Tamil Nadu | Pongal, jaggery and a vanishing tradition

Till recently, the aerial successful Veeramangudi, successful Papanasam taluk of Tamil Nadu’s Thanjavur district, utilized to beryllium redolent with the fragrance of caramelised sugarcane juice, acknowledgment to the implicit 100 family-run jaggery units here. Of precocious though, these factories person started closing down owed to an onslaught of yellowish leafage illness successful the sugarcane crop.

In their heyday, these units specialised successful the brushed and crumbly atchu vellam (jaggery acceptable into cubical woody moulds). A 2024 exertion for a Geographical Indication (GI) tag by the Veeramangudi Atchuvellam Producers Association, Thiruvaiyaru, reveals that the factories successful and astir the colony nutrient astir 245 tonnes of jaggery (7,000 bags of 35 kg each) annually.

The atchu vellam makers present cater to bigger retailers successful Thanjavur and besides merchantability their banal astatine the Neikkarapatti jaggery marketplace adjacent Palani, says P. Sathyaseelan, a third-generation husbandman and jaggery shaper from Veeramangudi. “It is nary longer a profitable business. We are carrying connected lone due to the fact that it is our household tradition, and we bash not privation it to vanish similar different agrarian occupations,” helium says.

A 30 kg sack of Veeramangudi atchu vellam typically fetches astir ₹1,350 successful the market. “This is rather a tenable price, but of late, we person been incapable to get adjacent this, due to the fact that of the unusable crop,” adds Sathyaseelan.

Integral portion of Tamil Nadu

Jaggery is an affectional constituent of Asian cuisine. It turns up successful location remedies, Ayurvedic medicines and arsenic wedding gifts, and is the flavour definer successful accepted saccharine dishes like pongal, thothal/ dodol and chikki, too being a spice stabiliser in sambar and rasam.

In Tamil Nadu, 1 of the 5 large sugarcane producing states successful India (along with Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Gujarat), galore agrarian communities trust connected jaggery accumulation from sugarcane (known as vellam) and thenar sweetener (karuppatti) to cater to larger retailers, particularly during the festival play that stretches from October to March.

During the Pongal festival being celebrated crossed the State this week, the making of sakkarai pongal — a saccharine mentation made with freshly harvested rice, moong dal and jaggery successful earthen pots connected firewood stoves — is simply a treasured ritual symbolising prosperity and thanksgiving.

Traditionally, vellam makers are farmers who turn their ain sugarcane, and process it for jaggery making successful tiny thatched moving sheds wrong their fields. Sugarcane ‘bagasse’ (the adust pulpy residue near aft the extraction of juice) is utilized arsenic substance to navigator the jaggery syrup down connected ample flat-bottomed pans.

Largely a self-sustaining cottage industry, Tamil Nadu’s jaggery hotspots see Salem, Erode, Namakkal, Madurai and Virudhunagar. Many villages successful the Cauvery delta portion besides nutrient artisanal jaggery successful important quantities.

Made with attraction and precision

Recently, earlier copious rains deed the Cauvery delta region, husbandman Aravinth and his co-workers prepared a batch of atchu vellam, with a premix of aged and caller technology. Gone are the cattle-driven foodstuff extractor machines, their spot taken by a noisy motorised thresher. The foodstuff is directed done an inbuilt transmission into the koprai, a elephantine metallic level cookware acceptable connected a raised earthen stove that is lit up with ample batches of bagasse fibre. A maestro navigator and his assistants disturbance the foodstuff continuously with the assistance of agelong paddle spoons for up to 2 hours until it thickens. “You cannot permission the substance unattended, arsenic it tin pain easy erstwhile caramelisation starts,” says Sathyaseelan.

The concentrated cane sweetener syrup is removed from the cookware and allowed to remainder for a portion earlier it is poured into the atchu (mould) successful woody frames. Around 15 minutes later, the moulded jaggery is tapped retired of the frames, cured for 30 minutes, and past packed successful sacks.

On the cusp of change

The labour-intensive manufacturing method has reduced the fig of jaggery producers successful galore regions of Tamil Nadu. Modern-day concern mills person shifted the processing from farms to factories. “Many farmers are moving distant from sugarcane cultivation due to the fact that its harvesting needs other labour. And with the prolonged blistery upwind patterns, astir of the harvest is utilized for making foodstuff oregon refined sugar. Only those with the fiscal resources tin spend to nutrient jaggery profitably,” says M. Karthikeyan, secretary, Tamil Nadu Jaggery Merchants Association, Madurai.

However, health-conscious municipality consumers are driving the request for bully prime jaggery. “In today’s culinary world, wherever farm-to-table and section ingredients are utilized for sustainability, jaggery stands retired naturally. It is made with precise small processing, dissimilar refined sugar,” says M.S. Raj Mohan, cook and head, Department of Hotel Management, G.T.N. Arts College, Dindigul.

Mohan says that jaggery besides scores implicit achromatic sweetener with its flavour and aroma. “In classical recipes, replacing jaggery with achromatic sweetener changes the flavour, texture, and wide psyche of the dish. It blends good with spices similar cardamom, ginger, cumin and pepper, and contains minerals similar iron, calcium, and potassium.”

nahla.nainar@thehindu.co.in