Mangaluru,(The Hindu): The sweet aroma of jackfruit wafted in the air and different varieties of the fruit were on display at the two-day Jackfruit Mela organised by the district administration and the Department of Horticulture, which began at the Flower Auction Centre, Doddanagudde, here on Saturday.

Many stalls selling jackfruit and its products were put up at the centre. Jackfruit producers’ societies from within the district and from other districts are participating in the mela, which attracted crowds on the inaugural day itself.

Products on sale included chips, ice cream, idli, pickles and many other delicacies.

For those interested in cultivating jackfruit trees, a variety of saplings including Singapore, Samridhi, gumless, Chandra Bakke, and ‘super early’ are available for sale. “We have a large variety of jackfruit at Sanoor and many people come there and purchase them,” said Shankar Prabhu, member of Sanoor Halasu Belegarara Sangha.

Mani, entrepreneur from Bengaluru, said that his firm had been producing jackfruit pulp, which could be used for making juice, milkshake and ‘panaka.’

Hard work

Saraswati, entrepreneur from Mangaluru, was selling jackfruit ‘undalika.’ She said preparing ‘undalika’ required a lot of hard work and patience. “Very few do it now. I have brought it here so that people can purchase and taste it,” she said.

Geeta S., entrepreneur from Kallianpur, was preparing ‘Jackfruit Dilkush.’

“It is done by grinding and mixing jackfruit, jaggery and ‘rava’ and then steamed with in leaves,” she said.

Ravikumar, a grower from Tubagere village in Bengaluru Rural district, had brought different varieties of jackfruits such as “chandra halasu,” “rudrakshi halasu”, “kempu halasu” and “haladi halasu.” People surrounded his stall to taste these sweet varieties and to purchase them. “Only jackfruits grown in our region can give you this kind of sweetness. There is lot of demand for the jackfruits we have brought,” he said.

Earlier, K. Raghupati Bhat, MLA, inaugurated the jackfruit mela.