Time to Harvest the Coconuts
Last week I was at home when I heard a crashing sound on the hillside next to my apartment. I went out onto the front porch and looked up to where a man was perched on a very tall coconut palm tree with a machete. The crashing sound was the coconuts falling to the ground as he hacked them from the stem and tossed them down. Time to harvest the coconuts and trim back the fronds. (Side note: You do not ever want to be standing or walking under a coconut tree when the fruit is ripe and falls. People are killed by coconuts cracking open their skulls. Stories abound. True stories.) Back to the coconut harvest. So there he was, feet firmly planted against the trunk with nothing other than his bare feet, knees and braced body to hold him there, after shimmying up the tall...very tall...slender trunk. At first I could only see his feet. (See them in the photo? Yeah...there they are.)
Slowly, as he chopped off and tossed down the coconuts, his head emerged from between the fronds. (There...right there...his head. See it? The same size as the coconuts.) As more and more of the coconuts were cut away, his machete emerged.
Everyone here has a machete...well, except me. I've seen little children running around with a large machete in their hands, swinging it this way and that. My mother would have been horrified, grabbed it away and given me what-for for even thinking about touching it. Not here. No one seems to be concerned about a two-year-old playing with a machete. I am learning not to be distressed. But I digress.
Awhile on he shimmied down the trunk for a quick rest and to get his hat. It was hot that day. And humid. Have I mentioned how hot and humid it is here? Well, it is. And it was that day. He continued back up the tree and, after hacking and tossing down all of the coconuts, he began hacking off the fronds. Not only will the coconuts be used -- the juice sucked out with a straw for a refreshing and healthy drink, the oil made into body oil, the meat grated and used in various recipes, the shells burned in outdoor ovens for cooking fuel, or the whole lot broken apart and fed to the pigs -- but the fronds will be dried and used to make baskets and woven together to make roofs for the traditional houses. The coconut fiber will be used to make sturdy rope lashings that hold the houses together and make them more flexible when strong storm winds wash over the island. Nails aren't used because the houses don't give like they do with coconut fiber rope holding them together. Another harvest is done and the tree is recovering. It takes about a year for a coconut to reach maturity.
Slowly, as he chopped off and tossed down the coconuts, his head emerged from between the fronds. (There...right there...his head. See it? The same size as the coconuts.) As more and more of the coconuts were cut away, his machete emerged.
Everyone here has a machete...well, except me. I've seen little children running around with a large machete in their hands, swinging it this way and that. My mother would have been horrified, grabbed it away and given me what-for for even thinking about touching it. Not here. No one seems to be concerned about a two-year-old playing with a machete. I am learning not to be distressed. But I digress.
Awhile on he shimmied down the trunk for a quick rest and to get his hat. It was hot that day. And humid. Have I mentioned how hot and humid it is here? Well, it is. And it was that day. He continued back up the tree and, after hacking and tossing down all of the coconuts, he began hacking off the fronds. Not only will the coconuts be used -- the juice sucked out with a straw for a refreshing and healthy drink, the oil made into body oil, the meat grated and used in various recipes, the shells burned in outdoor ovens for cooking fuel, or the whole lot broken apart and fed to the pigs -- but the fronds will be dried and used to make baskets and woven together to make roofs for the traditional houses. The coconut fiber will be used to make sturdy rope lashings that hold the houses together and make them more flexible when strong storm winds wash over the island. Nails aren't used because the houses don't give like they do with coconut fiber rope holding them together. Another harvest is done and the tree is recovering. It takes about a year for a coconut to reach maturity.
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