Virgin.....I love the word

The land I have in Camotes island has over 100 coconut trees; it's not too little to just forget and not a lot to be financially profitable, so I am trying to think of the best way to use the coconuts. My caretaker knows of only one thing to do: dry the meat and sell it as "copras." So I researched on coconut oil making for personal use. Whenever I can, I like to use coconut milk in cooking and baking but the oil will keep longer than the milk. Lately, I tried making oil using heat-- as how my mom did it. It's a long process in the stove, but I remember my mom making it often because my dad used it for every ailment he had. We always had a bottle in the house and he made sure he didn't run out; thus my mom was always making them. My dad kept one bottle infused with ginger and garlic and it was a handy liniment for his arthritis. After researching on the internet and talking to some people, I found out that I can extract the oil without heat.

So yesterday I started making virgin coconut oil---virgin, meaning no heat. Here's how it looks.



You leave it out at room temperature for 2-3 days. On day 1, this is how it looked already because it was pretty warm as I didn't have my airconditioner running. The protein already separating to the top.
And this is day 2. The top part are the proteins rising up and the middle one is the oil. If I had a yogurt maker and probiotic powder, I could make the bottom one into yogurt, which I think would be wonderful tasting because I tasted the oil just now and it is so flavorful.Now, I can't wait to get back to the US, so I can buy a yogurt maker. Here's the harvested oil, the virgin you'd want to keep around.