Word of the Week: Copra

In my Imperial Royal Canadian Atlas, I kept coming across ‘copra’ as a major product of a lot of the countries mentioned. I wrote it down with the note “Copra – W of the W” and neglected to look it up. So now I did.

My first assumption was that copra had something to do with copper production – an important metal, and surely mined in various parts of the world.

Wrong-o. Copra is defined by Wikipedia as: “…the dried meat, or kernel, of the coconut. Coconut oil is extracted from it and has made copra an important agricultural commodity for many coconut-producing countries. It also yields coconut cake, which is mainly used as feed for livestock.”

This makes me think of two things.

The first – does anyone remember being in middle school and doing your first research projects, and going to the library in order to look up precious summaries of important information like definitions in Encyclopedia Brittanica or World Book? Even hopping on the computer and using Encarta? I feel like it was forever ago.

Second – I read another blog, called 100 Days of Real Food. It’s very helpful in my quest to eat less processed food (my timbit moment Friday aside – I was sick and allowed to eat junk). The lady who writes it uses coconut oil and olive oil, mainly, as she maintains that they are less processed than other oils. And it sounds like, in modern times, it really is less processed and refined. In fact, it is produced in a similar fashion to olive oil – by crushing. Even the by-product of copra production, termed copra ‘cake’, does not go to waste, so double bonus!

I have yet to buy and use coconut oil. But maybe I should give it a try!