John Cadman remembers the time not so long ago when he had a pretty serious sugar addiction. “My diet was generally healthy, but every evening I would crave something sweet — cake, cookies, ice cream, chocolate candy, the usual culprits,” said the former professional chef. “I knew I wasn’t making good choices, but sugar does that to you — the more you eat it, the more of it you have to have.”

The turning point came in 2012, when Cadman was asked to do a cooking demonstration with a local food product for a Hawaii Farmers Union United-Haleakala chapter meeting. Ulu (breadfruit) was suggested, and although he knew very little about it and had never previously cooked with it, he agreed to research it and prepare a presentation.

“What I discovered was one of the most amazing foods in the world,” Cadman said. “Breadfruit was a staple in ancient Hawaii. It’s delicious, nutritious, easy to grow, high-yielding and versatile. It’s firm and starchy like a potato, and you can prepare it in the same ways — fry, roast, boil, mash and cut into chunks for stews and curries. It has more potential to address Hawaii’s food security issues than any other crop.”

Cadman started making healthful desserts with ulu and lost 20 pounds and his craving for sugar in the process. He launched Maui Breadfruit Co. in 2013 with a brand-new product: Pono Pies, the basic ingredients for which are Maui-grown ulu, honey, macadamia nuts, coconut, almonds and almond milk. The Hawaiian word “pono” means “correct, beneficial, done in the right way.”

Maui Breadfruit Co. is one of the sponsors of the inaugural La Ulu (Breadfruit Day) at Maui Nui Botanical Gardens. Cadman will sell ulu curry and demonstrate how to make roasted ulu in coconut milk. Other food offerings will include ulu hummus, salad, chips, Popsicles and haupia, a Hawaiian pudding usually made with coconut.

Education is a key element of the festival.

At 10:15 a.m., ulu farmer Hokuao Pellegrino, president of the Maui Historical Society, will discuss the cultural significance of breadfruit and the extensive fields of it that once covered the lower slopes of the West Maui Mountains.

A 45-minute tour of the botanical garden, spotlighting plants used in olden times to make household items such as cordage, thatch, baskets and nets, will begin at 11 a.m. Two hours later Alex Quintana, a certified arborist and horticulturalist, will explain a propagation method called air layering, which wraps stems attached to the parent ulu plant in damp moss to encourage the formation of roots and a new plant.

Other La Ulu highlights: Master artisans Lisa Schattenburg-Raymond and Lei Ishikawa will show how tapa is made from ulu bark; farmers Koikuokalani Lum and Nameaaea Hoshino will pound ulu poi and provide samples; and members of the Native Hawaiian Plant Society will teach attendees how to braid bracts of the ulu fruit into lei.

Also on hand will be researchers from the National Tropical Botanical Garden’s Breadfruit Institute (ntbg.org/breadfruit), which was established in 2003 to promote the conservation, study and use of breadfruit for food and reforestation.

“The institute has a total of 150 varieties of breadfruit, the largest collection in the world, at (the institute’s) Kahanu Garden on Maui and McBryde Garden on Kauai,” Cadman said. “It is leading a global effort to propagate breadfruit and feed people while stimulating economic development.”

One of the institute’s initiatives, Hooulu ka Ulu (Revitalizing the Breadfruit), is being implemented in partnership with the Hawaii Homegrown Food Network (hawaiihomegrown.net). The project’s goal is “to revitalize ulu as an attractive, delicious, nutritious, abundant, affordable and culturally appropriate food which addresses Hawaii’s food security issues.”

To encourage the addition of breadfruit in home gardens and landscaping designs, ulu trees will be available at the festival’s plant sale.

“Ulu is beautiful and it’s culturally and historically significant,” Cadman said. “It is truly a superstar that deserves to be celebrated. Once people learn about it and try it, there’s really not much else to say: The incredible ulu speaks for itself.”

Did you know?

>> Originally from New Guinea and the Indo-Malay region, ulu is in the mulberry family. There are hundreds of known varieties. One tree can yield fruit in three to five years, provide 350 to 1,000 pounds per year and remain productive for decades.

>> In the 18th century, Europeans exploring the South Pacific dubbed ulu “breadfruit” because the smell of the roasting fruit reminded them of freshly baked bread.

>> Hawaiians used latex from the ulu’s trunk to treat skin conditions, as glue for canoes and to catch birds for their feathers. The light, durable wood was crafted into canoes, drums, poi boards and surfboards.

>> Ulu is a good source of fiber, potassium, vitamin C, calcium, magnesium, phosphorus and carbohydrates.

Breadfruit on the bounty

Breadfruit played a key role in the famous mutiny on the HMS Bounty in 1789. The ship had left England two years earlier under the command of Capt. William Bligh to collect breadfruit trees in Tahiti and take them to British-held areas in the West Indies to be used as food for slaves on sugar plantations.

The crew spent five months in Tahiti, preparing 1,015 potted breadfruit for transport. Bounty set sail with that cargo on April 4, 1789; the mutiny happened 24 days later.

Many of the sailors had formed strong attachments with the Tahitian culture and women and wanted to return to Tahiti. Also, they were resentful that so much of their precious drinking water was being used to keep the breadfruit alive. When they had won control of the ship, the mutineers threw all of the plants overboard.

Cheryl Chee Tsutsumi is a Honolulu-based freelance writer whose travel features for the Star-Advertiser have won several Society of American Travel Writers awards