*** Please note: The videos in this post are mainly in Hindi ***
https://www.youtube.com/c/FarmingEngineer
“Hi my name is arun chavan. I am an Engineer and now a full time Farmer, I will show you new interesting facts about farming and stuff.”
Grape drying is mainly concentrated in Sangli, Solapur and Nashik districts of Maharashtra and Vijayapura and Bagalkot districts of Karnataka. Generally, after dipping of grape bunches in solution of ethyl oleate and potassium carbonate (also known as Australian dip) the grape bunches are spread on nylon mesh inside grape drying shed and within 10-15 days drying process completed.
There are several commercial products/substitutes for dip treatment available in the market. However, it has been reported that effectiveness of these products is variable. Therefore, present investigation was carried out to study effectiveness of a new commercial product for raisin production from Thompson Seedless grape variety in comparison to ethyl oleate. Grape bunches of Thompson Seedless were dipped in these solutions prior to drying inside raisin drying shed. Besides, the drying bunches were also sprayed with different concentrations of these products on 3rd and 5th days of drying. Observations were recorded on drying dynamics, browning index, colour intensity, content of phenols and tannins, sensory properties and quality parameters after storage for 4 months.
It was observed that the dip treatment of Thompson Seedless grapes with a solution of 18 ml commercial product and 24 g potassium carbonate per litre of water for 2 minutes and sprays of 12 ml commercial product +16 g potassium carbonate per liter water on 3rd day and 6 ml commercial product + 8 g potassium carbonate per liter water on 5th day was found better than ethyl oleate for production of good quality raisins.
The bottom line is that I love sabudana. Even though I’m constantly being told I shouldn’t. I’ve heard horror stories about the making of the little white balls from the pith of sago leaves or tapioca roots. (Unhygienic. Fermented in open pits full of insects. Strong smells.) I know that each bead is nothing more than a “small, rounded starch aggregate, partly gelatinised by heating”. In short, pure carbs, unredeemed by the slightest trace of protein, vitamins or minerals. I know that sabudana has a sneaky tendency to misbehave. However carefully you soak it, there are days when the khichri clumps together in a sticky mess. On other days the little balls remain hard and obstreperous. All of which makes no difference.
To me, sabudana is the stuff of memories. Of snacks served at the homes of friends after a long, hungry day in school (so much more welcoming than the pale glass of milk waiting at my own home); lunches in the office canteen on wet, windy days during the month of Shravan; quick bites grabbed at bus depots during rattly rides from Sholapur to Kolhapur. There’s more — foodie journeys to Pune aboard the Deccan Queen and meals at modest Maharashtrian eateries across Mumbai — Kelkar Vishranti Gruha in Fort, Mama Kane’s in Dadar and Vinay Health Home in Girgaon.
It is also the taste of tradition. After all, sabudana plays a starring role during the Navratri fasts. It pops up virtually everywhere during Shravan and is used in papads, kheers, laddoos and halwas. How much more desi can you get? Then I sat down to write this piece, and realised that the tale of sabudana in India is much more recent than I’d imagined. Tapioca and sago arrived here just 150 years ago as fancy exports from Singapore and Malaysia. It was only during World War II — when exporting commodities became difficult — that the first, crude sabudana units were set up in Salem in 1943. This seems to indicate that sabudana khichriand sabudana vada — seemingly so infused with tradition and history — were invented around the same time as the computer.
Outside India, though, the beads have a hoary past. Sago was an important food in China about 5,000 years ago, before rice stormed the scene. It, however, remained a staple in Southeast Asia through the millennia. At the end of the 13th century, Marco Polo introduced it to West. “They have a kind of tree that produces flour, and excellent flour it is for food,” he wrote about his time in The Sixth Kingdom of Fanfur (Indonesia). “The trees are tall and thick but have very thin bark and inside the bark they are crammed with flour.” Almost 300 years later, Sir Francis Drake brought back sago bread from his voyage around the world and explained that it came from the “toppes of certain trees, tasting in the mouth like some curds, but melts away like sugar…”
