Pathanamthitta: The tradition of preparing a special kind of jaggery has been continued for several centuries, and now it is on the verge of extinction. The Central Travancore Jaggery more popularly known as the CTJ, which is a GI-tagged product that is extremely popular for its unbeatable ability to measure sweetness, is striving for a return to its old glory., reports The Hindu.
Happily, the Agriculture Research Station (ARS) in Thiruvalla is toiling day and night to rediscover this gastronomic legacy. At the moment the station is producing CTJ which is a highly manual method that includes the crushing of sugarcane and boiling the juice for several hours. As a consequence, it forms a delicate toffee-like product which is neither quite a soft cheese nor a solid one but halfway between the two.
CTJ has special characteristics which are due to the riverine alluvium soils in the area as has been described by the assistant professor of the ARS, Jinsa Naseem. ‘However, since the leading raw material in CTJ production, sugarcane is no longer produced due to closure of sugar mills that were established in the beginning’, the manufacture of the contraband has sharply declined.
Jayakumar G., Assistant Professor of Agronomy, further explained that CTJ is very valuable in Ayurveda because of its taste – sweet and natural. He stressed: ‘This is a part of our history that we can hardly surrender, it is lucrative’.
Now the ARS is in the process of replicating it in an attempt to bring back the cultivation of sugarcane and encourage the public to consume more CTJ. It aims at ensuring not only the bearing of a specific kitchenette tradition but also the ensuring of the livelihood of farmers across the area.
