Edible oil problem

[Gananath - gmail]

Dear all,

Harish has raised the important issue of procuring good edible oil. It is indeed a serious problem and most of the available oils in the market are suspect either because the source is bad or because the extraction process adds to the contamination or (usually) both.

I have explored some ideas with limited success but they were expensive. I intend to explore some of the following in future.

1. How to make coconut oil at home

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DF3JDV0_cBA

2. Oil expeller for dry coconut (copra), groundnut, Til , sunflower, almond etc. Looks like we need to operate it for about 1.5 hours to extract around 1 l of groundnut oil. There is no 'wastage' as the byproduct 'hindi' can be used to make chutney and lasts for atleast 30 days.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=owzWrYlZHVg

If you venture into any of these pl. share your experience. Also, if you have other ideas pl. write.

Regards,

Gananath

[Harish Amur]

Thank you for sharing the videos. Both are excellent ideas to try in a small scale level. The second video is extremely helpful as I had been searching for such a machine for the last two years. I forgot to search youtube and google :(

I am seriously thinking of installing a mini oil extractor in my farm. 

We have naturally grown bananas at home. They have started ripening. It has been a week or so since we got them from farm. Yet to taste them. Will let you know in a day or two.

Regards,

Harish

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[Harish Amur]

I have placed an order for the hand operated oil expeller. It costs Rs. 5000. The powered one extracts too much oil in a day (about 750 kgs), hence it is not suitable for us right now. 

We will experiment with the hand operated one. Understand the economics of extraction, the quality of oil, the demand for such oil etc and then decide on what to do next.

Will keep you posted.

Regards,

Harish

[Gananath]

my friend in mysore has bought it but for 'some inexplicable reason' (in his words) has not yet used it. We are planning to ask him to lend it to us and install it one of our homes and use it as a community asset.

Yesterday I learnt (rather re-learnt) that groundnut oil sold commercially contains other less expensive oils like rice bran oil, cotton seed oil etc. The latter is most probably GM type and we are 'fortunate' to be using GM food without even knowing it! So sad.

Awaiting your feedback.

Gananath

[Harish Amur]

Received the oil extraction machine about 2 weeks ago. Could not use it right away, as it had to be fixed to a platform. Finally, we got a table custom made for this purpose on Saturday. Sunday morning and yesterday evening (along with Shivananda) we extracted ground nut oil and coconut oil. There are some teething problems, however the machine works quite well and the oil is quite good.

Yesterday we extracted about 200 gms of ground nut oil from about 700 gms of ground nut. The 'hindi' is also excellent and can be used for various purposes. Today morning the ground nut hindi was added to the dough to make akki-kadlehittu akki roti (we call it 'thalpeeth' a marathi name). I am writing this email just after devouring a couple of these delicious rotis.

There is still a big question mark about the extraction being a commercially viable one, if we have to buy oil seeds/other raw material. However, it will work very well if the raw material is available free of cost. For e.g. coconut is in abundance at our home. So, if we can eat coconut oil instead of other oils, it will work out much cheaper than any other alternative.

Regards,
Harish