Jaggery

Listing ID #887949

Karuppatti - palm jaggery panai vellam. Palm jaggery is a kind of sweetener used in south india. In my native place, palm jaggery extraction is a well known cottage industry. It is used in preparing many indian medicines especially the tamil medicines and healthy food. When mixed with tamarind extract and dry ginger, it is believed to treat uti and kidney stones. It is also believed to be a healthy and less calorific sugar for everyone. From the root to the top, the whole tree can be used for one purpose or another. Some of the useful things we get from palm tree are, palm root (panan kilangu), thavun (germinating seed), panan kuruthu (tender edible leaves), fuel from leaves and trunk, strong wood for construction, neera pathaneer (palmira juice), palm leaf fan and some crafts, nongunungu (unripe palm fruit), a very sweet palm fruit and of course the palm jaggery also. The best part is this tree won't need much irrigation or attention, so it can be cultivated in hot arid conditions also. As the whole tree serves the humans in many ways, they call it as karpaga virutcham (a mythical tree that can give whatever we wish for). The coffee made with this karipotti, will taste great even without milk. Because of lesser awareness and negligence the palmyra trees are fast vanishing from our farms.