My grocery store had a large display of whole coconuts in the produce section, full of husk fiber. I went a little bananas and bought eight coconuts… for the fiber.

As I tore off the fibrous material from the coconuts I realized that maybe I didn’t need to buy eight. There is a lot of fiber! So I started with just processing four with the darkest color. I put the husk into a bucket, added water, and weighed it down with rocks.

I am also interested in making items from the coconut shells, so I found the one soft hole in the end of the coconut poked it with a gimlet, and shook out the water.

On the fourth coconut I finally had a method for cracking the shell cleanly. I whacked them with a metal rod (my knife sharpener) along the equator, then took them outside to tap on the concrete. I actually managed a clean break! One.

To get the flesh from the shells, I cooked them in my pressure cooker for 5 minutes, then let them cool. I cut a small wedge from the side of the flesh, which gave enough flexibility to use a butter knife to pry out the flesh.

I removed the brown skin on the coconut meat with a vegetable peeler.

Next steps include cleaning up the fiber and polishing the shells. And figuring out what to do with all that coconut meat.