The Tree
Cohune Palm trees grow wild all over the rain forest in Belize. They can reach heights of 90 feet. Their giant palms are used for thatching houses or building shelters. The nuts found in giant grapes are used to produce oil or are just edible after collecting them from the ground. The most delicious part which is providing a lot of food is the heart of the palm found in the last 4 feet before the base of the branches. The bark was used by the Mayan people to make palm wine from the heart left on the base of the tree.
Harvesting the Nuts
The trees producing nuts are very high and so are the giant grapes of nuts. It is very hard to reach them and people usually collect them from the ground when they fall. The shell is very hard. It can be broken by using a rock, but we learned the hard way that the nut needs to be set in a hole of a stone to not fly away when you hit it. People also use the nuts to produce Cohune Oil.
Click on link below for Vital information about Cohune Nut Oil
United States food Administration.
United States Department of Agriculture.
The Journal of Biological Chemistry
Studies of Cohune Palms suggest they can live as long as 180 years
Cohune palms are a subsidy from nature, with a wide range of household uses. Salts can be derived from the leaf and fresh nuts make a delicious sweet. The perfumed flowers are for various use, while fans are made from the leaf. Most importantly, valuable phosphates are regenerated by the roots to rejuvenate the soils. Furthermore, these palms are fire resistant, flourish when punished by human activities, rebound when cut, and are only eliminated when downed for the heart, or palmito, a delicious salad. Today, the shell is used by local artisans for crafts. These majestic palms are found in the forest garden, in groves in Central America, in pastures were they tenaciously hold their ground, and deep in the Maya forest far from present-day life.
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To the Maya people Cohune Nut Oil was like gold. They used it for many reasons such as a soap making, skin and hair moisturiser and cooking.
