Munchkin:
Five Acres of Coconuts and Security.
When we first moved onto our farm, the previous owner had planted two acres of coconuts, half of which had died from lethal yellowing. At that time, the disease had decimated thousands of coconuts in the Toledo region and Belize. We travelled around the Toledo region selecting coconut seedlings from trees that had survived the blight and set about systematically replacing all the dead palms. We planted an extra acre of coconut palms for three successive years giving us a total of five acres and, with subsequent blights our coconuts managed to resist disease. In the last two years they have started fruiting in respectable quantities bearing on average of 75 to 100 fruit a year (a poorly fertilised tree yields only 30 fruit per year). Most of the coconuts ended up being the Dwarf variety with a few interspersed Panama Talls.
We were faced with the reality of managing five acres of coconuts and trying to find the best way to use this commodity. Having no previous farming background our discovery into the uses of coconuts in an effective and economic way was completely experimental. We started by processing the coconuts into coconut oil as we had discovered a local niche market for this in Punta Gorda. The coconut oil had to be made to a specific requirement to the local Belizeans taking into account that clarity and a deep brown colour of home-made coconut oil were essential qualities esteemed by the locals. The making of coconut oil involved a lengthy manual process which included husking, grating, squeezing of coconut milk and then the boiling of the cream. All of this we did by hand with only partial mechanisation at the grating stage and the boiling of the cream took eight hours to get to the stage of a sellable coconut oil. On average, ten coconuts yields one litre of coconut oil which retails in Punta Gorda for $10 Bz (2009).
From a purely economic stand-point it hardly seemed worth going through the trouble of making coconut oil especially when ten husked whole coconuts retail at $10bz! So why did we persist with this venture? We discovered the benefits of the by-products of producing coconut oil helped us manage our farm in many other ways. For instance, the grated coconut waste was used as supplemental feed for all the animals including ducks, chickens, dogs, cats and guinea pigs. In addition to using the coconut oil in our cooking, we also incorporated the grated coconut into breads, stews and stir fries. We burned the coconut shells and husks to make the fire to which the coconut oil was boiled and subsequent ash from the fire was used to fertilise the coconuts (there is 45% potassium content in coconut ash making it a very worthwhile source ot potash). Excess coconut husks were used as a starting medium for orchids and vanilla. Our making of soap was borne out of experimenting with the uses of coconuts and very quickly we realised that the making of soap from our own farm processed coconut oil was more economically effective than selling it as cooking oil.
Through our own practical endeavours we have discovered a way to maintain and manage our farm through the many uses of coconuts. Before writing this article I did a quick internet research for a list of uses of coconuts. I would like to share with you two further examples (which we had not thought of!). One is the Filipino use of polishing floors with coconut shells (apparently there is a technique and style to it as you manipulate the coconut shell with your feet)…hmmm…maybe, it would consider it on a rainy day! This I find very interesting: coconut water mixes easily with blood, and was used during World War II in emergency transfusions. It can also serve as an emergency short-term intravenous hydration fluid. This is possible because the coconut water has a high level of sugar and other salts that makes it possible to be used in the bloodstream, much like the modern lactated ringer solution or a dextrose/water solution as an IV. Well, I must remember to carry a water coconut and intravenous giving set in my emergency Doctor’s bag from now on!