[The Sanctuary] Philtering Coconut Oil and Shea Butter

by **Kavala** on November 29th, 2013, 3:03 am

Timestamp: Late Fall, 513 AV
Location: The Sanctuary

The shipments had arrived. Aweston pulled up with a grin as he and Larik hopped off the wagon and unloaded the crates. Yes, crates. When Kavala had asked them to bring home some fresh coconuts and Karite tree seeds, they had simply nodded. Larik hadn’t bothered to ask how much, but Aweston having been shopping for Kavala on multiple occasions and knew that when the Konti was in the lab philtering and making various things – especially medicines – then she needed large quantities. They’d had to wait more than a season, because the Svefra that Aweston had talked to about bringing them large quantities of coconuts wasn’t due back until then. The man had agreed, having done business with The Sanctuary before.

But again they’d had to wait for the bulk order, which was far better than buying the coconuts one at a time in the bazaar when they would occasionally show up for a whopping twenty five gold mizas a pound. Kavala wanted them to mass produce coconut oil and shea butter, so bulk and thus discounts were required. And luckily coconuts were literally everywhere in the south, so as long as a Svefra was in the southern waters, and headed north, one could stop, pick the Konti the coconuts she wanted and call it good. And if the order was consistent so seasonally as the Svefra moved, they brought them up EVERY time, then the profit would be good, the sale guaranteed, and the rewards in magic scrolls of healing, fever reducing, and whatever they wished were a side benefit.

Kavala also got the coconuts far below cost. And that was a good thing because she required 211 lbs of them to make a single gallon of coconut oil. She never asked the Svefra to bring more than one load up, but often when they came in pairs splitting the haul between two casinors, then she’d get two orders or 422 lbs of coconuts. And for them she paid a 1,477 GM an order, which made it well worth the Svefra’s time.

Thankfully Karite seeds were much cheaper. The seed was so rich in oil they often called it a shea nut, though truly it wasn’t a nut but a seed. In fact it took three pounds of karate tree seeds to make one pound of shea butter. So even at gm a pound, Kavala was getting an affordable amount of karite seeds. So a hundred lbs of karite seeds made thirty three pounds, give or take a few ounces of shea butter. And Kavala gladly paid about half market value by importing them via the Svefra and not paying bazaar prizes. In the market, a hundred pounds of karite seeds would cost roughly 700 GM, if she could even get that quantity, which was hard. Kavala got them for the price she wanted in the end, but only after careful arrangements and wheeling and dealings utilizing her facility name and her own reputation.

So, she bought a hundred pounds at a time and then bought so regularly that she supplied an income for the Svefra that got her the deals. Aweston had hooked them up, working through the issues of freshness to make sure the Konti got the cargo fresh from its pickup, not after it had been riding around in a casinor for a season.

And now the goods were here. There were two hundred some odd pounds of coconuts and a hundred pounds of karite seeds. So when Kavala was done, she’d be able to philter a gallon of coconut oil and thirty three pounds of shea butter. And that was a good thing, because with her stomach so expansive, Kavala needed to make some tiger cream to cure the tiger stripes she affectionately called her stretch marks. And while it wasn’t romantic, it certainly was a fact of pregnancy.

So Aweston and the kids all took turns processing the coconuts first and foremost. What Kavala needed from them was the meat of the coconut. But other things were useful too.

When she was done with the husks after peeling the fruit, they could be broken down to obtain coir, which was an elastic fiber that was often used for making things like rope, cloth, or matting. Many of the floor mats to wipe feet or keep dirt out of the Within were made from the coir. Kavala even had large ones in horse stalls and recovery areas to cushion animals that had damaged hooves or weight distribution problems.

The shell they flat out burned. It made good charcoal for the braziers they often used to heat the clinic and The Within in the winter. Not every room had a hearth, so braziers were used instead and they often needed a great deal of charcoal for them. When Kavala got done breaking down the meat and extracting the oil, she often used the remains dried and ground into flour – which was just as nutritious as wheat flower. The pulp also made a great natural laxative that was incredibly good for the body. Inside the coconut, there was a rich and hearty milk. They cooked with it, sold some of it, and dried the rest of it out so they could store it and re-hydrogenate it when the recipes that Kavala had from fall off lands called for it. They could make candy from the pulp as well, shred it for food and garnishment, and throw it in salads and baking projects. The water, sometimes called the coconut milk, was great for the kidneys or to get people re-hydrated when they were ill. She routinely gave coconut milk (when she had it to spare) to folks whose children had stomach ailments that caused them to vomit or not hold water. The milk often helped a great deal.

So, Kavala had all this usable product. It was time to get going. And that meant running down to the lab and getting the fire stoked and her lab equipment ready to go. Kavala left Aweston and Larik up top butchering coconuts and hollowing out the husk for her, while she went downstairs and got the lab set up.

The making of coconut oil was not a difficult task. Kavala had several methods to choose from, but her favorite was extracting the oil using heat and time. It took a lot of physical labor but that was fine by her. She got out her huge mortar and pestle, her grater, and started the fire in the hearth so she could boil water. Then, when Aweston and Larik delivered their first buckets of coconut meat to her - the first of many - she was ready to go. Taking the random scooped out chunks of coconut from the bucket, Kavala began to grade them. Her logic was simple. She needed to mash the coconut meat to bits, releasing all the oils in them, and that meant she needed to get the bits as small as possible. To that end, Kavala decided she was going to grate the meat into the bowl, add a little hot water, and begin the philtering process of breaking down the material into liquid form. This required her to use the pestle to grind and grind and grind at the shredded coconut, adding water to it, and then slowly pouring it off the mortar until she ended up with a huge bucket of mush. Once the mush was ready, Kavala was definitely on to the next step.

Stats and Receipt Info :

by **Kavala** on November 29th, 2013, 9:35 am

Once she had the shredded coconut and warm water blending in her mortar, Kavala got busy combining. Shredding two bucketfuls of coconut meat wasn’t easy. The stuff was mushy, wet, and oily. It took time, time that caused her arms to ache and her back to hurt, but the gnosis on her leg kept her going. Cadra, when she got home and saw the shipment had come in, joined them. Chalce did as well, all of them producing their own graters and mortar and pestle sets. Very soon the women where chatting, laughing, and had a production line going of breaking down the coconut products in order to get to the oil.

Kavala was glad for the help. It was one of those situations where she couldn’t simply do without the coconut oil because so many of her philtering and herbalism recipes called for it. Coconut oil and shea butter was the basis for most of the soothing skin care and cosmetic creams she used and sold in the healing clinic as medicine. She even used the shea butter as bag balm for cows with sore teats and goats that were over milked. So it was hard work, but with the company – an occasional sing-a-long – and gossip, they got through it. The girls added hot water to the shredded coconut, mashed and mashed and mashed it, then once the coconut was mashed up enough, they emptied out their mortars, putting the mashed coconut on cheese cloth stretched over another large bucket. Then, periodically, one of the girls would gather the cheesecloth, and bunch it up around the mashed coconut, squeezing out all the liquid they could. When the mash appeared fairly try, they dumped it in another container and added more wet mash to the cheesecloth.

Chalce, who had done this before, also suggested they take boiling water and pour over the already squeezed dried mash, let it reconstitute, and then run it through the cheesecloth again. Kavala could tell by the fact that the water ran out of the cheesecloth milky that they were in fact getting more oil out. It was nice to reduce the waste, and make the coconut product even better for what they were going to use it for – dried flour.

In this fashion the girls worked through the pureed coconut mash, slowly getting liquid into the bucket. The leftover coconut that was squeezed dry of liquid would be laid out to dry and then ground into flour to be used in baking later. Some of it would be cooked or even made into coconut paste for baking later that day. Then once all the coconut meat was processed, Kavala took over the job herself. The other girls had other duties, and at that point, there was not enough work for three or four people. All that was needed was one.

So Kavala stoked the hearth, put aside the cheesecloth to clean, and hung the bucket of coconut water on the hearth on her own. She knew there was no turning back when she did that because she needed to bring the oil to a boil and stir it constantly. The idea was to heat the mixture until the water evaporated causing the cream to separate from the oil and turn brown. In order for that to happen, Kavala had to stand there and stir the pot constantly, letting it heat slowly without burning. She knew the process took roughly a bell, though sometimes longer or shorter stirring times happened depending on the amount of coconut mixture she had.

Kavala pulled out her thermometer, slipped it down into the bucket and watched as the gauge rose, making sure it went past seventy eight degrees. The melting point of the coconut oil was 78 degrees and she wanted it liquefied for the purpose of what she was doing. Continuing with her stirring, the healer kept the mixture hot until indeed the cream and oil separated and the cream turned brown. At that point, Kavala set out glassware – big beakers of more than a half gallon – and divided the warm liquid between them. She then covered the beakers and left them to settle at room temperature for twenty four bells.

When she returned, Kavala found the oil had solidified and was floating on the top of the liquid. All she had to do then was skim the oil from the liquid and place it in its own container. When she was done, the Konti had a gallon of the coconut oil. And, so long as the oil was stored in an air tight container and out of the heat or extreme cold, it would keep for around two years. Though, with that in mind, Kavala knew her new oil would be utilized within just a few days. She had plans for it, and they were plans that needed to be followed through on immediately.

The water from the solution, which was a whole lot of nothing much useful got taken out as slop for the pigs after Cadra got done adding kitchen organic wastes to it. The water was still rich in nutrients, but as far as the people of The Sanctuary went, there was little they could do with it other than perhaps use it as soup stock… and even then it had an unappealing brown coloration to it. No, the pigs appreciated it more, for sure, because it gave them some variety in their nutrition and was rich in leached goodness from the oil they had harvested.

by **Kavala** on November 29th, 2013, 9:38 am

And so with the coconut oil being done, Kavala could turn her attention on the shea butter that needed to be made. Shea butter was generally unrefined oil that came in a very solid yellow or ivory colored ‘cream’ or ‘butter’. It had incredible health properties. Kavala had no idea where it originally came from but she knew it had a ton of health benefits. It was of course used for skin and health care products.

She cleaned all her glassware, got her measuring devices down, and swept out the hearth in preparation for the coming processing. Kavala knew she might not use most of the lab at the moment, but she would when the time came to make the recipes from the shea butter and coconut oil she was processing. And crafting the raw ingredients was half the battle in terms of philtering. If one didn't manufacture their ingredients, even if it happened outside drying in the sun, then one didn't philter. Philtering was the whole process, from top to bottom, starting with the raw ingredients and ending with the final product.

Her book, “Beauty Aides – The Science of Lotions, Shampoos, and Cosmetics" had about six chapters in regards to Shea Butter. And as Kavala was reading the chapters, she was able to make a list of a little more than four dozen ways to use Shea butter, and that made her think that this huge process of refining roughly thirty three pounds of it from a hundred pounds of the karite tree seeds would come in incredibly useful at The Sanctuary. For her own notes, she went through the chapters and wrote out a list of all the uses of the shea butter.

Practical Uses Of Shea Butter

1. Apply to the roots of hair to thicken the hair follicles and cause them to grow
2. Coat face and neck with before bed to act as a moisturizer and a hydrating mask one’s face.
3. Apply to hair to use as a gel to hold extreme hairdos like the standing Mohawk in Akalaks.
4. Apply to hair lightly to tame flyaway or frizzy hair and to create more lasting curls.
5. Sooth razor burn irritation by applying directly to the burned skin area.
6. Apply to hands and feet then put on socks and gloves for deep hydrating softening treatment overnight.
7. Dab on the neck and wrists before dabbing on perfume to hold the scent in place longer.
8. Use as a blister cream to keep feet hydrated when wearing new or overly tight shoes.
9. Apply to skin blemishes such as wounds and scars or even burns to help increase the time it takes for the location to heal and to prevent scarring in the first place.
10. Apply to scars to help faded them.
11. Use on nails and cuticles for stronger shiny and healthy looking nails.
12. Apply to cheeks for an extra highlighted glow.
13. Mix with red or pink pigment for a moisturizing non-sticky lipstick that has a matte tone. Add mica if one wants that lipstick to shimmer brightly.
14. Apply to bug bites, especially those made by mosquitoes, to sooth and reduce the redness and swelling irritation.
15. Rub into the skin before applying powdered mica to help the mica stick and shimmer on the skin creating a ‘healthy glow’
16. Use as a hair straightener on curly hair.
17. Add to hot bathwater to help moisturize one’s skin while bathing.
18. Use as a lip balm to deeply treat dry or cracked lips. It helps keep lips smooth and healthy.
19. Apply a light coat to the eyebrows to keep them in shape and not curling abnormally.
20. Coat face with the shea butter prior to the application of cosmetics so the cosmetics will stick better and last longer.
21. To sooth frostbite or rug burn or rash trauma, apply to skin of effected areas.
22. Apply to reddened area around the nose when one has a cold to help repair the skin that is red, irritated, and potentially peeling.
23. Rub into hair for a deep conditioning after shampooing or otherwise stripping ones hair of moisture.
24. Mix with pigments to apply to the eyes or cheeks as a cosmetic.
25. Apply to teeth so the teeth sparkle and shine.
26. Apply to skin to help protect it from the sun and the risk of sunburns.
27. Coat small hairline cuts on one’s hands for instant soothing relief and to eliminate the risk of scars.
28. Apply to overheated, dry, and chapped skin to sooth and refresh.
29.
30. Apply to one’s eyelids to hold cosmetic pigments in place and to prevent them from fading throughout the day.
31. Apply to the skin on and around lips before bright red pigment to avoid staining and color bleeding.
32. Apply to feet and wrap with a warm towel to deeply moisturize heels and toes.
33. Style into hair to get hair to hold its shape.
34. Apply to elbows and knees for an instant softening agent.
35. Use it on henna designs and hairlines to prevent color bleed and skin staining when a person dyes their hair.
36. Apply as a after shaving product to sooth irritated skin and make it completely extra soft
37. Apply to fingernails for the health of the cuticle and nail bed and to grant a nice smooth moist surface to glaze if the person wears color on their nails.
38. Coat face with shea butter before an outdoor activity that requires long exposure to wind, rain or cold to prevent wind-burn.
39. Liberally apply to cracked feet to help sooth and heal damaged soles.
40. Mix in with one’s favorite body lotion for an extra moisturizing experience.
41. Apply to eyelashes to bring attention to them and promote better eyelash growth
42. Apply to lips to make them look a bit more swollen and appealingly plump.
43. Rub onto a baby’s bottom to avoid diaper rash and skin irritation.
44. Apply to windburn on skin and ears in winter.
45. Rub into skin around eyes and on eyelids in place of an eye cream that limits dark circles under the eyes.
46. Warm shea butter and apply to joints to help with rheumatism.
47. Use as an anti-aging wrinkle cream.
48. Use as a balm to rub into the chest when ill to help decongest the lungs. Warm towels applied over the shea butter slathered area help tremendously.
49. Mix with almond oil and scented essential oils for a more superior massage oil.

And finally…
50. Apply to the belly to help prevent or fade stretch marks.

The last one was what Kavala really needed it for. However, with the fifty other uses shea butter had for around The Sanctuary, then she was certain she’d be utilizing the other thirty pounds for just about anything on that list at any given time.

by **Kavala** on November 29th, 2013, 10:49 am

The best part about the shea butter to Kavala’s way of thinking was that it was so versatile. It could be used on its own or with a combination of so many things for so many uses. That meant that no matter what she was doing, having a large quantity of it around was not going to hurt anything at all. In fact, the more she had around the more diverse uses she might find for it. One thing her book did caution about was that poorly made shea butter was yellow and tended to be grainy. If one was careful in its production, they would get ivory butter that was silky smooth and worked into other products much better. Kavala noted in the listed process of where that careful refining too place, and that was just one single step in the process when the butter was almost done. It was a laborious process, but once accomplished, then it was well and able to be stored in clean clear glass canisters with weight pressured lids.

So in order to get started, Kavala got the gang together the next day and pointed at the hundred pounds of karite seeds. Luckily they were already hulled so the meaty pulp of fibrous plant tissue around them was gone, only leaving the raw nut. Kavala was glad for it because it made her one hundred pounds more true to form and faster to work with.

First, she had to set up boiling stations. Getting out her cauldrons, Kavala filled them halfway with water and fit as many as she could across the hearth. Then she filled them with karite nuts. A hundred pounds took a lot of effort and cauldron space, so she wasn’t able to boil all the nuts at once. She had to do them in shifts and luckily Cadra was there to help out. Together the two girls took almost a full day to boil the nuts in shifts and then to pry it apart and remove the kernel. Once they got the kernel out of the nut, they laid them all out to dry in the slightly cool Riverfall air. Winter was coming, but Kavala was reminded that it wasn’t here yet. The air was cool and crisp with a hint of bitter cold on it, just the type of wind that would dry out skin, berries, and even fruits nicely. So she assumed the seeds would dry as well. And while they had arrived late in the season, there was still going to be time. And Kavala was patient.

While she was waiting, Kavala took a very important step. She hand sorted all one hundred pounds of nuts, pulling forth the black ones that would make the shea butter impure. The book warned about these. The darker the shea nut, the more fully ripe it was. Overripe nuts, the black ones, destroyed the quality of the shea butter, so they needed to be sorted out quickly and early on in the processes before the nut got ground or roasted. It took multiple hands, multiple eyes and even Tasival and Shayru got into the battle. Johan, Rairis’ little sister, came to visit and was put to work sorting as well. The children took to the task eagerly, making a competition of the sort.

Kavala promised the one with the most black nuts in their pails (by weight) to get a prize from the bazaar of their choosing. So the children scurried, racing and laughing, jeering each other in a friendly way and shoving and pushing when one of them discovered a nut close to both of them. Johan wasn’t rough with Tasi, but she was firm. In Kavala’s mind, she thought Shayru was harder on Johan’s light side than he needed to be, but Kavala didn’t really do anything to curtail it, letting instead the other Akontak child see if she could handle it alone. She didn’t let her son be spoiled, but she did give Rairis’ sister the opportunity to practice her people skills, which Rairis said needed work. Johan did handle things, taking only so much from the boys until she’d had enough and put a stop to Tasi’s nonsense, usually with a sharp word or a quiet warning. If that wasn’t enough, the older girl thumped the child sharply, not hard enough to hurt him, but hard enough to show him she could as a warning.

Kavala let those instances go as well, even when Tasi came running to her to tattle on Johan. The mother in her wanted to comfort him, but the common sense leader would always ask him if he learned anything and if he was going to pick on Johan anymore – or steal her nuts – or step on her toe on purpose. The boys would always think about things, and then usually go apologize to the girls before too much time had passed. Sometimes it was sincere, and other times it was not.

The next step was easier though. Once the nuts had dried out in the chilly autumn air, a few nights later, Kavala was busy washing them. And even though they’d been boiled, the nuts were covered in dirt, dust, and tiny remnant bits of pulp from the outer cover that was now dry. She boiled water, keeping it hot, and filled a huge washtub with the nuts, washing them in batches. She would kneel down behind the pan, and then swish the nuts all around in the rapidly cooling water, grabbing big handfuls and pushing them under. Over and over again she kept this up, using reimancy to make the water vaporize into air once it became dirty. All she had to do was concentrate her res and push it down her arms and into the swirling water. The res would feel the wash basin and task the water to turn to air and the natural fall winds rapidly blew it away. That dried the nuts instantly and got Kavala several rinses of her batches before more water had to be summoned and heated.

Kavala did not yet have fire. Fire seemed like it would be the last element she’d receive. Heating water was a problem using magic, especially since she had no way to control fire. Instead, she simply created big pots of water hanging over the stove, let the oven heat it, and then washed and transmuted the water to air over and over again until all her batches of nuts were dry.

Once all the nuts were out and dry, it was time to crush and roast them.

by **Kavala** on November 29th, 2013, 5:12 pm

Roasting it seemed was something of an issue. She already had a large nut grinder that could handle the grinding. It was part of her oil press that Kavala had purchased seasons ago with some equipment for her philtering lab. However, roasting was a problem. Cadra suggested they put them on flat sheets in the oven and do them in batches, but the truth was there were too many of them. So instead, she’d went to the Zhongji and located a vendor that would sell her a large rotisserie nut roaster and a metal grinder that would be a lot faster than the mortar and pestle’s they used on the coconut. So when the vender delivered, Kavala was ecstatic and more than ready to get going. She set up the rotisserie roaster in the hearth in the kitchen (it was the only one big enough to take the spit style apparatus) and clamed the nut grinder onto the counter.

So, again working in shifts, the girls took turns cranking the grinder and slowly fed all the karite tree seeds, now dried and thoroughly washed, into the grinder. They came out a mulched mess that looked much like a crumble spread one would put on top of a cake or pie. A hundred pounds of the seeds, even after they had been sorted and the black one taken out, were a lot of nuts to grind. And still, even as they fed them into the hopper on the grinder, they plucked dark ones out, catching the occasional seed that had gotten through the first and second sort, and the washing. Once they had the seeds all ground up, Kavala helped load them into the nut roaster. The roaster was a solid barrel made of metal laid on its side. It had a hatch much like a pot bellied stove and two long metal rods coming off either end of the barrel that one could lay over a spit and turn. They loaded the ground nuts loosely in the roaster, smiling when every last one of them fit into the bulk of the barrel.

Then Kavala carefully laid a low fire into the hearth, making it charcoal heavy and flame light so that she could set the nut roaster over a low fire and start turning it. Once turned, it did not stop being spun on the spit until the nuts were done roasting. In larger more wealthy holds or in full time processing facilities, they’d have an animal on a tread mill working the rotisserie. But here at The Sanctuary, Kavala had to do it herself. Roasting brought out the natural oils in the nut, so without this step in the process, nothing else could be done. The roasted shea nuts had to be buttery and oozing with oil by the time the heating process got completed.

It took her bells and bells until she was finally satisfied that all the nuts rolling around in the barrel roaster were equally roasted and oil enough for the next step. It was important to balance the heat with the speed of the rotation with the roasting time to make the nuts just perfect. A more experienced manufacturer would know when and where, but Kavala had to keep testing her limits.

Once the nuts were completely roasted and oily as could be, Kavala dumped out the nut roaster and spread the nuts into several large mixing bowls. She then recruited Chalce, Cadra and Johan again and all four girls went to work on the nuts. The nuts, amazingly enough, once roasted could be then kneaded like a crumbly cookie dough into a paste. The oil was the cause. Once the nuts released their bounty through the roasting process, there wasn’t a whole lot stopping the super saturated substance from turning the nuts into a thick wonderful smelling paste. The girls had to work super hard for about an hour, watching the consistency of the paste. The stuff was amazing, starting out a dark brown, but the more it was kneaded, the more the paste lightened and finally was so pale it was almost white. If the black nuts hadn’t been taken out, there would have been no refined look to the paste because the ‘spoiled’ oils from the black nuts would have tainted the batch and robbed it of its beautiful pure color and clean fresh shea scent.

When the shea paste was so worked that it began sliding off the girl’s hands, the four of them quickly grabbed a bucket. They each added one huge pale of icy cold water from the well to the paste, stirring furiously as they did so. At that point something miraculous happened. The ‘shea butter’ part of the paste rose to the top almost immediately, like a milk separator separating milk. While that was happening, the girls took clean buckets – the ones the water was in – and began scooping up the butter that was on the top of the wet mixture, tossing it into the buckets. They skimmed and scooped until the only thing left was the milky water that the shea had been separated from. That waste water was discarded and the butter was added to hangers over the fire to boil.

They were almost done. Kavala took a break while the butter was once more heating, and grabbed rolls of raw seafood that Cadra had made for her before they all started separating butter. It was laid neatly in the icebox and kept chilled for her. The seafood refreshed her, flooding her with additional energy that she desperately needed to see the final shea butter manufacturing process through. Then she sat down, put her feet up, and drank a quart of water. The Konti was busy drifting off when Chalce came in and gently woke her letting her know it was time for the next step.

The Konti heaved her bulky form to her feet and shuffled back over to the hearth in the kitchen, glad they were working their philtering magic in the Commons (where seating wasn’t far) and not down in the cold sterile philtering or isolation lab. Kavala had earlier given cheesecloth to Aweston and had him stretch it over a wood frame. This, they utilized now, pouring the stock pots of the liquid butter through the strainers and filtering out any imperfections and particles that were not wanted. Each woman helped the others until they all had clean pails of filtered Shea butter. Then, another round of hard work happened because the girls each took wooden paddles and began stirring the shea butter to cool it. Most people at this stage just left it alone to cool at its own rate. But Kavala’s book had warned that there was an inherent danger in this. Particulates and precipitates could form in the shea butter at this stage, making it rough and grainy. Instead, if the manufacturer stirred the oil as it cooled and turned back into butter, the formula stayed silky smooth and cooled to a beautiful almost white whipped thickened mass that smelled lovely and worked incredibly well in all recipe types.

The girls chatted, visiting and making plans as they stirred the butters. It took no more than a half bell for the mixtures to fully cool down. In that time they had turned opaque and thickened up in a way that made Kavala smile with pleasure.

Once they were done and the mixture was perfect, Kavala pulled out glassware from the lab, and the shea butter was divided into one pound containers that had lids that tightly sealed. She’d use it for recipes and to sell in bulk if anyone wanted any. Out of one hundred pounds of Karite seeds, the group had managed to manufacture thirty one pound jars of shea butter. It would keep the facility going and in good supply until their next shipment arrived.

Kavala thanked the women profusely, glad to have such great help and dedicated employees. She gave each of them a hug, and once the gallon jars were safely stored in the Sanctuary storage, Kavala went straight to bed so she could nap.

by **Kavala** on November 29th, 2013, 6:41 pm

It turned out after all the activity of the day before, when Kavala laid down for a nap that was all she wrote for the day. The pregnant konti slept the night through and didn’t even rouse when Tasival joined her for bed at the usual time. He knew his mother had been busy cooking something unpleasant looking in the kitchen all day along with the rest of the women of the Sanctuary. And he’d avoided them at all cost, instead hanging out with Aweston and learning to work young horses. Then he’d said hi to Johan and spent the evening with her and Riaris, down on the beach doing some running. He was as tired as his mother when he went to bed. The pair slept well into the morning, waking only when Cadra came in to wake Tasi and make him come eat some food. Kavala joined them, her mind already on her next project and what she had planned for the day.

Now the philtering lab was going to get its usual workout and she was going to mix herself up some skin cream that would really help her with the stretch marks trying to form on her stomach and everyone else who had scars or the potential too scar from current injuries.

The cream Kavala had officially named Tiger Cream. She did so because the Drykas often called the stretch marks that formed on a woman’s stomach tiger stripes. It was a way to talk about the unpleasant side of having a baby without being openly disparaging to oneself or ones sister, either by birth or sex. But there was still need for such medicines, especially for the healing violent world they lived in. Kavala pulled out her recipe card which was on a strong wooden box with all the rest of her recipes.

Tiger Stripe Cream

¼ Cup Shea Butter
¼ Cup Coconut Oil
3 Tbs Almond Oil
1 Tbs Mint*
¼ Tsp dried Ginger Root*

Place the mint and dried ginger root and almond oil in a large Florence flask and hang it on a support ring over a boiling flask of water resting on a burner. This creates a nice little philterer’s double boiler effect. Bring the almond oil and essences up to a simmer and heat for 30 minutes on medium low heat to infuse the oil with the herbal essences. Strain the completed oil tincture through cheesecloth to remove the herbs. There needs to be at least two tablespoons of the mixture left or you will have to infuse more oil. Return the oil to the Florence flask and add the shea butter and coconut oil. Heat until the butter and oil is melted together. Stir to incorporate. Remove from heat and then store in a small glass jar. Use on skin as needed before, after, and during pregnancy.

*Mint and ginger can be substitute for any sort of pregnancy safe herbs.

It was a simple recipe, but one that would be vital for her in the coming months. And then because the recipe made such a small quantity, Kavala often doubled it with no trouble when someone asked for a scar or stretch mark cream. So she got out her small burner, got it going by lighting the fire within, and set up the lab equipment. She placed the burner on a metal footed stand that would hold it off the counter and prevent it from burning the marble. Then she attached a clamp to the rod rising up out of the stand and placed a The beaker of water was set on the burner to start to slowly steam and boil, while a ring clamp was firmly affixed just above the perfect spot for a Florence flask to rest. She got out a glass stir rod, and began adding the ingredients into the flask as per the recipe.

She then carefully stirred and watched as the herbs infused the mixture, tinting it slightly. The pleasantly refreshing smell of mint wafted up and it was then that Kavala decided to add a bit of lemon peel as well, more to brighten the possibly darker skin than anything when the cream was applied. Ginger was grated into the mixture, a funnel inserted into the flask’s mouth to make sure none of the grated bits were missed and all got placed into the narrow mouth.

When the mixture was infused, Kavala strained it, added it back into the flask, and then added the rest of the ingredients to cook as well, not forgetting to double the recipe. She was glad her Florence flask was larger. The ingredients liquefied, making them easy to pour into glass jars of her choice. Once that was done, she carefully sealed them and put out the burner fire. She cleaned the equipment thoroughly and counted how many jars she had made. The original recipe crated two small jars normally, so doubled it yielded four. Kavala carefully crafted labels for them, and tied the tags on with bright colored string someone – most likely Aweston – had made from the coconut husks and dipped in blueberry juice to dye.

Kavala set back and smiled when her creation was done. It was a good couple of days of work and everyone had pitched in which was amazing too her. She sat back reflecting then, on how thankful she was to have the staff she did, the lover who’s child she carried, and the family that was all around her. The Konti then headed to the kitchen to find something to eat. If nothing was fresh, she’d head down to the beach and feed herself before most likely another nap was in order. By then, the cream would be cool and she could u se it on herself.

The baby, Kavala thought, had to come soon. It just had too. Her cycle of eating, sleeping, activity, and then eating and sleeping all over again had to be broken. There honestly wasn’t much more of the cumbersome bulky body she could take.

by **Translucent** on December 4th, 2013, 3:54 pm

Congratulations On Your Hard Work!

Kavala:
XP:+1 negotiation, +2 planning, +2 organization, +5 philtering, +1 writing +4 cooking, +1 reimancy
Lores: Recipe for Shea Butter: Shea nuts and Coconut oil Coconuts: A bounty of usable material, Waste not Want not, Shea Butter’s many uses. Recipe Tiger Stripe cream: Shea Butter, Coconut oil., almond oil. Mint, and ginger root.

Notes:

As always PM me if you have issues.

Solo [The Sanctuary] Philtering Coconut Oil and Shea Butter