Sept 1: Coconut Nuts

It is September 1st, coconut lovers! Yes, it's coconut season again, that time we've all been waiting for. If you're out of town reading this blog, well, I just wish you could be here for the harvest. At the stroke of midnight, happy teams of coconut pickers began to climb the tall and graceful coconut palms all over Greater Fort Lauderdale. Often two or three "coconut snatchers" will shinny up the same trunk to hand pick the heavy fruit, tossing it carefully to the waiting "coconut catchers" below. Experienced catchers know to wear thick canvas gloves - and hard hats. Ok, ok. Ha! I'm having a little fun with you today. Mostly because I've been thinking about coconuts lately. And because, in truth, it's always coconut season in South Florida. The darn things grow year round like weeds or something.

So September 1st seemed a good time for a bloggy paean to the coconut. This date has historical significance of varying sorts, of course, such as being the anniversary of the beginning of World War Two. But I say forgive and forget. The coconut seems a much more pleasant topic for Hump Day, don't you think?

Anyway, I'm always fascinated by coconuts. It's probably the transplanted northerner in me. Hey, I grew up in the Midwest thinking that coconut existed in the form of  little slivers in plastic bags sold at grocery stores. I remember when my dad visited Florida on business and brought me back a coconut in the husk. Before this, I had no idea what coconuts really looked like. I needed a hammer and screwdriver and lots of effort to get at that coconut's milk, which mostly spilled out when I broke the thing open. Now I live beside a 40-foot coconut palm that is filled with the fruit throughout the year. (Yes, it is fruit by the way. I looked it up.) Every once in a while, I hear a big THUD and know another one bit the dust. On occasion, I'll actually be sitting nearby to watch a brown coconut fall from the tree to the grass beneath. Trust me, you do not want to be knocked in the noggin by a falling coconut - at least not from this tall palm. On the beaches, workers come around to trim the coconut palms for this very reason, just so you tourists won't take a nasty knock. There is much to say about the wonderful coconut and I feel the topic deserves revisiting for another blog soon. Along with our beaches and our sunshine and our palm trees, coconuts are symbols of the tropical lifestyle we enjoy down here. Plus, they're obviously an important part of our economy. Without them, what would all those experienced coconut snatchers and coconut catchers do for work?