The coconut is the tree of life.
By eileenleyva
@eileenleyva (27560)
Philippines
April 8, 2013 3:18am CST
We are experiencing a rather ultra hot summer season, and the 35 degrees celsius is now part of everyone's vocabulary. As it is vacation time for the students, I got my daughter help me clean up my home in Rizal Province, despite the heat.
We stop by the buko vendor every time we can, and help ourselves to that thirst quenching coconut juice.
If I did not know about Eve's apple, I would say the coconut is the tree of life, not only for the juice, and the delicious white flesh, but for the many uses of that tree, or correct me please, it is not a tree, is it? Whatever it is, the coconut is my tree of life, for it produces many things we need: mantika, nganga, tingting, bunot, palaspas, bao, nata de coco, buko pie, minatamis, at iba't iba pa.
And do you know that the coconut is now a tourist attraction? According to our DOT Sec, tourists come to the country and watch our boys crack a coconut? That is why Tourism is fast becoming our best income earner, and all we have to do is show our boys climb a coconut tree, ha ha. 
Here's a trivia: only boys can feel if a coconut is juicy or fleshy, so said the buko vendor.
Okay, okay, all I want to plug here is: for the sweltering summer, think coconut!
Here's a trivia: only boys can feel if a coconut is juicy or fleshy, so said the buko vendor.
Okay, okay, all I want to plug here is: for the sweltering summer, think coconut!2 people like this
14 responses
@succeednow (1633)
• Singapore
9 Apr 13
Hi eileenleyva,
Yes, I've heard that every part of the coconut tree can be used - from the flowers down to the stem (I don't have any idea about the roots - maybe someone will think of a use for the roots) whether for consumption or household use. So in that sense the coconut is a tree of life indeed!
As for me the best part of the coconut tree must surely be the soft jelly-like delicious pulp which one can get from young coconuts not to mention the calorie-free drink that comes along with it! I could consume a few of those in one sitting but I think that would be bad for health. Too much of a good thing can be bad. So I must refrain. Moderation is the key to a happy and healthy life.
Have a refreshing day.
1 person likes this
@eileenleyva (27560)
• Philippines
10 Apr 13
What I know is that there is, right at the roots, an ubod, a fleshy meat that can be cooked as fresh spring rolls, real delicious, and since I discovered that lumpiang sariwaas a child, it has been my favorite dish. I don't know about the roots, maybe we could leave those to fertilize the grounds.
I like the pulp thing, now I am curious what that is, so I'm gonna ask my old buko vendor friend.
I don't know about the roots, maybe we could leave those to fertilize the grounds.
I like the pulp thing, now I am curious what that is, so I'm gonna ask my old buko vendor friend.@succeednow (1633)
• Singapore
10 Apr 13
Hi eileenleyva,
This ubod sounds very interesting, does it taste great? Well, I guess I need to taste it to find out. Anyway, after writing this I thought to myself: the roots could be dug out, dried and burnt as fuel if it can't be used for anything else. So the whole coconut tree can be used completely! Have a complete day.
@namiya (1718)
• Philippines
8 Apr 13
Hi eileen, I grew up in the province where our house then was surrounded by coconut trees. And, as a child I got slight beatings from my father when he caught me more than a couple of times climbing a coconut tree (not a high one) to get those bukos. My male cousins/playmates who taught me how to climb a coconut tree told me that you will recognize the right buko by knocking the fruit but maybe because i am a girl
I never learned how to pick the right one. Juicy buko flesh is really delicious whatever way you want it either eating it plain straight from the husk, with juice and milk, blend, or as salad and many many others. How I miss that time of my childhood where we could have it anytime we want it.
I never learned how to pick the right one. Juicy buko flesh is really delicious whatever way you want it either eating it plain straight from the husk, with juice and milk, blend, or as salad and many many others. How I miss that time of my childhood where we could have it anytime we want it.1 person likes this
@eileenleyva (27560)
• Philippines
9 Apr 13
If I was a boy, I would be up there, too.
I could take the slaps.
Your cousins were turning you into a tomboy, huh, but ain't it great to be one of the boys? But I suppose, when it comes to the buko, we girls just would never know.
Oh yes, thanks for reminding, a Christmas salad is never complete without the luscious buko.
I could take the slaps.
Your cousins were turning you into a tomboy, huh, but ain't it great to be one of the boys? But I suppose, when it comes to the buko, we girls just would never know.
Oh yes, thanks for reminding, a Christmas salad is never complete without the luscious buko.@namiya (1718)
• Philippines
9 Apr 13
My father's warnings had no effect once I had that buko cravings and there's no one to get it then. I enjoy doing boy activities as a child for it's more active and fun and that included climbing fruit trees like mango, duhat and kaimito behind my father's back but I did not turn out a tomboy. And yes buko salad is great, its just a pity that it's somehow costly here in Manila and sometimes when we buy at the roaming peddlers we either get one with barely no meat at all but only buko water or one with meat too mature to be categorized as a buko.
here in Manila and sometimes when we buy at the roaming peddlers we either get one with barely no meat at all but only buko water or one with meat too mature to be categorized as a buko.1 person likes this
@dorannmwin (36392)
• United States
10 Apr 13
Coconuts are not something that is able to be grown in the area that I live in as I don't live in a tropical environment. In fact, there have only been a very few times in my life that I've had the opportunity to see a palm tree or a coconut tree.
That said, I don't view the coconut tree as being the tree of life because it is really not a regular part of my life. For me it shall remain that the apple tree is the tree of life because of the fact that this is a tree that does grow in the habitat that I live in.
1 person likes this
@eileenleyva (27560)
• Philippines
10 Apr 13
It was just a figure of speech, the apple tree is truly the tree of life. Sad you don't get coconuts in your dwelling area. I thought that with the globalization, fruits can be exported everywhere. We import all kinds of apples and oranges and grapes, pomegranates, kiwis, and all kinds of strange sounding fruits, including passion fruits, and we enjoy all of these as if we've been to the countries of origin. Japan discovered that the nata de coco, or coconut jelly, is supposedly the fountain of youth, and they had been importing that for more than two decades now. That is why longevity is in in that land of the rising sun.
@gengeni (3308)
• Indonesia
9 Apr 13
Noting that all the coconut trees in a state hard part but it also at the same time that water can pass through it so much, I really be amazed. How do stems dry very hard and it turned out to be bypassed by the water for the needs of each grain fruit. Yet every day, because every fruit growing, the need for water is also increasing. But regardless of the number of coconuts, the water needs met. The stems are tough it turns the water can pass through it.
1 person likes this
@eileenleyva (27560)
• Philippines
10 Apr 13
Wow, gengeni, that is a thought! Now, you make me wonder, too.
Now, you make me wonder, too.
@missjahn (4574)
• Philippines
9 Apr 13
oh yes, drinking coconut juice and eating its meat is quiet refreshing. i really have plan to go to the piece of land pawned to us to get some young coconut. but sad to say that i do not know how to climb this tree. i need to find a man to do it for me. hmmm.. maybe one of these days, me and my classmates will go there and get some or yet, along with my sister, we will find a man to do the climbing and of harvesting some few of it. thanks :) for the added information that coconut is one of the tourist attractions of the country :)
1 person likes this
@eileenleyva (27560)
• Philippines
10 Apr 13
Don't worry missjahn, there are many of us who can't climb coconuts, and we need the kindness of the men to do that for us, ha ha. Well, these instances, when I wait for my coconut, I try to feel like a princess, and coyly sip my buko, when served.
@Angelpink (4034)
• Philippines
9 Apr 13
One thing i know about coconut is that it have so many uses from its branches , to the fruits , all parts of the coconut tree can be useful. Yes its a tree of life , through any weather it will remain standing . Many made it as their source of living , anything you do from it can be sold to market even a simplest stick broom . Phils is just so lucky for the soil is palatable to coconut tree and it is so easy to plant this plant.
1 person likes this
@eileenleyva (27560)
• Philippines
8 Apr 13
I do not know how they feel that, too, but I was amazed when the vendor picked one coconut and said it was malauhog, and it was, and when he said another was meaty, so it was, again. Ladies, they say, can't feel the buko, and if they get a juicy one, it is just pure luck. Interesting, though, that info for me was.
@ElicBxn (63594)
• United States
8 Apr 13
I don't know what any of those things you just named are, and, in a way, the coconut is and is not a tree. The coconut is actually a member of its own genus, but its more closely related to grasses than trees.
I'm not looking forward to our summer here, so I'm enjoying every last cool snap we've been having.
I find that if I put on a wet shirt or put a wet towel around my neck I stay marginally cooler, but I don't know if the humidity in your country would make that work as well.
@ElicBxn (63594)
• United States
9 Apr 13
We have palms here in Texas, but in Austin it does get cold enough to kill them often enough.
My client's place had/has palms but a really cold winter last year (2011/2012) killed more than a few, the only ones that survived were on the south faces of buildings so they didn't get the icy winds as much. We also have some other, hardier, related plants around here, but the palms don't have coconuts.
There are some people from the middle east who sometimes pick the fruit (tiny berry type things) off these other smaller plants, but I would have NO idea how to use them so I just avoid them.
@eileenleyva (27560)
• Philippines
8 Apr 13
mantika - oil, nganga - chewy, tingting - sweep, bunot -husk polisher, palaspas -palms, bao -native bowl, nata de coco - coco jelly, buko pie coconut pie, minatamis - sweets, at iba't iba pa - and many more.
Yes, the coconut is the tallest grass, pliant enough to stand against harsh winds, and the coconut plantations actually protects the plains from typhoons.
1 person likes this
@maximax8 (31046)
• United Kingdom
8 Apr 13
The coconut tree is my favorite tree in the tropical areas of the world. I love seeing coconut palms on some of my travels. I have been to Samoa, French Polynesia, the Cook Islands, Fiji, the Seychelles and the Maldives. I can believe that the coconut tree might be the tree of life. In my lounge I have a large picture of a palm trees and a boat. In my hall I have four photographic prints of tropical places. In my bedroom I have got my own photos of Samoa. In my back garden I have some hardly varies of palm like plants like the New Zealand cabbage tree. Sadly my home country's climate is too cold to grow coconut palm trees. I wish to visit the Philippines. There I could go island hopping and snorkeling.
1 person likes this
@eileenleyva (27560)
• Philippines
8 Apr 13
Wow, I think you are an islander at heart. You would love to come here. World famous is our white sand paradise called Boracay beach, but you have to see the pristine Palawan, where they shot the ending scene of Bourne Legacy, and then there's the barriotic Bohol, Pagudpod in the North, where heaven meets earth, and gosh, many more exciting shores. Yes, snorkeling is , you'd love our waters. Come now.
@jazel_juan (15746)
• Philippines
8 Apr 13
its not a tree?? what is it then?
Well i have to agree with you that it has a lot of uses, from broom to husks..
We do drink coconut as much as possible and i love its meat too!
1 person likes this
@eileenleyva (27560)
• Philippines
8 Apr 13
The coconut is a giant nut, and the best nut for me.
1 person likes this
@rog0322 (2829)
• Cagayan De Oro, Philippines
8 Apr 13
Hi,
Only boys can tell whether it is a young coconut or a mature one. Coconut fruits have the same green color in early flesh formation to mature oily meat, eventually turning greenish brown to dark brown in color until they fall off the tree when fully matured. Young green coconuts have a distinct sound when knocked while on the bunch, most men can tell it through experience. A lower sounding frequency means it is still young and only boys can scale the slippery tree and knock it from there. Another indication that a bunch is still young and suitable for buko salad is the presence of smaller fist sized fruits right above the green and mature ones. That is how I recognize a bunch of young coconuts from the ground. It does not miss every time I direct a climber which one to pick.
1 person likes this
@eileenleyva (27560)
• Philippines
9 Apr 13
Thank you, this is very informative, and of course, there are tasks, I submit, girls can't do, like climbing the coconut tree.
@averygirl72 (37845)
• Philippines
9 Apr 13
Nothing beats coconut buko juice as refreshing juice for summer. We have coconut tree before right at our backyard and we enjoyed buko juice many times. The tree gets really tall and the fruit do not fell or else it can hurt somebody.
1 person likes this
@eileenleyva (27560)
• Philippines
9 Apr 13
Yes, the buko juice is really so refreshing and filling, and needs no refrigeration at all. If only the Mayor of New York, or was it the Governor, who called for banning the obesity causing sodas, introduced the buko juice first, then the citizens would not have complained about their favorite drinks being tossed out of the market. Buko juice, they would find out, is not a substitute, but a drink they would love to sip, while watching movies or ballgames.
@srisahara (4508)
• Indonesia
8 Apr 13
Hi friend, I think so, coconut is tree of life. I have read that coconut water is the best fluid for our body, even we can replace our body fluid with coconut water. It also heal people who suffer severe vomit. I have prove when I nausea and vomit in my first trimester of pregnancy. When we talk about advantages of coconut, I think too many things to talk. Yes, I agree with you.
@eileenleyva (27560)
• Philippines
8 Apr 13
Have you seen Cast Away, starring Tom Hanks? The character was isolated from the world in a Pacific Isle. He survived there a few years, living on coconuts, before he was able to sail away and get back to civilization. Only shows man can live on coconut alone.
@joizee (502)
• Philippines
8 Apr 13
Super agree! Haha! Coconuts have their share of pamahiin too. The elders or matatanda believe that if you drink coconut juice/water, it can make the baby have whiter skin. So I decided to replace my most-available-and-free normal water to a 50-peso-everyday coconut water. But still my baby's complexion is morena or tan-colored. But hey, not bad in trying to drink a healthy, pure, fresh coconut juice.
1 person likes this
@eileenleyva (27560)
• Philippines
8 Apr 13
You are funny, LOL, nagpapaniwala sa pamahiin, ha ha. But you know what, I am partial for soft brown skin, like mine. And to make it more attractive, so my friend contends (but I don't do, of course), one must apply evaporated milk, which is made of coconut, to one's skin. Hey, am sure our baby has a beautiful complexion, Pinoy ata yan.