Plucking Goraka nuts

Goraka trees are grown covering more space in the land. They have more branches. It is a taller tree. It flowers once a year and gives more fruits in every branch. Some Goraka trees blooms flowers but no fruits. After the flowers are bloomed, it takes several months to become fruits. When the fruits are large and yellow, people pluck them one by one by climbing tree. Sometime they have to use a small hook to pick the nuts. They gather nuts into sacks and carry them home for preparation for drying.

Drying huks at the sun light  

At the second stage, farmers peel them one by one and remove seed at center out. More people like to eat removed kern of Goraka as it is good favor and has ayurvedic value. Some people throw away them. Plants can be obtained from the seeds that thrown away at their own garden the several month later. The thick husks are kept at the sun for drying several days.

Preparing to sale

Gradually, they are becoming dark when they are drying. Farmers know very well the stage to finish the drying process. They keep small part of dried Goraka for home use and rest part are to be sold in bulk or by packing into small bags. Most of the buyers in towns are willing to buy them in bulk. Price range will be varied season to season and time to time. Further, prices will be differed zone to zone too.

Preparation of Siyambala at home

Majority of the Siyambala trees in Sri Lanka are tall and large. Young trees are in medium size. Flowers bloom once a year and yield in every branch of the tree. When the tree with full of flowers, bees come toward it. It will help to give more yield.

Siyambala trees are common in dry zone in Sri Lanka. When the Siyambala pods are matured, people climb into the small trees to pick pods. But, if the tree is large and tall, people cannot climb it. Then, they clean the ground under the tree to pick fallen pods. They collect pods and then put in the sun light to get dry.

At the second stage of the Siyambala preparation, villagers peel the pods and add bit of salt to kern and then keep them in the sun light for further drying. Several days later, those are getting dark in color. Farmers know practically the dried status of the pods and take to home.

 There are so many siyambala buyers in some areas in Sri Lanka. Prepared Siyambala are sold to buyers in bulk or small pieces. In the market, some can buy them as small packets of 100 grams, 200 grams, 250 grams so on.

Consumers prefer to add small bit of Siyambala to some vegetable curries to make them flavor. Some consumers make a drink with Siyambala, since they consider it as medicine.

Crushing mills are available in some towns. People take dried kaha roots to mills to get back powder. Small bit of kaha powder are added to the Sri Lankan curry dishes when they are cooking.

At the preparation ofYantra Mantra(charming) performances, raw kaha are used to color the thread which prepared to wrap arm or neck. It is belief that kaha has a power to kill germs. Based on this, most of the sellers in the town spread liquid made by mixed with kaha powder on the ground prior to opening their shop rooms.

Preparation of Puwak (Areca nut) at home

Areca nut trees are grown in wed zone in Sri Lanka fruitfully. It is very common tree in Kagalle, Matale, Kandy and Rathnapura Districts. The Puwak tree grow several meters in height with thin stem. Since the most of the villagers do not pay more attention for the areca net cultivation, the trees are spread disorderly within the home gardens with other trees. Puwak plants are sprung up from the nuts fallen in the ground without any attention from the owners. However, they grows very well with favorable climate conditions in Sri Lanka. Several years later, the puwak tree givesa bunch of flowers covered by a pouch in top of the tree.

Puwak flowers are used at the charming performances by exorcists. Sometime, dancers use small piece of puwak flower branch for their performance. At the pirithchanting, it is used to decorate the pirith cabin by Buddhist devotees. At some ritual events, some people use puwak flower for pandal decorations.

However, It takes several months to become nuts after the flowers booms. When the nuts are mature, they become yellow in color. This is the puwak harvesting time. Villagers climb the tree and pick up bunch of nuts and drop them to ground. Sometime, it is not possible to climb to tall tree due to very thin stem, they are waiting for falling the nuts into ground to collect them.  

Puwak collectors have several choices what to do for them. One choice is to sell them as it is to another collector in boutiques at the town. Some peel the nuts and use pieces of them with the chew of betel. Villagers who have lot of puwak nuts keep them in a gantry to dry them with smoke or in a mat to dry with sun light. After several weeks in drying, nuts become gray or black in color is called karunka. With the help of the friends, villagers begin to cut Puwak to get seeds out. They are now ready to sell at the markets for high prices. Another choice is to keep puwak under the mud in several months to use them at the off-seasons. Such puwak nuts are introduced as Madapuwak. At the off seasons, they are used to eat with betel or sold to get money.

However, Sri Lanka exports puwak nuts to other countries as well.