KERI: Located just 33km away from the Goa border, Kudal, a town in
Maharashtra’s Sindhudurg district
, attracts a host of visitors from the Konkan region, particularly Goa, each weekend for its
weekly bazaar
. What’s the attraction? The array of wild edible seasonal
vegetables
and the traditional food items prepared using them that are up for grabs.
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This four-month old initiative of the Kudal panchayat and the zilla panchayat samiti, the bazaar is held every Sunday, from 8am to 2pm.
Visitors can take their pick from seasonal wild vegetables such as ‘tero’, ‘kudduki’, ‘bharangi’, ‘pevago’, ‘podas’ and ‘ghotvel’, to traditional dishes such as ‘shirvalyo’ or ‘tavsali’, to grocery items like kulith dal, urad dal and nachni, which have rich nutritional value.
“People from the urban areas of Goa and Konkan who come here for weekend trips end up visiting our market where traditional food items, vegetables, fruits, berries are available. This market has helped us to earn some extra income, thus supporting our livelihood,” says local vendor Shubhangi Gawade who sells traditional cooked items.
Appreciative of the initiative of Kudal’s local bodies, Suryakant Gaonkar, a resident of Sattari says, “In Goa, too, the local bodies should provide similar avenues where locally grown bounty, as well as delicacies prepared from them, are made available to the general public.