STORIES

‘Sun blessed’ Jackfruit Varatty

 

A Kasaragod housewife, Smt Jayalakshmi has found out an easier and eco friendly way of making Chakka Varatti. Chakka Varatti is very much like jackfruit halwa, but in varatti, no ghee is used. The consistency will vary according to one’s liking.

Chethanadka Jayalakshmi, wife of  Venkatramana Bhat, belonging o a farming family near Neerchal uses solar energy for concentrating this product. Says she “I cook the ripe Jackfruit flakes with a little of water. After grinding it, a little jaggery is added. We put half a kilo jaggery to the flakes of a medium sized fruit. Then we cook it just for half an hour.”

Chakkavaratti

Jayalakshmi then transfers the vessel to outside the house. It is kept exposed to sunlight. “2-3 days sunshine is enough to make the varatty tight”, she says.

This household has started this experiment last year. Last year’s varatty was in good condition till it exhausted recently. If solar energy wasn’t used, cooking it for 4-5 hours was necessary.

Low cost solar driers are very common in farmers’ homesteads now. Inside this drier, drying jack varatty would be faster and will be protected from dust and tiny stray dogs etc.

                                                                             –  Yespee

The sticky Fruit shows her the Way

Lathi.P

Lathi P., living in Thiruvananthapuram suburb in Kerala is a deserted women belonging to scheduled caste. She has two grown up children studying for graduation and plus two.

In the nineties she used to work in a neighboring jackfruit chips unit. As jackfruit is seasonal, this job too was. Added to this, the wages were very low. Social inhibitions came in her way to go for other manual jobs.

Unfortunately, the chips unit closed down. Lathi had to look around for alternatives. She had one advantage. Years of prior experience had taught her a bit of dynamics of jackfruit business. As such, she opted to try her luck in this line.

The team workers cutting and scooping out Jack Fruit petals

The first task was to visit nearby households and book jackfruits in advance. There was question of judgment. She had to assess jackfruits for their size, maturity etc just by seeing it from the bottom. A total buying amount used to be fixed after bargaining with the tree owner. Advance payment is made to the owner.

Based on prior experience, correct time for plucking jackfruits is fixed.  If ripened, it can’t be used for chips. If the jackfruit hasn’t grown enough, the quality of chips suffers.

The jackfruits are plucked and brought by men in small pick up vans. Women’s role is to cut and scoop out the petals. In fact, this ‘minimal processing’ work was an outsourcing for a chips unit. Lathi and her colleagues did this job work of procuring, cutting & scooping out petals as a job work for a fixed fee.

Lathi with her Jack fruit chips stoked for off-season sales

Slowly Lathi picked up the lessons from the business. Instead of supplying the ready to fry raw material to the unit, she herself started frying it. The end product – chips was sold to few shops in the city. These are rather wholesale merchants. Retail sales require more manpower and finance.

It was in 1997 Lathi started this frying venture with a bank loan of Rs 10,000. This loan was obtained from the schedules caste department through State Bank of Travancore. Since then, her business grew.

A brave lady, she was bitten by stray dogs while she went rounds scouting for jackfruits! Presently she has a loan of one lakh Rs. She pays the installments and interest regularly. Thanks to the business, she has managed to rebuild her house, now with an attached work shed. She has employed two men and six women. She has managed to provide education to her two children. .

Now, Lathi stores the chips for selling it during off season. This requires substantial investment, but returns are higher. There is a big price difference between the prices during the season and off-season.

With her women workers, she is now planning to promote a women’s collective. She is exploring the possibilities of making other products as well.

Lathi's old work shed and Jack Fruit waste