Ua lehulehu a manonamo ka ‘ikena a ka Hawai‘i
Great and numerous is the knowledge of the Hawaiians
~ Mary Kawena Pukui
Gathering Hawaiian Salt
Story by: Grandma Tita
Gathering Hawaiian salt down Ka‘alu‘alu Beach
My growing up days was fun…
As a little girl we just love going to the beach to gather Hawaiian Salt.
One day on a Friday, my Grandma Malia would say tomorrow we going Ka‘alu‘alu pick salt, oh it was a joy to hear, because we get to swim soon’s we pau pick the salt.
Anyway we go to bed very early after dinner and helping clean up the dishes.
Grandma Malia, gets our food ready for our trip, and , and Grandpa Will would make sure all the things we need for the trip is ready. The horses and the ‘opihi shells that we use to scrape up the salt and pan we use to put the salt in.
By 7:00 or 7:30, we all get ready to bed down. We all excited for the long ride to the beach. We get up at 3:00am have a quick breakfast, clean up before we leave.
Grandpa Will would bring the two horses close to the porch, so he can get the bag of food and our change of clothes tied to the back part of the saddle.
When everything is ready, Grandma Malia gets on the horse first, then both me and my sister get on. Me in the back of Grandma and my sister Kau‘i in the front.
Same with Grandpa Will. My brother Kawika in the back of grandpa and brother Kamoku in the front.
We are tied with rope around Grandma’s waist and the same with my brother’s to Grandpa Will. The ride takes us at lest 4.5 hours down to Ka‘alu‘alu and 5 hours coming up.
Soon’s we get down Ka‘alu‘alu, Grandpa gets our pan’s and the ‘opihi shells that we use to scrape the salt.
Scraping the salt is easy, then Grandma comes in the back and scrape up the salt and get’s them in the white clean bag. Sometime’s we would scoop up the salt and put them in the pan we carry with us.
Sometimes we get ½ bag of the salt and few times its less. The salt is wet most times so it is heavy. So long as we get 7 or 8 bags of salt, we can hear Grandpa say “that’s enough.”
It’s good to heat that, because the next he would say is okay you folk’s can swim now, so we put our ‘opihi shell down next to all the bags of salt and run to the pond. Maybe ½ hour or so, till our Grandma calls us to come eat now, we run eat then change our clothes and get ready for the long ride up the hill to Waiohinu.
Sometimes its late coming up the hill, 7:00 or 7:30 and we are tired, but we get ready to bath and drink cocoa before bedtime at 9:00 to 9:30.
We always enjoy going to the beach gathering.
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