~ from Jill

One of the things I’ve discovered a love for since moving to Florida is the coconut. Palm trees surround us, and the furry balls constantly fall to the ground in our backyard.

I’ve been enchanted with the tropical fruit since reading the Astrid Lindgren books as a child, where Pippi Longstocking carved steps into a coconut tree and made a swing so she and her friends could play at hurling themselves into the ocean.

Coconuts seem to promote a kind of carefree and exploratory behavior. One of the boys first experiments when we moved here was to break one open using a rock.

Yesterday, we drilled a hole in the top of one, poured out the juice, and hacked it open. The boys unpeeled it, and used its outer shell as a bowling ball.

According to northern India, the coconut is the fruit of the “Tree of Life,” and it is always portrayed as an item of great value.

Fun to look at, touch, play with, eat, and drink – what would life be like without them?

Great Coconut Stuff to Try:

Mounds Candy Bars

Thai chicken soup

Philosophy Bath & Shower Gel

Coconut Cream Pie

Starbucks Banana Coconut Frapp.

“Scraping the white stuff out of it with a screwdriver,” quote from youngest son.

Poems:

Coconut

A young boy lifts the sun-baked,

round body with both hands, picking grains

of sand out of its delicate brown hairs

and feeling the weight of the hollow fruit

in his palms. Raising his castaway

treasure above his head as an offering,

lifting his gift, this vessel of sweet, warm

milk, he runs to his mother.

~ Traci Brimhall (fellow poet & friend)