Jak fruit as a tree of rice
Jak (English), kos or herali (Sinhala), pilakai or palakai (Tamil)
Artocarpus heterophyllus (botanical name).
The jak tree grows in most parts of Sri Lanka. The average height is
25 feet. Fruit bearing is in about the third year. Most trees bear
fruits during the Yala season, which is from May to September. There are
a few trees that bear fruit from October to April. Some trees bear
fruits throughout the year. There is also a hybrid variety of a lower
height, which starts bearing fruit at eighteen months. Though it is a
year round crop, the tree and the fruit is small and the total yield is
also less than the traditional variety.
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Jak fruit |
Plucking of fruit is done by men who climb the trees. Fruit available
at a lower height is plucked by women using long poles. The mature fruit
is used as an alternative for rice. When curried, it becomes an
accompaniment for rice. As ripe jak is very sweet it is used as a
dessert. Jak is given to breast feeding mothers to increase their milk
content.
During the Second World War jak was promoted by the philanthropist
Arthur V. Diyes as a 'Tree of Rice'. He became known as Kos Mama ('Jak
Uncle'). Jak timber is expensive and its raw leaves are used for cattle
and goat fodder and the dry leaves are taken for manure.
Jak bulbs are sun dried, either boiled or raw. It is important to
note that no washing is done at any stage in processing. When washed the
moisture content is increased. This will bring about negative effect.
Then drying in the sun helps.
Tearing the bulb lengthwise with fingers is said to be better than
cutting by knife because it minimize shriveling in drying. Seeds of the
mature or ripe fruit are used for processing. Tender jak can be pickled.
Ripe jak can be kept for a long time by the air tightening method of
covering it with a mud coating. As we did not receive any information
about lengthening the storage life span of ripe jak it seems to be a
dying art.
Source: Jak: The Heavenly Food edited by
Sunethra Rajakarunanayake |
