It is deemed the freshest drink in the world because it does not need to be purified or sweetened. Coconuts taste great.
At least the Coconut Doctor thinks so.
“I seem to know more about the coconut than anyone else,” said Mike Bush in between puffs of breath as he pushed a long metal pole with the biggest fish hook I’ve ever seen into a bunch of young coconuts for them to come tumbling down to the ground with a great big thud.
While he is busy gathering coconuts, travelling companion Rambo, his dog, keeps a keen eye on the cart, which his owner has constructed from a bicycle with a silver thatch leaf roof and a box to hold the coconuts.
A construction labourer and fisherman all his life, Bush turned to selling coconut water two years ago to tourists and locals when fishing days were meagre and the construction boom had fallen.
It’s funny that when you are a child you can aspire to be anything you want. Sometimes later in life however the choices you make find you in a very different occupation to the one that you first decided on when you were seven or eight.
“I have never found life rough because I have always found something to do and a way to get around it. You just cannot sit down and expect other people to provide for you, we were never born with a gold spoon in the mouth so we basically have to try going out there and making it. There are jobs out there because people are coming in and getting them, so how can we say life is hard here in these Islands, Comparing to elsewhere in the world, this is paradise,” said Mr. Bush.
Our forefathers always found a little of bit of straw to knit, a ground to plant, the ironshore to catch a little fish. We didn’t have very much, that is why most of us had to go overseas to send back for our families. Caymanians never did sit down and complain that life was hard; they always found ways and means to survive.
“If my people are saying they can’t get a job, well they are like what my old lady said one time ago, going up along the bay to look a job but hoping you didn’t get one. They did not want a job. That’s how it is now-a-days they don’t want no job,” said Bush as he plucked a handful of shamrock leaves to wipe sweat from his face. According to Bush, shamrock leaves are soft, contain no milk or sap and instead of using his dirty hands to transfer germs to his face he uses something natural instead.
“Years ago we basically used coconuts for cooking purposes only. The milk from the brown dry coconut was used in stews or what we call rundown and the dry coconut grated to make cooking oil,” he said stopping for a short rest.
“The water from the green young coconuts was drunken once-in-a-while to quench the thirst but nowadays people are using it for high blood pressure and kidney stones as well as a refreshing natural drink. I think it would also make a good Viagra,” he chuckled. “But the most important thing now-a-days going on is the health craze and the natural refreshing drink it is,” he added. “Coconut water is healthy and good for the elderly and for a kidney infection. Sometimes doctors will recommend this to patients.”
Mr. Bush recalls people in the community coming to him for coconut water because it was recommended by a doctor.
“One lady told me after drinking a gallon she felt much better. When I was growing up people did not have much knowledge about the coconut like today. “I remember going fishing with my uncle and when we would came ashore we would climb the trees and get 10 to 15 coconuts because we were so hungry and there was nothing else to eat in those days. We would chop the coconuts open, drink the water and eat the meat. Actually it was more nutritious to us than the food we are eating today. We ate coconuts and fish and lived to 125; now we are not even living to see 60 anymore,”
According to Bush, coconut water was even used in World War 11 as an intravenous fluid for wounded soldiers, add the juice from a lime and it is good for the prostate.
“Caymanians also use the coconut meat to make oil. Scoop the meat from the five month old coconut grate it and boil for five hours it becomes oil. The brown coconut is grated for coconut purposes. The green coconut is for instant consumption but the dry coconut, which is high in fat is not good, but according to Bush, “That is the one most people likes.”
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