The versatile coconut.
In many tropical places in the world the coconut is grown and I expect most of us do not realise what a useful plant this is.
The palm trees estates go on for many a mile here in India making it a site to behold. Harvesting is usually done by some nibble human shining up the tree using little notches, made in the trunk,  either by the person ascending or they have been there for many a yr.
They go up with a machete and a bag gathering the fruit. Around public places nets are usually placed underneath the tree to save a innocent person being hit on the head by falling coconut.
The vast usage of theses fruits starts with someone with a machete cutting the top off, whilst holding it in his hand, and then sticking a straw in it to withdraw the coconut milk.
From then on every part is used.
In cooking they use the milk, extract the oil, make a cream of the coconut inside (not a cream like we know it’s quite fibrous), and grated coconut. Desiccated, oils etc are exported through out the world.
When all the insides have been made use off then the shell itself starts its journey.
The Husks are taken to processing businesses where a team of workers set about the very hot and labour intensive hard work of breaking down the husk to go to other things.
We stopped by one of these places and asked of we could look round. This is where went in a learning curve.
The first machine breaks down the shell into fibres this is the separated into the two different layers of quality. The darker outside being inferior to the lighter inner. The dust from the shell continues to a different section. This dust is then taken and laid out on the ground in vast areas up to about a ft in thickness. Water was sprayed over it and then it’s left to dry out in the sun. This takes about a week. It’s then moved and laid out to dry for another week. Workers (mostly ladies) then bag it all up and it is taken to a large shed. There it is then put onto a convey belt which travels to a press. This then pressed into a block weighing 5kg making it look bit like a peat brick.
Now you will never guess what happens to this now !!!???.
It is packed in storage units and exported as fertiliser called “coco peat” to China, Iran, Korea and many other places all over the world.
Coming back to the beginning where the fibre is sorted.
The better quality is laid out on the ground to dry and turned like hay in a field. To dry takes about a day in the hot Indian sun. All then gathered up and put into another shed where two ladies put into a press where it was pressed into bales weighing 25 Kg. They used a big type of needle and twine securing it all together. This was then stacked ready to go off to be made into rope etc. The dark second quality fibre goes through the same drying process but goes for items like mattresses and matting.
All this work is done in the heat of the sun and only stops during “Monsoon” time end of May to sept/October.
It turns out the shell is great for growing plants in as resistant to bacteria. Coco peat blocks can be expanded to five times the quantity and excellent as soil lighter than soil. Coir (coconut fibre) pots are great for plants as they break down naturally. They can last 10yrs in the soil.
Nest boxes are a good item to use giving the birds a chance to clear out the soft innerspring first.
So that is the tale of the Humble coconut. Not only useful but it is creating jobs and industry in an environmentally way. 🌴
An interesting item in local papers today was that on average a woman agricultural worker earns between 500-700 rupees a day. A rupee is around 95 to a British pound 🤔🙁