How country sugar or ‘naatu sakkarai’ is made at Erode’s Kavindapadi
The Hindu
With Pongal around the corner, we visit Kavindapadi in Erode district, famous for organic country sugar, a flavourful substitute to commercial jaggery and white sugar
KKN Nallasamy has had white sugar with his tea for only three months in his lifetime.
The 72-year-old farmer prefers using country sugar, made right beside his sugarcane fields at Kavindapadi village in Erode district, 98 kilometres from Coimbatore. “A terrible drought struck us some 20 years ago and our crops failed,” he recalls. “I could not make naatu sakkarai (country sugar) and hence had to buy white sugar. But after three months I stopped using it,” he pauses, chuckling about how it did not feel or taste quite right.
Kavindapadi is a major supplier of country sugar in the State. Sugarcane fields are spread out across the village — the strapping purple stalks are fed well by the Lower Bhavani Canal. “Our country sugar is used to sweeten panchamirtham at the Palani Murugan temple,” says KKN Eswaramoorthy, Nallasamy’s son. The 45-year-old manages 12 acres of the crop, and also makes and sells country sugar.
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