On a fraction of a 40-acre farm behind Kauaʻi Community College, 64 breadfruit, or ʻulu, trees bear abundant green fruit and teach important scientific lessons. This is ʻUlutopia—a project launched in 2014 by Kauaʻi CC and the National Tropical Botanical Garden’s Breadfruit Institute to improve ʻulu production.
“We found that breadfruit grows slowly but really well with fertilization,” said Brian Yamamoto, a professor of science at Kauaʻi CC and ʻUlutopia project director. “A lot of places that grow breadfruit, just let nature grow the tree, and it basically doesn’t get cared for, but here—once you start fertilizing—you can almost double your production.”
Over the years, Yamamoto estimates hundreds of students have gained hands-on experience in cultivating ʻulu, scientific data collection and research. University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa botany student Natalie Blum, who graduated from Kauaʻi CC in 2019, compiled data for the project when she was a student there.
“I think ʻUlutopia is a really great place,” Blum said. “It’s great for students to help Brian tend to the farm, and in general, ʻulu is a really good crop to grow, makes a lot of fruit, very nutritious also. …I feel everyone should have a tree in their yard.”
Developing the market
ʻUlutopia has a multi-pronged strategy to increase both production and utilization of the crop. Focusing on farm-to-table, Kauaʻi CC’s culinary program and local chefs are helping to develop and share recipes to encourage ʻulu consumption. These have included mouthwatering ʻUlutopia bread pudding and local style ʻulu and potato salad.
“ʻUlutopia I think is something extremely important on our campus because it honors traditional food systems in a modern way,” said Kauaʻi CC Chancellor Margaret Sanchez.
The Kauaʻi Economic Development Board has awarded ʻUlutopia $50,000 to produce flour from ʻulu with the intent to educate culinary students and the community on how to make better use of a local product and to create a local commodity.
Yamamoto said, “The idea is we produce breadfruit here, but culinary and a whole bunch of other people in the industry now turn breadfruit into a whole different set of products to be able to enhance our agriculture on Kauaʻi.”
Kauaʻi CC has purchased a dehydrator and flour milling machine and plans to begin sharing these value-added products in 2025, making strides toward a sunny ʻUlutopian future.
–By Kelli Abe Trifonovitch
