Jack fruit and it's Juniors.

The jackfruit is a very sweet and tasty fruit. The Government of Kerala in South India had declared it as the State Fruit rightly.In the past the Jackfruit being one of the best fruits in the world was neither properly looked after nor even the people of Kerala considered it as a valuable fruit. It was a common sight even in advanced roads where vehicular traffic was heavy Jackfruits during it's season used to fall from the tree and got spread all over the roads .There were no takers for the fruit inspite of availability in plenty.No reason can be attributed to this kind of neglect except it is a bit tuff to break it and remove the fruit from it .Always when one try to do it a lot of sticky substance in liquid form used to come out of the fruit and make one's hand also sticky and difficult to remove it.nowadays,however eat methods have been discovered to operate it. Many ,perhaps did not know by applying a bit of coconut oil and washing away with soap the sticky substance from hand can be easily removed. The jackfruit tree is one of the fruit trees that can grow well in places like India without any special care. The picture on the top is Jackfruit tree.It's product Jack fruit is inside the thick needle like shell. Experts in Kerala especially villagers can tell from the size ,appearance and smell whether a jackfruit is matured enough to become fruit.If after taking it out from tree and found not fully fit to be a fruit,it can be kept for a couple of days to get it become fully ripe,the hard skin on the Jackfruit can be removed with a sharp instrument like knife and then by splitting into two partsa pale yellow pulp bulbs which are edible can be found.This can be removed into pieces.A full size Jackfruit can contain 40 to 50 such pulp bulbs. This is very sweet and full of nutritioous value. The seeds of Jack fruit also can be used for curries and also if fried adding masala and salt be taken as chips.the interior of Jackfruit if not allowed to ripe and split into two parts as mentioned above,the pulps which has not assumed yelloyish color can be cut into symmetrical pieces and after adding salt can be fried.Before it becomes black and when in light brown color it should be removed from the oil and spread in a plate for sometime to get the oil particles removed from it.Then it can be consumed as chips of banana.It is of very good taste as much as banana chips if not better. This young pulps which have not become ripe can be used for making dishes with Dal.This can be taken along with rice or Chapathis. Besides,the ripe pulps can be used for making kheer also .it is also highly tasty.Apart from this the sweet pulps can be fried using a peculiar method on low fire for long time to make a dish called " Chackavaratti" which can be kept for long period of time.Any Kerala housewife can tell how it is exactly made.This is a speciality of Kerala and extremely tasty and one can not stop taking it because of the special taste .the Keralites living abroad and in Gulf always take this during the season of jackfruit which is normally Still May.But during other months also in limited number of places. So unlike other fruits, the Jackfruit is a multipurpose fruit.In olden days the Jack fruit was liberally consumed by lower class of people more. Since it was popular with lower class,the higher class dispensed with using jackfruit .This was also one of the basic reasons why jackfruit had remained unpopular But nowadays jackfruit has become more popular.Since 2018,the price of jackfruit has also enhanced as a lot of demand from other states and from abroad . The big Jackfruit has two Juniors also in Kerala. The picture in the middle above is called "Kadachackka " in Kerala.it is smaller in size but in shape and the shell outside it is exactly like the senior jackfruit in the top picture. It's interior never gets ripe to become sweet.in other words it is not a fruit identical in all respects without the sticky liquid coming out while cutting it.It is ,however used for making curry by using masala and mustard to fry in oil.It is very tasty with rice and also suits Chapathi and Porota/Parantha( in sindhi& Hindi) This Kadachakka is also called Bread fruit and seema Chakka This unlike Original jackfruit( Top picture)has no seeds to use as vegetable. The third picture is a fruit called AINI chacka orin some places Anjilli Chakka is seen in Kerala alone in India.Nowadays it has become a rare commodity and can be seen rarely in Kerala also. It can be seen in a Famous Mahakshetram of Kerala called Thrikkakkara Vamanamoorthy Temple in Ernakulam.It can be seen behind the Mahaganapathy Temple an upadevatha of Mahadeva Temple. In shape it is identical to Jackfruit and can be called junior to Jackfruit. The skin once removed,one can see the sweet pulps in a form of a oval shaped collection.one can remove each fruit by hand.Each fruit contains 30 to 40 pieces .It is very sweet.one can eat a fruit fully in one sitting.it's sweetness can be experienced only when one eats and can not be explained. It is very rarely found in fruitshopes. But one can get more details from the Krishi Bahavan nearby. The Jack fruit and it's Juniors(except kadachackka which is not sweet)are going to be the craze of the Nation and most sought after fruits in India and abroad. SreedharanMundanat 16th of May 2019