The coconut

[zeno]

Another argument against eating imported foods is that you will never be a part of the creation or preparation process (for example: growing food or hunting game). This is the most magical part of eating and few modern people understand the beauty of being a part of this life and death cycle and the strength it offers. It furnishes respect, moreover.

[Dorothy]

Yes Zeno, I have started to garden and the joy of going out and picking produce I grew myself is more than what anyone would expect - and getting eggs from my chickens never ceases to make me down-right giddy. Foraging though creates a feeling hard to describe. The connectedness, gratitude and reverence for the food I find in the wild is even deeper. I long to do that again.

[balancing-act]

It sounds very nice, and I respect you all doing it, and I do buy tons of local veggies, because the soil around where I am is great, and there are lots of farms... however, I don't buy the extreme localist arguments, I don't think that in the biggest picture my avocados traveling from Florida are doing any harm (this is what we're worried about when we're living under rising fascism?), and I don't buy the "Peak Oil" line that says someday very soon the whole energy system's going to crash, and there will be no avocados.
I do wish that my government subsidized wind and solar power, instead of Big Oil, and that my avocados traveled in a way that didn't have anything to do with Earth-destroying oil. But I wish a lot of things, such as the overthrow of the military-industrial-complex that runs the country and the world.
And I'll work for that, but if I starve myself with no avocados or decide with a purist motive to spend all my time on hunting my food, even though I don't prefer to eat mostly animal food, I won't have any time nor energy to do the political work I do and live the life I love.
So I'm going to take the avocados from Florida and the persimmons from California. They taste wonderful and make me feel good, and that to me is the truth.

One love, though. I have lots of friends who are farmers, and I have no doubt that being deeply connected to your food by growing our raising it is a profoundly spiritual way of being... however, there are other aspects of spirituality and life which one must nourish and follow.

[Aaaaaa]

I agree, Balancing-act! 
Where I live, in Wisconsin, NOTHING pretty much grows here in the winter, and the winter is LONG. 
I eventually hope to move somewhere warmer and grow and preserve fruits and veggies for over the winter, but that just isn't possible for me now.  Someday!!! : D

[Dorothy]

Ha ha - Balancing Act - why bother with diet at all or think or talk about any of this stuff with so many of the massively important, towering and ominous things happening around us? 

You just asked why people give up foods that they like in order to go local - I think - didn't you? Whether you do it or not obviously is up to you and your own priorities socially, politically and health-wise. Did someone say peak oil and I missed it? When I said "if supply lines break down" it could mean so many things - even just a weather catastrophe of some sort. Like I said, I still eat tropical fruits and it's pretty obvious if nothing grows where you are, buying local won't work for you. Since introducing raw animal foods though, the amount of tropical fruits I eat has decreased a lot - and I actually like that idea myself. I also LOVE gardening. Foraging is very hard here though. I miss it. 

Just talking about general ideas. You're quite lucky to have your own panorama worked out so nicely.

[eveheart]

And more questions for anyone... what's the total idiot-proof way of opening coconuts?

More detailed answer:

For a hard coconut: How to open a coconut - cooking tutorial. Alternately, you can drain the water as shown and take the coconut out to a concrete surface and drop it a few times.

For a young/green/Thai (some alternate names) coconut: How to open a coconut quickly without making a mess

There are other youtube videos if you need more details. Just make sure you are using the method matched to the type of coconut you are opening.

[goodsamaritan]

For a hard coconut: How to open a coconut - cooking tutorial. Alternately, you can drain the water as shown and take the coconut out to a concrete surface and drop it a few times.

In my honest opinion from the land of coconuts, this video method takes too long.... (the first video)

To open a hard coconut, just strike it with a big heavy knife in the middle while holding it with one hand (like the hammer portion) and catch the water with a basin.

To get the hard meat, use a hand coconut scraper if it is soft enough, or with a sit on stool scraper. 

Show my text to the nearest Filipino store and they can give you the tools.

I'll shoot a video and post it.

----------------

Coconut grater: http://sukitospoon.wordpress.com/tag/kudkuran/

and http://carinderia.net/?p=188





Grating a dry coconut
If this girl practices, she'll get faster at it.

[eveheart]

In my honest opinion from the land of coconuts, this video is dumb and stupid and takes too long.... (the first video) (and I may be too harsh)

For someone who is unaccustomed to wielding a knife in manner you suggest, the first video is not dumb and stupid, merely cautious. Balancing-act clearly confessed to inexperience in this sort of thing. There is no need to insult someone's inexperience, nor any need to flaunt your expertise.

Show my text to the nearest Filipino store and they can give you the tools.

Filipino stores are not ubiquitous in the US. The ones near me sell tools, they don't give them to customers.

I'll shoot a video and post it.

Save your time. Videos abound on youtube, with all sorts of skill levels.

[goodsamaritan]

For someone who is unaccustomed to wielding a knife in manner you suggest, the first video is not dumb and stupid, merely cautious. Balancing-act clearly confessed to inexperience in this sort of thing. There is no need to insult someone's inexperience, nor any need to flaunt your expertise.

Filipino stores are not ubiquitous in the US. The ones near me sell tools, they don't give them to customers.

Save your time. Videos abound on youtube, with all sorts of skill levels.

I'm sorry you caught the first comment I made. (within 5 minutes)

"In my honest opinion from the land of coconuts, this video method takes too long.... (the first video)"

I edited my post beforehand but you caught it.
It was the first thing that popped in my mind kind of thing.

[Adora]

I love coconut and I aspire to eat local and that may mean very few vegetable, but aspire is not an act for today. I ate coconut today and it was so good. I haven't dug my juicer out of the garage yet so I just ate the chunks, with the brown skin and all and I loved the sweet creamy fiber.
I just read AV's book We want to live, He seems to eat a lot of coconut cream, and to use it for healing, but he said not to use it for cream if it was soured at all. This supprised me, I'm going to look for more stuff from him. Maybe I just misunderstood, b/c he seems to like every thing as soured as he can get it.
Anyway I opened the coconut with his method and I liked it.

Hard coconut:

Take any sharp instrument (I used a meat tenderizer for the hammer and a clean philips head screw driver, in the past I have used a butter knife and just jabbed it into the eye, but that was much harder) and gently poke the eyes of the coconut until you find the softest one, but don't make a hole. Go to either of the firmer eyes and puncture one of those go all the way through the meat and then do the same for soft eye, widen the hole as best as you can, so the water drains better. turn the coconut over in a wide mug or bowl and let the water drain, it will drain better the wider the hole.
when all of the water is out, tap the coconut with a hammer, for a minute or 2, this lossens the meat from the shell inside and makes the shell easy to break. the go to the side opposite the eyes and give it a good whack. It is surprisingly easier than any other time I have tried to open a coconut.
As much as I look forward to eating completely local one day. I'm just not in that place yet. So, I am grateful today that I have the choice and I am enjoying it.

Adora

[Dorothy]

I don't have that kitchen cleaver tool, but I have gotten young thai coconuts that I wanted to open. A regular knife (even a really good well-sharpened one) just can't do it. I tried throwing them on cement - doesn't work. Using a big rock just smashes them to pieces and so does a hammer - not very useful. Then I remembered that in the shed from my tropical days I had a machete! I cleaned it up and used my good knife sharpener on it. Me, my machete and I went outside - the machete up over my head and down on that poor unsuspecting coconut and swoosh - sliced right in half.   No digging out the meat from a tiny hole for me!

But alas, the coconuts here taste so differently from when I got them in the tropics that my beautiful machete that sits on top of my fridge (now instead of the shed) is used only for winter squashes - and what a great tool it is for those. Swoosh. I bet if you had a samurai sword it would work too. 

[Aaaaaa]

Dorothy--do you cook winter squashes?  If so, how?

[Dorothy]

Yes Indigo. I've changed my entire diet in order to work with my husband into a better diet with him. He's not all raw or all paleo yet... so neither am I being all raw either. I will be raw again when he is... which I sure hope doesn't take toooo long! 

Winter squashes are not something I have ever eaten raw, but when eating any cooked food at all I find that cooked squashes help me in winter. If all raw - they are not needed for me.

The way I cook them is to machete (or sharp knife) them in half, scoop out the seeds, make them be able to stand flat (acorn squashes especially need this) by slicing off little bits for balance and then put them in the oven on a tray filled with water and bake them. Some say to put oil on them so they don't burn but who needs heated oil?! I just bake them at 300 longer and they don't burn because of the water I think.

I dehydrate the seeds and save them to grow or to eat.

Put raw butter on them if you have it.

Sorry for the foray into cookedom there for a moment. Hope it has caused no offense.

Does anyone here eat raw winter squashes?

[Aaaaaa]

That's what I was wondering--is it even possbile/good to eat them raw?  That is a good idea to cook them at a lower temp with water.  Thanks! : )
My husband doesn't eat raw either, yet, but does eat paleo.  I'm hopefully going to slowly ease him into eating raw : )  He does like sashimi, so I really wish we had access to more quailty fish, but all I can find around here is wild alaskan salmon, frozen. 

[CitrusHigh]

Sile, the indians did eat squash/pumpkin raw. I don't remember where I read that but they assuredly cooked them also.

[Aaaaaa]

Oh, really!  That is interesting.  Do you know if they processed them in any other way when eating them raw?
I'm just really curious, because I really want to eat as much raw food as possible, but we got SO many squahses from our garden.  But if they aren't optimal food for me, then Oh Well, I guess ;-)

[Dorothy]

The hard pumpkin-like winter squashes ARE eaten by raw vegans - but they mince and mash them and add seasonings so that you barely recognize what they are. I think they are also hard to digest so grinding them up takes a way a big energy saving step that is normally done by the body with a lot of effort. If you are into food processing things then you have options and there are recipes out there. I feel like there are so many much more easily digested raw vegetables that I don't bother with winter squash - as they don't taste or feel very good to me unless cooked or very heavily processed and seasoned. I really can't even tell you if they would be "good" for you or not if you have other options. It's a bit like eating raw sweet potatoes. Those kinds of tubers are eaten by hunter gatherers but they are far from their first choice.

Maybe they would provide some things that if eaten occasionally are worth the difficulty of digestion - I don't know. They are definitely better than starving though. 

[Adora]

Sile -
    I like winter squash raw. I'm trying AV primal right now, but I have eatten all kinds of winter starchy vegetables and they're all good to me. I just cut them and scoop out seeds if they have seeds and eat till I'm done. I like them with olive oil. I have also started putting animal fat in my food processor with pepper, lemon (and/or the rind), and avocado, or ho-made soft cheese. Then I scoop it up with slices of winter veggies. I tried parsnips (the only one I didn't like at all), cabbage (which I made into slaw with the fatty mix, and I used curry, coriander, and fennel seeds - it was very good). 
 - Also some liked a lot with out anything: are pieces of spaghetti, butter nut/cup squashes, celery root, turnip, rutabaga.  I really liked the little pie pumpkins. I can't see how trying these things would be bad, but I don't know how good for you they are either. I may have had too much fiber, b/c my tummy grumbled often. I didn't hurt, but now I chew my vegetables, and salad greens and spit the pulp out. I don't know if this is healthier, but my tummy is totally quiet. I also eat a little high meat every day so maybe that' s quieted my tummy.