Episode 6 - Climate Cuisine
This Fruit Can Feed a Whole Family
The breadfruit tree can live up to 100 years and produce more than 2,000 pounds of fruit each season. It’s been a staple in the tropics for generations and can be made into chips, waffles, and porridge. This episode will dive into how it’s eaten in Puerto Rico and Hawai’i. Plus, a bit about its dark history in the slave trade.
In this episode of Climate Cuisine, Clarissa chats with:
Mike McLaughlin from the Trees That Feed Foundation, a charity that plants fruit trees to help feed people, create jobs, and benefit the environment
Mike Opgenorth from the National Tropical Botanical Garden (NTBG) in Hawai’i
Juliane Braun, a scholar who wrote a paper about breadfruit’s journey from the Pacific Islands to the Caribbean
Von Diaz, an esteemed food writer, cookbook author, and professor of food studies
Highlights for the episode:
What Is Breadfruit?
Von introduces us to breadfruit, which she says is one of the most important crops that grows across the tropics because of how resilient it is. Shaped like what Von likes to describe as a dinosaur egg, this starchy fruit grows on trees, which means it does not have to be replanted or reseeded year-after-year.
A Tree That Can Feed the World
Mike McLaughlin explains how Trees That Feed Foundation is helping to empower local communities to establish food independence by planting fruit trees. Just one breadfruit tree is capable of producing half a ton of food product every year.
That said, Mike embraces the idea of agroforests, not monoculture. Clarissa then defines what an agroforest is and how it provides an opportunity for producers to diversify the crops they grow.
However, incorporating breadfruit trees into an agroforest does come with its challenges. Mike explains what some of those challenges are (believe it or not, goats can be a real problem) and how his organization works with local communities to overcome them.
Varieties of Breadfruit
There are over 150 varieties of breadfruit out there. To learn more about them, Clarissa chats with Mike Opgenorth, who directs a garden in NTBG with the largest collection of breadfruit in the world.
Mike shares how different varieties of breadfruit are used differently across Polynesia. For example, while Hawai’i commonly uses seedless varieties of breadfruit, Papua New Guinea has a long tradition of consuming seeded varieties—although the practice of some of those traditions has been lost because of colonization.
Mike gives a nod to Dr. Diane Ragone, director of NTBG’s Breadfruit Institute, whose research took her across the Pacific to learn about how different communities use the varieties of breadfruit that grow in their areas.
Ways to Cook Breadfruit
Mike Opgenorth shares the easy, basic way he cooks breadfruit at home.
Mike McLaughlin has numerous suggestions for what to do with breadfruit, from turning it into candy, waffles, or even a drink, as is done in Jamaica.
Meanwhile, Von compares the versatility of breadfruit to that of a potato. She also shares the diverse ways that Puerto Ricans cook breadfruit, turning it into dishes like mofongo and tostones.
A Surprisingly Nutritive Fruit
Von provides insight into the surprisingly nutritive qualities of breadfruit, including that it has a high amount of protein compared to other starches.
The Dark Past of Breadfruit in the Caribbean
While breadfruit is now widely consumed in the Caribbean, Juliane points out that it is not native to that area. She explains the colonial history underpinning the spread of breadfruit to the Caribbean and how the British used it to sustain slavery.
Von speaks more broadly on the adaptability of people to their surroundings, using Puerto Rico as an example. She asserts that where there are limitations in food, humans will find a way to get creative and make what they have into something tasty.
Guests
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Mike McLaughlin
Mike is from Jamaica. He was professionally trained as an actuary. He was a consulting partner with Ernst & Young and Deloitte, and served as Executive VP & Chief Actuary of AXA Financial, in New York. Mike was president of the Society of Actuaries and a member of the Executive Committee of the International Actuarial Association. He won the SOA Prize for papers published in 1987. He was Jamaica scholar, valedictorian, and co-author of the textbook US GAAP for Life Insurers. He serves on the board of OneAmerica Financial, DePaul University Business School and Trees That Feed.
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Mike Opgenorth
Mr. Michael “Mike” Opgenorth came to NTBG in February 2015 with a wide set of skills. In addition to his lifelong background in horticulture, Mr. Opgengorth holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration. He also earned an academic minor in Plant Production/Plant Management from the College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources at the University of Hawai’i.
Prior to joining the NTBG team as director of the organization’s Maui garden, Mr. Opgenorth served in numerous capacities at the Hawai’i Department of Agriculture where he worked with a wide range of stakeholders at all levels in Hawai’i’s agriculture community. In his spare time, he works as a tropical plant advisor for a garden lifestyle application, identifying plants from all over the tropical world as well as plant diseases and plant pests.
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Juliane Braun
Juliane Braun is an American studies scholar who specializes in multilingual and transnational literatures of the early Americas.
Her first book, Creole Drama: Theatre and Society in Antebellum New Orleans examines the transnational, political, and social reach of French Louisianian theatrical culture. Creole Drama was published by the University of Virginia Press in 2019 and won the Theatre Library Association’s 2019 George Freedley Memorial Award. You can buy a copy of Creole Drama on the press’s website or on Amazon.
She has recently started a new project, tentatively titled Translating the Pacific: Nature Writing, Print Culture, and the Making of Transoceanic Empire in which she explores how imperial incursions into the Pacific Ocean during the long eighteenth century shaped conceptions of nature and the environment in the Atlantic world.
She was educated in Germany, but has recently transitioned into the American academic system. In August 2018, she took up a position as Assistant Professor of English at Auburn University.
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Von Diaz
Von Diaz is a writer, documentary producer, and author of Coconuts & Collards: Recipes and Stories from Puerto Rico to the Deep South.
Born in Puerto Rico and raised in Atlanta, GA, she explores food, culture, and identity. In addition to her debut culinary memoir, she has contributed recipes and essays to a number of cookbooks and anthologies, including America The Great Cookbook (Weldon Owen, 2017), Feed the Resistance (Chronicle Books, 2017), Women on Food (Abrams Book, October 2019), Tasty Pride (Penguin Random House, Fall 2019), Rage Baking (Simon & Schuster, February 2020), and Sheetpan Chicken (Penguin Random House, September 2020). Her work has been featured in the New York Times, The Washington Post, Bon Appétit, NPR, Food & Wine Magazine, Eater, and Epicurious. She has also been a reporter for NPR, StoryCorps, The Splendid Table, WNYC, PRI’s The World, The Southern Foodways Alliance, Colorlines, and Feet in 2 Worlds.