – because he knows and everybody knows that any part Hawaiian is capable of taking care of himself and does not need any rehabilitation.”

To which Kūhiō replied, “I would like to see everybody get the benefit of it in Hawaiʻi. For years past and up to the present time, the Hawaiians have never received any benefits.”

The proposed legislation continued to use a 1/32 blood quantum to define Native Hawaiians at least through April 1921. However, after the proposal was rejected by Congress for an unrelated reason and sent back to the territorial legislature for revision, 1/8 became the new standard being debated.

By the time the proposal went back to Congress, however, Native Hawaiian was defined as 50%, “a compromise made between Kūhiō and Hawaiʻi Sen. John H. Wise (also Kanaka Maoli) with the elite ʻMerchant Street gang’ in Honolulu,” Kauanui said.

She posits that “had there been an abiding focus on Hawaiian land entitlements, rather than a shift to a welfare discourse of Hawaiian neediness, genealogical descent could have remained as the way to determine Kānaka Maoli eligibility for homesteading, since as descendants of the kingdom, Kānaka Maoli could claim an equitable right to the land as their inheritance.”

However, she adds, “neither the island representatives serving the interests of the sugar corporations, nor the U.S. government intended to bolster Hawaiian claims, especially those that would call U.S. occupation into question.”

Kūhiō’s call for Hawaiian rehabilitation focused on Indigenous mortality and the HHCA was originally premised on recognition of citizenship under the Hawaiian Kingdom as Hawaiians grappled with unresolved land rights, “but the problem was in articulating that awareness of these historical claims within the confines of American law, citizenship and racial categories,” said Kauanui.

[{"type":"text","text":"Blood quantum and identity"}]

Until 1921, Hawaiians were simply Hawaiians. After foreign contact began in 1778, the mixed race children of Hawaiian mothers and (mostly) European fathers were raised Hawaiian and fully integrated into Hawaiian society.

Hawaiian identity was based on lineage and cultural norms rather than racial reckoning, thus many Hawaiian children of mixed ancestry were not even aware of their mixed ancestry – especially if they were hānai.

Today, despite the imposition of blood quantum on the Hawaiian psyche for the past 100 years, in most instances one’s appearance or estimated blood quantum is not an exclusionary social factor because of the importance of genealogy and pilina within the Hawaiian community. Indeed, nearly every Hawaiian family today includes members who qualify (and don’t qualify) as Native Hawaiian under the federal definition.

Reflecting on the negative impacts of blood quantum on our lāhui, Papa Ola Lōkahi CEO Dr. Sheri Daniels observed that it becomes a “have or have not” question. “I think when we talk about blood quantum, people get really stuck around ʻwhat does it mean for me? How do I benefit?’” She acknowledges that we need spaces, as ʻŌiwi, to talk through the ʻeha (pain) associated with the blood quantum label and the ways it has divided us.

“We come from strong people so why are we still focused on how disparate we are? We know our moʻokūʻauhau. It is about having koko (blood). If someone tells me they are Kanaka, I’m going to take that at face value. I’m not going to ask to see their documents.”

[{"type":"text","text":"As it suits their needs"}]

In discussing blood quantum as a colonial invention used to acquire land, wealth and power, it is important to point out the glaring contradiction between the imposition of blood quantum policies on Indigenous Peoples as distinct from Black Americans.

While the federal government has consistently imposed minimum blood quantum requirements on Indigenous Peoples to establish them as “native,” any amount of African blood was enough to establish someone as Black.

The notorious “one drop” rule originated after slavery ended in 1863 and was entrenched during the “Jim Crow” era, a period of legalized racial discrimination in America, primarily in southern states. It persisted until the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

Rooted in white supremacy and slavery, the “one drop” rule was intended to keep the white race “pure” and to prevent individuals with any amount of African blood from accessing the privileges of whiteness in America. Meanwhile, Indigenous persons of mixed race were not only permitted to assimilate – they were encouraged to do so.

Dr. Brian W. Dippie is a professor emeritus of U.S. cultural history at the University of Victoria in British Columbia. In his 1982 book, 

The Vanishing American: White Attitudes and the U.S. Indian Policy

, he writes, “The situations of the Negro (sic) and the Indian were not really analogous … one was earmarked for a segregated, menial existence, the other for full participation in white civilization.”

Expanding on this idea he notes, “The native population was small – just an infinitesimal fraction of the whole American population – and while a massive infusion of Indian blood might pollute the national type, the limited amount available could do no harm and might even do some good.”

For the U.S. government, assimilation of Indigenous Peoples had several benefits. For one thing, absorption of Indigenous Peoples into the dominant white American culture negates pesky Indigenous land and sovereignty claims, and reduces the number of individuals who can qualify for federal benefits as people intermarry.

Indigenous People have also been fetishized in American culture in ways that Black Americans have not. Take, for example, the romanticized “noble savage” trope or the sexualized “hula girl” of the territorial era. These stereotypes make native peoples more palatable and even inspire dubious claims of Indigenous ancestry.

[{"type":"text","text":"Impossible to measure"}]

Blood quantum as a concept for determining our Hawaiian-ness has become entrenched over the past century. As a result, many of us think of ourselves and our Hawaiian identity in terms of fractions.

However, blood quantum is impossible to quantify and cannot be measured using birth certificates. The reason? Science.

Children inherit half of their DNA from their mother and half from their father. But unless they are identical twins, siblings do not inherit the exact same DNA. That is why children from the same family can look quite different.

A child receives 23 sets of chromosomes from each parent – so 46 altogether – which makes up their DNA. When joined, these chromosomes commingle and swap genetic information resulting in even more variations.

According to biotech company Sano Genetics, there are more than 8 million possible DNA combinations from just 23 chromosome sets, and research has shown that full siblings can share as little as 37% or as much as 65% of their genetic variants.

So while siblings receive 50% of their DNA from each parent, they don’t receive the exact same 50%. It is the reason why siblings who take DNA tests often get very different results. Thus blood quantum is an unscientific western construct without substance or merit.

[{"type":"text","text":"Reconciling and moving forward"}]

In contrast to genealogies and lineage which connect people to each other and to the land, the use of blood quantum to determine “Hawaiian-ness” attempts to classify ʻŌiwi into disparate groups of Hawaiians, which has divided families and communities for generations.

As intermarriage created new family dynamics and the 50% blood quantum requirement threatened HHCA descendants with dispossession from the land they were raised on, to its credit the State of Hawaiʻi was able to get Congressional approval to decrease the blood quantum requirement for successorship from 50% to 25% more than 20 years ago.

More recently, in 2017, the State of Hawaiʻi signed Act 80 into law further decreasing the HHCA successorship requirement to 1/32 Hawaiian – much closer to the original vision of Prince Kūhiō. However, implementation requires Congressional approval and it has been languishing in Washington, D.C., since 2022.

Ultimately, as is the case among First Nations Peoples, many ʻŌiwi object to the 50% blood quantum designation – not because they desire federal benefits – but because it is inherently divisive and undermines Indigenous self-identity and political claims. “Hawaiian kinship and genealogical modes of identification allow for political empowerment in the service of nation-building because it is inclusive,” Kauanui said.

“Not only is the genealogical approach more wide-reaching, it is embedded in Indigenous ontologies (realities) whereby peoplehood is rooted in the land. This inclusivity is especially true in the face of non-Hawaiian political opposition to Native Hawaiian entitlements and the sovereignty movement.”

While blood quantum continues to be a controversial topic, it does not need to be a divisive one. “We may not see eye-to-eye,” Daniels said. “But, at the end of the day, if we all collectively say that our North Star is being Hawaiian – and we practice being the best Kanaka we can be – then everything else is just noise.”

Author’s note: Mahalo nui to Dr. J. Kēhaulani Kauanui, who generously shared her extensive research on blood quantum for the purposes of this article. Dr. Kauanui is an author, professor and expert on settler colonialism, self-determination, decolonization, international law, race, gender and sexuality. To learn more about Act 80 and to track changes to the HHCA visit: 

This article is reprinted with permission from 

OHA's Ka Wai Ola newspaper: "Designed to Divide: Understanding Blood Quantum" by Puanani Fernandez-Akamine, in its March 2026 issue, Vol. 43 No. 3. Read more at 

For the latest news of Hawai‘i, sign up 

Understanding Blood Quantum 16x9

<title>Community Voices: Understanding Blood Quantum</title>

It was not until the 1921 Hawaiian Homes Commission Act was passed by the U.S. Congress, with language defining “natives” as those individuals having 50% or more Hawaiian blood, that the idea of “blood quantum” to determine our Hawaiian-ness was introduced into the consciousness of our people.

Community Voices: Understanding Blood Quantum

Stephanie Salmons Headshot

Stephanie Salmons

Business & Tourism

Welcome the new year with savings — and a lucky bag or two.

Meaning “lucky bag,” Fukubukuro is Japanese New Year custom where shops and merchants offer mystery bags at discounted prices.

Here are a few malls and retailers participating in 

For the latest news of Hawai‘i, sign up 

AMC Fukubukuro2026 Lifestyle Images 8

<title>Where to go for Fukubukuro this year</title>

Meaning “lucky bag,” Fukubukuro is Japanese New Year custom where shops and merchants offer mystery bags at discounted prices. Here are a few places to check out.

Where to go for Fukubukuro this year

Five new tenants have recently opened at Ala Moana Center and three more are set to open soon, the center announced Monday. Here’s what you should know.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"What’s new:"}]

 can be found Street Level 1 of the ‘Ewa Wing, offering Mexican-style cabana chillers, mango twisters and fresh fruit cups.

, a Native Hawaiian and ‘ohana-driven apparel brand, can be found on Level 3 of the ‘Ewa Wing.

(ICYMI: Aloha State Daily caught up with its owners at the Made in Hawai‘i Festival in August. Read 

Kawaii Kingdom, which offers an array of collectibles that include plush toys, character figurines, stationery, blind boxes, hair accessories, bag charm, key chains and more, can be found on Mall Level 2 of the Mauka Wing.

, a Hawai‘i-based jewelry brand, is located on Level 3 of the ‘Ewa Wing.

 has opened its second location at Ala Moana Center in the Makai Market Food Court on Street Level 1. Read more about the new location from ASD’s food and dining reporter Kelli Shiroma Braiotta 

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"textStyle"},{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Coming soon:"}]

, a clothing brand where every piece is cut and sewn in Hawai‘i, is set to open in February 2026 on Level 3 of the ‘Ewa Wing.

Eyeland Hawai‘i, which offers a selection of eyewear, prescription lenses, professional adjustment and repair services, will open this month on Street Level 1 of the Diamond Head Wing.

, a brand founded in Shenzhen, China, that offers a modern take on traditional tea culture, will open its first Hawai‘i store in February 2026 on Mall Level 2 of the Mauka Wing.

Ala Moana Center opened in 1959 and is the world's largest open-air shopping center with more than 2.4 million square feet of retail space. It offers more than 350 stores and restaurants and 160 dining options.

Ala Moana Center provided

<title>What's new at Ala Moana Center</title>

The shopping center has welcomed a number of new tenants, with more coming soon.

What's new at Ala Moana Center

Two new tenants have recently opened up shop at Ala Moana Center, one has temporarily relocated and more are coming soon, the center announced Wednesday. Here's what you should know.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"What's new:"}]

— The second brick-and-mortar location of 

, a Honolulu-based boutique offering swimwear and activewear, can be found on Street Level 1 of the ‘Ewa wing. It also has a location at 

, which rents mobility scooters, wheelchairs and strollers, and offers secure luggage storage, can be found on Street Level 1 at Center Court.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"On the move:"}]

 has moved to a new temporary location on Mall Level 2 of the ‘Ewa Wing while its permanent store is under construction. The new permanent store is scheduled to open next year.

[{"type":"text","marks":[{"type":"bold"}],"text":"Coming soon:"}]

, a Hawai‘i-based jewelry brand, is set to open on Level 3 of the ‘Ewa Wing this month.

 will open on Street Level 1 of the ‘Ewa Wing in December, offering Mexican-style cabana chillers, mango twisters and fresh fruit cups.

, the flagship brand of the Portland-based Columbia Sportswear Co., will open on Level 3 of the ‘Ewa Wing in February 2026. The brand offers 

outdoor apparel, footwear, accessories and equipment.

 will soon open their second location at Ala Moana Center in the Makai Market Food Court.

 will make its debut in the Islands in July 2026. You'll find on Mall Level 2 of the ‘Ewa wing.

More new tenants were announced at the end of August. Read about those 

Ala Moana Center opened in 1959 and is the world's largest open-air shopping center with more than 2.4 million square feet of retail space. It offers more than 350 stores and 160 dining options.

Kelli Shiroma Braiotta Headshot

Kelli Shiroma Braiotta

Food & Dining

Aloha Spirit

Growing up in Pearl City, I vividly remember passing Sumida Farm on Kamehameha Highway on trips to and from Pearlridge Center. Of course, back then, I didn’t know much about the watercress farm. I just recognized (and remembered it by) that iconic grass shack in the fields.

Never did I imagine that one day, I’d see the inside of that grass shack.

 is almost 100 years old. It was founded in 1928 in ‘Aiea, and is a fourth generation family-managed and -operated business. Sumida Farm is Hawaiʻi’s largest watercress farm, as it grows and harvests more than 200 tons of watercress annually, representing more than 80% of Hawaiʻi’s local watercress supply.

The farm’s land is a long-term lease with Kamehameha Schools, according to general manager Kyle Suzuki, who runs the farm with his wife, Emi, who is the fourth generation of Sumidas to manage the farm.

“We don’t own the land; that’s a question a lot of people have,” he explains. “We’re stewards of the ‘aina; it’s important for us to take care of this land and represent what this area used to be, too.”

Sumida Farm doesn’t offer tours to the public, but does allow school field trips to visit. Aloha State Daily was invited with an influencer/media group to tour the farm and learn more about watercress.

The farm is around 11 acres, according to Suzuki. He says many people often ask why the farm is located “in the middle of the city.”

“Everything was farmland before — sugarcane and pineapple plantations,” he says. “With urbanization and development — when Pearlridge Center came up — high rises grew around the farm. The farm was always here; everything else kind of changed around it.

“When Pearlridge was being developed and this was going to be part of Pearlridge, my wife’s grandfather — with his friends and community — fought the developers and they were able to keep the farm here,” he adds. “That’s why they have two sides of Pearlridge that’s connected with the monorail because the farm is right in the middle.”

The watercress is literally growing in fresh water; it comes from Kalauao Springs, according to Suzuki. Unlike potatoes, carrots and other plants that grow in the ground — where they get their nutrients — watercress is different.

“People who drive by don’t always know we’re a farm, and if they do, they don’t know what we grow,” he says. “We have a couple inches of water that flow across the entire farm. Watercress doesn’t get its nutrients from soil. We have a pebble bed; watercress is right on top, it doesn’t root itself deeply. It’s getting all of its nutrients from the fresh water springs itself.”

People often ask if they can grow watercress at home. Suzuki says that, while watercress can be put in a cup and it might root a little bit, it won’t grow because it needs a constant supply of fresh water.

“This is all spring water (on our fields); it’s not from a well, it’s not city water where we turn on a faucet,” he says. “This is spring water that flows every day. We estimate about 5 to 7 million gallons of water every day is flowing across the farm. Our growing conditions and our water are so unique.”

After the water flows through the farm, it's recycled through a sprinkler system that is used as a form of pest control; there is a pump at the bottom of the farm, according to Suzuki. 

While watercress grows all year long, March to June is prime watercress season, due to the beginning of longer days. Suzuki says it takes watercress about six to eight weeks to grow, depending on the time of the year.

“Right now, it’s cooler and a less humid climate,” he says. “If it’s humid, that stunts watercress’ growth; if it rains hard, that can make it hard for it to grow. If we look at the length of sunlight we get across the year, our days are a little bit longer each day. That’s what creates the ideal growing climate and why our fields are full, green and bright right now.

“We grow our watercress to maybe about a foot and a half,” he adds. “The stems are thicker; people expect that crunch, that bite and spice that our watercress provides.”

Restaurants often add watercress specials to their menus to support watercress season, and grocery stores usually have a good supply of watercress during this time as well. While watercress is available year-round, during the hotter summer months like August or the shorter winter months like January, watercress takes a little longer to grow, Suzuki says.

From an aerial view, the field has a grid-like structure. Each patch is about 900 pounds of watercress, according to Suzuki, who says that field workers harvest about three patches a day when it’s busy.

“Our field workers work shoulder to shoulder,” he explains. “They harvest the watercress by hand the same way that they were harvesting it in 1928. They cut it from the root, clean the excess leaves off, put the Sumida Farm twist tie on it, load it up in the wheelbarrow and take it to our wash house. Orlando handwashes all of the watercress; he washes more than 200,000 pounds of watercress a year.”

Suzuki mentions Orlando Galiza celebrated his 34th work anniversary on the farm last year, and many of the farm’s employees have been there for 10, 15 or 25 years.

“They’re really the most important part of our farm,” he says. “We’re fortunate that they like working here. On the outskirts of our watercress patches, each one of our field workers gets a plot of land that they can farm and grow whatever they want to, which is a great, mutually beneficial thing. It allows us to maintain the outskirts, but also a lot of our field workers don’t have space to garden where they live.”

Speaking of workers, the tale behind the farm’s iconic grass shack is related to a former employee. Suzuki recalls how, in the ’70s, his father-in-law and his wife’s grandfather leveled the land with a one-degree slope from top to bottom so the water would flow evenly across the farm and they could easily put in the pathways to get the watercress in and out.

“When they did that, one of their workers had a garden here, and they had to take over it,” he says. “They said, ‘Let’s build him a little hut, a little grass shack, so he has some shade where he can hang out, because we’re taking his space.’ He doesn’t work here anymore, but the grass shack stayed.

“It’s like a visual landmark for the community,” he adds. “It’s more than just storage, but our field workers conveniently use it that way.”

After the watercress is harvested and hand washed, it’s put in a vacuum chilling machine. The process creates a vacuum chamber, removes excess water and brings the core temperature of the watercress down to about 40 degrees. Suzuki says the process takes between 8 to 10 minutes.

“Our watercress might come out of the fields at about 70 degrees,” he says. When we wash it and it’s damp, it could get warm quick. It would wilt and go bad; the shelf life would not be great. Watercress needs to be fresh and it needs to last; that’s what this machine does.”

Watercress is sold in 30-pound increments to Oʻahu-based business or to those on Neighbor Islands.

“We don’t sell direct to consumers, and we don’t ship outside of Hawaiʻi,” Suzuki says. “It’s important to us to make sure that everyone who wants access here (in Hawaiʻi) can get it.”

While some store-bought watercress is thinner, Sumida Farm’s watercress is known for its thicker stalks. The farm also sells lēkō, a younger varietal of watercress that is more delicate, milder in taste and less spicy. Lēkō is grown and harvested in limited quantities and is only available by special request to select partners of the farm, according to Suzuki.

“Lēkō is the Hawaiian word for watercress,” he says. “It’s a little shorter and the stem’s a little thinner. Some people don’t love how spicy watercress can be, so this is a good introduction (to it). All of our distributor partners have the ability to sell this; we’re starting to see it more on restaurant menus, which is great.”

As long as watercress is kept cold, it lasts for a couple weeks, according to Suzuki. Watercress should be stored whole in the fridge with stems facing the back, in order to prevent its leaves from freezing. For longer storage, wrap the watercress loosely in a damp paper tower and put it in a plastic bag before refrigerating it. To extend its freshness, you can also put watercress’ stalks in a large bowl filled with water (to about one-third the length of the stems).

“We always recommend eating it when you have it, but if it ever looks like it’s drying out or a little more limp, put it in an ice bath and it’ll come back,” he says. “If you’re not going to use the watercress right away, wrap it in a damp paper tower and put it in a Ziploc bag, stick it in your crisper and it’ll stay fresh.

Watercress has many health benefits. It was declared to be the healthiest vegetable by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which gave it a perfect nutrient density score of 100 out of 100. It’s high in vitamins A and C; the latter is especially beneficial for supporting the immune system and collagen production. Watercress is also a good source of calcium and potassium, while its antioxidants reduce inflammation and oxidative stress.

When schools or other visitors come to the farm, Suzuki says they often share different ways to eat or utilize watercress.

“When most kids come to our tour — we’ll have about 40 kids at one time — maybe one or two have tried watercress before,” he says. “(Our farm chef) Elijah makes a really good watercress cream cheese dip and he does a watercress ginger lime soda. When the kids get to walk the fields, they can see how watercress is grown and then they get to eat it.”

While watercress stalks — known for their crunch and bite — are often added to stir-fries and salads, watercress leaves can be used for purees in soups or sauces, used for salads or garnishes, or they can be sauteed with other vegetables. Sumida Farm’s blog also features recipes that showcase watercress in a variety of ways. Recipes range from ‘ahi and watercress poke to watercress corned beef hash and avocado watercress hummus.

You can look forward to fun collabs by Sumida Farm that are designed to promote watercress season. The business recently partnered with Kailua-based ice cream shop Please Come Again to create a unique flavor — watercress ginger lime sorbet — that is available for a limited time.

“We had them out to the farm, and Elijah served them a watercress ginger lime soda,” Suzuki says. “They really liked it and were like, we could make a sorbet out of this. They have ice cream flights, where you can do four scoops. The watercress flavor is the perfect one to add to a flight because it’s unique and different from the other ice cream they have. We launched it in early March and they will have it until they sell out.”

Sumida Farm also has an upcoming collaboration with Hana Koa Brewing. While details can’t be fully released at the time of our interview, Suzuki says it’s something they’re excited about.

“The classic way to eat watercress is pork watercress soup or watercress salad, but we like pushing into different ways (of using it), just to showcase how versatile watercress is,” he says.

Supporting local farms like Sumida Farm goes beyond buying and consuming a product (in this case, watercress). Customers can share their knowledge of watercress with friends and follow the farm on social media to start, according to Suzuki.

“We always teach our visitors — especially the kids — when you’re supporting local, you’re supporting all of our field workers, farmers, partners and vendors,” he says. “People don’t always realize how much food is shipped here. If anything ever happened, it’s important for the island to be able to grow food. A farm like ours is one way to be able to do that.

“It’s more than a family farm; it’s a community farm,” Suzuki adds. “There are so many different partners that have supported the farm over the years. We’re hoping that, when we do that 100-year anniversary, we’ll have a series of events that celebrate that with the community. We wouldn’t be here without the community support.”

Sumida Farm watercress field 032625

<title>An exclusive tour of Sumida Farm</title>

It’s time to celebrate watercress season. ASD goes in-depth for the story behind the fourth-generation landmark family farm in ‘Aiea. And yes, we asked about that iconic grass shack.

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