Feelin a little coco-nuts!

Ever try knockin’ a coconut out of a tree with a rock?

It don't work so good…

In fact, when you do get accurate with a large enough rock to make contact with a green coconut, you end up making a nice thonk while the nut laughs at you, suggesting ‘uh, I ain't about to let go here, bonehead, so give it up.’ Same sentiment applies to the stick and swinging towel methods, with just slightly more derision and mockery from the tree.

So I guess in order to get to that sweet water, looks like a little climbing is necessary.

Ever try climbing a coconut tree sans equipment?

It don't work so good…

In fact, I couldn't do it at all without tearing up my thighs and forearms.

Hmmm...time for a little youtube tutorial…

Found a couple easy ideas pretty quickly…

The simplest was a burlap sack loop wrapped around a bushman's feet while he hopped his way up a massive tree effortlessly like a human inchworm. The burlap provided simple leverage and support along the rough tree surface.

Pretty cool.

Should be easy enough to make…

Okay, no sack to be found here...but some plastic shade cloth should do the trick.

And I also found a heavy woven cotton strap that might be useful as a support system for the hands…

Cool, let's rock!

We rolled into Hilo on Tuesday to do some community service singing at a couple old folks homes (one of our weekly rituals) and during our lunch break, a nut-filled tree on the beach seemed to call my name…’hey freak’, it said, ‘come risk your neck for a chance at drinking my sweet sweet nutty water, if ya got da guts’...

I got da guts!

Game on baby!

Okay...shoes off...plastic shade cloth in place...let’s do it!

The early scoreboard? Coconut tree: 1, Mike: 0

The shade cloth sucked. A little too slick, and tied a little too wide. All I had left was that thin band.

Worth a shot at least…

Tied a stirrup for one foot, and extended it back to the other with another knot securing it…

Round 2…

Hop, hop, hop…

Bloody thing works like a charm!

With a pocket knife in hand, and a quick sawing motion, all of a sudden it was raining coconuts!

Woohoo!

Michelle caught the action shot of the first bunch falling to the ground.

Sweet!

We ended up with six, leaving the rest of the seeds to naturally run their growth course…

Be responsible for what you take, don't be greedy, and you can live in harmony with nature forever...some good advice.

Not sure who said that, though…

Oh yeah, ‘twas me:-)

We macheted open a couple of the young stones for a smoothie dinner of banana and papaya in coconut water, and weren't disappointed. Sweet and delicious!

Climbing a coconut tree was another awesome first, and looking forward to climbing another one.

Don't foresee getting bored of drinking coconut water anytime soon…

In fact, I'm craving some of that yummy water right now.

Excuse me while I go wake up Michelle to see if she's up for a little midnight tree climbing;-)

Mike

IT'S A BOY!!

It's tough to believe we've been living on a fruit farm for as long as we have without asking anyone about the availability of jackfruit in the area...when one day we did just that...to which the response was, ‘we have a jackfruit tree right there…’ (insert jaw-dropping face here)

What is jackfruit some may ask?

Only the largest, most delicious treefruit known to man, that’s all. Michelle and I found good ol’ jack in an Asian market in Toronto. Not sure what record weight has been recorded to date, but we saw one at market in excess of 30 pounds...not too shabby for a hanging fruit…

There was one lonely jackfruit hanging all this time right under our very noses! Yeehaw!

The tip on ripeness came down to when it began to share its heavenly aroma...it wasn't quite there, but we were ecstatic nonetheless.

A few weeks of patient waiting ensued, and finally the magical day arrived...and not a second too soon! As I walked to the tree in preparation for harvest, and yelled out ‘rats’, Michelle had no idea how literal I was being. Seems another smaller critter got a hankerin’ for that juicy fruit goodness during the night, and bored out a couple fruit pockets. Damn rats with excellent taste in fruit!! (insert crazy old man shaking fists in anger graphic here…)

The fruit flies were amassin’ too. No time to waste! A quick surgical slice, and little jack was free to rush down to the intensive care of my cutting board.

Oh the aroma!!

A quick quartering of precious jack revealed a massive treasure trove of seed filled fruit pods, each soft and ripe to a degree we've never come close to witnessing.

The jackfruit we've found at market have been tasty, but many times a bit tough or stringy. The ends of these fresh pods quite literally melted in the mouth. Spectacular! And so much of it!

We ended up filling a large, and I do mean LARGE, stainless steel bown full of fruit. Enough for days of sharing with the others here at the farm. A small batch for Mikey frozen and stashed in the freezer, and the jackfruit experience was complete. Jackfruit is quite excellent no matter how you find it, whether fresh, frozen, or dried, but if you truly feel the need to be alive, I highly recommend the tree ripened jackfruit experience. One more kickass gift from God and mother nature. Thanks to both!

Rock on!

Mike

Ulu-la-la

Yeah, we continue to be swamped with endless jobs around the farm, leaving us with too little time for blogging...but this post has been long overdue...it regards the greatest discovery we’ve made so far...possible the greatest fruit now in our arsenal of awareness…

Enter the breadfruit!

From this point on known as ulu…North Americans have probably never heard of ulu, let alone tasted it, unless they have some family or relations near the tropics.

Michelle and I found it once in Toronto at an asian market, and tried it raw. Wow, it sucked. We later on found out that the natives cook the hard fruit in one of many ways before eating. Apparently it is used as a potato-type starchy vegetable when cooked.

Sounded lame to us…

We finally came across it again here and weren't all that excited about it, until we realised that people were cooking the fruit while it was in its unripe state, which begged the question ‘what does a fully tree-ripened ulu taste like?’

A quick search of the internet uncovered one person's description claiming ripe ulu is like ‘a cross between durian and jackfruit’. A cross between durian and jackfruit??!!! Are you freakin’ kidding me??? Possibly our two most favorite fruits combined, mixed into one heavenly package? Surely you jest!

If you are fruity naive, let me give you a quick rundown on durian and jackfruit...jackfuit, which you will meet firsthand in the next blog, is the inspirational taste for juciy fruit gum. Get your skis shined up, motherfucker. Durian is custard-like sweet filling found in a massively spiny coconut-like ball of awesomeness. Some people find the ripe smell of a durian repulsive, but those people a smell-impaired pinheads with no sense of appreciation for God's little slices of heaven raining down on us from the trees above. A perfectly ripe durian is a desserty treat unlike any fruit you've ever tried…I highly recommend…

Anyhoo...these are some big boots to fill...and our quest to find a ripe ulu began…

Enter the farmer’s market…

While perusing the local goods during the weekly Sunday event, our neighbours from a local farm apparently heard the word of our quest for the perfect ulu, and gave us a couple to try...cha-ching! Phase one complete...acquire ulu! Our first acquisition did not provide us a tree-ripened fruit, but it was a start nonetheless. We decided to let one ripen, and do some cooking experiments with the other one..

Enter the mad scientists…

Hmmm…ulu french fries?? Ulu pancakes? Ulu hashbrowns? Let's try it all!

We baked the ulu for an hour, and cut sections to try for each.

Shredded ulu for pancakes and hashbrowns, sliced ulu for frying in some coconut oil…

Ulu fries? Kickass!!!

Ulu hashbrowns? Yes!!

Ulu pancakes?...not quite there yet...more on that one later…

Hmmm...cooked ulu is actually pretty cool after all! If you're not a stickler for the raw fruity diet, ulu gives you some amazing options to still have all the joys of a root vegetable, but in a glorious fruit form that hangs lovingly from a tree, offered freely by the plant, instead of having to be slaughtered like the poor unfortunate tuber.

If one were so bold, I'd be willing to wager a fully deep fried ulu is superior to the spud. It's nice to have a fruity option to continue one’s love affair with the french fry...and with a little tomato-avocado/cider vinegar concoction on the side fer dippin’, the fruity extravaganza was complete!

So far ulu has rocked our world!

Enter the ripened ulu…

After waiting a few short days, our ulu began to soften rapidly. It became a sack of mush. Time to sample! Our conclusion?

The soft gooey innards of the magnificent ulu had lived up to the hype! Awesome! And this wasn’t even fully tree ripened. Imagine when fed fully with all the sugars from the tree! Joy overload!

We collected as many ulu as we could from neighbouring farms and found some in the wild.

Discussing ulu at market, a gentleman suggested using the ripe ulu as a base for pancakes, not the hard stuff. Brilliant!

And thicken with what? What else, ulu flour! Woohoo!

We tried it the next time we got hold of a ripe ulu, and the pancakes didn't disappoint.

Ulu...superfood of the new millennium?? My vote is yesssss!!!!

Awesome in smoothies too!

If every second person had an ulu tree in their front yard, the sham of world hunger would be eradicated.

Nature provides it all for us...offering freely from the arms of the loving trees without any need for the killing of any animal or plant.

Ulu, you rock!!