Ada’s mill on Guam

WHEN you ask Guam Governor Joseph Ada about the commer cial uses of coconut on his is land, you get a warm and detailed re sponse.

It seems that the Governor’s grand father, who lived on Saipan during the brief German occupation at the begin ning of this century, was chosen by the Germans to go to Europe to study, among other things, production of oil from coconuts, and photography. Some of the best pre-World War I landscape photography of Saipan was taken by his grandfather, the Governor says proudly.

When Josef Ada, the grandfather, re

turned to Saipan, he began producing

oil from coconuts, and then he made soap from the oil. Subsequently he brought the oil and soap business, and his family, to Guam where the Governor was born. “I remember visiting the little factory when I was a boy,” he said. The factory closed following the elder Ada’s death in the 19505.

According to the Governor, the prin cipal commercial use of Guam’s coconuts now is the production of a candy, gollor ia (or guejuria) which is sold to depart ing tourists, among others. The brow nish candy is made from a combination of coconut milk, flour and sugar. It is tastiest, we have been told, when made from what might be termed adolescent coconuts, rather than fully ripe ones. □