Māori Language Week 2010
Roasting Karaka berries
Harold Stevens Hislop, Maori group roasting karaka berries at Whakarongotai, Waikanae, 1908, B&W original photographic print, Hislop, Harold Stevens, d 1933: Photograph albums, Reference: PA1-o-229-48-4
Roasting Karaka berries
HOW OUR GREAT GRANDPARENTS LIVED....
From Te Ao Hou No. 26 March 1959
All the kaingas were near the sea because much of the food was obtained from the sea. In the late summer and autumn months the settlements were hives of industry. Whenever the weather was favourable the men would all go out fishing in their canoes and mokihis. The settlements would be supplied with fresh fish and the remainder of the catches were dried for winter consumption. The women collected and dried pauas, and seaweed also in season. Kinas and pupus were also gathered and stored in bottles and jars.
The karaka trees grew in groves along the hillsides facing the sea and the ripe berries were gathered in great quantities. We children loved to help to gather the Karaka berries as we liked to eat the outer part; while the inner part or nut was cooked, either in a hangi, or boiled in a large iron pot, taking all day to cook. The cooked berries were then put into kits and left to soak for a few days in the creek until the wall of the outer flesh was soft enough to soak off. The process was completed by spreading the nuts on mats to dry in the sun and then collecting them again in the kits and storing in the storehouses.
Read the whole article on Te Ao Hou
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