Walt, >Is there an easy to get coconut meat out of the shell?? I depends on the coconut. With the typical commercial variety I used to buy, I had to take them out on the sidewalk and whack them with a hammer. Then some of the pieces would go flying around the yard, until someone in the M2M suggested that I put the coconut in a paper bag first. Using this method helped with the schrapnel effect. Then, with the shell still clinging tightly to the hard flesh, I would try to insert a screwdriver and pry out chunks of meat. Very time-consuming. Then on a visit to Denver in July, I bought an organic coconut. This one had softer than the usual flesh, and, after still cracking it open with a hammer, I found that the shell came off the meat easily by hand, with almost no effort at all! And I'll leave the description of how to open a really fresh coconut to someone who's had the experience. I think the bottom line is that most of the coconuts we find in the staores are old and stale, and a lot harder to open than they should be. Bob Avery ([log in to unmask])