After dinner last night Valentine invited Brit & Michelle and I to come ashore this morning and she would show us how to make coconut bread. So at 10:00 we brought our bowls and some flour ashore, where Gaston was wringing the milk from from some freshly grated coconut.
During the course of the conversation we were discussing the whole hunting and gathering thing, which admittedly Rob & I suck at. He’s great with a fishing line, but that’s about our limit. I mentioned the day we had rented the car in Nuku Hiva and Michelle burst into laughter.
Apparently she had read my blog posting and had to tell me that as and it turns out, believe it or not, that pineapples do NOT grow on trees! In my own defense, I can only say that if you’re two North Americans from the Pacific Northwest and two Germans from Bremen, the things you see from the car certainly look like pineapples.
But no, they’re another type of tropical fruit named pandanus. Rob, of course, says “that’s Polynesian for pineapple”. And reportedly they’re extremely bitter.
After we finished making coconut bread, Valentine and Brit got down to some serious trading of jewelry making stuff for black pearls. Valentine took out her tools and showed us how she seeds the oysters to make the pearls, which is very interesting. Hopefully she’ll have some time tomorrow and she’s going to take Brit & Michelle & I out to see the pearl farm here.
Teresa
