Parwal Times……..Eye Opener
Parwal (pointed gourd) is a favourite vegetable of North India and prepared in many different ways. Even sweets are made out of it. Summers are Parwal Times in North. When north Indians move to other parts of India for work they miss this vegetable and big grocery stores get it from up north and charge a lot too. Bangalore stores stock it for double the price as well having a lot of carbon foot print or food miles.
Coming from North India I also look out for a fresh stock every time I visit supermarket though its not a eco-friendly food . Yesterday when I visited the store I bought a stock from the pile shown in the photo. I have always heard that vegetables are dyed for looks and freshness but never saw any proof. Fortunately one piece had some abnormality of peel and hence the pigmentation is visible. This didn’t mean that rest of the pieces were not dyed.
I bought some including the one in the front to test. Our method of cleaning the vegetables is to soak in one of very strong oxidizing agents “Potassium Permanganate” solution to oxidize all chemicals/pesticides and later wash. I soaked in luke warm water first , then vinegar and finally in potassium solution. None of them were able to take away the green dye.
Moral of the story buy local food stuff as they don’t have to be imported and chemically treated to keep it fresh. More exotic items travel across the world waste fuel, use deadly chemicals and harm environment in multiple ways.
