Sunday, September 20, 2009

The Other White Meat: Tropical Style

A few days ago, Eddie and I pulled over to check on the scooter and saw a coconut tree. We found a coconut that had fallen off, cracked it open and ate some of it. Eddie had never had fresh coconut before and I had never had one with the hull still on it. Today we went back to the tree to get more.

This is the tree:

This is Eddie throwing the coconuts that had already fallen off, at the coconuts that were still on the tree. He was trying to shake the others loose, gettnig them to fall. I learned that when they are green, they are still young, but when the hulls turn brown, they are ready; most of them falling on their own.

A few successful tosses later and we had a bounty of coconuts. You can see him in action here:

Here is my scooter overflowing with the ones we're taking home with us. We harvested fifteen of them!

This is what they look like close up, which is nothing like the ones you get in the grocery store. In the store, you are just buying the actual seed, the coconut. This is the entire pod or husk that surrounds the coconut. I've never seen these before, let alone opened them to get the coconut out. It was really pretty awesome!

I'm hoping to get these home in good enough condition to give a few to my nephews, but I don't know yet what I'll do with the other twelve; perhaps I need to peruse a few recipes that call for its tasty innards.


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Night Falls On The Fuel Island
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Wanderlust Checklist
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What Are Records??
4 YEARS AGO:
Hello, America!

5 comments:

Gil said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Team Caffee said...

Wow that looks and sounds really cool! I hope you come up with some really tasty recipes to use the coconuts for as I am sure you will. Sounds like you guys are having a really good time lately..

all things bradbury said...

these are so cool....i remember a craft we did one year at summer camp where we made heads of the coconuts, complete with wiggly eyes and big plastic salad forks and spoons for the ears.....gosh, i wonder what ever happened to that little treasure????.....

Gil said...

Looks like Ed has gotten himself quite the tan. Do you think he'll pass for an Italian in Da Bronx?

Don Olney said...

When I was a kid - early 1950's - a family friend brought a coconut for me when he came to visit. That was about the most exotic thing I had ever seen, and I actually owned one. I kept it for many years - I wonder where it is now. Giving then to the nephews is a definite plan!