The day I got into Costa Rica, my friend and I went to a market on the beach and picked out a variety of fresh fruit, a bottle of wine, and picked some beautiful hibiscus flowers. When we got back to the house we cracked open our coconuts and a bottle of wine and savoured the flavours. When we were done we went upstairs to the dining room to recycle our wine bottle and compost the coconut shells. Instead a beautiful Costa Rican woman took them from us and made a beautiful floral arrangement out of the coconut shells. She filled the coconuts with water and placed some hand picked tropical flowers inside and placed the shells on the table. She took the wine bottle and placed a white candle inside and put the new candle in the middle of the coconuts.
That night we had a beautiful dinner and a stunning table with natural decorations. We used banana leaves as place mats and platters and drank out of coconuts embellished with hibiscus flowers. This was a great way to recycle our findings from the market.
After that evening it made me explore different ways to reuse my food and other natural products that I would find outside. I bought a watermelon and another melons that day at the market and decided to core out the melon for a summer salad. I reused the core of the melons as vases and placed twigs and flowers inside for a table arrangement.
I would encourage you to reuse your fruit and get creative with your table arrangements. It was a great way to save your money and save our environment.
