­­Rain pours from the sky in record-breaking amounts. Newly planted fields are washed out. Older fields suffocate under muddy silt. Tractors become unusable and farmhouses are damaged. Hawaiians watch as the pounding rain ruins a year’s supply of their staple food—the starchy purple vegetable called taro.

Have you ever taken a big gooey bite of poi? Hawaiians have used taro to make poi since ancient times. To you, poi might look like purple goop. And you’ll have to practice eating it. Don’t use a spoon. Use your fingers. Tuck it between bites of juicy pork, fish, greens, onions, and tomatoes, all wrapped up and steamed in a big taro leaf. Hawaiians scoop the purple poi into their mouths with one, two, or three fingers—depending on its thickness. Licking your lips yet? Many Hawaiians are. Or they were—before the rain came.