It is the end of March, and the temperature is soaring with the arrival of summer. But there is reason to celebrate, with fruits such as watermelons, musk melons, grapes, mangoes, and guavas flooding the market. Fruit lovers know the sheer delight of biting into a juicy watermelon, feasting on luscious, sweet mangoes and munching on sweet-tangy grapes.
There is also a profusion of international fruits, from Kiwis to fancy apples, and pears, peaches and plums. The sheer variety of fruits would leave one spoilt for choice. Dr. S.V. Hittalmani, former additional director of fruits, department of horticulture, who at present works as an advisor in the department says that since the world is divided into the Northern and Southern Hemispheres, one part of the globe will experience winter and the other part summer, and vice versa, and so there is no dearth of summer fruits. “There are imported apples from New Zealand, Washington, Japan, and China, and Kiwi fruit from New Zealand. From South-East Asian countries, we get durian, rambutan, langsat and longan. From Thailand, we get sweet tamarind and big-sized guavas. Black currants, cherries, peaches and plums come from Mediterranean countries.”
The most popular fruits during summer are watermelons, says G.C. Kumar, assistant manager, fruits and vegetables, Reliance Retail Limited, Bengaluru. “The Kiran watermelon is very popular. Musk melon, melody melon and sun melon are the second most popular, for their juice.”
People also look forward to the mango season, which begins from the first week of May. “Mangoes in varieties of Sindhura, Badami, Mallika, Sugar baby, Dilpasand, Kalpad and Neelam are very popular,” explains G.C. Kumar. Pavithra H, a software engineer says, “I wait for the mango season because for me, the king of fruits — the mango — makes summer special.”
Kumar says that though fruits cultivated in India are popular, imported fruits such as apple Fuji, apple Washington, apple royal gala, green apple, apple rose, kiwi fruit, Shandong pear, pears from US and South Africa, golden pear, imported plums, imported red globe grapes and guavas from Malaysia and Thailand are available too.
Red globe a variety of seeded red grapes that mostly come from Chile are also cultivated in Bangalore, says Dr. Hittalmani. “Red globes cultivated here are in no way inferior to those that from Chile. In fact, they are of high export quality.” Aslam Khan, a fruit vendor, says the quality of imported fruits isn’t as good as fruits cultivated in India. “People just get excited seeing apples with the tag ‘New Zealand’ attached to them. Imported fruits are no match to our watermelons, melons and mangoes. My fruit business does well during summer. Watermelons are a clear favourite. And imported fruits are quite expensive — who would spend so much money on them? People prefer to eat cut fruit and fruits chaats from vendors, and drink fruit juices too.”
Swetha, a college student, prefers watermelons. “I like watermelon juice in particular. It’s healthy and refreshing.” Dr. Hittalmani agrees. “Watermelons are high in sugar and minerals. There are native melons too, but they are no match to musk melons.”
