Date juice village busy

With the onset of winter season, Sarkerpara village, popularly known as date juice village, in Kamarpukur union under Saidpur upazila is buzzing with activity.

Date juice collectors, locally called gachhi, are passing busy time in collecting fresh, sweet juice from hundreds of date trees. They will be doing brisk business for the next three months.

People of all ages wait eagerly for winter season every year to enjoy the traditional natural drink and tasty molasses, which is used to make delicious cakes, payes and other sweets.

On a visit to the village at dawn recently, this correspondent found long rows of juice producing date trees on every roadside, around cultivable land, and in homesteads, a sight that is not seen in other areas.

Ferdous Karim Kazol, a social worker of the village, said his grandfather late Shahanuddin Sarker, chairman of Kamarpukur union parishad four decades ago, had great fascination for date trees as our Holy Prophet's birth place, Arabia, is adorned with date trees.

From this sacred inspiration, his grandfather started planting date trees in the village with his own money, Kazol said, adding that Shahanuddin advised his son Aminur Sarker to continue planting date trees. Aminur followed his father's advice by planting around 600 date trees, Kazol added.

Fifteen juice collectors from nearby villages got permission from land owners to collect juice from date trees for the next three months by paying Tk 300 for the juice from each tree, said juice collector Abu Bakkar.

“We cut the tree tops with special type of curved knife to extract four to five kg of juice daily from each tree and collect it in earthen pitchers,” he added.

They sell a portion of the juice to local consumers at Tk 30 per kg, who enjoy it as a refreshing drink, juice collectors said, adding that they sell the rest to wholesalers from distant places, who condense the juice by heating it and take it to Rajshahi, Natore and other places for making tasty date molasses.

“We cannot think of making cakes, payes and other delicious food items without date juice,” said housewives Momena Begum and Noorjahan.

Md Amiruzzaman, former chairman of Kamarpukur union parishad, said many people are cutting down date trees to sell to brick kilns at high price and planting fruit or woody trees to get higher profit. If this continues, date trees will disappear from the village soon, he added.

Saidpur Upazila Agriculture Officer Homaira Mondol said date trees prevent erosion. Dates can be processed to make a delicious drink that can be exported to European countries, she said, adding that investors should think about it.