Coconuts - when to pick?

[JetsetBkk]

I have some coconut trees in my garden and in the past have pulled a coconut or two down and opened them up. But the amount of "meat" is always very low.

When I was a kid, coconut "meat" was thick and tough, but what I've found in my coconuts is very thin and soft.

Is this normal for Thailand or should I cut them down at some other time?

[ETatBKK]

when you first see the coconut at the size of a lime, then count at least 6 months, you may get coconuts with thicker fresh. you probably can see different fresh quality in the next two months, until 9 months then you may find quiet a bit of fibre.

[Cuban]

We mostly take the coconuts from the tree when the flesh is still young and soft, think it's called coconut jelly? Also when it's full of coconut water - the best bit, I get that the dogs like the jelly.

The thick hard coconuts are very old on the tree and have little water inside.

[stickylies]

the younger the coconut, the sweeter the juice BUT hardly any "flesh". u can use a coconut scraper to get the "jelly".

u can buy thick "flesh" (fresh) at the market, very cheap ;-)

Edited July 11, 2013 by stickylies

[PETERTHEEATER]

Wait until the nuts turn brown and fall off. These are then fully ripe. To get to the copra (meat) you have now got to remove the tough outer husk (coir). You should be able to buy locally a tool usually made from rebar. It looks like a large pair of tongs but with two arrowhead shaped blades welded onto the jaws. To use it, you have to bed the nut in some soft soil (or clamp it) and ram the tool into the husk with the jaws closed then force the jaws apart using the tool handles and lever the coir away from the nut. Once you have the nut, you can use a heavy bladed knife such as a parang to crack the shell circumferentially into two halves. Now you can see the thick white meat and there may still be some water inside the nut but it will be old.

To remove the meat from the shell you need a tool like a large flat blade screwdriver. After a lot of hard work you will have the meat in pieces but it will have a brown skin on the side that was in contact with the nut. If you just want the meat to eat, you can remove the skin with a potato peeler. Alternatively, as my wife does, you can chop the meat into pieces and put it in a blender with the juice and shred it into particles and then wrap a hand ful in muslin and squeeze out the coconut cream for use in Thai recipes.

An alternative way to remove the meat from the shell is to use a scraper. These are available in the local markets and vary from a simple hand-held type to one consisting of a low stool with a scraper blade fixed to the tapering end. You sit on the stool with the scraper forward so that it is held rigid and then scrape the meat out of the shell by hand.

All quite a lot of work but satisfying.

The real art is to be able to judge when a green nut is ready for drinking. If you get it right it is easy to cut the husk off with a large sharp knife to access the tip of the nut and then scab a piece out of the shell for access to the liquid inside that should be sweet, cool and nutritious. Drink it with a straw then make the hole in the shell big enough for a spoon to enter and scrape out the tender young flesh.

There are many varieties of coconut palm and my garden has 'meat producers' and a couple of 'drinking nut' trees.

[Secondmouse]

Wait until the nuts turn brown and fall off. These are then fully ripe. To get to the copra (meat) you have now got to remove the tough outer husk (coir). You should be able to buy locally a tool usually made from rebar. It looks like a large pair of tongs but with two arrowhead shaped blades welded onto the jaws. To use it, you have to bed the nut in some soft soil (or clamp it) and ram the tool into the husk with the jaws closed then force the jaws apart using the tool handles and lever the coir away from the nut. Once you have the nut, you can use a heavy bladed knife such as a parang to crack the shell circumferentially into two halves. Now you can see the thick white meat and there may still be some water inside the nut but it will be old.

To remove the meat from the shell you need a tool like a large flat blade screwdriver. After a lot of hard work you will have the meat in pieces but it will have a brown skin on the side that was in contact with the nut. If you just want the meat to eat, you can remove the skin with a potato peeler. Alternatively, as my wife does, you can chop the meat into pieces and put it in a blender with the juice and shred it into particles and then wrap a hand ful in muslin and squeeze out the coconut cream for use in Thai recipes.

An alternative way to remove the meat from the shell is to use a scraper. These are available in the local markets and vary from a simple hand-held type to one consisting of a low stool with a scraper blade fixed to the tapering end. You sit on the stool with the scraper forward so that it is held rigid and then scrape the meat out of the shell by hand.

All quite a lot of work but satisfying.

The real art is to be able to judge when a green nut is ready for drinking. If you get it right it is easy to cut the husk off with a large sharp knife to access the tip of the nut and then scab a piece out of the shell for access to the liquid inside that should be sweet, cool and nutritious. Drink it with a straw then make the hole in the shell big enough for a spoon to enter and scrape out the tender young flesh.

There are many varieties of coconut palm and my garden has 'meat producers' and a couple of 'drinking nut' trees.

I agree...if you want the 'meat' the coconut needs to be brown...I normally give the Mexican boys in my neibourhood the coconuts for clearing the tree...those things hit the ground like scatter bombs and can bounce and brake a windscreen with no problems..don't even think about one hitting you on the head....the boy climbs the tree barefoot, ties a rope around the cluster, throws the other end over a different palm frond to the ground and while someone takes the strain, the boy in the tree chops off the cluster so it can be lowered.....an easy way to get the coconut out is to apply a flame to the outside of the split shell and the coconut will quickly separate from the inner shell......as for opening them....I always use a 'sawsall'..and then a machete to split them....!!

[notmyself]

Don't drink too much of the juice/ water as it's a laxative

[JetsetBkk]

Thanks everyone for your input, especially PeteTheEater and Secondmouse. It sort of fits in with what I was thinking, that the longer you leave them, the more copra (meat) - thanks PeterTE - you get and the less milk.

Wait until the nuts turn brown and fall off. These are then fully ripe.

<snip>

There are a few fallers in the garden, so hopefully I can chop them open and get at the meat. I hope they aren't too old.

I have a large-ish meat cleaver, which I used a long time ago on green ones, but when I saw how little meat there was, I thought my trees couldn't produce nuts with much meat. Hopefully, the older nuts have more meat inside - I'll post some pictures later!

I just found a couple of videos on Youtube:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=wAVDxYo993M

www.youtube.com/watch?v=K7lCfzEyY_U

One of the comments says to put the coconut in the fridge to get the meat off the shell:

Ramesh prathivadhi bayankaram 1 month ago

The easiest way is to keep the coconut in the fridge for half an hour. Once it is inside the fridge for half an hour, the coconut separates from the hard shell and shrinks inside leaving a gap between the hard shell and the kernel. Now the coconut shell should be broken. You will get a whole round coconut kernel separated from the hard shell. Then the brown skin of the kernel can be peeled off and you will get a wholesome white coconut with full water inside in. ISNT IT THE EASIEST WAY !!

Seems too good to be true!