How to prepare young green coconut kefir and pudding

Fresh water
Peel the plastic off the flat side of the young green coconut. Then take a heavy oyster knife to stab into the hole of the flat side of the coconut.   Just stab around hard until you find the hole.   If the coconut is rather large; you might need to slice off (give or take an inch) with a heavy serrated steak knife (this doesn’t happen often). If you are cutting and you feel like you can't cut any further because you've hit a shell, you have; just don't cut as much off. If you do slice the end off you should see three round circles; one is larger take your knife poke down hard to expose the hole to drain the water. If the holes aren't obvious just take some stabs, you should break through or if not cut off some more off the end. You can go the body ecology website and see some pictures of what I’m describing. You can put two more holes in the top to help it drain faster. Drain into a wide (preferable) mouth Mason jar; the coconuts lay right on top. I will transfer the water to another sterilized jar with a mesh wire to filter out small chunks of coconut meat and pulp. The liquid from the coconut can be anything from clear white, touch of gold, slightly cloudy, and light pink. If the water is really bright pink or it’s really cloudy, syrupy and sour then it’s spoiled.

Add one packet of Body Ecology Kefir Starter. When adding the liquid to the jar leave about 1" or so head space for expansion. We recommend mason jars so air can escape but can not get in.   It is not necessary to heat the coconut water. You will cut down on fermentation time by warming the water; though. If you want to take the chill off it's best to sit the jar in some hot tap water.   Ideal temp for fermenting is 80-85 degrees F. for 12-36 hours. The first batch takes 36 hours and subsequent batches only 12 hours. The best place to ferment your YCK is in the oven with the light on; it keeps the temp around 80-85 degrees and the kefir comes out perfect every time. If you ferment at a lower temperature; it will take longer 24-48 hours. The temperature needs to be well above 70 degrees F to get a good product.   If you can’t use an oven, I would recommend a cooler with a heating pad. It’s worth your time and money to make sure the environment is warm enough.

The first batch of YCK with a new package of kefir starter will look and taste a little different than your following batches. The first batch is not going to be very foamy or spritzy but will be cloudy. Your subsequent batches will be cloudy white and foamy on top. The taste will be tart, spritzy and salty, no taste of sugar and barely a hint of coconut.   It’s best to drink it within 4-5 days. I’ve known it to last two weeks, refrigerated. It may be flat but you can use it to start more batches. Also, if it's fermented way too long it will turn to alcohol. Sometimes you may get a whiff of alcohol when opening a fresh batch.

The Body Ecology Diet kefir instructions say use a packet per quart. I find it best and more economical to make the first quart as only starter. When the first jar is ready separate it equally into 6 quart jars. Fill each with coconut water and ferment for 12 hours at 80 degrees. Drink it down to 2-4 ounces and fill it up again. You should use a sterilized, dry jar to restart a batch. You should be able to restart the 6 another six times each. You will yield about 36 jars per packet.

You can also use the Essential Duo to ferment coconut water. Donna designed the ED with special bacterias to help with constipation.   It has a slightly different taste; a touch bitter and not as spritzy.

We encourage to “pulse and rotate”. Use a combination of starters; change things up. Mix YCK w/ cultured veggie starter, Kefir w/ Essential Duo, a mixture of all three.

Using tetra packs
The coconuts they use are the least mature "baby" and therefore do not have as much sugar as a more mature fresh one. Donna Gates has suggested to add some prebiotic like her EcoBloom; to give the bacteria more food. You could also add something like honey to help kick it off.

Fermentation takes a little longer; it is suggested ferment 48 hours for the first batch and 24 hours for the subsequent batches.

The residue left in the bottom is called the dregs, its micro-flora that’s dead and done its thing. These dregs are essentially nutritional yeast; and they are a touch bitter.   There have been a few that have show sensitivities to the dregs. Many of us have been shaking up our jars for years to get the added benefit of these B vitamins.

After you purchase the coconuts they can sit out for several, days at room temperature before opening but it’s best to open as soon as possible. You’ll get more water out of fresher coconuts. After you drain the water you are ready to completely open the coconut to access the meat. If I don't have time to completely open the coconuts within the day, they will be alright sitting out at room temperature. If it’s going to be longer I’ll refrigerate (no longer than three days).  I crack the coconuts outside with an axe. The preferred method is using a hack saw. If you choose an ax, lay the coconut on the flat side and give it one good whack to loge the ax and another good one to open. I've found it can be very therapeutic. I've been using a hemp rug to cut them on for three years and it's still in good tact. It's best to do this outside, in the garage, on something like a concrete or wood floor with the rug for cushion. If I don't have time to thoroughly clean the pulp off meat I'll scoop the coconut meat with a large tablespoon or an ice cream scooper (works ideal) and store in the fridge, do not use any water to clean (seems to make the meat spoil quicker).   At a CBE training in Chicago Donna’s staff used a plastic melon scooper for the meat. The coconut meat varies in consistency from jelly like to thick and hard. The thicker meat, once you've got it going you can take your fingers and pull the meat out.   If you open a coconut that has no meat, you're not crazy; it rarely happens. If you're ready to prepare go ahead and clean off the pieces of pulp off the meat, easiest to use your fingernails. I fill up a large bowl with filtered water and have an empty ball for the clean meat.

To make pudding (spoon meat). From the meat of nine coconuts, I'll use 1/2 cup of YCK, run through food processor (a blender works as well) and store in two mason jars. You can also use a package of kefir starter for the two jars, ½ cup of kefired meat from a previous batch, or 4 ounces of YCK to get it started. Fill your mason jar 1/2 or so to leave room for expansion. Believe me it expands.   Culture for 12 hours to just remove the sugar and 24 hours to let good microflora kick in. The reason to only ferment for 12 hours is to make a nice pudding as a desert, just add a little stevia to sweeten and any flavoring.    After fermenting you can run through the food processor again and add more YCK or water, for a very fine consistency. Refrigerate to slow down the fermentation. It's best to use up within two weeks, because it gets very sour. Some refer to the kefired meat as coconut cheese or spoon meat.

Use EcoBloom in cultured foods instead of sugar. Cultured foods become more potent when EcoBloom is added to the mixture.

You can open the coconuts and freeze the water and meat separately. I use plastic baggies, don't know if this hurts the integrity of the water, meat or not. It doesn't seem to but I’m sure it’s some.   I'm guessing that 2-3 months is about as long as you can do it. When you thaw the water the minerals and sugar thaw first so thaw it all before using. You can fill one gallon size zip-lock with three quarts of water. I use a straw to suck out remaining air in the baggie. I always keep at least three bags in my fridge in case of emergencies.

When traveling I’ll double bag them and throw them in a cooler. Keeps everything else cold and it’s barely thawed when I reach my destination.

I've been told that freezing the YCK or YCK meat will decrease the beneficial bacteria. It is okay to freeze the water and meat before fermenting or kefiring.

When locating the young green coconuts you may have to ask for young Thai coconuts, fresh water coconuts, or young coconut. They aren’t as hard to find as you may suspect. They will be white, pointy on top, flat on the bottom and wrapped in saran wrap. You should expect to pay $9-18 a case. Your local health food store can get them for you but they usually charge $1.50-$3 a coconut with a 10% case discount. The Asian markets are usually cheaper.   Don’t be afraid to talk to your produce manager. If your whole family enjoys drinking the YCK, you could possible go through three to four cases a week.   The health food store, where I do all my shopping charges anywhere from 99 cents to three dollars throughout the year.   They actually charge me only $1.69 when theirs go above this price because the Asian market across town charges this price all year long. I've been told they can be seasonal and hard to get at times. In the last two and a half there's only been once we were without for a few days. The price will go up and the supply can be low during the celebration of the Chinese New Year, which is the first of February   I have such a good relationship with our grocer that he always saves me a case and orders me three to four cases a week. I just let him know if I’m going to be out of town and not need as much.   They last 70 days from being picked, this doesn't tell you much because there are no dates on the boxes. I think you're safe for about two weeks from date of buying.

Once you are comfortable, it should take you less than 15 minutes to drain the coconuts and 20-30 minutes to do the rest. I am always envious when I hear of someone’s husband taking on the chore of cracking the coconuts.

You can reuse other jars for making the kefir. It’s best to use a mason jar so a little air can get out if needed. I’ve used old mayo jars before and they’ve worked fine. Mason jars are inexpensive and you can buy replacement lids when your others rust.

The coconuts are sprayed with a preservative on the outside to prevent molding in shipment. We recommend thoroughly washing hands and or wearing gloves when handling the coconuts.

You can also use other powder probiotics such as Culturelle, D-Lactate free from Custom Probiotics, and Bio-Kult to culture the water. I think use 1/8 tsp amount which is the same amount of powder in the BED starters.

We use fresh coconuts and pasteurized boxed coconut. It does not seem a big difference.

We have found that the fermented food and veggies are much more powerful. Most who come to us are already supplementing with omega 3's and are using probiotics as supplements.  They are wowed with the use of fermented foods

click here for pictures on cleaning coconuts from Body Ecology website

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