| yee |
Via e-mail, B.C., Friday, April 18, 2003 7:42 PM
Hi, my name is B.C. (edited to respect identity) I live in Hana, Maui. I have been growing the black 'awa in my garden in Wakiu, Hana for approximately five years. I am wondering if they are ready for harvest and how to prepare the root for consumption, etc. I have more cuttings started and will be planting them in the ground soon. The plants that I have had growing in the ground for the last five years are quite large; approximately ten to twelve feet tall and perhaps spread as wide or more. I have no experience in drying or preparing 'awa for consumption. Do you have any advice. I love growing this beautiful plant. |
| yee |
Aloha "B.C.",
Presuming this is for moderate amounts of kava beverage material, and for personal consumption.. I did learn that one individual is using a garden, gasoline powered chipper/shredder as a way of processing the root and stump. I cannot recommend this method due to my concerns of hygene but only relate this as a matter of what's being practiced by one individual.
For individual amounts, I simply harvest a few laterals from one of my plants, chop it into 4-6" lenghts and put it into my Vita-mixer. (A blender works - just chop the root into smaller pieces first.) Drying can be done by chopping the fresh root with a machete into thinner pieces to allow for more surface area say to the sun.
If you're going industrial scale, you may consider the purchase of a hammermill and gas/solar dryer. The cost would be on the order of thousands of dollars. You'd also like to keep water content around 12% or less - the root will snap at that dryness when bent. In processing the wet root, some people use a poi grinder at low rpm and high torque.
For storage you would want to keep the fresh shredded/pounded kava frozen, and the dried stuff dry.
Comments from our processors - private and commercial?
Mahalo,
Jonathan |