20 Something Coconuts
20 something coconuts
How many coconuts can you carry? I still hear Cheche asking me and Katrine that. To be fair, at that point I was way more optimistic than Katrine and said something in the terms of - as many as we need! Turns out i still need to train to be a true vincy women. So i put my foot down, i grab this secure looking root of auch auch auch, don’t grab plants you don’t know, lesson learned. So again, i put my foot down and… What a beautiful slide down through the mud it was. The sack, of course opened up and my coconuts started rolling in various directions. Feeling as if i was part of some geeky comedy i look to everyone around me laughing their hearts out and to be fair, i couldn’t be happier - i’m about to make my coconut oil and this is part of the amazing adventure.
Ok, so i know there are no steps on this path, but people walk here… and how do they do that? Or to be more specific, how long are their legs? Every step i take (oh, i’ll be watching you… no. no distractions!) , it seems like i have to jump down.Normally i would not think twice about it, life is harsh for short legged, but this time i was carrying a sack of coconuts on my shoulder and stepping down from a muddy and slippery mountain.
Coconut oil has been THE miracle of the last few years - a lot of people with very different lifestyles use it for various purposes - makeup remover, butter alternative, teeth whitening, any natural skin care/makeup related things, internal body cleanser or even as natural medicine in, for example, parkinson’s treatment. So when i got a chance to make my own coconut oil and spend time with three amazing women (a.k.a. Katrine, Cheche and Cherry), lovely kiddos and Tiger (Tiger is Cheche’s boo. He is important in this story. For one, he opened so many coconuts for us in the bush (farm) lightly swinging his machete, that it seemed we could make coconut water bath), I couldn’t say no. Still following my weird flow of thoughts? Great. Either way.
So what comes after having fun while picking coconuts in the farm (eating them roasted, drinking lots of coconut water and eating the jelly) and sliding down with them back to the village? Opening of the coconuts! One way to do that is by holding the coconut in your hand and using the other one to swing your machete. Now, I’m a person who could probably manage to cut herself with a spoon, so that was not an option. the other way is to hit coconuts on the rocks. We started very gently, but boy did we become professional at the end (even a guy passing by was impressed with our rapid improvement!), maybe it’s because practice makes perfect, or maybe, just maybe we had some anger management issues. Taking coconuts out of the shell was no less fun and left me and Katrine bleeding, as we kept lightly stabbing (poking? stabbing sounds so dramatic) our palms with the knife, yet again, we got better with every coconut and Cherry was always reassuring us that this sometimes happens to her too. I don’t believe her, but it did make us feel better at the time.
Grating coconuts was one of the best parts. This is when Me, Katrine and Cherry sat down and while doing quite a monotonous and time consuming work, chatted. We spoke about Cherry (she is the one in the photos), her life, her love for hats, how she sees love and relationships and so many other things. We looked through the old photo albums, took a break to have lunch and chatted more. We connected. And then she said Katrine is better at grating. Ah, such a heartbreaker!
After all the coconut was dealt with, we soaked it in water, creating coconut milk and did it till coconut shreds had no taste anymore. Last step - boiling the creamy and sweet coconut milk until it evaporates and the only thing left is the oil (or you could forget the oil, add LOTS of sugar and boil till it turns into beautiful, amazing piece of heaven that is called coconut fudge. Just sayin’).
End result - the best coconut oil i have ever seen/tried. Maybe it’s the coconuts. Maybe it’s the water. Or maybe it’s the stories, adventures, connection and love.
