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Before you are water lily seeds, also known as fox nuts.
When opened, water lily seeds look a lot like popcorn, but a bag of these seeds will cost
you 15 times more.
So a kilogram of these nuts will cost $170.
This is because collecting fox nuts is not so easy.
Collecting nuts, farmers in India work tirelessly.
To do this, for several days they roam in the water along the bottom of the lake up
to one and a half meters deep.
Then, squatting under the scorching sun, they roast the seeds.
They do it in special hot braziers.
But even if everything is done correctly, there is no guarantee that the roasted seeds
will actually burst.
Therefore, it is not without reason that water lily seeds are so expensive.
Makhana, so called, the seeds of the prickly water lily by the locals.
And after the nuts are split, they are already called fox nuts.
They are a popular snack food in the eastern Indian state of Bihar.
This state is the largest producer of mahana.
It accounts for 90 percent of the total seed production worldwide.
Mahana are roasted and cracked water lily seeds (Euryale Ferox Salisb).
Euryale ferox plant grows in water bodies.
It is often confused with lotus seeds.
However, both seeds are similar, but they are completely different from each other.
To taste, the highest quality fox nut will have a sweetish aftertaste.
And a low-quality nut will taste slightly salty.
There are also differences in color.
A good quality fox nut is white, while the rest may be brownish.
Mahana is like medicine in the form of food.
It contains 78 percent carbohydrates and 10 percent proteins.
It is also rich in many minerals.
Mahana is also known for its anti-diabetic properties.
These nuts are also one of the types of seeds that can be added to cereals or soups due
to their neutral flavor.
On the surface of the lake, water lilies look like giant lotus leaves floating on the water.
But the differences show up on closer inspection.
Each plant is covered with thorns.
These spines pose a major hazard to workers collecting seeds.
The collection of seeds is usually done by poor people.
Despite the fact that they can easily inject themselves, the desire to earn a living forces
them to do this work.
Lakshmi Sadha has been collecting water lily seeds for 35 years.
He is part of the Muller community, which has been growing and processing fox nuts for
generations.
He shows how easy it is to prick with this plant.
He counted six fruits on one plant.
And they are all covered in thorns.
The depth of the machan pond can be from 1.5 to 2 meters, and there should always be standing
water in it.
The seeds lie at the bottom of the pond and the water is not clear enough to see them
and avoid the pricks of the thorns.
Therefore, Lakshmi uses a stick to push the plants apart.
Each plant can produce from 70 to 125 seeds.
The plant needs heavy rains in the spring so that it can produce fruits containing seeds.
When summer arrives, the fruits begin to decompose and release seeds.
After the fruits rot, the seeds first float on the surface.
Over time, after the seeds receive more sunlight, they sink to the bottom and get stuck in the
soil.
After the seeds have been in the ground for about a month, they are completely ready to
be collected from the bottom of the pond.
However, not all seeds are suitable for harvesting.
Some of them come across deformed or immature, so Lakshmi does not collect them.
For example, these seeds are not yet ready to be harvested as they are still immature.
Ripe seeds will turn black on the outside.
At the same time, ripe seeds cannot remain in the pond for too long.
Otherwise, such seeds will not burst and will be sold very cheaply.
Raised to the surface, the workers pour the seeds into baskets of a special design, called
"gadzha", with their hands.
These baskets are used by workers to clean the seeds from silt and other dirt.
Despite the best efforts of the workers, it is impossible to completely collect the seeds
in the pond, since the water lily seeds are very small and dense.
This means that some seeds will sink to the bottom of the pond, where farmers will not
be able to see them in the muddy water.
Divers usually have to hold their breath, and dirt getting into their eyes or ears can
cause skin problems.
Lakshmi and her partners start their working day at 6 am and end at 4 pm.
In one working day, they collect an average of about 100 kilograms of seeds.
Although this figure depends on the season.
If the season is good, then the harvest can be 200 kg per day, and if it is bad, then
the harvest will be low.
A successful harvest largely depends on the weather.
The size of the water lily flower directly depends on it, and, accordingly, the quality
of the fruits and seeds.
The plant has red stems with flowers at the top, something like a lotus.
This year, due to the intense heat, a flower that should have been as big as a lotus actually
grew very small.
Each season, water lily seeds are harvested in two stages.
Harvesting a second crop is much more difficult, as there are fewer seeds left in the pond.
Workers have to look for seeds that are left in the mud.
In addition, at the first harvest, the yield can reach up to 150 kg of seeds per day, but
when harvested again, only about 10 kg are collected.
After the seeds are removed from the water and placed on the shore, the workers trample
them underfoot.
In this way, the outer skin is removed from freshly harvested seeds.
Then the peeled seeds are put back into the basket and carried to the water to be washed.
The daily harvest is weighed.
This is the moment when it is determined how much money workers have earned in a day.
The farmer's assistants - four workers - will be paid as usual 31 cents per kilogram of
nuts on the first harvest and 62 cents per kilogram on the second.
After all, harvesting a second crop is much more difficult.
Today is the first harvest and the workers have collected 50 kg of seeds so far.
This season, due to the heat, the harvest was not very good.
Workers collected no more than 50 kg.
in a day.
If you divide by four, you get only 12.5 kg per person.
And 12.5 kg costs only 312.5 rupees or less than 4 US dollars.
The workers are very upset with such earnings.
Fresh nuts cost 22 times less than broken seeds.
It can take up to four days of work for the seeds to successfully pop.
But today everything is fine.
Workers once again clean the collected seeds.
The next step is to dry the seeds in the sun.
This allows you to remove all the water they contain.
This step is very important.
After drying, the seeds become starchy inside.
While the seeds are raw inside, it is impossible to make fox nuts out of them.
The amount and quality of sunlight the seeds receive is critical to determining whether
they will burst or not.
The seeds need to be dried for about two hours so that the moisture inside completely evaporates
and starch forms.
Therefore, sunlight during these two hours must be constant.
Such large seeds are not yet ripe.
Therefore, they are sorted and sent again for drying.
After about 30% moisture has been removed from the seeds, they are stored for a maximum
of 24 days to prepare them for sorting.
Sun-dried seeds are divided into 5-7 varieties depending on their size.
To find out if the small seeds are ready to be extracted, the workers crack or split them.
This checks the level of starch content.
The seeds are burst, making sure that they are easily destroyed and do not stick together.
Finally, the entire batch is ready to be lightly roasted in an earthenware dish.
The seeds are still very fragile and cannot withstand very high temperatures.
The seeds are heated and continuously stirred.
Iron pots heat up too quickly, so the seeds burn in them.
It is best to use clay pots, which regulate the heat well.
They are perfect for the first roast.
Thus, this is the first real test to determine if the seeds have a chance of popping.
After roasting, a specially appointed person determines whether the seeds are ready or
not.
After the first roasting, the seeds must lie down at night for at least 15 hours.
The next day they are ready to open.
It takes 10 people to fry 100 kg of seeds.
Of these 100 kilograms, only 35 kilograms of seeds will burst and become good quality,
becoming real fox nuts.
For the second frying, dishes made of iron are used.
The seeds are tough enough to keep warm and that's what it takes to burst.
To do this, they are fried up to six times.
If workers use one pot, it will take them three days to turn 100 kg of seeds into fox
nuts.
If several people are engaged in roasting, then this work can be done in one day.
Seeds that are ready to pop make a characteristic crackling sound that is almost imperceptible.
The person who does the frying and popping of seeds must have experience in the job.
He must know the duration of frying and manage to get the seeds that burst every few seconds.
You need to have a full hand to determine which seeds may burst with less force, and
which may require more effort.
A random person is unlikely to be able to do it well.
To help the seeds pop, the workers use a heavy shovel, which they call a pup.
But even with all the rules of technology, some seeds are simply not able to burst.
For example, if there are 100 grams of seeds in this pot, only 85 to 95 percent of those
seeds will pop.
To burst 100 grams of seeds, you need to make eight to nine strokes.
In this case, about 15-20 seeds are lost for every 100 grams.
These seeds will no longer become fox nuts.
After the seeds have burst, they are once again cleaned and again processed to size
using this machine.
The machine removes the reddish brown shell and also polishes the fox nut to prepare it
for sale.
The community processes about 30 tons of water lily seeds per season.
Of these, only 40 percent successfully burst and turn into quality fox nuts.
Now such nuts already cost up to 550 rupees or six and a half US dollars per kilogram.
In major cities in India, such as Delhi, they are already sold for 900 rupees or 11 US dollars
per kilogram.
But abroad, the cost of a kilogram of nuts increases to 170 US dollars.
Here nuts are rapidly gaining popularity.
Fox nuts are rich in fiber, protein and antioxidants.
About 40 percent of the nuts are exported to the US.
25 years ago, the fox nut was not as popular.
At that time, its selling rate was from 80 to 90 rupees per kg. or about one US dollar.
It was bought mostly by the population of nearby areas.
Even 10 years ago, farmers collecting water lily seeds worked to their detriment.
As such, there was no market for fox nuts.
They were purchased mainly for religious use.
Today, farmers' profits have increased significantly due to greater awareness of the nutritional
benefits of fox nuts.
The emerging nut market has created new opportunities for agriculture in the state of Bihar.
The area has seen an increase in rainfall in
the past few years, making it difficult to grow crops such as rice and corn.
This has led some farmers to convert newly flooded areas into planting areas for water
lilies.
The local government has launched a program to convert 104,000 hectares of abandoned low-lying
land to foxnut cultivation.
Thus, the area for growing water lily seeds today has increased 60 times.
Farming is now established in the flooded lowlands, unlike the
ponds and wetlands where the practice originated.
And as the habitat of aquatic plants changes, so does the taste of fox nuts.
The taste of fox nuts grown in deep ponds and
the taste of nuts obtained from flooded lowlands
is different.
The fox nut seeds at that time had a higher starch content, resulting in a higher quality
fox nut.
The reason for these changes is that there is insufficient water in the fields.
The problem can be solved if the reservoirs have a depth of more than 1.5 meters.
That's all.
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