Maui Sugar Industry

    We did a lot of baking at my house when I was growing up so C&H Pure Cane Sugar from Hawaii was a staple.  We have seen sugar cane fields in the rich volcanic earth in the valley between the two volcanoes here on Maui.  On our trip to Hana we saw some of the irrigation ditches and tunnels that bring water from the wet side of the island to the valley.  As we went from the airport to our condo on the opposite side of the island we drove past an old sugar processing plant.  There was also a small sign for a "sugar museum."
     Today we visited the Alexander and Baldwin Sugar Museum which is housed in a sugar plantation manager's residence.  This was a pretty home with high ceilings, big rooms, and tall windows.  The thousands of immigrants brought here from China, Japan, Korea, the Philippines, as well as smaller groups from Norway and Germany lived in multi-roomed buildings like barracks. These many ethnic groups eventually blended into the rich cultural mix that is Hawaii today.

     When the sugar workers went to the fields they brought lunch in a box.  As they shared their favorite foods the Hawaiian "mixed plate" lunch of rice, salad, veggies and shredded meat was born.  It was one thing Jennifer was determined to eat when she and Arik came here on their honeymoon.

    As tourism grew, sugar plantations diminished and there's only one producer left still shipping sugar to California to be packaged as C&H (California and Hawaiian) Sugar. The museum was small and we only spent an hour there but learned a lot about Hawaiian history.

    On our way to the museum we saw a Target store!  So I was finally able to get a cord for my camera to link it to my Ipad and download pictures.  There's a lot of beautiful ones.  I have included on from the top of Haleakala.  

     The weather remains unusually cool and somewhat windy, but the sun is bright and flowers blooming outside my window.