The Wondrous Coconut

* Info for mailed coconut:
What can you mail through the US postal system without using a box?
Luna Shyr, a writer for NG mailed a whole coconut from Hawaii to headquarters. Info for sliced coconut: What’s in a coconut? There are 6 layers of a coconut including the exocarp, mesocarp, endocarp, testa, meat, and water. Recently, coconut detox programs where participants drink only the water for weeks are becoming popular.

By: LUNA SHYR *
PHOTOGRAPH BY MARK THIESSEN

Don’t knock it: The coconut comes in a perfect package. For millions of years the tropical fruit has populated islands by floating from shore to shore in a buoyant husk. That packaging, it turns out, also helps it navigate the U.S. postal system. Mailing a coconut is surprisingly simple: Pen address on surface, affix postage, and off it goes. Each year some 3,000 “coconut postcards” get shipped this way from Hawaii’s Hoolehua post office. But creativity can comefrom anywhere. Other self-contained mailings have included pumpkins, driftwood, flip-flops, and messages in sand-filled bottles.
The U.S. Postal Service tries to deliver so long as objects don’t pose a risk, says spokeswoman Sue Brennan. “Can you mail a dog? We get this question all the time,” she says. “The answer is, no!”
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