A fair to make Thiruvathira yummy

Puzhukku, a traditional fusion food, made of vegetables and tubers is still a desired dish of Malayalis, even though it may not be quite popular among the new-generation foodies.

The spicy item is also a special cuisine for the Thiruvathira festival.

Keeping in mind the significance of the dishduring Thiruvathira, Green View, a collective of organic farmers from Kozhikode, has organised a fair at Muthalakkulam in the city exclusively for the ingredients of

puzhukku .

The fair opened by Mayor A.K. Premajam on Thursday has all the traditional ingredients, including

kappa (tapioca), kachil (yam), nedrakka (raw banana), chembu (colocasia), chena (elephant yam), and Mathan (pumpkin) for preparing the dish.

“Almost all the items on sale are cultivated by the members of our collective,” says M.P. Rajul Kumar, president of Green View.

He said they deliberately timed the fair with the Thiruvathira season as it would be helpful for the city folks, many of whom would love to prepare

puzhukku to relive their sweet memories of a time when they prepared it at their ancestral home once.

“No pesticides or chemical fertilisers has been used for the production of any of these items,” said Mr. Rajul Kumar.

Besides the ingredient for puzhukku , the fair also features other varieties of organically produced vegetables such as cucumber, ashguard, bitterguard, cowpea and spinach.

“We also have saplings of a variety of vegetables for sale at the fair,” he said, maintaining that the prices of the items are slightly more than the rate of items in the market since they were organically produced. The three-day fair would end on Saturday.

A fair to make Thiruvathira yummy

Organic farm fair for ingredients of ‘puzhukku’