A visit to the Tropical Plantation (on the bikes)- Coconuts, Coffee and Pineapples

 Another long bike ride today with a stop at the Tropical Plantation.  Lots of fun to see and learn how alot of the local crops are grown.  We had a demonstration on coconuts. The green ones have the juice inside that you can poke a hole and drink with a straw (FYI- full of minerals, especially Potassium, excellent natural electrolyte- I've been drinking coconut water in cans for a long time)  The brown ones are mature and have the solid meat inside, pretty difficult to open and remove the meat.  I learned that once you get it open, if you put it in the freezer overnight, then take it out for about 6 hours, the meat will seperate from the shell.

It was the first time I had seen coffee plants.  They pick the fruit when it is bright red.  I bit into one of them, not alot of taste but is amazingly high in antioxidants, although there is not much flesh on each fruit. Inside is the bean in 2 halves, they are white.  They are then dried out and roasted.  Amazing how someone figured out how to do this.

We also saw how pineapples are grown, they are on a small plant, low on the ground.  We also saw Mango, Avocado, Guava and Macadamia nut trees.  Awesome!