Today I’m gonna share about the most South Indian thing we’ve grown at our farm!

Yep! It’s Coconut 🌴

Lynn Mascarenhas

Over the course of decades we’ve grown multiple coconut trees across the coffee farm. Back in 1978, my grandma Queenie had planted the coconut trees and used the earthen pot to water them every day. She was the pioneer in growing coconut trees in St. Margaret Estate. I’m grateful for her hard work she did to start this venture.

We focus firmly on growing them ethically, free of any chemicals, keeping it edible and great for multi-purpose products, so as to create a more sustainable ecosystem for the wildlife that lives within the farm.

The Lady behind it

Vimala Mascarenhas

Vimala Mascarenhas, has done a brilliant job with the coconut processing. Sorting the choicest coconut meat is incredibly tedious and requires a lot of time and effort. She meticulously sundries the coconuts and ensures they undergo a careful cold pressing process in the mill to preserve the nutrients.

Manja climbing the coconut tree to collect the fruit

The specialist, Vimala Mascarenhas hails from Mangalore, where she has learnt everything about the cultivation of coconut trees and sorting out the best coconut meat to produce the oil from her Mom Eva Dcunha. Mangalore is a city with ample sunshine and a place that uses coconuts in a lot of their dishes. Be it scraped coconut or coconut oil or coconut milk, each dish has its variety of flavours that pop up.

Cleaning the coconut meat 🥥

She begins her harvest in late November at Magundi, a village in Chikmagalur. She continues collecting it every several months until the trees provide ample produce. She employs up to three climbers to harvest the trees. The collection of coconut is laid out on the front porch of the bungalow where the coconuts are cracked open and the meat is scraped out by men. Leaving the fruit to dry and ooze out the rich oils. The copra is then carefully sorted by women who bag it and take it to the mill where it is crushed in the mill to extract the oils.

Sun-drying on the front porch

Having a farm with multiple produce makes it challenging when they attract the WILD. Occasionally we get to see monkeys running and grabbing the coconut meat that’s kept to sundry. 🙈 Sometimes we encounter dogs and thieves stealing them too. We employ boys to watch the coconuts and keep the monkeys at bay.

As a qualified wild-lifer, I cant stand the cruelty the wildlife has to endure. The old school people’s response was to shoot them or use firecrackers to scare them away. We need to put nature in focus as we coexist with them in the same ecosystem. Truly, it was this very thought that made me decide to make monkey Parchment out of whatever coffee cherries they ate. But will tell you more about it in my next post.😉

She has taken on a new pathway to introduce to you an eco-friendly and sustainable coconut oil product in addition to producing batches of the finest turmeric powder and lemongrass. She now introduces this innovative offering to her repertoire.

Turmeric

Kuswar a Christmas snack is made out of this oil, a particular such sweet is called Keedio which is dough rolled over the underside of a fork making it look like small caterpillars and dipped in sugar syrup. Making it crunchy and crumbly, with hints of sugary goodness laced around it.

Kuswar - Batter fried sweet

Keedio - Christmas Snack

The specialist! Suggests making banana chips, Christmas sweets, rice cookies and papads with this single origin coco oil and it always tastes absolutely delicious.🌴✨

About the product

Our coconut oil is super effective, while it nourishes and tones your skin and keeps your scalp healthy and conditioned all day long. This oil relaxes your muscles to release tension and offers lustre to your complexion.

One of our customers, Arpan tried our product with fish fry and he loved it! And wanted to immediately order another batch to try the Christmas kuswar with it. Here’s a lil photo of the fish fry he tried.

Mackerel Fry

Photo by Arpan

Kiran, another customer tried oil pulling with our product. Oil pulling is a technique used to prevent any teeth from decaying. This is done by swishing the coconut oil in the mouth for over 5 minutes and then spitting it out. It aids in relieves cracked lips and strengthens the teeth and jaw muscles. 🦷

Thrilled to showcase the rich coconut oil production. I’m super excited to share my mom’s experience with you.