The seventh annual Avocado Festival starts at 10 a.m. Saturday at the Sheraton Kona Resort and Spa at Keauhou Bay. The free festival usually offers many educational and fun activities for adults and children. Activities this year will take place on two outdoor stages, as well as at numerous cultural, agricultural and food booths.
The stages will feature entertainment including musical, culinary and agricultural presentations with the versatile avocado as the focus. The festival opener will be conducted by kumu Keala Ching and will include Hawaiian chants, prayer and a hula presentation.
Following the opening, the entertainment stage will host a series of musical performers beginning with Irma Kahekena Nahe Nahe and her ukulele at 11 a.m., followed by Maka at noon. The Big Island Blue Grass Band will entertain for an hour starting at 1 p.m. and singer Sahra Indio will take the stage at 2. Indio has been described as the “original bush mama” with a sweet, soulful roots reggae voice and repertoire. Duo Two for the Show will appear at 3 p.m. and the four musicians from Beginagain’s Wake will entertain with their style of local Celtic fusion from 4 p.m. until closing.
The second stage will feature agricultural and culinary activities. Starting at 11 a.m., Ty McDonald from the University of Hawaii College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources Cooperative Extension Service in Kainaliu will lead a session on grafting avocado trees. McDonald has many years of experience connecting desirable varieties of avocados to hardy rootstock. This procedure requires a combination of knowledge, skill as well and practice, but is an excellent technique for providing a year-round supply of avocados from a single tree.
The Culture in Agriculture panel begins at noon. The discussion between local leaders in agriculture and food production will address many community agricultural issues and problems and posit some solutions. Audience participation is encouraged. Come with questions or answers.
Culinary activities will take the stage in the afternoon, following the annual recipe contest. This year’s contest will be overseen by Sonia Martinez, a food writer, culinary arts teacher and author of the cookbook “Tropical Tastes.” Entry forms for the recipe contest can be downloaded at avocadofestival.org. The entry form along with 30 to 50 servings of your dish must be entered by 11 a.m. at the festival. Prizes will be awarded for the first-place dish in each category: entree, dessert and guacamole. Additional prizes will be awarded for the best overall recipe and the people’s choice award winner. Tasting will begin at 12:30 p.m. Prizes from the Kealakekua Ranch Center will be awarded at 2 p.m.
Visitors will learn about avocado varieties at the Hawaii Tropical Fruit Growers booth. Other booths will offer avocado trees for sale, as well as tasty avocado snacks and dishes. Soups, salads, dips, ice cream and pies are just a few of the possibilities for serving avocados. Many of these will be available to sample at the festival.
The poster for the event with original art by Jean Love is available at avocadofestival.org. T-shirts with her design will be available at the event. For more information, call Randyl Rupar at 936-5233 or visit the website. Rupar’s Sanctuary of Manakea Gardens, as well as West Hawaii Tropical Fruit Growers and the Sheraton Kona Resort & Spa at Keauhou Bay are the event’s sponsors.
Adding avocados to your garden and your table is a wise choice. The fruit is a favorite of many and offers a healthy source of monounsaturated fat that can be used in both savory and sweet dishes. Avocado oil is also useful for cooking and can occasionally be found in skin care products. It can even be applied raw as a moisturizing face mask. Avocados are a crop worth learning about, experiencing and growing.
With nearly 100 varieties of avocados growing in Kona, you can usually find some available every month of the year. Take the opportunity Saturday to learn more about avocados and to celebrate this delicious, nutritious and multiuse fruit.
Tropical
gardening helpline
Lorraine asks: I have several plumeria trees planted in my lawn. The lawn and the trees were put in about five years ago. They all get watered on the same sprinkler system every other day. The plumerias recently started to decline and one died. Some of the leaves on the remaining trees are dead at the tips and others are yellowing. What could be the problem and what can I do?
Answer: Plumeria trees grow best in soil with good drainage that allows their roots to dry out a bit between waterings. Once established, plumeria trees need very little water. If they are being watered the same amount and on the same schedule as your lawn, they are probably being overwatered. This can cause the roots to gradually rot and die. The brown leaf tips are a definite sign the roots are having problems.
Reduce the water to your lawn area gradually so as not to shock the grass. If possible, get the plumeria on a separate watering station and cut back watering to every four or five days and not at all during rainy season.
If this is not possible, you can try cutting back on the water going to the area of the lawn where they are growing. The lawn may be able to survive on less water, but the plumerias will not survive overwatering.
The other alternative would be to move the plumeria trees to an area in your landscape that gets less water.
It’s always advisable before planting expensive landscape plants and installing costly irrigation systems to spend a little time on research to avoid wasting money. Researching the water needs of your plants before installation can help you place them where they will do best.
Email plant questions to konamg@ctahr.hawaii.edu for answers by certified master gardeners. Some questions will be chosen for inclusion in this column.
Diana Duff is an organic farmer, plant adviser and consultant.
