Here's some coconutty video footage from our Florida Keys excursion. First up is some footage of Randesh, from www.TheGuana.com, who obtains fresh coconuts for Charlie Wilson's Key West restaurant, Help Yourself (see yesterday's blog post).Notice that Randesh uses a proper piece of equipment -- a large machete (or cutlass) -- which makes short, easy work of opening these precious gifts of nature! In the video footage following that, you'll see how comically difficult it is to open a young coconut when you lack the proper equipment. We actually went out looking for a machete, but could only find a large chef's knife at a local K-Mart. Yep, they were sold out of machetes! (Ironically, the chef's knife -- the heaviest one the store had -- cost about $17, while plain old machetes run just $10 or so at most hardware stores. Next time we'll keep looking...)
So, can you believe that??!!! Most southern Floridians actually consider these young fresh organic nonirradiated uber-healthy coconuts to be a nuisance. They routinely cut them down and throw them away (mostly out of fear, it seems, that a hurricane would transform the coconuts into cannon balls). If they only knew how delicious and nutritious coconuts are! ... It's enough to make a raw vegan's head spin. So, get thee to Florida, reader, and bring thy VitaMix.
Original Comments
Below, we have included the original comments from this blog post. Additional comments may be made via Facebook, below.
On February 26, 2009, wrote:
I'm cracking up at today's video!! That knife from KMart really got a work out. I'd be in heaven with all those free coconuts around!
On February 26, 2009, wrote:
Yeah, it was pretty pathetic to have to chop each coconut like 50 times with that expensive knife while a cheap machete would've done the job in just a few seconds. But, it was still heaven. I want to live in the tropics!!!!
On February 27, 2009, wrote:
I really needed this Jim because once again, something right outside that I've not taken advantage of... young fresh coconuts! (I've only recently begun eating avocados - same deal, I just didn't know how good they are for us) At any rate, in my defense, we don't have any coconut trees in our yard, but we know folks who do and betcha I'll be asking for those "throw away" coconuts from now on! And get this, believe it or not I bought a fresh young coconut from Wholefoods Market the other day because I have so many recipes now calling for that and I never made the connection (duh!) to using the ones in the trees around here. :)
Ok well, I'll take it easy on myself because it could have been a situation as with mushrooms that you shouldn't just pick something up and start eating it until you're schooled to make sure you're picking the proper thing. So, you've taught me Jim and Wendi and now I'm ready to start putting this new knowledge to use! Happy, happy!!!
On February 28, 2009, wrote:
Thanks, MindX! And, get yourself a nice heavy machete at a hardware store. It'll be SO easy if you have the right equipment. I wish I lived somewhere where I could get fresh coconuts!!! BTW, I'm in total agreement regarding mushrooms. I'm not a big fan of them to begin with, but I've read too many horror stories about people accidentally eating poison ones to ever chance eating somethng I find in the wild. I'm actually kind of fascinated by mushrooms, even if I wouldn't want to eat them. They're just so freaky! Anyway, with coconuts, you're totally safe.