By Nandkumar Kamat
PERHAPS for the first time in the capital city of Goa, the princess among the cities of the orient, Panaji, two festivals have been organised simultaneously from May 6 to 8. One would focus on fruits of the Konkan region and the other one on wines. The fruit festival to be held at Campal has been publicized as �Konkan fruit festival� and is organized by the Botanical Society of Goa in association with CCP.
The wine festival is named �Grape Escape� and would be held within the premises of INOX. It is organized by Goa Tourism Development Corporation. As scientists working on Research and Development in fruit wine technology, we at the department of Botany, at Goa University have an intellectual stake in both these festivals.
Earlier, in this column, I had written on Goa as a fruit basket and the fun with fruit wine making. Both the articles were deeply appreciated. I had decided to hold a workshop on fruit wine making but we had to postpone it till May 2006 due to certain technical difficulties.
Nature and history has endowed Goa with a rich biodiversity of wild and introduced fruits. Domnic Fernandes had posted an interesting article recently on GoaNet on some Goan summer fruits such as zambalam, kanntam, chunnam and podkovam. Domnic has given very interesting and useful information with some touching nostalgia and has also offered a recipe to make excellent home made zamballam wine. This article was discussed by many Goans on the Net and it showed how much Goans love local fruits and their products.
The Konkan belt has been known since the days of Mohenjodaro and Harappa and the times of King Solomon as center of trans-oceanic maritime trade and commerce. Indians were lucky to be blessed by the Portuguese, the first colonial power to step in Asia, with exotic fruits from all over the world and especially from central and South America. This fact has been recognised by none other than the former director general of ICAR, Dr Randhawa in his four volume magnum opus �History of Agriculture in India�.
Where else would you find rose apples, different varieties of guava, custard apples, Adam�s fruit?
Interestingly, the most popular mango graft in the world Afonso/Hapus was named after Afonco de Albuquerque. But today, not Goa, but adjoining Sindhudurga district cultivates the largest quantity of this variety. Konkan fruit festival would be a golden opportunity for the students of cultural and horticultural history.
Similarly the �Grape Escape� wine festival would also stimulate interest in varieties of wines. Contrary to the belief of the western experts, Indian tradition of wine making and consumption dates back to the Ramayana period. Ramayana mentions four wines, the Arthashastra of Kautilya of Imperial Mauryan period mentions 12 wines and Charaka mentions 84 wines in his medical treatise. Fruit wines were named as Asavas and different fruit wines had different names in ancient India. Fruits of Kadamba tree yielded Kadambari. Fruits of Ber (Zizyphus) yielded Kaula, grapes were fermented to produce Madhu and Madhaika. Mahua flowers yielded Varuni. Jasmines were fermented to give jathi. Lord Rama offered Maireya a drink of royalty to Sita.
After trade contacts with the Roman empire India began consuming the famous Roman wines. Roman wine amphorae have been found all over the west and east coast of India. There is definite archaeological evidence that Goa used to import Roman wines. Pieces of Roman wine amphorae were found at Mapusa and Goa Velha. The western wine making technology was introduced by the missionaries from Europe in Goa from 16th century.
When I met Saligao�s famous wine maker, Edwin Saldanha he produced a profound knowledge of home wine making mostly from seasonally available fruits. It was with much persuasion that I succeeded to convince him to write a book on home wine making. This book now running in third edition, the only documentation so far produced in India on domestic or indigenous wine making technology.
Hundreds of Roman Catholic families in Goa make excellent fruit wines but only a few are willing to part with their secrets. Goa and rest of India would prosper if we convert the perishable fruits into value added wines. In this direction I encouraged Caroline Fernandes to take up a small project at Ravi S Naik College, Farmagudi a few years ago with sponsorship from UGC and Caroline succeeded in coming out with an excellent recipe for Papaya wine.
Later my student Kumud Phadte did research on fruit yeasts suitable for wine making. At present we have been successful in producing many fruit wines.
But our major emphasis is on developing commercial technology for production of Kokum wine. A project funded by Western Ghats Kokum foundation has begun under my guidance at Goa University aimed at production of 50 litres of organic kokum wine. If this is achieved successfully then we would transfer this process for validation to kokum cultivators in Goa and Konkan.
Similarly we have perfected the process for producing excellent sweet wine from Adam�s fruit (Mimusops kauki) which we claim as a pioneer research effort in the world. It is easy to produce grape wine. But grapes are not natural fruits of this region.
Our final objective is to fully indigenise the technology for mass production of the best and internationally acceptable quality fruit wines using our own in house researched wine making process and our own fermenting yeast strains which we would patent. This would launch Goa on the path of fruit wine biotechnology.
Until the process is perfected at 50 litres scale and all process parameters and quality parameters are analysed we cannot popularise the fruit wine technology. So interested people need to have some patience and hold back their inquiries.
In technology development reproducibility and quality assurance are very important. Many people produce wines from fruits in Goa but without any scientific monitoring and detail records of the fermentation parameters. Wines are health beverages of this century. Red wines are highly recommended for lowering cholesterol. So a combination of nutritious fruits of Konkan and sips of wine may do good to you. Be there for the fruit and wine festivals from May 6 to 8.
- Forwarded by http://www.goa-world.com
Link: http://www.goa-world.com/goa/fruitfest/
WHAT'S ON AROUND WITH THE GOANS IN THE GULF:
MAY BALL 2005
Date: 12-05-05 Organized by Goan Welfare Society (GWS)-Kuwait
Venue: Safir Palace Hotel, Riggea Band: Stepping Stones
Highlights: Crowning of the MAY QUEEN 2005.
Sponsors: Damas - the art of beauty,
Mughal Mahal - the fine art of dining,
and Siemens Mobile.
YGC BAHRAIN MAY QUEEN BALL
Date: 05-05-05 Organized by: Young Goans Club, Bahrain
Venue: Palace Inn Hotel Highlights: The YGC May Queen Contest
ANNUAL MAY QUEEN BALL
Date: 05-05-05 Organized by Goan Welfare Associate(GWA), Qatar
Venue: The Diplomatic Club. Highlights: Crowning of the May Queen.
UPCOMING EVENT IN GOA:
FRUIT FEST 2005 http://www.goa-world.com/goa/fruitfest/
Thought for Today:
Everything you are against weakens you.
Everything you are for empowers you.
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