I belong to the coastal region of southern India and the locals here absolutely love coconuts. We want coconuts in our breakfast, lunch and dinner. We cannot make a meal without adding atleast a spoonful of grated coconut to it.
If including fresh grated coconuts in our meal is not enough, we make oil out of it for cooking purpose. Yes, I have been eating coconut rich meals that are seasoned with coconut oil right from the time I started chewing.
Adding coconuts to your diet is very beneficial. These nuts are loaded with essential vitamins and minerals that are good for our body, skin and hair.
My mom doesn't rely on packaged things and oil packets are something that she hates to the core. She prefers going the natural way to extract the oil from the coconuts that are grown at home.
It took her 10 days to break and dry the coconuts just enough to extract oil from them.
I was curious to know how they extracted oil from dried coconuts so I and my kids tagged along with my parents went to the only mill in the city that extracts oil from the coconuts you bring right in front of you. We waited around 5 minutes for the grinder to get free for our turn and voila, it was our turn. My dad handed over our coconut filled bags and the helped put them into this huge Funnel like thing which worked more like a combination of mixer and dryer. We waited till the machine made a paste out of our sun-dried deshelled coconuts and separate the copra waste from the oil. The oil was collected in the can through a pipe while the copra waste remained in the machine.
The oil extracting machinery
Copra waste
Pure coconut oil
It took the machine around 20 minutes to extract 20 litres of oil from coconuts weighing 32 kilograms. The coconut waste doesn't go in the drains. It can be used as fodder for animals. Cookie making industries use these waste in their coconut cookies. There are many more uses of this coconut waste and that's the reason the mill paid her 25rs per kilogram of coconut waste.
Coconut oil smells great and is much healthier. I use coconut oil on my hair and skin because these are the best moisturizers that don't contain any perfume or chemicals which can ruin the texture of your hair and skin.