Mangaluru (The Hindu): Bunches of ‘kembal kai’, a wild fruit, locally called ‘sanyasi kai’, used in making pickle was the cynosure of all eyes at the organic mela organised by the Department of Agriculture at Kadri Park here on Tuesday.

Srinivas, a farmer from Bantwal, who exhibited it, said that it grew in a creeper which is found in some pockets of the Western Ghats. ‘Kembal kai’ is not widespread in the Western Ghats region. “We can find it only in some forests,” he said.

Mr. Srinivas said that it had a light salty taste. If put it in brine for 90 days before making pickle, the product would last three years and the pickle taste would remain intact. “Its quality will be good,” he said.

The farmer also exhibited ‘mara tondekai’ (ivy gourd grown in a creeper) which is used as a vegetable. He said that commonly used ivy gourd available in market is cultivated by allowing its creeper to spread in a pendal. It is thin in size, while ‘mara todekai’ is thick in size. Gopalakrishna Bhat of Adkathimar, Bayar, had put on sale Taiwan red lady papaya. He said that he had 1,200 saplings of the variety.

Farmers had brought home grown pineapple, jackfruit, mango, vegetables, leaf vegetables, jackfruit happala, honey rice and other products for exhibition and sale. There were some jackfruit saplings for sale.

Billampadavu Narayana Bhat of Vitla had put on sale seeds of local vegetables. He had been preserving the seeds of more than 35 varieties of vegetables grown by him organically since 2002.