SIGHT SEEING

This was a moment that I have been waiting for, visiting Agro Expo down town.
Yes, that's an annual event to promote so various agricultural products, especially local products.
This expo started on Wednesday until Sunday (November 26-30). 
Actually that's a fairy long period, but the weather was not friendly.
So, just a limit time to visited this event, cause we always get rain after work, and on Sunday rain fell down along the day.
Just for sight seeing...
lets we take a look some interesting parts of this event.

First we found so many processed fruit, yes some local fruits such us carica (yellow), salak/snake fruit (white), and terong belanda/tamarillo  (brownish red).
And on the end of the table is Dawet Ayu, special drink from my town that made from palm jelly, palm sugar, and thick coconut milk.
The taste is so yummy!

This snake fruit or we call it as 'Salak' a special fruit from this town, make me so jealous!
Although the  plant is full of sharp thorn, but the taste is so delicious!

This vertical garden was also interested me.
But I have to forget it, cause no place for this installation, and I think needs more budget.

A nice vertical garden using hydroponic system.

Oh... this picture makes me sad...
You can see some fig plants, zucchinis, parsley and beets.
Actually I have planned to buy Fig plant to be collected  as a pot plant.
But, I failed to buy this plant, I couldn't visit this event again caused by the weather.
Fig is the plant that I really want to be collected.
It's not easy to find nursery that sell this plant.
Oh please...

This place was show me so various fruit plants, especially citrus family and so many ornamental peppers.

This part provided so various vegetable and spice plants.

Look the eggplants, tomatoes and white pepper plant...

When I visited for the second time, actually I planned to buy white pepper plants, but all have sold out.

Too late...

Tomorrow, I will continue our sight seeing...

Have a wonderful week...

COCONUT : PART 14

Virgin Coconut Oil (VCO) is well known as magical oil, because of its benefit.
We can get so many benefits from this oil.
There are three methods on making VCO.
Heating, fermentation, mixing and inducement.
The quality of this oil is depend on the coconut as the base material.
We have to use the real mature coconut (10-12 months old), than stored for about a month to reduce the water content.
People said that the best VCO is come from green variety of coconut that grown far away from the sea area.
The salinity could decline the quality of this oil.

Heating is the simplest way on making VCO, but the quality is fairy low, because heat make the lauric acid on the oil become decline.
On this method, the thick coconut oil will stored for about 1-2 hours until we get three layers.
These are water on the lowest layer, residual (blendo)  on the middle and crude oil on the highest layer.
Then the highest layer will be heated on the pan in the low heat for a moment until we get the clear oil (VCO).
So, the VCO is ready to be strained and packed.

On fermentation process, we need microorganism that produce enzim to ferment the coconut milk. 
This method is so complicated and need long period.
This method is less favored, especially on home industry.

Inducement method need VCO to induction the coconut oil to secede from the coconut milk solution.
So we have to provide VCO first, before we make our own VCO.
This method is also less practical.

The Mixing is the simple and best method for me.
On this method, we have to mix the coconut milk for about 30 minutes using mixer, then stored the coconut milk about 24 hours.
After that, we have three layers that really separated each other.
So, we can take the VCO from the highest layer, then strain it on the filter paper and ready to be packed.
Mixing method produce the high quality VCO with high lauric acid content, cause there's no heating, also adding the other stuff, so pure.

About the benefit of VCO, I think everybody have known about it.
This oil is well known as material base on cosmetic and pharmaceutical industries.
VCO rich in Vitamin E, lauric acid, oleic acid and many more, so often used as anticancer, antibacterial and antiviral.
This oil also used to improve human immune system, improve the digestion system, improve the secretion of insulin, to treat inflammation, prevent osteoporosis and many more.

What a shame, I lost my file on making both of traditional coconut oil and VCO.
You can see the process here.

To much topic of coconut that I want to share.
Next month I will share you another side of coconut through the monthly series.
I hope you will not get bored.
Thank you for following this series, I hope it will be useful. 
See you on the next series, and have a wonderful week.

COCONUT : PART 13

Today we will talk about making coconut oil using wet process.
This is the traditional process, an old fashion process, that still done by a lot of peoples on the villages.
That's the simple way, and have done from long time ago.
We have to use the mature coconut, that's about 10-12 months after pollination.

The old or mature coconut will produce more oil and better quality.
We have to make the thick coconut milk first.
The fresh thick coconut milk will be heated on the pan for about 2-3 hours, depend on the volume and the thickness of coconut milk.

We have use medium heat, from the first until the end of the heating process.
The coconut milk should be stirred continuously, until the water content have relieved.
The coconut milk will turn yellowish clear and the residual will set up.
On this process the residual stuff or 'blendo' has brownish color, it's much darker than on the dry process.
Then the oil will be strained and packed on the bottle.
You can see the step by step on making coconut oil here.
On this process, the color of this oil is much yellow than using dry process.
And the storability of this oil is much shorter.
This homemade coconut oil is just for home consumption, and not for sale.

This oil has good smell, and savory aroma.
The blendo/blondo is usually used for so many traditional dishes, both of savory and sweet taste.
Here, we can find lots of special dishes that made from blendo, especially on the low land area that produce an abundant coconut everyday.
You can see interesting dishes here and here.
Traditional coconut oil or 'lenga klentik' is very popular on Java, not just for cooking, but also for others purpose.
This oil is well known as skin softener, prevent hair loss, keep the hair black and shiny, for massage oil,and many more.
Next we will talk about making Virgin Coconut Oil.

COCONUT : PART 12

I think everyone know about coconut oil and have ever used it for cooking or other purposes.
There two kind of coconut oil, these are coconut oil and virgin coconut oil (VCO).
Coconut oil is usually well known as cooking oil.
Now, we will talk about the common coconut oil, or here we call it as 'minyak kelapa' and Javanese call it as 'lenga klentik'.

There are two basic way on making coconut oil, these are dry process and wet process.
First, we we talk about the dry process.
On dry process, the coconut pulps will dried directly with sun drying process or using oven.
Sun drying is the cheapest way on drying coconut pulp, but it needs 5-7 days on the full sunny day.
Using oven, the drying process just needs up to one day, but that's much expensive.
Oven is usually used during the rainy season, cause almost there's no sunny day along that season.
And also the rain water make contamination on the pulp, that it could decline the quality of the coconut oil.

The dry coconut pulp is called 'kopra'.
The kopra is ready to be processed if it has brownish color, wrinkled texture, curled shape and the water content is under 5%.
The first process is chopping the kopra using machine until it has very small shape.
Then the chopped kopra will be pressed on the pressing machine to remove the oil from the kopra.
Pressing process will be repeated twice or even more to remove all the oil content.
This process produce crude coconut oil (CCO) and also residual stuff that we call it as 'blendo' or 'plendo'.
The crude coconut oil then will be strained to get the clear oil.
Straining process also using strain paper.
To relieve the water content that remain, we can use activated carbon.
Water content on the oil will cause oxidation that make the oil have bad smell or we call it 'tengik'.

Now, we get coconut oil that has yellowish clear color.
And it ready to be packed.
Next, we will talk about the wet process on making coconut oil.
Please enjoy this series and have a wonderful week.

COCONUT : PART 11

Coconut fruit in Indonesia is usually sold without outer skin/sabut (mesocarp and exocarp) and just leave the endocarp (batok) also a raw of sabut.

Batok or tempurung is the hardest part of this fruit.

When we break the endocarp using thick and big knife, we will find the coconut water and also the white pulp.

The thickness of the pulp is depend on the variety and also the maturity.
The pulp will be thicken through the maturity.

Then the pulp will be removed from the endocarp, it's not an easy process.

The next step is remove the brown skin of the pulp to get good quality end product.

The all  brown skin will removed until we get white part.

Then the pulp ready to be washed and processed later.

Now, we will make the coconut milk or here we call it 'santan'.
The simplest  way to make coconut milk is using blender or food processor.
But for us, the taste is different when we use grater.

Most of Indonesian more like using grater that made from stainless steel or wood.
But the other using grating machine to get practicality.

For us the taste of the grated coconut that using traditional grater has better taste.
Now, we get grated coconut, so ready for cooking or for making coconut milk.

For coconut milk, we have to add some warm water on it and then kneaded.

So we will find the coconut milk soon.

The thickness of the milk is depend on the water that we add on it.

For the thick coconut milk just add a few warm water, and for the thin coconut milk we have to add more water.

The next step is strain and knead it.

Now... we get the coconut milk.

So, we can see the difference between coconut milk and coconut water.

Next, we will talk about making coconut oil.

Enjoy this series and have a wonderful week.

COCONUT : PART 10

I have talked  a lot of things about the coconut flower on the coconut series last month.

Yes,  the coconut flower bud or wrapped coconut flower produce sweet liquid that we call 'nira'.

Nira is usually used to make sugar, drink, alcohol or just for sweetener on making traditional dishes.

The end of the flower is usually cut by the sharp knife to make the nira flows.

Then the nira will be collected using bamboo containers.

Farmers harvest the nira twice a day in the morning and afternoon.

Look ... the farmer after harvesting nira.

Nira will be processed soon to get a good quality of sugar.

Cause this liquid will be fermented soon on the open air.

The fermented nira will produce low quality of sugar cause it couldn't get harden.

Then the nira will be strained and boiled for about 4-6 hours, until the liquid have thicken.

During the boiling process the nira have to stir regularly to avoid caramelize.

Farmer usually use fire woods for their stove, cause the sugar have woody smell, so authentic.

When the liquid turns thick and brown, it means ready to be inserted into the molds.
The mold is usually made from so many materials, such as bamboo, stainless steel, and batok/tempurung kelapa (the endocarp of coconut fruit).
The shape of the molds is also so various, and it influence the shape of the sugar.
There are tubular, globular, disc, and many more.

The molds will be put on the tray, then the thick liquid will be poured into the molds.
Wait for about 1 -2 hours, and the coconut sugars are harden, then ready to be removed from the molds.

The coconut sugar is ready to be packed.

Yes, this is kind of coconut sugar on block shape.

We also found liquid coconut sugar and coarse powder coconut sugar that here we call it as 'gula semut'.
The coarse powder form is usually for international trade, cause it easy to be packed and used.
To get powdery shape, it needs longer time on cooking the liquid and can't stop on stirring it until the coarse powder shape have formed.
The price for this sugar is more expensive.
This sugar is well known as palm sugar.

For liquid coconut sugar, the process is much easier.
Just boil the nira for about  2-3 hours to get thicken liquid, then the liquid is ready to be strained and packed into the bottle.
The liquid coconut sugar is produced to process the fermented nira, that couldn't processed into block or coarse sugar.
Have you ever use coconut sugar on your kitchen?
Next we will talk about the coconut 'pulp'.
Please enjoy the series, and have a wonderful week.

COCONUT : PART 9

From coconut skin, the mesocarp or we call it 'sabut' or 'tepes' is a part that have a lot of benefit.
Long years ago, this stuff was only a waste, just used for fire stove.

Here, there are so many small industries or home industries that using this part as base material for their products.
Sabut is well known as media on growing ephipyth.
Sabut will cut into cubical form, then get in to the liquid of nutrient for about one or two days, then strained and dried.
The soaking process sometime done twice, first using plain water and the second using liquid nutrient.
Now we get good media for growing orchids, ferns, bromelias, tillandsia and other ephipyth.

For the common home industries that processing this stuff, the first step is sun drying process to reduce the water content.
Then sabut will be combed using a machine until it has hairy form that we call it as 'coconut fiber'.

Coconut fiber is an intermediate product, and will processed later become so many end products, such as rug, rope, sandals, mattress, pillow, cushion, bolster, bag, chair, brush, broom and many more.
You can see the coconut fiber creation on my old post here.

During the combed process, we get dusty form that we usually call it as 'coco dust'.
Coco dust is the smallest material from that produced from these processes.

Coco dust is usually used on potting mix to make the media porous and keep the humidity well.
Do you use potting mix for your garden?
Please check the ingredient, do you find the coco dust there?

Now, we will talk about the next process.
Coconut fiber is usually used as base material for mattress, pillow, bolster, sandals, cushion, rope and others.
The rope is usually used directly or processed later into other products.

Look... this man is arranging the coconut fiber and coconut rope on a frame to make a rug.

It needs patience to get a good product.

The arrangement process is finish, ready to be cut.

The 'waste' from cutting process, is used as growing media or be processed later.

Finishing touch,.. cutting the "hairy parts'.

Ready to be packed...

This is a coconut mattress, that usually used for sport mattress.
But the thick mattress is so comfort for bed cause keep the temperature ideal for us when we sleep, and it's recommended for people with asthma, cause non toxic and not irritating.
The process is almost similar to making rug.
This mattress have not covering yet.

These just a few processes to get more benefit from the coconut waste.

Actually, I have a lot of things to talk about.

Next, we will talk about making coconut sugar.

Please enjoy this series, I wish it will be useful.

COCONUT : PART 8

This week we will continue our discussion about coconut.

Yes, coconut is an interesting product for me and other peoples that live on tropical area.

So many parts of this plant be an interesting part on our daily meal.

Now, we will talk about coconut water.

Coconut water have sweet and fresh taste.

The best taste is on immature stage from the green variety coconut, or we call it 'degan'.

The degree of sweetness will reduce through the degree of maturity.

And the volume of water also reduced, when the fruit getting mature.

Coconut water is special drink in our country, especially on the low land and beach areas.

The water is do refreshing during the hot day.

Coconut water is well known as isotonic cause have complete nutrient to recharge our body. 

There are so many products here that made from coconut, such as isotonic drink that packed on the bottle or tetrapack package.

That product made from immature coconut, that has the best taste.

Coconut water with the soft flesh is our favorite, so refreshing.

The water from mature coconut has less taste and volume, but the water is still useful.

This water is used to make 'nata de coco' or coconut jelly.

This tough jelly is great for iced drink and other dishes.

We also use this water on cooking so many traditional food to improve the taste, and also make the meat or chicken become tender and spicy.

Although the taste of this water is so plain but so useful.

This water is well known as traditional shortening to make so many traditional cakes.

Will you throw away your coconut water?