Extraction of date juice has begun in all the eight upazilas of Jashore district. With the advent of the winter ‘gachhies’ (date juice extractors) are now busy trimming date trees to collect sweet juice for making molasses.

A gachhi cuts a part of a date palm tree and then fixes a bamboo pipe there to collect juice. The juice flows through the pipe into an earthen pot throughout the night and is collected the next morning. The juice is either sold raw or molasses is prepared from it. Every winter the local people drink huge quantity of date juice in the district.

Molasses has a great demand all over the country. A large quantity of molasses is sent to different other parts of the country during the winter season. Wives of the farmers husk paddy and prepare rice with much enthusiasm in this time of the year.

They arrange “Nabanna” festival on the first day of the Bangla month Agrahayan. The house wives prepare various kinds of cakes with the rice flour.  

The winter brings a festive mood to the villagers, particularly to the farmers. They get to enjoy different kinds of winter cakes made from new rice along with the molasses. Payesh is nother famous dish prepared from rice and molasses.

The best quality molasses when dried is locally known as ‘patali gur’. Jashore and its adjoining districts including Jhenidah, Narail, Magura, Satkhira and Khulna are famous for date juice and its molasses.

Dulal Mia, a date juice extractor of Panchbaria village of sadar upazila said Tk 70 to 80 is required to prepare 1 kg of patali gur, which then sold for 150–180 a kg. Five litres of juice are needed to prepare a kg of molasses, he added.  A survey conducted by local forest department revealed there are some 40,000 date trees in Jashore district and about 500 tonnes of molasses are being produced every year.