FREE young green coconuts - OR - why I love living in Florida

[Jackie1995]

OK, so sometimes I complain about living in south FL in the summer. And I complain about all the totally rude people who are moving here from up north and are just horrible to deal with.

But today, I am so happy to be living here. First of all, my friend has 4 mature coconut trees, she doesn't eat coconuts, and appreciated my help by trimming the coconuts off the tree for her - ! - and I got 30 mostly young green coconuts for 20 minutes work. And there are at least another 40 still on the trees, for next time.

Only 3 have the 'water' sound when I shake them, so the rest are just loaded with the water and I can spoon off the immature coconut meat and add it to my smoothies. Like I just did about 30 minutes ago. I'm still sitting here with that stupid happy grin on my face that follows an especially wonderful smoothie...

Just had to share, and make you all totally jealous of my wonderful situation.

Sorry. (No, not really.)

OK I'm bad. :-0

Shame on me.

[Brianna]

Hey, that's great. I live in south FL too...West Palm Beach. There are tons of coconut trees around here.

[threedogs]

I am so jealous (although I wouldn't live anywhere but New England, just the same).

I lived in Arizona for a while. All we had were cactus and stupid scorpions. I 'treated' myself with some prickly pear that I found once - and discovered EXACTLY why they are called "prickly"... ouch!!!

duh...
:eek: :eek: :eek:

[RowanC]

It might be nice if you could only cut maybe 7 each week ... that way they'll remain fresh until you eat them?

[rachelmh]

I, too, live in Florida. Brianna -- you sound like an expert. How would one know if the coconut is OK to eat from the trees around here? What do they look like before you get to what the young ones look like in the store?

[Jackie1995]

Hi Rowan,

Yeah, I got really carried away today. My greed overstepped my common sense.

But, thanks to the miracle of rationalization, I determined that since my DH made a pretty strong commitment to starting raw, he and I will be using 2 per day. So maybe I didn't over-do it.

I got about 2.5 cups water out of the one we opened today, and about .6 cup "meat" from the inside of the coconut. So I could even splurge and use two, for one smoothie (sounds like a DEAL!).

I was really hungering for them, dreaming about them at night, etc. Obviously there is something in there I really needed. Plus I noticed my skin getting sort of dry, since I cut back my fats to about 22% from 35%. This coconut splurge will get my skin back to the nice state it was in before I started cutting back the fat content of my daily intake.

Brianna! West Palm! Yeah, many great coconut trees in the area. When I'm done with this batch, I'm not going to be shy anymore, I'm gonna ask if I can have the coconuts off the trees of folks in the area. Usually people don't want to bother chopping them open, so they will give the coconuts away. Just hope it's me and you they give them to!

Rachelmh,
I found a stock photo of what the coconuts look like on the tree before they are cut off: (hope the link works!)

http://www.istockphoto.com/file_closeup/what/life/nature/217275_coconuts.php?id=217275

They really are delicious. If you shake them, and you don't hear anything, they're young and full to the top with nutritious coconut water. If you shake and hear something, they're more mature, I.E. more meat (like you'd expect to see) and less water.

The ones in the store are chopped like that, white geometric shapes, to make them lighter to send over from Thailand. I also read they are treated with formaldehyde to keep them from going bad on the boat over here.

The brown ones you see are mature coconuts with the green shell part removed. Again, makes them lighter to ship. The young ones aren't old enough to develop a shell like that; that hard shell comes later in their development.

I'm sure you can find a neighbor or two to part with their coconut stash! Good luck! Just sharpen up that machete!

[rachelmh]

Thanks for that! I wonder if a coconut can be too young?

[Sheryl]

We just got back form two weeks in Bali (Indonesia). The young coconuts there were about $.50 each, and available on almost every street corner. Many days we bikes upwards of 80 km, in the hot sun (about 30 degrees celcius), on coconuts!!! They are awesome. If I had to pick one food on the entire earth to live on it would be the coconut!

The really young ones have no flesh yet - just lots of water. The water is delicious!

We got laughed at at times eating coconuts. They are plentiful there, and very cheap, and are considered the food of the poor by many. We would sit (two white tourists - who are all wealthy in their eyes (we are - many of them live on $15 per month)) sitting on the side of the road on rocks drinking coconuts with locals instead of eating at a restaurant. We loved those moments.

More on my tropical holiday later....

Cheers,
Sheryl

[Linda1970]

Jackie, you are so lucky! I love coconut and eat almost one daily.

[sport]

Just back from Florida and had lots of coconut and my first Durian and had a Mamei. Loved it. It is so filling.
Oh yes. My first Lara Bars. Brought lots back with me. Took what Wild Oats had on the shelf other than the banana. I did not like them.