Harvesting Coconuts!

Every day I marvel at the myriad of trees we have growing on our property including varieties of palms and cycads;  Royal, Queen, Mexican Fan, Pygmy Date, Alexander and many more.

This is a dried, upper part of the bark that has peeled off from the trunk usually when an old leaf falls, leaving room for a new one to flourish.

The children find many uses for them in their creative play.  The children sit on them whilst Sasha pulls them around the garden, joyously up down the hills.

They make little boats which then become containers or little homes for their fluffy animals.

This is a little ornamental bag I made from this beautiful golden bark.

We had a towering 60 foot Coco palm that needed it's seeds harvested, it wouldn't be fun to have one of those huge nuts falling on our heads.  The intensity of the sound it makes when it falls persuades us to keep them trimmed as they can be very dangerous especially dropping from 60 feet high!

Harvesting this single mature Coconut tree yielded about 35 coconuts.  The glossy, green nuts were cut open by a sharpened macheta with the help of Ochello our farm hand.

The children poured about 6 gallons of sweet water into our glass storage containers to keep fresh and cold in the fridge. The firm, white, inner flesh was scooped out and enjoyed by the boys and shared with the dogs!

The rich, inner flesh is where the goodness is stored. The oils that are high in antioxidants as well as lauric acid, a nutrient to support the immune system (also found in breast milk) has amazing health benefits.

How wonderful and accessible it is for the children to have  all these amazing fruits as they pick their way through healthy snacks during the day.

I captured this moment as Sania tumbled down to the ground whilst the children were playing catchers with their papa.

Sania enjoying a juicy plump Carambola.  My first backpacking adventure when I left South Africa as a teenager was working on a Kibbutz in Israel.  I worked there for more than 6 months as a volunteer, harvesting and packing dates and star fruit (Carambola)  and working in the kitchen and peeling vegetables for 750 people!

Erica, a sweet little girl from the local village that the children adore.

Looking out from our open living room we have an inviting view of our pool with our cana palm leaf tropical Gazebo.  Summer time in the tropics would be harsh without a refreshing cool pool and all those wonderful palms to shade and nourish us!