We have a delightful garden surrounding our house in Fiji. It has several tall coconut trees. Old coconuts typically fall, especially when the wind shakes the trees, so we asked around for reliable, trustworthy locals who could climb up and do some maintenance.
We got word of some young ‘uns who fit the bill, and they came around this week. The three young men, all lean muscle and led by a tall, wiry guy, worked for about 2.5 hours.
I was quite entertained by watching the process. One of the guys acted as a scout on the ground, while another one climbed up a tree. The climbers shimmied up and down effortlessly with no supporting equipment. They brought up a rope as they climbed in order to pull up a machete when they reached the top. The climber then shook and stamped his feet on the palm fronds to loosen coconuts and used the machete to hack at the ones with a tighter hold. Coconuts rained down and landed with thuds. I estimate at least 50 coconuts harvested from five trees.
When the climber was done harvesting a tree, he would gracefully climb or slide down.
Once the coconuts from the five trees were on the ground, the young men moved them to a corner of our yard. Because there were so many coconuts, we allowed them to haul some away for themselves. They offered to husk some coconuts for our later use and fill pitchers with fresh coconut water for us.
The guys used a rebar with a pointy end to husk the coconuts while standing. They made quick work of it, and I transported the pitchers of coconut water and husked coconuts into our fridge.
We thanked the guys for a great job, and they went on their merry way with a good haul.
Now we’ve got plenty of fresh coconut to eat raw or use for cooking.
Ah, the blessings of a tropical garden.
ATB 