Profitable Pods

Yongchak is a Manipuri legume used in salads, pickles and delicacies

- Chitra Balasubramaniam

GROWING YONGCHAK is excellent business today. A tree can provide an income of about R1.5 lakh in a season. A family that has a few trees need not do anything else for a living,” says Jeena Sorokhaibam, founder of Lookacteast Kitchen, a Delhi-based eatery that specialises in Manipuri cuisine. Four to five pods sell for R100 in Manipur and a tree produces more than 15,000 pods in a season.

Also called bitter beans, twisted cluster beans and stink beans because of its peculiar smell, yongchak is a semi-wild species that grows in the backyard and concerted attempts to cultivate it have not happened. Yongchak flowers and beans are part of many delicacies, but it is the pods that are most commonly eaten.

“Yongchak pods are available from October to March. This is when the beans inside are just developing and the pods are tender enough to be eaten raw as crunchy salad, or shingju. By March, the pods are mature and have prominent black-coloured beans inside. These are removed and dried to be eaten during the rest of the year. Whole yongchak is also dried and stored,” she says.