A colonizer’s paradise

The history of Hawaii has been heavily shaped by the influence of settlers and colonizers. The islands were initially uninhabited and first settled between 500 and 700AD. The Polynesians who initially inhabited Hawaii brought with them pigs, ginger, bananas, coconuts, yams, a variety of spice, and most importantly sugar. Most of the foods we associate with Hawaii were imports that grew abundantly in the tropical climate (Hollyer, 2013). In 1778, the first Europeans, led by Captain James Cook, made contact with the Hawaiian Islands. The discovery of plentiful native growing sandalwood groves on the island had by the 1790s led to the islands first exploitable commodity in the agricultural export economy that has shaped the islands ever since. 

In 1813 a Spanish advisor to the Hawaiian Monarch, Don Fransisco de Paula y Marin, introduced coffee and pineapple to the islands. The introduction of this staple agricultural production to Hawaii marked the beginning of the end of the original Hawaiian tradition. By the 1830s, Hawaiian had begun exporting coffee as a commercial crop and by the 1840s private land ownership replaced the feudal system of the Hawaiian monarchy. In the early 1850s the California Gold Rush caused an agriculture boom in Hawaii. Because of its proximity to California and tropical climate, it made sense to grow food in Hawaii and export it to California. This gave Westerners a taste of Hawaii’s agricultural potential for growing cash crops year round for the American markets.

Because of their desire to grow cash crops and their technological advancement over the natives, the Europeans were able to strong arm the locals into adopting more western ways of life, specifically with respect to land ownership and diet (Historical Background: Westernization of Hawaiian Islands, 2020). As with other isolated Pacific cultures, European diseases decimated the population. In the 1860s, a massive drought and infestations caused labor and production problems on the Island, closing down nearly all of the coffee plantations. In the absence of coffee plantations, a man by the name Claus Spreckles began to open sugar plantations which would send raw sugar to California for refinement and selling in the United States. Because of the close connection of the US and Hawaii, the US government and businessmen began to get involved with local Hawaiian politics. The first large instance of this is the 1876 reciprocity treaty between the US and Hawaii which allowed for duty free sugar to be imported and caused a massive boom in the Hawaiian sugar industry.  With little original food, little ownership of the lands, sugar plantations spanning the islands, and a decimated population the Hawaiians quickly lost their original way of life to the European settlers. 

In 1877, the king of Hawaii died and his sister, known by her royal name as Liliuokalani, took up the throne and began her rule over the islands. After seeing so much turmoil in her country and a rapidly developing western presence in her country, Liliuokalani sought to bring her country back to its traditional roots. She opposed many of the political effects of western presence on her island, like the 1876 reciprocity treaty, which allowed the sugar and pineapple industries to exist at all, and the loss of Pearl Harbor to the US. She tried to reduce the impact that the westerners had on her island and they were not happy about this. Since she posed such a treat to the massive economic empires the sugar and pineapple companies possessed, they sought to dethrone her entirely. The Dole company actually led a deposition of the queen and instituted their own provisional government, with the President of the Dole company, Sanford Dole, as the president of the republic. This was the official end of the traditional way of life on the Hawaiian Islands. The Queen tried to appeal to President Cleveland, who heeded her request and told Dole to stand down. But Dole refused the orders, claiming the US president didn’t have the power to control this situation and kept the republic in power. After this, Hawaii was annexed by the US government and eventually became a state (Liliuokalani | Biography, Overthrow, & Significance, 2020). As the production of sugar continued to grow, so did the exportation of the pineapple. Pineapple plantations began to flourish through the 1910s. By 1905 the Dole company was packing and selling 25,000 cases of pineapple a year and agricultural colleges began appearing on the island, to help educate people in the production of these incredibly lucrative cash crops. Railroads were constructed on the island of Oahu around the same time, which allowed for low labor costs and an increase in pineapple production speed (History of Dole Food Company, Inc. – FundingUniverse, 2020).  In 1911, the invention of the Ginaca, a machine which could peel and core a pineapple, struck the final blow for the traditional way of life in Hawaii. The Ginaca could process 100 pineapples a minute and greatly increase the production capabilities of the island, meaning the pineapple market could spread further across the US. The Dole company continued to expand its land and increased its marketing in the US, growing the company’s revenue. By 1922 the company produced a million cases a year and eventually bought the island of Lanai solely for the purpose of pineapple production (History of Dole Food Company, Inc. – FundingUniverse, 2020).

Broiled Pork Chops and Apple Glaze

Ingredients

• 4 pork loin steaks about 100g (3½oz) each
• 2 tsp whole grain mustard
• 2 tbsp honey
• 2 tbsp lemon juice
• 15 g butter
• 2 eating apple cored and thickly sliced
• 2 tsp light muscovado sugar
• generous pinch grated nutmeg, cinnamon and allspice.

Instructions

The first step is to set the oven to broil. Then, salt and pepper the chops and lightly cook them on the stove top.

While the chops were cooking, begin the apple glaze. The glaze consists of cooking apples, nutmeg, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, and brown sugar in a pan until the apples began to caramelize. (though they are a bit over cooked in the image).

After a few minutes of cooking the chops, they are pulled off and coated in a mixture of mustard, honey, and lemon juice.  Then the apple glaze and slices are placed on top of the pork chop and put into the oven for 10 minutes to finish cooking.

Pineapple Upside Down Cake

Ingredients

• 1 stick of softened butter
• 1 1/2 cups of white sugar
• 2 eggs, separated
• 2 cups flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 cup milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 1/2 cups brown sugar
• Sliced pineapple
• Cherries

Instructions

Set the over to ~300°F. In a bowl, add the stick of butter to the sugar. Then add 2 egg yolks. After this 2 cups of flour, 2 teaspoons of baking powder and 1 cup of milk are added alternatively. Then 1 teaspoon of vanilla is added. Then the egg whites are beaten and folded into the batter. 

After this, pineapple slices with cherries in the center are layered in the bottom of the pie tin. After this batter is added again and more pineapples and cherries are added. Then the rest of the batter is added. The cake is then cooked at 300 degrees for an hour. The cakes is then let to cool and enjoyed.