This post describes how copra was made in the Seychelles using the calorifer.
This is the third post in the series relating to the coconuts and how it impacted on the life of the Seychellois. To read previous posts click here.
Copra is the flesh of the coconut that has been allowed to dry. It is valued for the coconut oil extracted from it and for the resulting residue, coconut-oil cake, locally known as pounak, which is used mostly for livestock feed.
Types of copra
There are two types of copra. The copra cup and the plain or milling copra. The copra cups are used mainly for religious purposes and the plain copra is produced mainly to extract coconut oil. Seychelles used to produce both types and they were once exported in great quantities.
The hayday of the calorifer
The export of copra was the mainstay of the Seychelles economy before the tourism boom in the early 1970s. As a result of high cost of production and stiff competition from other coconut oil producing countries – mainly from the Asian continent, the production and export of copra took a negative turn culminating in 1994, when Pakistan, which was the last remaining importer of coconut and copra from Seychelles at that time, ceased coconut-related transactions with the country.
In the 1950s and 1960s almost every village in the inner islands and almost all outlying islands had a calorifer or copra kiln or kalorifer to dry the coconut flesh or kernel into copra. In fact, in 1932 there were approximately 50 calorifers, and 55 bullock-powered coconut oil mills, or moulin kopra, in operation. Copra was exported to Mauritius, South Africa, France and United Kingdom
The calorifer
There was basically only one type of calorifer in Seychelles that was used to dry copra. This was a type of indirect heat-natural draft hot air type. Hot air drying produced high quality copra in a relatively shorter period of time compared to other drying methods.
The overall dimension an average calorifer was about 9 meters long, 5 meters wide with 3-meter-high walls made out of granite or coral stone at the top of which an upper wooden floor was constructed. The upper storey had a 1.5-meter-high walls at the eaves and about 2.5 meter walls at the apex of the roof. The roof and the upper storey walls were made of corrugated galvanized iron sheets.
The Tambour
There was a large pipe of about one meter in diameter which was placed along the length, in the middle, of the building.
This pipe, locally known as tambour, acted as a heat exchanger and was constructed of mild steel sheets of about 3mm thick and protruded out of the building at either end. At one end solid fuel was burnt for heating and at the other end it was connected to a vertical chimney for exhaust of combusted gases. The drying coconuts did not have any contact with the smoke from the burning fuel.
The Shelves
On either side of the ground floor along the length of the building, there was a series of about 5 shelves one on top of each other with a gap of about ½ meter in between and 1.2 meters wide. The shelves were made of hard timber with wire mesh bottoms to hold the copra. There were usually no shelves on the upper floor.
The traditional way of making Cup Copra
Most calorifer would hold about 6000 nuts a day. The husked nuts will be cracked open, in half, in the morning and placed on the shelves of the ground floor towards the firing end.
The firing end half of the calorifer was the hottest end.
The calorifer was fired with coconut shells or kafoul of the previous batch of coconuts as well as firewood. This was done by mid-day by which time the calorifer would have been fully loaded.
Fuel was added gradually until about 6.00pm and there after allowed to cool. By morning next day, it would have cooled down adequately to enable the workers to transfer the partially dried copra (with shells intact) from the firing end half to the cooler end of the calorifer on the ground floor.
The firing was repeated on the second day but with a new load of copra at the firing end half of the calorifer, just like the first day. On the third day, the copra cups from the cooler end of the calorifer were unloaded. The shells were detached, and the copra was transferred to the upper floors for the final drying. On the fourth day the copra was unloaded, cleaned, inspected and sorted for grading. They were then bagged in gunny bags to be sold. This drying process would reduce the moisture content of the coconut to about 7% from about 52%.
The above process describes how cup copra was made. Cup copra was a better quality copra and exported to Pakistan and was used in religious ceremonies as well as for edible purposes.
The traditional way of making plain or milling Copra
Plain copra was used only for milling for oil and was prepared differently to cup copra although the drying process was the same. The shell of the coconut was removed prior to the drying. The person who was removing the shell would sit on a bench, and would have a flat rock as a work top. This task was usually performed by women.
They would roll up their skirt, exposing their legs, used a special knife that has a rounded tip, hold the nut in her hand , knock it on the rock to crack the shell and empty it of water. The water was poured in a small container and used to be given to the pigs! and then placing the nut on the rock, she would pry the shell open with the knife until all shell was removed. If the coconut was still whole, which was not always the case; it would be cut in two and thrown into a bamboo basket next to her. Once full, the basket would be removed and taken to the calorifer and replaced by a empty one, and the process continued until all the nuts were shelled.
Copra and coconut oil is still being produce at L’Union Estate on La Digue. This short video gives you an insight how they are produced.
Other methods of drying copra
Sun Drying Process
In some outlying islands, copra is still being made by drying the halved husked coconuts in the sun. In some cases, though, the coconuts would only be split open in two with a machete, without even being husked. They are then placed in the sun for a day or so until the flesh dislodges from the shell. They were at times placed directly on grass in the open or even on concrete slabs, as shown in the old photo below. These methods, if not monitored, can give inferior quality product because the nuts are exposed to extra humidity, dirt and other impurities.
Proper sun drying requires only racks and sunlight. The racks made of timber frame and wire are either made to be lifted by two men or constructed on rollers. The rollers run on tracks, so that they can be rolled under a large open shed, locally known as langar, at night or during rainy weather. The halved coconuts are drained and roughly cleaned, if required, and placed with the cup facing the sun.
After two days, the meat is easily removed from the shell. The drying process is completed after 3 to 5 days, sometimes longer depending on the weather.
Sometimes sun-drying was combined with calorifer drying. Hours of exposure to sunlight meant less time in the calorifer and therefore less fuel consumed. This process was also, although rarely, reversed, whereby the copra was partially dried in the calorifer and finished in the sun.
Sadly, there is only one calorifer currently operating in the Seychelles. This is found at L’Union Estate on the island of La Digue, shown in the photo below.
The calorifiers that are still in existence are in ruins, they are dilapidated souvenirs of a bygone era. We only have a few old photos, some of which are featured in this post. “A hundred years ago they served their purpose eminently well. In 100 years’ time they will have crumbled and disintegrated. This is history”, said one of our historians.
In the next post we will discuss the traditional copra mill or moulin kopra.
Sources:
SNA – Seychelles National Agency
IDC-Island Development Corporation
L’Union Estate, La Digue Island
Genevieve Vauthier
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