Port Blair, Apr 15: Currently due to lockdown period, making available the fresh vegetables in different parts of the islands is posing great challenge. The restrictions in transport and practical difficulties owing to the labour availability and other reasons, the entire produce of vegetables from different production centres is not reaching the destinations resulting in post-harvest losses. At this hour, farmers can adopt dehydration of vegetables to add value to the vegetables and to prolong the usage. This may help in continuous availability of vegetables in the islands ensuring nutritional security.
Due to higher moisture content (85%), most of the vegetables are classified as highly perishable commodities. But through drying or dehydration (removing the moisture from vegetables) their perishable nature could be altered to some extent and therefore bacteria, yeasts and moulds cannot grow and spoil the vegetables. Before dehydration/ drying, blanching is a necessary step, which is slowing down or inactivate the enzymes to stop enzymatic action which causes loss of colour and flavour during drying and storage. Blanching is nothing but, submerging the vegetables in boiling water for specific periods. After blanching, the vegetables are dried under sun which is a traditional drying method for reducing the moisture content. Hot air ovens also could be used wherever available. Drying/ dehydration practices of important vegetables produced in Andaman and Nicobar Islands are given below for the information of the interested farmers.
Vegetable Preparation Blanching Time(mins.) Drying Time (hrs.)
Brinjal Wash, trim, cut into 1/4″ slices. 4 12-14
Cauliflower Wash. Trim, cut into small pieces. 4-5 12-15
Chili peppers, green Wash. cut slit in skin, Remove seeds and stem. (Wear gloves if necessary.) None 12-24
Mushrooms Scrub. Discard tough, woody stalks. Slice tender stalks 1/4″ thick. Peel large mushrooms, slice. Leave small mushrooms whole. Dip in solution of 1 tsp. citric acid/quart water for 10 minutes. None 8-12
Pumpkin Wash rind. Cut into pieces. Remove seeds and cavity pulp. Cut into 1″ wide strips. Peel rind. Cut strips crosswise into pieces about 1/8″ thick. 4 10-16
Bitter gourd Wah, slice, remove bold seeds 4 10
Bhendi Wash, trip, slice None 10
After drying, the dried vegetables could be packed in glass jars (preferable dark) or in moisture vapor-proof freezer containers or boxes or bags and stored for longer time. Whenever required, the dehydrated vegetables can be rehydrated by soaking them for 30- 45 minutes in cold water and or 15-20 minutes in warm water before cooking. The dried/dehydrated vegetables can be used for soups, vegetable curries etc. By this way the harvested but unsold vegetables could be saved for further 2-3-month period. Through this technique, the excess unsold vegetables can be dried and stored in main season when vegetable prices are low and used during lean production periods.
