Tag Archives: harvest

Coconut Harvest and Other Island Scenes

Climbing Coconut tree
Climbing a coconut palm

When we are out and about we often see things that we call “Island Scenes,” you know, scenes that you would never see if you didn’t live on a tropical island. Palm trees, especially coconut palms, to me are one of the quintessentially tropical markers. And as we were walking down a beach one day we came upon two men who were harvesting coconuts from tall 50 foot swaying palm trees.  One of them climbed up using his spikes and the other one caught the heavy bundle of coconuts that descended from a rope.

Man in the trees
Hola from on high!

These coconuts are mainly used for their coconut water, but of course can be used for any number of preparations from coconut oil, toasted coconut, coconut milk, even piña coladas! This is a great service for the beaches because a coconut that falls from that height could easily kill an unwitting person below. Win/win! Here’s a video of them at their work:

We hung out for a while nearby with a friend and enjoyed the sunset. I tried my monkey best to climb a coconut palm, but without the spikes I couldn’t get too far 🙂

Cassie in Coconut Tree
My coconut tree climb is not nearly as impressive!

Dogs and Horse on Beach
Horse riding and a pack of dogs on the beach

Cassie and Britton at Sunset Nice
Classic sunset shot

We also watched another traditional method of living off the land and water when we saw a man setting up the fishing net at the edge of the sea as the tiny ripples lapped softly against the sand. I’m not exactly sure what he was fishing for, perhaps sardines as we often see them when we enter the water. This is the kind of economic activity that has been going on for hundreds of years and that you probably won’t hear much about on the news or through the government: a direct connection to nature and your livelihood.

Boat and Beach
Boat at sunset

Island Time literally
A ceiling fan and a clock on a bamboo pole. Is this where island time came from? haha

Cassie and Britton Monkey and Horse
Yeehaw!

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Bounty of the Finca and Food for the Soul

 

Fruit salad
We have been making lots of fruit salads (like this 100% home-grown one)!

Though we can grow food year-round here in Puerto Rico, summer definitely gives us an extra boost in abundance. Here in Rincón it is mango season and avocado season is just around the corner, but those two main crops are not the only things! At our little finca we are harvesting so many bananas, quenepas and passionfruit we just can’t keep up with eating them all!

Bounty of the finca 1
A bounty filled with eggs, bananas, quenepas, passionfruit, mangoes, and sapodilla

We had thought about bringing some to the farmer’s market since we couldn’t eat them all, but we never did. So we decided to go around and drop some fruit off with friends and neighbors. People were so grateful it was incredible! It is amazing how sharing your abundance creates a reciprocal reaction. Our neighbors gave us mustard greens and avocados or said they would bring down plantains later, other friends offered starfruit, the mail people were super excited about the fruit, especially the passionfruit.

One of our friends wrote a beautiful post about being thankful for a meal composed of friends’ gifted food. We randomly gave a guy on a bench a bunch of bananas and he blessed us in Spanish! And our other friends gave us some fruit they had dehydrated and took us around their neighborhood where some empty lots filled with huge ripe mangos and avocados were just dripping off the trees! These are not just regular mangos and avocados but rather varieties I have never seen in my life. Awesome things!

Mango bounty
Just a little of the abundance in return from friends

Massive mango and common
Humongous mango on the left and our little “common” mango on the right

We had so much fun just getting out and handing out a smile and some fruit that the returns we received far exceeded what we gave. It’s a great reminder that giving IS receiving! We are so thankful for the food we can grow and the people and animals we can feed with the food. And when you share your abundance it becomes “soul food”; it nourishes the soul as well as the body! What’s even more cool in this simple cycle of giving is that all of our banana trees were also gifted to us by friends! Abundance and gratitude all around!

BK Bananas
These banana bunches are HUGE and HEAVY!

Pineapple
And a pineapple soon to be harvested!

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Fiesta de la Cosecha ¡Fiesta Loca!

You are invited to a

Harvest LOCAvore Party

at Our House

on Saturday, September 6, 2008, 6pm-??

If you had a garden this year, bring some of your LOCAl bounty to share with others either in the raw or prepared as a side. If not, bring a favorite dish or drink (maybe from ingredients from the LOCAl farmers’ market). This is not required, but a fun way to share and try new things. We will have plenty of drinks and lots of food. Maybe deviled eggs from our chickens? Britton’s famous sushi rolls made with local cucumbers? Our scrumptious chile rellenos from fresh chiles? You’ll have to wait and see.

For Entertainment, we will hold a tasting of the various beers and wines that people bring, listen to music, eat, play cards, launch potatoes, maybe play rockband, chase chickens (?), have a garlic or habanero pepper eating challenge, toss around a frisbee, play hack and other fun, strange and interesting things. Our neighbors have a hot tub too, so if you are a good persuader…who knows? 


Playing Rockband! 🙂

 

Feel free to bring the kids if you’d like. We’ll try to have kid-friendly things going on too.

For more info including directions, email or call us:

bckauffman -at- comcast.net (please put the @ sign in between, I just don’t want to get spammed), or any of our other emails if you know them. If you don’t have our phone number, I’ll send it to you via email.


Todays Lunch!

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