Using Your Coconut
By Audrey Stallsmith
The coco-palm is one of the strangest of trees. . . The nut resembles a man's head, for it has marks like eyes and a mouth, and the contents, when it is green, are like the brain. It has fibre like hair. . .
Ibn Battuta
Every year at Easter, we make chocolate-covered coconut “eggs” which are, I am sure, calorie-rich as well as downright addictive. The stirring requires a strong arm and persistence, since the filling has to be stiff enough to mold into shape.
Coconut always contributed the “fur” to a bunny cake I used to bake for the holiday too. So Easter just wouldn’t be the same without it!
The fruits from which we derive that shredded sweet grow on a palm called Cocos nucifera. The species name means “nut-bearing” and the genus name is supposed to derive from the Spanish or Portuguese coco, which can mean “monkey face,” “mask,” or “ghost.” The three indentations on the fruit’s rounded end are thought to resemble such spooky visages.
Coconut actually is considered a “tree of life” and “tree of heaven,” though, due to its many uses, not to mention that its "milk" probably has saved the life of many a sailor stranded on a tropical island. The nuts, after all, may bob along in the ocean for weeks before washing up on shore to plant themselves. Because the palms make panicles of cream-colored or pale yellow flowers constantly under warm conditions, they can fruit as constantly, though each coconut takes about a year to develop completely.
Before it is harvested, that fruit grows inside a husk, now used to make the coir which is replacing peat moss in many planting mixes. The dried coconut flesh which goes into our candies and cakes is called copra. It sometimes is recommended as a pleasant cure for chronic diarrhea.
Some people claim that pearls can grow inside coconuts as well as inside oysters, but that the former type are very rare. Other people call that claim a hoax, but I like the idea of coconut pearls—whether or not it actually is true!
Speaking of the controversial, oil pressed from coconut flesh has become highly popular in recent years. Whether that oil is very good or very bad for you depends on which nutritionist you consult, but I like to use it for frying eggs. It also makes a good teeth cleaner for the process often called “oil pulling.”
Because coconut oil sets up at temperatures below 76 degrees, you may need to soften it in your mouth first, before swishing it back and forth through your teeth. Proponents of oil pulling suggest you keep this up for about 15 minutes before spitting out the oil, but my patience usually runs out at around 5 minutes.
Coconut palms can grow to 100 feet high with showy fronds up to 20 feet long, but you may be taking your life in your hands if you stroll beneath them. A “monkey face” falling from that height probably could do considerably damage to your own "coconut." Fortunately, many growers opt for dwarf palms which fruit more rapidly—and nearer to the ground!
Unfortunately, the trees only are hardy in tropical climates. There reportedly are two types, with that native to the Pacific being a little more rounded than that endemic to the countries surrounding the Indian Ocean.
Our pastor used to grow coconuts when he was a missionary in Haiti. He reports that donkeys there apparently liked hearts of palm, because they often would eat out the centers of the seedlings. Coconut palms also can suffer from LY (lethal yellowing) disease, a malady which first took root when they were planted as decorative trees on the stretches of lawn favored by the planthopper.
We’ll have to hope that it doesn’t affect the availability of coconut, since I like the idea of this “tree of life” being associated in our minds with Easter. And I definitely don’t want to do without those chocolate-covered eggs!
The Cocos nucifera image is from Kohler's Medizinal-Pflanzen, courtesy of plantillustrations.org.