Mangaluru: For fruit lovers, the Urban Haat at Pilikula was the favourite destination this weekend. Various types of fruits and fruit products with typical local flavours were on display at the two-day Fruit Mela that was held on Saturday and Sunday.
From berries to jackfruit, there were varieties and varieties of fruits for sale. Adding to the flavour of the Mela were various fruit products especially local traditional products and sweets. Hundreds of people participated and most of the products sold like hot cakes within hours.
'Santhani,' (dried, salted jackfruit seed), 'Uppad Pacchir,' (Jackfruit pieces preserved in salt), preserved wild jackfruit, fig fruit and other traditional items were in great demand in the stall of Ganesh Prabhu of Karnire. "These products are difficult to get for people in cities. We had a good demand for these traditional items. In particular, those who are settled in Mumbai and other distant places demand these items," Ganesh Prabhu told Deccan Chronicle.
The stall of Pingara Thotagarika Utpadakara Company had various kinds of jackfruit items on display right from Pappad to Halwa. "We have various products like Pappad, Mambalam, Chips, Jackfruit seed, jackfruit pieces and beratti (used for Payasam). The item most in demand is Jackfruit Halwa," he added.
Another stall had various types of Guava- in different sizes and colours- to offer. "We have about 10 varieties of Guava," explained stall owner Ravishankar. The other most crowded stalls were those of mangoes from Ramanagara.
"We rarely see so many fruit varieties at one venue. We not only purchased fruits but plants too. I purchased about 3 varieties of jackfruit saplings. It is a really good event," Harish, a businessman from Kavoor said.
"We also enjoyed some of the food items prepared from these fruits. It was a great weekend," he added.
