How to peel an....

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The pineapple looks good but it cost the person a few fingertips to get the process right.
 
I watched the one about getting the meat out of the coconut shell. When I went to a private luau on the North Shore on Oahu, one thing I learned from the Hawaiians was how to open up a coconut. They use a very large machete and cut open the coconut with just one swing. They saved the milk and then put the two halves into the fire. The meat of the coconut shrinks from the shell and is much easier to get out when it has been heated like that. If I would be doing this at home since I don't have a machete I would have to use a very heavy cleaver. I tried this once and I just don't have the strength in my arms to cut that dang thing. But I did manage to see how easy the meat shrinks from the shell by placing it in the oven. :angel:
 
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I just saw that recently on America's Test Kitchen, and thought, hey, that's a neat gadget. Now I need to get one, too.

And the fact that it's $3.19 with free shipping? You can't beat that with a stick.

EDIT: Actually, I think this is the one I saw on ATK. It sliced the rings also.

http://www.amazon.com/All-Ware-Stainless-Pineapple-De-Corer/dp/B000GA53CO/ref=pd_bxgy_k_img_y
 
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Thanks to you Steve, I just ordered that thing too. Can't beat the price again.
Geeze, and here I said not long ago that my kitchen gadget drawer is busting its seams with too many one purpose gadgets. We buy at least one pineapple a week however so these things deserve the room. We love grilled pineapple.
 
I watched the one about getting the meat out of the coconut shell.

Addie, after you've swung your machete (!) you need a stool like this to get the coconut out of the shell, since I'm sure you can't have a fire in your kitchen.(!)

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I bought one for my brother when he and his wife started breeding orchids. They had their own 'secret' medium for growing which needed LOTS of fresh coconuts.

You sit on the stool and use it like this:

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I have seen folks using that stool. But I still like the way they Hawaiians did it. When you heat the shell, the moisture evaporated from the meat and shrunk away shell. It came out in really big pieces. It only took a few minutes for the meat to shrink. The Hawaiians then cut it up into smaller pieces and put them on a platter so everyone could help themselves. I love coconut. Coconut anything. :angel:
 
What's secret about that? Coir has been used in potting compost for years and years.

Oh, my! :)

To explain just a LITTLE about propagating orchids---- one way is tissue propagation. (I'm leaving out a LOT of detail!) A leaf from the parent plant is sterilized (gently) with a bleach solution then put into a petri dish.

Picture of a petri dish follows:

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Then when the time is right some tissue is cut from that leaf and put into a container with the growing medium in it. Many orchid breeders will use a 'store-bought' medium but my brother, being a chemist, developed his own
'secret' one which involved fresh coconut. Hint: it wasn't coir! :LOL:

Picture of a bit of tissue in growing medium which has to have the right amount of light and temp. (He devoted an extra bedroom for shelves upon shelves full of these.)

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