Announcing AFAM - June '08

A Fruit A Month, the monthly event that puts spotlight on a fruit comes to Tasty Palettes. Started by Maheswari of Beyond The Usual, this event has been going on for quite sometime now. Which also means, many of the fruits we enjoy on a daily basis have already received their deserved attention. While I was searching for a fruit that was easily available, I had to think outside the box. There are many fruits disguised under various names in our every day lives. And one such fruit is coconut. Yes, coconut is not a nut, but a fruit. So lets celebrate coconut this month as ‘The fruit of the month’ – AFAM: Coconut.

Coconut is a drupe, which is described as a fruit with an outer fleshy part, enclosing a hard shell, which in turn enwraps the seed. Peach, avocado, walnut, pecan are some that belong to this category. In a coconut, the outer fibrous part (mesocarp) encloses a hard shell (endocarp). Inside this hard shell is the edible white flesh (endosperm) and coconut water. Technically the outer fibrous part is the fruit. But since it is nowhere near edible, lets consider the other flavoursome parts; the white flesh, thirst-quenching coconut water, rich coconut oil and other coconut derivatives, for this edition of AFAM.

Here are the guidelines for your participation:

1. Prepare a vegetarian/vegan recipe with coconut as the star ingredient and post about in your blog between now and 30th June ’08. Any cuisine, any course is acceptable as long as it features coconut. Any article on coconut is also welcome.
2. Provide a link back to this announcement.
3. Send a mail with AFAM – Coconut in the subject line to tastypalettes@gmail.com with the following details.
• Your name
• Your blog name
• Name of the entry
• URL of your post
• An optional photo that is 250 pixels wide (height doesn’t matter)
4. If you don’t have a blog but would like to participate, send an email with your name, recipe and an optional photo. I will include in the roundup.
5. Older posts are accepted if they are re-posted with a link to this announcement.
6. Feel free to use the logo in your post.

The roundup will be posted in the first week of July. Maheswari, thank you for allowing me to have fun with one of my favorite fruits for a whole month.

Looking forward to your contributions...

Updated on Jul 8, 2008: Event Roundup here.