Kalo, known outside of Hawaiʻi as taro, is one of the oldest cultivated plants in the Pacific. But to Native Hawaiians, it's much more than food. In Hawaiian tradition, kalo is considered the elder sibling of the Hawaiian people — a sacred ancestor that has sustained life on these islands for thousands of years.
A loʻi is a flooded terrace — a pond field — where kalo is grown. Ancient Hawaiian farmers designed entire valley systems around the loʻi, channeling fresh mountain water through each paddy in a continuous flow. It was elegant, efficient, and completely in harmony with the land.
The ingenuity of the loʻi
What makes the loʻi remarkable is how little was wasted. Water entered from a mountain stream, flowed through one paddy into the next, then continued down to coastal fishponds where it fed fish that fed the community. The whole system — field to sea — was one connected loop. No outside inputs. No waste.
Kalo itself is planted from the top of a harvested corm and replanted in the same field — a built-in cycle of return. Every part of the plant is used: the corm is pounded into poi, the leaves cooked as greens, the stalks eaten too. For our ancestors, abundance came from relationship with the land, not from taking from it.
Why it's on our products
On our artwork, the kalo is depicted the way it lives in the loʻi — the corm hidden beneath the water, with only the hā (stalk) and lau (leaf) reaching above the surface. It's a plant that does its most important work out of sight. We chose kalo because it represents a way of thinking we want to carry forward. Every time you reach for one of our products, that story is with you.
Today, Native Hawaiian farmers and community organizations are actively restoring loʻi kalo across the islands — clearing overgrown spaces with invasive species and reopening water channels that had been dormant for generations. It is quiet, important work. We are honored to carry a small piece of that story and uplift their work.