That fine Kauai poi will be harder to get

Now is the time for poi enthusiasts to indulge in extra servings of favorite purple-tinted dishes and desserts. That’s because within a few months we’ll likely be seeing the start of a taro crop shortage. In the aftermath of mid-April’s burst of record-breaking rain, many farmers in Kauai’s Hanalei region, which grows the most taro statewide, are still cleaning mud- and silt-packed fields and won’t be able to replant for months.

While it’s not unusual for storms to deliver several inches of rain in Hanalei Valley, this one dropped several feet — leaving the underground corm watery and spongy, or loliloli. Sadly, loliloli taro yields lumpy poi.

UH-Manoa’s star rising worldwide

The University of Hawaii at Manoa can’t rest on its laurels, but nicer laurels are being bestowed.

The flagship UH campus rose quite a lot between 2017 to the current 2018/19 report from the Center for World University Rankings — from 446 to 306, out of 18,000 universities.

It’s hard to be sure exactly what to credit for the rise, and it’s unclear why the “quality of education” score was missing from this year’s ranking. But in other measures UH did improve — in research output, for one. And this year’s methodology was revised, giving that 70 percent of the total score.