Farmer uses hot spring to dry copra

 HELEN Kauve gets up very early in the morning and with her sack of yesterday’s fresh cut-out copra on her shoulder, labours off to a hot spring not far from her Pengalu village in Talasea, West New Britain.

At the hot spring, Kauve quickly gathers some coconut palms and lays them over the mouth of a steaming crater, away from the main craters that are much hotter with boiling water creating sprays of colourful rainbows.

There, she lays out her copra to dry while she basks in the heat and chews her favourite buai (betel-nut) and watches over her copra. All taking fewer than 20 minutes and the job is done. Comes afternoon, 

Kauve gathers her load of first-grade hot-air dried copra, repacks them and disappears from the hot spring, destined for the copra-buying depot in Kimbe to sell her produce the next day.

“In two to three days, I can up to 60 bags of first-grade hot-air copra,” Kauve told The National at the hot-spring where she was found drying her copra.

 “At a buying price of K1 per kilogram, I make enough money to support my children, grandchildren and other extended families. 

“This is much easier than having to go around looking for firewood to smoke-dry my copra at home. All our people come here to dry their copra.”