We start with the best ingredient: Fresh aboriginal species of coconuts confirmed to USDA standards are handpicked from serene, non-polluted rural coastal farms directly from farmers. We reach up to 300 organic farmer families across GOA. The freshly hand-plucked coconuts are treated within 48 hours from plucking in our plant. We pay to double the market rate to our farmers to encourage them and help them thrive in their industry and they in turn provide us with the best produce.
Coconut plucking is one of the oldest traditional occupations of the Goans. Coconut climbers/pluckers ‘padekars’ carry out the harvesting of tender and ripe coconuts from a plantation or residential areas. Traditionally, padekar’s were paid half in cash, half in coconuts. Nowadays, they charge a reasonable wage per tree (depending on the number of trees). It’s a dying skill and very few padekars are to be found. Most of them are the older set, you can rarely find a young one!
Skills in traditional methods were usually passed down from one generation to another. Here the padekar uses a rope harness ‘khaddum’ wrapped around his feet as climbing support and a machete ‘koito’ to cut notches in the tree bark which enable him to climb higher. On reaching the top, they support themselves on the base of the palm frond, sometimes even standing on them! He can then easily cut down mature or tender coconut bunches and loose palms. Plucking of coconuts was done four times a year, and the record of each plucking was kept by making incisions (katre) on the trunk with a koito.
Goa has quite a few varieties of Coconuts. Local Tall varieties:- Benaulim, Calangute, and Nadora are the local varieties cultivated in Goa. Among these, Benaulim is the best. Other Varieties:- Dwarf:- Gangabodan, Chowghat Yellow Dwarf, Chowghat Green Dwarf, Malayam Orange Dwarf, Malayam Yellow Dwarf. Tall:- West Coast tall, Tiptur tall, Filipines ordinary, etc. Hybrids:-Chandra Samkara, kera Sankara, kea sree, Chandra Laksha, Godavari, Ganga, etc.