REFLECTIONS: ![]()
(PON'NOS!) - Part I of II
- By Domnic Fernandes
The jackfruit originated in India at the foot of the Western Ghats, and is now
very popular throughout South East Asia. The tree is handsome and stately, 30
to 70 feet tall, with evergreen, alternate, glossy, somewhat leathery leaves
which are oblong, oval or elliptic in form, 4 to 6 inches in length; juvenile
leaves are lobed. All parts contain "pank" (sticky white latex.) Short, stout
flowering twigs emerge from the trunk and large branches, or even from the
soil-covered base of very old trees. It cannot tolerate "wet feet." If the
roots touch water, the tree will not bear fruit or may die. A good yield is
about 150 large fruits per tree annually, though some trees bear as many as
250 and a fully mature tree may produce 500, these probably of medium or small
size. A jackfruit tree is said to live as long as 100 years. However,
productivity declines with age. Almost everyone in Goa grows jackfruit trees
and they can be seen in every compound/backyard in villages as well as in
towns.
![jackfruit flesh]()
The fruit is unusual as it is borne on the main branches and the trunks,
occasionally even from surface roots of the tree. It is the largest tree-borne
fruit in the world, weighing from 10 to 60 or even as much as 110 pounds, and
up to 36 inches long and 20 inches in diameter. The rind or exterior of the
compound fruit is green or yellow when ripe and is composed of numerous hard,
cone-like points attached to a thick and rubbery, pale yellow or whitish wall.
The interior consists of large edible bulbs of yellow, banana-flavored flesh,
massed among narrow ribbons of thin, tough undeveloped perianths and a
central, pithy core. Each bulb encloses a smooth, oval, light brown starchy
seed covered by a thin white membrane.
The seed is 3/4 to 1-1/2 inches long and 1/2 to 3/4 inches thick and is white
and crisp within. There may be 100 or up to 500 seeds in a single fruit. The
aroma of the ripening fruit is extremely sweet, with a distinctive flavor
reminiscent of banana and pineapple. Once the aroma spreads, it cannot be
controlled; hence, the good old Konkani saying: "Pon'nos lipovn dovrunk zait
punn tacho pormoll lipovnk zainam!" (You may be able to hide a jackfruit but
you cannot hide its aroma!)
Jackfruits mature 3 to 8 months after flowering. The fruit is covered with
numerous hard points, is pale green in color and changes to a yellowish-brown
during ripening. Fruit is mature for harvest when the single small leaf above
the stem withers and the first color change occurs. Ripening continues post-
harvest and with experience is ascertained by tapping the fruit. When ripe,
the fruit softens a little and the rind will give in when pushed. Jackfruits
turn brown and deteriorate quickly after ripening. If a person is fat and has
a round stomach, people remark: "Zala polle pon'nos kosso!" (Look at him, he
has become like a jackfruit!) Sometimes, they jokingly tap his stomach and ask
him: "Pon'nos pikla re?" (Is the jackfruit ripe?)
Jackfruit is a summer fruit of Goa. It ripens principally from March to June.
It is one of those delicacies which once you begin to eat ends only when the
stomach is full. Many people at first hesitate to eat it because of the "pank"
but once they get the hang of eating it then there is no looking back;
jackfruit fondness grows with familiarity. This is how the good old
saying "Vokol ghore khainam mhunnon bingttanim varn bhorlelem" came to be
known. Roughly translated, it means the bride pretended not to eat jackfruit
and yet the pit was filled with seeds. Similarly, many people despise things
when they have had too much of them or had them for too long and here again we
have the Goan jackfruit-related saying: "Pott bhortuch ghore ambott!" (When
your stomach is full, carpel is sour.)
There are three types of jackfruits in Goa: (1) "Rosall Pon'nos" � having a
pale-brown or occasionally pale�green rind and containing small, fibrous,
soft, mushy, but very sweet "ghore" (carpel;) the rind can be broken open with
bare hands. Some women, when their husbands are aged, refer to them as "Rosall
Pon'nos;" (2) "Capo Pon'nos" - usually having a light-green rind, occasionally
brownish and containing crisp and almost crunchy "ghore" of high quality
though not quite as sweet; a knife is needed to cut open the rind; and
(3) "Capo-Rosall Pon'nos" - also having the same rind as that of Capo but
its "ghore" is a mixture of both - neither hard nor soft but sweeter than Capo
Pon'nos; also needs a knife to cut open the rind. The "char" (perianths) of
the Type 3 jackfruit is quite thick and as tasty as the fruit. As children, we
ate it as well.
Jackfruit trees of Type 1 mostly bear fruits at their lower trunks, whereas
Types 2 and 3 bear fruits high above on the tree. To remove jackfruits from
such trees, you climb up the tree with the help of a ladder, carrying with you
a "baincho razu" (well rope) and a knife, place the rope on the nearest joint
next to the jackfruit to be removed, prepare a noose, place it around the
middle of the jackfruit to be removed and fasten it tightly. You then ask the
person on the ground to tug on the rope while you cut the stem of the fruit
with the knife. The person on the ground then slowly lowers the jackfruit
until it reaches the ground. He then immediately places a "kotti" (coconut
shell) under the stem to collect "pank."
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We have all the three types of jackfruit trees on our properties but the one
in front of our house � "Capo-Rossall" is one of the best in the whole of
Gaumvaddy. As children, we would feast on jackfruits on Sundays and holidays.
Before you cut open a ripe jackfruit and in order to guard against the "pank,"
you must do the following:
- Apply coconut oil to both your palms and a little to your lips
- Apply oil to the knife to be used to cut the fruit
- Cut the jackfruit into two halves - lengthwise
- Cut and separate the "mav" (core) from both halves
- Pluck "ghore" from the "char."
Don�t kiss your partner on the lips before you thoroughly clean them with oil
and soap or else get ready to be caught in action!
To clean pank from the knife, insert it in the "chul" with fire and clean it
with the help of "kato" (coconut husk.) Repeat the process until the "pank"
comes off the knife and finally apply oil and clean it with a piece of cloth.
Since we had plenty of jackfruits, each of us was given half a jackfruit. If
the fruit was cut widthwise, I always asked for the lower portion as it is
larger in size and contains more "ghore" than the top portion with the stem.
We would mostly eat jackfruit in three sessions. The first session was at
around 10:00 a.m. at which time we usually ate "canji" on Sundays and
holidays. The second minor session would be after lunch, and the third was in
the evening after we returned from play, but if we were late to return home,
from play our mother would not allow us to eat "ghore" at that time. She would
say: "Tinsanche ghore khal'lear ratche dont choddtele ani magir tum pottan
chabta mhunnon bob martolo" (if you eat "ghore" late in the evening you will
get worm disease at night and then you will yell and complain that you have a
stomach ache." As we know, children always like to do the opposite. So, we
would sometimes dodge our mother, defy her instructions and eat "ghore" - the
result: as soon as we had our dinner and went to bed, we would complain of
stomach ache. Obviously, mother would get angry with us and say: "Hanvem tuka
sanglelem ghore khainaka, torui punn tuvem khal'le; atam khuimchem vokot
haddum?" (I told you not to eat "ghore" but you did; from where shall I get
the medicine now?) The only medicine that she could think of in the middle of
the night and which was available at home was cashew fenni. So, she would pour
half a kals of fenni, give it to us and say: "He kalsik soddsodit ghontt mar,
chador angar vodd ani ugich nid." (Quickly sip the liquor from the cup, cover
yourself with a bed sheet, and go to sleep.) Within less than half an hour,
the stomach ache would be gone - the worms would be dealt with and we would
get a good night's sleep.
Overall, there is some resistance to the jackfruit, attributed to the belief
that overindulgence in it causes digestive ailments, but it is the raw, unripe
fruit that is astringent and indigestible. The ripe fruit is somewhat
laxative; if eaten in excess it will cause diarrhea. Raw jackfruit seeds are
indigestible due to the presence of a powerful trypsin inhibitor. This element
is destroyed by boiling or baking.
Our Capo-Rosall jackfruit tree mentioned above always yielded dozens of
jackfruits every year - so much so that we would send them to neighbors as
gifts. Whenever we sent half a jackfruit to our neighbors, we would place a
piece of paper on the inner cut side so as to prevent the flow of "pank."
Anyone who visited us during the summer would be gifted with a jackfruit; we
also sold some, but all of this came to an end after the following incident.
It was March 1963. The festival of Holi usually takes place around this time
of the year. As always, our jackfruit tree was full of fruits from top to
bottom, including its lower trunk, and most of them were mature. Since it was
a full moon night, the moon shone so brightly that one could easily recognize
passers by. Just like on All Souls Day, mischievous boys from villages play
pranks on neighbors on the Holi festival night by stealing their fruits like
mangoes, papayas, bananas, jackfruits, etc. Knowing this, we decided to guard
the fruits by keeping awake that night. We sat on the large sopo (seat made of
stones) in our balcao behind a "zhodd" (a partition made of coconut leaves)
and whenever we heard any footsteps we would cough or talk loudly to let them
know that we were on vigil. We were able to foil at least ten attempts from
8:30 p.m. till 4.00 a.m. At around 5:00 a.m., since it was almost dawn, we
dispersed and went to sleep. When we woke up at around 9:00 a.m., the best,
mature jackfruits were gone - 30 in number!
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Obviously, while we kept vigil,
the miscreants also had been keeping a watch on us. From that day till today
we have not seen a bumper crop on the tree; it still bears fruits but very
few. They say: "Chorteleacho hath boro assonk zai." Roughly translated, it
means that a robber's hand must be good and/or lucky. Surely, whoever had
stolen our jackfruits did not have lucky hands, which is why till today the
tree does not bear as much fruit as before. It sounds strange and it is hard
to believe but it is true.
Believe it or not!
..... to be continued....
Moi-mogan,
Domnic Fernandes
Anjuna/Dhahran, KSA
http://www.goa-world.com/
http://yahoogroups.com/group/gulf-goans/
