The sweet fruit of labour
It has a heady saccharine punch, is pillow soft and holds large smooth seeds that get easily out your way when you take a bite. It’s cheap. It’s a powerhouse of potassium. It’s a diuretic. Now, a bunch of passionate sapota lovers want to give the chickoo it’s most needed character trait — glamour. At the fourth edition of the Chickoo Festival held over the weekend in coastal Bordi, while throngs enjoyed spirited performances by Warli tribals and shopped for agricultural produce at a hundred stalls, the fest’s committee members knew they were one step closer to focusing the customer, farming industry and government’s attention on a fruit synonymous with the surrounding towns of Bordi, Dahanu and Gholvad. “It’s more nutritious than the apple but not marketed aggressively like it,” said Amol Patil, a mechanical engineer who quit his job at Siemens in Mumbai to give a shot to agriculture and associated tourism. With the growing popularity of processed chickoo products (its powder makes a sublime milkshake; its sun-dried chips act as fruit in chocolates), horticulturists like him are finding a way around the fruit’s Achilles heel, its perishable nature. While Bordi’s thriving educational centre is ensuring that its indigenous inhabitants acquire a degree, Sandhya Karandikar (also on the committee) hopes their efforts can help re-attract talent into modernizing agricultural practices. “Industry isn’t always the answer to progress,” she said, referring to the love the hunter-gathering tribe shares for the forest. Despite meagre funds (the fest is funded from stall rents) and the MTDC headed by Paraag Jaiin Nainuttia pulling out financial support this year (Mr Nainuttia, a fest that’s a voice for indigenous tribes could do with you putting your money where your mouth is), the group soldiers on.

Performances by Bordi and Dahanu’s tribal residents were the main draw