Mulberries

These are fruits you never get to buy outside, these are fruits you have to pluck right from the tree, hanging onto one of its branches, with cousins and nephews and nieces, your mouth exploding in violet and red. There are fruits like these that take you back to nature, to mothers. From the long winding verandha of the old house, my grandma would be watching us hanging like little bats from the tree. One of us would fall down and she would just hold us with her eyes, for she knnew we were safe. She would place huge sandbags around trees before each vacation, trees she knew we kids will cling onto like life, like life we just would want to climb and savor them and never think of a fall. But she knew better.

Honey

I remember…

…the times when I was a little kid, asking the taller ones in the family to get me the small cluster of flowers underneath each crimson cover of a banana blossom, from those tall banana plants…please..daddy..please..one more we will open?

…getting all excited and going from one banana plant to another in search of this honey in the early mornings, the big leaves of the plant wet in yesterday’s rain…

…sucking the honey from its cute little pouches…sucking until my eyes come out, my cheeks become hollow…sucking on my lips to get the last bit of that pure honey…

I remember…home…soaked in honey…

Can you see the small white pouch? That’s where the honey is stored in a banana plant’s flower.

Chikoo

Chikoos are in season again. Yay!

If there is a fruit I could grow in each and every inch in my yard, it would be a sapota or as I call it chikoo tree. I am not sure whether it is scarce in India, but I have never had enough of it.

It is a fruit from Mexico, popularized by Spanish and then by me :-)Excerpt
A rich source of digestible sugar, the chikoo is rich in protein, fibre and minerals like phosphorus, calcium and iron. Isn’t it funny to know the 'chewing' part of the chewing gum comes from the stem of this tree?

I remember going to a friend’s house, and they serving me with plate full of chikoos. There were some six medium sized ripe fruits. I couldn’t resist and by the time they said, ‘have’, I finished all of them without even thinking it is someone else’s house. Oh, I am still embarrassed about it.

My husband hates it which makes me more than happy since I don’t have to share this with anyone. I have never tried to convert him to a chikoo fan, specifically due to this :-)

A ripe fruit is soft to touch. You just need to part into two, by pressing your fingers on the fruit and slowly opening it up. Scoop out the flesh with your mouth. Mmmmm.

Food of the Gods

Some people claim, Chocolate is the Food of the Gods.
I object, my Lord. It is, Tender Coconut! (Known as karikku in Malayalam)
Fresh Tender Coconut has life restoring capacity and it is so pure, it can be
substituted for I.V fluid. When you have it, have it fresh in normal room temperature. Not refrigerated. Even an hour or so refrigeration will cause its taste to disappear.Tender coconuts, as the name implies are coconuts plucked before they turn mature. They are 90% water.Kerala, which simply means ‘the land of coconuts’, is abundant with this ‘Food of the Gods’. Every home, even the smallest one will have one or two coconut trees.

My dad would pluck 6 tender coconuts for all of us in the evening when he comes home from work, and after drinking the pure water inside, we would eat the soft flesh with jaggery. Drinking this pure and sweet water is like taking a shower under a natural waterfall. So soothing! So refreshing! There is nothing cooler than this, especially on a warm summer day.Yet, when you are easily provided with such natural nectar, people go dumb and go after products like coke and pepsi, which to me, is like slow poison if consumed daily. In Kerala too, these products started to slowly poison people’s drinking habits, but a controversy gave us the much needed jolt and in protest, now we have Tender Coconut Stalls all over Kerala.
Excerpt: In fact, more and more doctors now recommend tender coconut drink for many of their patients. It is found to be effective in urinary ailments and also recommended as a very go,od substitute for saline glucose. This drink helps to keep the body cool and applying it on the skin helps prevent boils during the prickly heat of the summer. It is also used to help remove the rashes caused by small pox, chicken pox and measles. It is also considered a close substitute for blood plasma since it is sterile, cool, easily absorbed by the body and does not destroy red blood cells. To quote Morton Satin, Chief of Food and Agricultural Organisation's Agricultural Industries and Post Harvest Management Service: "It is a natural isotonic beverage with the same level of electrolytic balance as we have in our blood. It is the fluid of life, so to speak."It is so delicate, attempts to package it has failed miserably. Though you get tender coconut in packages, it is never ever the same. I would rather have a frooti instead.

You cut the top portion of the tender coconut,put a straw and slurp up the water or you pour the water in to a cup and drink it. Then you cut open the tender coconut into two. Then scoop out the flesh with a spoon.While ordering for tender coconut, ask for the ones with a little flesh. It is not sweet, if it is complete water and with no flesh. Also, you lose the taste and the quantity of water, if the flesh is hard too.pic : soft flesh of tender coconut (this is the right softness) So, order one next time you see a vendor , on a bicycle with a load full of coconuts and enjoy Life!