In her family, mama was the cook and papa the official taster, said the former Esperanza Gabriel.

"The first time I made cookies," she recalled, "it was so very hard, Papa couldn't bite into it. So he gave it to my brother, Bonny, and he couldn't break it. He gave it to the dog and the dog spit it out. Bonny picked up the cookie from the floor and threw against the wall. It fell on the cement kitchen floor and didn't break.

"I started crying," said Garcia, who was about 7 years old at the time. "My mama asked me in Filipino, 'What's wrong, my daughter?' I said what happened and she told me, 'Don't worry, you can always make cookies again but don't forget your recipe for cement.' "

Garcia's cooking and storytelling talents are perfectly suited for the new once-a-month "Relive the Plantation Days!" program at Hawai'i's Plantation Village, which debuts tomorrow from 10:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.

The program transforms the regular docent-guided tours into a hands-on, interactive experience based on the model of other "living history" museums on the Mainland, such as Colonial Williamsburg in Virginia and Massachusetts' Old Sturbridge Village and Plimoth (Plymouth) Plantation, said Hawai'i's Plantation Village executive director Floren Elman Singh.

On the first Saturday of each month (Jan. 8 next month because New Year's Day is a holiday) hands-on activities in traditional settings may include mochi pounding (Japanese), baking sweet bread in a traditional forno oven (Portuguese), making dye from achiote plants (Puerto Rican), brush painting/calligraphy (Chinese), digging for sweet potato (Okinawan), kite making (Korean) and sipa sipa dancing (Filipino).

The debut program will feature Garcia demonstrating "kankanin," a Filipino coconut- shaving technique; Hisako Hachimori on plantation-style clothes washing; Diana Salansky making kadomatsu, a traditional New Year's Japanese bamboo and pine display; Tammy Wilson on Hawaiian music and instruments, and Mildred Makii on Japanese language using origami.

"Storytellers will also do historical enactments and tell real stories," said Singh, 30, who became the Plantation Village's executive director 18 months ago.

Beverly Allen, Katsuyuki Hachimori, Kohei Ito, Kimberly H. Velez and Yuki Yasutomi will be doing historical enactments and telling stories about the "buzz-saw game," picture brides and geta (wooden slipper) races for the first program.

Garcia will be in the village's Filipino plantation house kitchen wearing a cotton dress, looking like her mother did at home. She won't use an apron because "Mama didn't use an apron." There's an "igad" — a sharp instrument used to grate coconuts out of a half shell — in the house. Garcia will be using one that her husband, Marcelino, made for her.

"It's an art," Garcia said of kankanin. "You have to twirl the coconut and cannot go close to the shell because (the white coconut meat) comes brown. You can just buy grated coconut now so no need to do this anymore."

After demonstrating kankanin, Garcia will show visitors how to make a Filipino coconut rice pudding desert called "suman" in the Ilocano dialect and "bibinca" in Tagalog using the grated coconut.

"My mama used to sell suman," Garcia said. "This is Mama's recipe. She never measured anything and taught me to cook using all my five senses."

The long-range goal is to make the "Relive the Plantation Days!" program available to visitors year-round on a daily basis, said Singh.

"In order to make this possible, we're seeking more volunteers to assist with cultural demonstrations, hands-on learning activities and period reenactments," said Singh, who has a staff of eight full-time and eight part-time employees and 40 regular volunteers.

Reach Rod Ohira at 535-8181 or rohira@honoluluadvertiser.com.