A Coconut Odyssey !

He could barely open his eyes, as the window curtains gave way to the bright rays of the sun onto his face. With a grim look and a lazy bodyline, Appukuttan woke up, cursing the morning sun. As he came out of the house, hoping to hop a little and walk a little, the earth was already warming up. Summers in Kerala are tough. As the scorching sun beats down on the land, the sea breeze carries with itself moisture, causing profuse sweating at high temperatures.

Soon, the hopping and walking was over, as he was called in by his father. As he went into the storeroom, he could barely see his father. The room was filled with coconuts. Intrigued, he immediately began helping in segregation the coconuts. Only the ones which were in shades of brown had to be selected. Such coconuts are expected to be dry and contain more oil than the greener ones which are generally used for cooking purposes. Thus began the process of making coconut oil.

The segregated brown coconuts were cleaned by removing the outer fibers, smashed in half which removes the inner fluid and kept for drying. As is known across the world, all the parts of a coconut tree are expected to be of some use. The outer fibers which are a waste from the oil making process, can be used for lighting fire, making coir ropes as well.

For the next 15 days, Appukuttan was assigned the task of spreading out the coconuts when the sun came out, which is also known as solar drying. The heat from the sun rays help in removing the moisture from the coconuts. Lower the moisture, higher would be the content of oil that can be extracted from the coconuts. Although known to be a very lazy person, this was intriguing to him. This, was close to magic, with coconuts filled with water being converted into coconut oil. Every day he would wake up early, finish his morning chores and then take the coconuts out for drying. He would sit there watching closely, until the heat became unbearable.

A couple or so weeks later, the coconuts were finally ready for the next steps. Appukuttan was brimming with excitement. His father removed the inner dried matter out of the shell and together they cut it into smaller pieces, a process known as size reduction which is done to increase the surface area available for extraction in the next step. The smaller pieces were kept for drying for a couple more days to remove any remaining moisture content and the final material was ready to be sent to the mill. Appukuttan would not let anyone else go to the mill without taking him. So it was finally agreed that he would accompany his father to the mill. They loaded the material onto their vehicle and drove to the mill, happiness written all over their faces.

The mill is a place where the dried coconut is crushed and the oil is squeezed out by hard pressing. Huge machines for crushing and pressing are used for this purpose. In some parts of the world, an alternate extraction process involving use of solvents such as hexane is employed. The crushed material is treated with hexane or other hydrophobic solvents and the oil gets dissolved into it. All water soluble components remain undissolved in hexane which is collected as meal and is used as animal feed or further processed in some countries to obtain valuable components such as proteins.

Appukuttan was taken aback on seeing such huge machinery, but he eventually went in to see the process. “Alas, this is magic!”, he exclaimed! As the oil started oozing out of the coconut pieces, he started clapping his hands with joy! Within a few minutes, the oil was collected, packed and loaded onto their vehicle. His father also collected the meal to use as feed for the fishes that they were growing in their backyard. The meal could also be used in making manure. On their way back, Appukuttan shouted out to his dad “Now I will never buy any coconut oil from the shops, I will make my own!”. His dad, who knew his son well, simply nodded and said “I am sure you will!”.