Tapping of date juice begins in Jashore

Preparation for the tapping of date juice has begun in all the eight upazilas of Jessore district. Hundreds of ‘gachhies’ (juice extractors) are now busy trimming the date trees to collect the sweet date juice that is used for making molasses. Winter has already set in and people are waiting for the arrival of date juice. There is a festive mood in the air. Farmers have begun carrying the newly harvested T-Amon paddy home from fields.
Women of farmer families husk the paddy and get the new rice. They prepare for the Nabanna festival held on the first day of the Bangla month Agrahayan. On that day, they prepare a variety of delicious rice cakes with rice flour. But one cannot imagine making rice cakes without ‘gur’ (molasses) made from date juice.
Solid chunks of molasses are locally known as ‘patali’, the best quality of which is called Nalini patali. The molasses are made by boiling the date juice.
Jessore and its adjoining districts are famous for patali gur, which is sent to Dhaka, Chattogram and other parts of the country.
Abdul Jabber, an extractor of date juice in Khajura village under Bagerpara upazila, says Tk. 70–80 is needed to make one kg of patali gur, which sells for Tk. 150–80 a kg.
A survey by the local forest department has revealed that there are about 45,000 date trees in the eight upazilas of Jessore district and about five tones of molasses are produced each year from the juice extracted from those trees.
The survey has also revealed that many date trees were destroyed this year by an unknown disease. At the same time, about 25,000 date trees have been planted in the district.

 

Tapping of date juice begins in Jashore

Preparation for the tapping of date juice has begun in all the eight upazilas of Jessore district. Hundreds of gachhies (juice extractors) are now busy trimming the date trees to collect the sweet date juice that is used for making molasses. Winter has already set in and people are waiting for the arrival of date juice. There is a festive mood in the air. Farmers have begun carrying the newly harvested T-Amon paddy home from fields. Women of farmer families husk the paddy and get the new rice. They prepare for the Nabanna festival held on the first day of the Bangla month Agrahayan. On that day, they prepare a variety of delicious rice cakes with rice flour. But one cannot imagine making rice cakes without gur (molasses) made from date juice. Solid chunks of molasses are locally known as patali, the best quality of which is called Nalini patali. The molasses are made by boiling the date juice. Jessore and its adjoining districts are famous for patali gur, which is sent to Dhaka, Chattogram and other parts of the country. Abdul Jabber, an extractor of date juice in Khajura village under Bagerpara upazila, says Tk. 7080 is needed to make one kg of patali gur, which sells for Tk. 15080 a kg. A survey by the local forest department has revealed that there are about 45,000 date trees in the eight upazilas of Jessore district and about five tones of molasses are produced each year from the juice extracted from those trees. The survey has also revealed that many date trees were destroyed this year by an unknown disease. At the same time, about 25,000 date trees have been planted in the district.