come summer

Come summer and tender coconuts, sugarcane juice, watermelons and tender palm fruits start doing the rounds.
Small kiosks as also platform shops start mushrooming all over the place with these fruits. Street hawkers too do good business during these times, as people in the tropics very well know the value of these fruits and their juices.

SUGARCANE
The names sugar and sugarcane have been derived from the Sanskrit word, Sharkara. Sugarcane is indigenous to India. It was cultivated here from the Vedic period and it is mentioned in some places in the ancient scriptures. Alexander the Great and his soldiers carried sugarcane from India to the west by about 325 BC. Sugarcane is now grown all over the world. India stands first in sugarcane cultivation, followed by Brazil, Cuba, China, Mexico, Pakistan, the U.S.A., South Africa and Columbia.
Sugarcane juice is great for recharging energy because it contains rich carbohydrate and iron. Green-typed tropical sugarcane is sweetest and juiciest. It is also the elephant's favorite food.
It strengthens the stomach, kidneys, heart, eyes, brain and sex organs.
Biting into the cane and chewing it raw, sucking the juice from it helps build and strengthen the teeth.
But the diet- conscious-------BEWARE---- it is a fattening food instead U can guiltlessly delve into huge quantities of the luscious FAT- FREE fruit of WATERMELON.

Pictures or artifacts that have survived to the present show that watermelon was grown by the ancient Egyptians. It was founded in 4000 B.C. and is still a universal fruit that continues to be a favorite fruit to many people. By the 1600's, watermelon made it's way to Spain, China, Great Britain, and even farther beyond.
Watermelons are an excellent source of vitamins A, C, and B6. They are a good source of potassium, and a poor source of sodium.
One of the more recent amazing innovations of JAPAN is the square watermelon, grown thus to get over the hitch of packaging and transporting.

Then the turn of the TENDER COCONUTS
Tender coconuts are a rich source of sugars in the form of glucose and fructose, minerals like potassium, sodium, calcium, phosphorus, iron, copper, sulphur and chlorides.
Tender coconuts are also a good source of proteins. The percentage of proteins in tender coconuts is higher than that in cow's milk.

So BEAT THE HEAT and the dehydration with these delicious and nutritious fruits and their juices.

And never to forget our own 'moar' or 'buttermilk' (preferably home-made).
It is the poor man's delight as well------a delight both to his health and his wealth.

Buttermilk Lore
Irish folklore claims a glass of buttermilk will cure a hangover, and when heated with a clove of garlic, it was sure to cure any variety of ailments. According to American folklore, drinking buttermilk will immunize one against poison oak and ivy. May pioneer women used buttermilk as a facial wash, believing the flecks of butter brought a smooth and creamy complexion.

Remember that there is very little butter in the buttermilk and it is much less in fat than normal milk though its name misleadingly suggests otherwise.
Its name definitely need not deter drinkers of the Potassium, Vitamin B12,Calcium and Riboflavin- rich drink.