ALTER IDEM

Ideally, cherry trees require at least a month of very cold weather conditions for flowering. But, they are hardy enough to settle for less - until, they get used to the weather conditions they are forced to live in, i.e. More than 10 years after the promised 2-3 years, we finally saw some fruits on our cherry tree this year. Thanks to the attractive colour of the fruits, the tree was a sight to behold! But, of course, looks can be deceptive. This cherry has a sour taste and is made up of equal amount of pulp and hard pits. That's why, the monkeys and the birds decided to leave everything to us! For a while, we thought of letting the fruits be - allow them to drop off naturally and enrich the soil. Somehow, that didn't seem okay. It was like doing injustice to our long wait. Since the fruits have a low shelf life, I decided to see if I could preserve it. I'm not a stranger to making jams and preserves. For jams, I follow a standard recipe shared by a grand aunt...

Yesterday, our family friend sent me a link..... http://panasamwonders.blogspot.com. It's a blog dedicated to the jack fruit. The jack season is round the corner. Soon, households in the Malnad, Udupi, Mangalore, Kerala,.... will be making their favourite jack fruit dishes. First, tender jackfruit palya . Later on, dosa , varieties of dishes, curries, chips,... And, finally, the ripe fruit - as itself, and, in dosa , idli , payasam ,... Alongside, the raw fruit will be preserved in brine and as papad . The ripe fruit will also be preserved as jam, papad ,... With so many time tested recipes, it's not surprising that there is such a huge demand for processed jack fruit, both, within the country and abroad. The farming community in India has woken up to this demand. Though in its infancy, the processing/ marketing industry is rapidly growing thanks to the efforts of a group of committed people - through jackfruit mela s, print media, blogs,... Not exactly my favourite frui...