Canned goods on a cruising boat

[hellosailor]

Heart of Palm? I was told they had to cut the entire tree down to get to it, like the center of a celery stalk. Urban myth??

[CaptainForce]

It's my understanding that "Heart of Palm" can be harvested twice a year from the same young cultivated "Cabbage Palm". High fiber and low cholesterol levels as well as some farmer's livelyhood would allow you to include it in your diet and remain environmentally noble. As for provisioning all the canned goods; I agree, store them low and secure. I recently finished heavy provisioning for cruising southbound to the islands from florida. After filling my diesel and water tanks, while I was checking all systems, my wife pointed out that the galley sink wasn't draining well. You've probably guessed! After taking apart the plumbing under the sink and looking for the offending glob of fat, as well as blowing out the through-haul; I found I was fighting Archimedes. My waterline was now a quarter inch above the galley sink drain! 'take care and joy, Stewart & Nancie onboard Aythya, aythya1@yahoo.com

[hellosailor]

Wikpedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heart_of_palm

Heart of Palm *did* kill the tree. Technically it still does, but there is a different variety of Palm which is farmed now, and has multiple "hearts":

"Heart of palm, also called palm heart, palmito, or swamp cabbage, is a vegetable harvested from the inner core and growing bud of certain palm trees (notably the coconut (Cocos nucifera), Palmito Juçara (Euterpe edulis), Açaí palm (Euterpe oleracea), sabal (Sabal spp.) and pejibaye (Bactris gasipaes) palms). It is costly because harvesting in the wild kills the tree. Heart of palm is often eaten in a salad sometimes called "millionaire's salad".

The Alternative ... is the botanical species ...in English, it is commonly called “Peach Palm.” Peach palms are self suckering, not single stemed, and produce multiple stems, sometimes up to 40 on one plant, so harvesting several stems of palm heart from a plant is not such an ecological problem because the original palm plant can live on. "

I guess the question is, do "peach Palm" hearts taste quite like the real thing. Or, is the marinade what really counts.