MARGAO: If there’s one pet peeve Eunice de Sa has, it’s seeing fresh produce go to waste. Goa’s homes and streets are filled with fruit trees, producing an abundance of tropical fruit, but not everyone has the time, inclination, or resources to harvest, store, and distribute them. As a result, during the summer and monsoon seasons, heaps of ripe fruit simply rot or wither away.
“At a time when most of us are battling nutrition deficiencies and are low on vital vitamins and fibre conducive to good health, allowing perfectly good fruit to go to waste is simply criminal,” says Eunice, who is using traditional Goan recipes and techniques to create a stunning array of jams, pickles, squashes and syrups championing local produce at her home in Ribander.
Eunice, who retired as the principal of Sharada Mandir School about 10 years ago, turned her quest to preserve her family’s recipes into a small business during the long, dull days of the Covid-19 lockdown. “A friend called to tell me that a massive branch of her mango tree had fallen after an overnight storm. She had 300 mangoes on her hands in various degrees of ripeness, and we simply couldn’t let them go to waste. So, we turned them into raw mango panna, mango pickles, mango jam, and even sun-dried satta or fruit leather,” she recalls.
Soon, friends and family began to supply her with all the excess produce from their fruit trees – from sweet limes to bimbli, jackfruit and passion fruit to star fruit and even figs and love apples. Eunice has managed to come up with ways to preserve and enjoy them at leisure – without adding any chemical preservatives. This set into motion her journey into entrepreneurship. She launched the brand ELFS (an acronym for Eunice Lima Fernandes Sa), and her preserves have now travelled all over the world, even to countries like New Zealand and Australia, which are known for their strict customs policies restricting food brought in from overseas. “There are many Goans in New Zealand and the UK who crave the flavours of home. As my daughter lives in New Zealand, I’ve developed a decent network there and declare all my pickles and syrups at the airport. The officers may open one bottle just to check, and then allow them through,” she says.
Amongst her array of products, Eunice’s velvety Orchata is probably the most unique and luxurious. It harks back to Goa’s colonial days when the almond-based cooler was a staple in affluent households. “I recall drinking Coehlo’s brand Orchata during my childhood. It was a treat, and even years after they stopped making it, the taste of their orchata was burned into my memory. Over the years, I tried many recipes for the almond drink, experimenting with different proportions of sugar, adding Goan cashewnuts – I was set on bringing it back in vogue,” she says. Through trial and error, Eunice reverse-engineered the orchata, finally arriving at a concoction that she feels does justice to her childhood favourite – and it’s one of her most popular products today.
“I have a kokum tree at home, and Xarope de Brindao, or kokum syrup, is a cooler that is always on hand and can also be spiked to make delicious cocktails. Some of my recipes have been passed down several generations, like our prawn and bimbli pickle, and the pork pickle. Kokum jam, love apple chutney, and jackfruit cheese are two other traditional delicacies that cannot be found easily in the market,” she says.
“I ask young people not to let their fruit go to waste – it’s best to eat it whole and fresh, but if you have excess, use traditional recipes to preserve these powerhouses of nutrition. The process isn’t difficult, and it’s a great way to bond with the family as you can recruit everyone at home to help with the prep of the fruit. Just remember that everything should be clean and sterile, your jars need to be boiled well and dried, and in the case of pickles, ensure that the fruit is immersed in oil for a longer shelf life,” she advises.