When we catch up with Rajasree R, she is in the midst of preparing jackfruit-based delicacies for a television interview. The agripreneur has been busy ever since she was chosen for the ‘Best Jackfruit Processor/Other Value Addition 2021’ award instituted by the Kerala Government. “It is an encouragement for me and for those who have been promoting value-added products of jackfruit,” she says.
While the products are processed and manufactured at a unit she runs in Panayil near Nooranad in Alappuzha, where she hails from, she markets them from her residence in Thiruvananthapuram. Besides value-added products from jackfruit, she sells products made of banana, tapioca and organic rice that are grown at her farm under the brand, Fruit n’ Root, launched nearly six years ago.
Jackfruit or chakka, the official fruit of Kerala, has evolved as a superfood with all parts of the fruit — carpels, seeds, rags, core — used to make a wide range of products.
Product range
Rajasree says that she has made over 400 products from jackfruit — tender, raw and ripe. In addition to jackfruit-based curries, desserts and snacks that Malayali households are familiar with, the list has burger patties, pasta, noodles, vermicelli, chocolates and more.
Even the prickly rind is not wasted, she says. It is an ingredient in dahashamani (a herbal drinking water mix). The rind is used also in tooth powder.
She has not spared the latex as well! It goes into homemade kajal ( kanmashi). “There are age-old methods of making kanmashi, using betel leaf, kayyonni ( bhringaraj or false daisy) and castor oil. I added latex as well. However, this product is not commercially manufactured,” she says.
She has also made soap and tea from the fruit but refuses to divulge the ingredients and method of preparation!
Rajasree, 50, has been living outside Kerala for over 15 years with her husband, Saish K Pillai, an engineer, and their two sons, Devadath and Vishnudath. “Whenever I came home, I used to take back sun-dried jackfruit bulbs and seeds with me. While my friends used to love it, I didn’t because they used to have a distinctive, unpleasant smell. Later, when I decided to settle in Thiruvananthapuram six years ago for my sons’ education, I came across the technology to dehydrate jackfruit carpels and seeds and make value-added products from it. I attended a course at Krishi Vigyan Kendra (KVK) at Kayamkulam and that just changed my life,” she says.
After the training, she took part in a competition to make jackfruit-based products. “Among the 12 items that I prepared were soup with jackfruit seed and rind, payasam with raw jackfruit, chocolates from ripe carpels, burger (patty with raw jackfruit), momos (wheat flour-jackfruit floor sheet with sweet or spicy jackfruit filling)…,” she shares.
She had taken a FSSAI (Food Safety and Standards Authority of India) licence by then. “My plan was to introduce products that are not commonly made. My sons love burger and pasta and I wanted to make healthy variants of the same by reducing the quantity of refined flour ( maida) that goes into them. So I used jackfruit flour instead,” she says.
Fruit n Root’s jackfruit pasta was launched in 2017 at VAIGA (Value Addition for Income Generation in Agriculture), an annual agri-business event to showcase the latest trends and techniques. It is organised by Kerala Government with the support of the Government of India and various research organisations. “The Central Tuber Crops Research Institute (CTCRI) in Thiruvananthapuram has a machine to make tapioca pasta. I attended a course at the Institute and learnt to make value-added products from tapioca. I was allowed to use the machine to make jackfruit pasta and once I got the technology transfer, I launched the product,” she says. She still uses this machine at CTCRI to make pasta and some value-added products of tapioca.
In between, she managed to set up the processing and manufacturing unit at Nooranad where 10 people including eight women are employed. “It was not all easy in the beginning. Every house in my native place has at least 10 jack trees, but tonnes of fruit go wasted every year. So I approached women in the neighbourhood to see if they could slice the carpels and seeds and dry them. Initially, they weren’t serious about it. It took me almost a year to make them realise the importance of the product. After that I taught them to make different products from jackfruit,” she says. The unit is set up with a subsidy from Small Farmers Agribusiness Consortium (SFAC) Kerala.
However, some people tried to dissuade these women. “But I persisted and we put together a small food festival where the women I trained showcased jackfruit-based products they had made. All items were sold out by noon and that was the first step towards winning the trust of the people,” she says.
Fruit n’ Root’s jackfruit products include flours to make breakfast dishes such as idiyappam, chapathi, poori and the like. The flour is mixed with rice flour or wheat flour to prepare these dishes.
Versatile fruit
“There is no end to the delicacies you can prepare with jackfruit. I make jackfruit idli, for which raw jackfruit is steamed, ground to a fine paste and added to rice and urad dal mix. Dried jackfruit powder is used to prepare uppumavu. I have stocked frozen ripe and raw carpels. The ripe ones are usually used to make Panasamritham, a jelly-like dessert with jackfruit, jaggery, ghee and cardamom. Curd and sambharam made from jackfruit puree and snacks, pickle and curries made using tender jackfruit ( idichakka) are other products,” she explains.
Before the lockdown, she used to sell Chakkapothi – rice and jackfruit dishes wrapped in sauteed banana leaf. The traditional Kerala sadya can also be an all-jackfruit affair, she says. Sambar, avial, thoran, erissery, pachadi, pickle (made with jackfruit rags), payasam, masala curry…jackfruit can go into all of them. “You can make pappadam with raw jackfruit pulp. Adding sago enhances the taste,” Rajasree says.
Jackfruit seed flour can be used for multiple purposes. “I got the training to make avalosepodi and chammanthipodi at KVK. It can also be used to make cakes, chocolates, gulab jamun, toffee, munthirikothu…”
Rajasree points out that it is high time people learn about government schemes to set up agri-based enterprises with home-grown produce. “Even otherwise, if you have jackfruit at home, you can easily sun-dry the bulbs, store them and use them when needed. It was during the lockdown that people foraged their backyards for vegetables and jackfruit came to the rescue in many households,” she says.
(Check out Rajasree’s YouTube page, Fruit n’ Root for videos of some jackfruit-based dishes)
