Saturday 10 April 2010

Tender Palm Fruit-Nungu



The intensity of the summer is like an open air oven ,the cooling methods are varied and for the villagers mother nature has an offering , palm fruit.

The palm trees are dwindling in the country side, they are normally lined along the fields of rice and sugar-cane, and just plain dry fields.

The tree proper has multi uses like the coconut,the strong trunk is used in the building industry, and the leaves for thatched roofs, originally palm scripts came from them.

The fruits are seasonal and the summer months are the only days of delivery.

The vendors usually get the fruits through sacks of gunny. The fruit has normally three eyes and the tender ones have such tasty water and soft flesh, most prefer to have the fruit as it is using the fingers to dip into the fruit, some prefer to have them removed from the fruit proper and eat them .

It is a knack to use the sharp sickle to open up the fruit, I sit and watch them deftly remove the fruit from the body proper, without wastage, the removed clippings go back to be used as manure or firewood after drying.

For those with a cooling device the modern refrigerator, the chilled palm fruit is a great delicacy on a hot summer afternoon.

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