Ed, My Palm Tree

When shopping in Ikea, my heart was caught by this little guy - a palm tree I've named Ed. He's so cute, and currently only about four feet tall. I have housed him in a black (uber chic) trash can also from Ikea. He reminds me of my friend Harriet, who had two huge palm trees in her kitchen in Richmond (I was about 5 years old), and I thought it was so cool that trees grew inside her house.

But me and my roomate Steeners were getting confused about the origins of Ed and his fellow palm trees. Where did they come from? After wiking it, I've learned the Coconut Palm or Cocos nucifera as they say, is considered a large palm capable of growing up to 30 meters high. So Ed has quite a bit of growing up to do. He is growing out of the actually inner stone or "endocarp" as they say, which used to be covered by coir fibers which created the mesocarp husk.


But when not decorating kitchens and living rooms, what are the industrial purposes of Ed's family? Apparently palm leaves can be burned and used to make lime powder which is then used to cover horse pee pee spots (i'm sure it has some other uses too). Hawaiians used to hollow out coconut palms to make small canoes. And if you beat two halves of the inner stone together you get the sound of horse hooves (a la Monty Python).

Two Culinary Facts:
1) Coconut is a dry fruit and has the white "meat" inside is approx 90% saturated fat.
2) Coconut WATER is the stuff inside a coconut when you crack it open. Coconut MILK is made by mixing warm water with the white meat inside the inner stone.

On a different note, me and Steeners had a wonderful day walking around Brooklyn Heights. We ate ice cream and at one point walked along the high way because we were a bit lost. We covered dumbo, brooklyn heights, and park slope.