Kumaoni: The Secrets of Jam Making

If you ever happen to visit House of Umang in spring time, there’ll be more than a few treats waiting for you.

It’s when the season of fresh strawberries sets in and the making of Kumaoni strawberry jam begins in full swing. While fingers are painted red in the processing unit below, the air around the entire building—top to bottom—is engulfed in a whiff of intense sweetness. Sensory explosions abound at every step from the road to the shop. You feel full and floaty at the same time; your depths saturated with a fruity softness. It feels like the secrets of the jelly are revealing themselves. But there is more to it than you understand just yet.

The journey begins in Himachal as the truck loads its first lot – a lush 430 kgs. The travel takes two days, which here are spent in informing and gathering the women contracted on a daily wage basis every season. The word is out, trickling through streets and conversations and those habitual shout-outs for available work. Gloves are blown into, hair caps are set – knife in hand Basanti didi gets ready to command the bustle of the processing unit.

The Jam Making Process of Kumaoni

The energy is vibrant as women laugh, gossip, and share a sense of productivity through the 8-hour work day. I took this journey with them this morning, and the back breaking toil of splitting leaves seems ongoing as the strawberries never seem to finish. Crate after crate is split, then diced into pieces tiny enough to curry up like dirt rocks under rain. Tara didi takes a complacent tone as she tells me how her son is at home due to a dearth in the job market. But at least she is working to earn this one reliable source of income. Thank God for Umang! Thus the noise of joyous banter and crimson manipulation drowns the sighs behind muscle in motion. Split, chop, wash, smile. Repeat.

Stock pots begin to heat up. A deep vibration passes through the foundations of the building. If listened to closely, it reveals the resonance of perseverance itself. The ladle begins to circle around and with each swirl didi’s patience only increases. The whiff is sacred to many, she knows, and shall not be burnt. Her own satisfaction though shall arise only from the completion of the target!

If you decide to take this journey for yourself, you’ll see not one woman in every corner but every corner in a buzz of faces running around to fill the gaps. From the corner of my eye I notice Shahnaz didi already getting down to prepare jars for filling. With that heart warming smile she always has on her face, she begins telling me about how bunai has always been her first love, but work is work and needs to keep evolving.

The team expands and the filling begins – first half a jar to normalise the temperature of the jam, then filled to the brim and topped with wax. The wax, as hot as the fire in Basanti didi’s voice, makes for a soft breakable seal under the jar lids. Its purpose is to check spillage until consumption begins. Have you ever noticed the fieriness of a woman at work slowly melt into relief after work?

A process that takes days to complete, but leaves an impression for a lifetime. Such is the jam making journey with the women of Kumaon. Hearths are put on hold and communion is established to kick-start the creation of a sacred experience. This is their turf, this is their fruit; come taste and cherish it.

Mahila Umang Producers Company Ltd. is a collective of self-help groups and producer members providing sustainable livelihood opportunities to thousands of women in the Himalayas.