How to Cut a Pineapple, Hawaiian Style

By Sandy Hu

I’ve just returned from my Hawaiian vacation two days ago and I’m already yearning for all the wonderful tropical fruits at the Hilo Farmers’ Market – especially the sugar-sweet, deliciously fragrant pineapples.

Last Saturday, I took my prize fruit back to our plantation-style vacation rental in Hakalau and cut it up on our lanai. I did it the way my mother taught me years ago, growing up in Hawaii.

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Too Many Tomatoes

By Lori Powell

Tomatoes are dropping in my garden…literally. My garden includes everything from heirloom varieties to the humble cherry. So, when burdened (gifted) with the luxury of gorgeous home-grown tomatoes, I say, let the salsas begin!

With infinite salsa variations possible, I change it up, given the offerings at the farmers’ market or what’s in my fridge. You could add beans, corn or grilled veggies, to name a few tasty options.

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Quick Pickled Okra

By Katie Barreira

Pickles are all the rage and I couldn’t be happier. The tangy, juicy crunch of a pickle makes a perfect companion to some of our most iconic meals, but pickles aren’t just for cheeseburgers or pastrami sandwiches and cucumbers aren’t the only things you can pickle.

Making a rousing comeback are small stores like The Pickle Guys, in Manhattan’s Lower East Side, which preserves the traditional Eastern European style of pickling, along with barrels of half sours, green tomatoes and garlic cloves.

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Returning to My Roots: A Visit to a Living History Kona Coffee Farm

By Sandy Hu

Last week, I stepped back in time and into my childhood at The Kona Coffee Living History Farm in Captain Cook, Kona, on the Big Island of Hawaii. This living museum chronicles the life of immigrant Japanese coffee farmers from 1926 to 1945 through the original farmhouse and seven-acre coffee farm of the Uchida family. Their life mirrored that of my grandparents, Iwaki and Kitsu Honda, and their nine children.

While the farm is historically accurate to 1945, so much of that lifestyle continued well past it, to my own childhood, when, living in Hilo on the other side of the island, we would visit my grandparents, aunts and uncles, all coffee farmers at the time. As kids, we picked our share of coffee, too, during peak coffee season.

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Knife Sharpening - Advanced Knife Maintenance

Knife maintenance is very important in the kitchen. There are two parts to knife maintenance: honing and sharpening. Honing is a simple task that anyone can do and should be undertaken frequently. Sharpening takes a little more skill and is usually best left to the professionals. But if you’ve ever wanted to take a stab at it, Craig demonstrates in today’s video. If you plan to take the plunge and try it yourself, Craig advises working with an old knife before moving up to your nicer knives.

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