Coconut
Coconut
We have been in the land of the coconut, Belize. The coconut palms are here every where, loaded with this sweets. As Iceland lacks completely coconut palms, at least to my knowledge, I was always under the impression that the fruit looked like in the supermarkets back home. Round hairy brown nut with three dots close to each other on top. Not unlike a bowling ball. But I was dead wrong. The nut is covered with thick layer of stubborn fibers, out in the nature and the fruit is cone like not round.
We stopped unexpectedly in Gales Point. Small village on narrow sand reef by a lagoon. It is so narrow that there is only room for one street. The houses here are mostly wood houses or barracks that hang up by the salt alone. You might not need any more as there is always summer here or spring with few exception made by hurricane season.
On the other hand an American religious group thought that there was a reason to fix up the housing in the village and they where ther building three houses for "The Natives" as one of the "religious ladies" put it.
The village people found it to be a good idea that some one wanted to build houses for them and sat in the yard watching the houses rise. I do not think any one of them put in a helping hand on the project or nailed a single nail. They just rolled an other joint and praised the lord.
Despite the primitive tone, the villagers are good and friendly people that live as one big happy family. They do not have much money, but have enough to eat if they want to as there is plenty of all kinds of fruits and berries that grow there. There is fish in the sea and all kinds of animals to be hunted.When one crop is gone there is the time for the next one. We just missed the mango season but in stead there are plentiful of Coconuts here!
We found a parking space for Benzi on an empty lot across the street from one of the few stone houses around here. We stopped the car, got out and where greeted by a thin, dark, tall man around 50 years of ages, that came out of the stone building. We asked if we could camp there and of course we could. He had on the other hand very little time for a chat now as he was baking!
This man turned out to be Dana Mayers and he thought me every thing I know to day about coconuts.
When the coconuts are green then they are young. The clear juice is sweet and they have not formed any meat yet. You open them by chopping of the top and then drink the sweet juice straight from the coconut. Despite of the heat out site the juice is cool coming from the nut and it can be up to a liter in one nut.We where told that the liquid is good for your kidneys.
When the fruit has lost most of the green color and startet to take on a brownish color, the meat in site has formed in the shell. This meat is soft like jelly and sweet. This you can eat as candy and use to make cookies.
At last the fruit becomes brown and looks like a small ball of wood. Thats when they fall of the trees and you can pick them of the ground. At this point there is very little liquid left in the shell. It has transformed into the meat about 1cm thick.
It is this meat that is grated with a fine grater, the liquid mixd in and maybe some water and then you stir in it and squeeze the milk out.
It is not for the worse to keep it in the refrigerator for up to two days before squeezing the milk out and you have this fine coconut milk ready to be used in all kinds of delicious meals and of course Pina colada.
It all sounds rather easy to do but that is far from the trouth. The coconut is such a stubborn fruit that it craves years of practice and a special instrument, the machete, to do this proparly. The green fruit has rather soft skin so it is easy to get a drink if you find a tree that is small enough to reach into for the fruit and you do not have to climb. The other one is hard as hell and needs to be chopped with the machete layer by layer. You better watch out for your fingers while doing that.
Dana showed us the method, but we do not own a machete, have to buy it in Guatemala. I have been using the axe and our big knife. It works o.k but is not "cool" enough.
You can see me now with a coconut in my arms that I have stolen from some garden or just picked up while walking the dog. While I am working on it with the axe I get the sweet taste in my mouth knowing that I am going to use it for cooking or in sauce. My thought wanders to the disgustingly expensive stale old coconuts back home in Iceland
P.S. I need to get the recipe of carrot cake from Hjördís Smith. With out any doubt the best carrot cake in Iceland. The secret behind it is a coconut mass she buys in USA. It should be all that better with the real thing straight from the tree!.
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