THE GOA CASHEW FEST 2025 – Season 3 was inaugurated by Chief Minister Dr Pramod Sawant, in the presence of Shripad Naik, Union Minister of State for Power & New & Renewable Energy, Government of India, Vishwajit Rane, Minister for Health and Forest, Rohan Khaunte, Minister for Tourism, Ganesh Gaonkar, Chairman GTDC, Sadanand Shet Tanavade, Member of Parliament, Rajya Sabha, and MLAs Premendra Shet, Pravin Arlekar, Deviya Rane, chairperson of Goa Forest Corporation and Poriem MLA and Dr Chandrakant Shetye on May 17, 2025. This year’s edition is not only a celebration of Goa’s vibrant cashew and feni culture but also a bold step forward in sustainable development, rural empowerment and value addition to the state’s forest-based economy. The Goa Cashew Fest 2025 reflects a collective vision to explore, empower and enrich—to showcase Goa’s rich agrarian heritage, while building a future rooted in innovation, inclusion and environmental responsibility.
IT was happiness to sip my last neero or niro of the very short cashew apple juice season in Goa. Fresh neero is as thirst-quenching as it is the perfect summer time refreshment beverage, it is delicious and the more it matures the more it acquires a sour zing that’s exhilarating but not alcoholic! Neero fermens further into urrack which too is much relished in Goa and that too is a short season post-neero season — finally, urrack or hurak turns into feni or fenny which is a matured full blown spirit to be fancily bottled and marketed as Goa’s patented liquor (GI indexed now); feni cocktails are all the rage now with Goans as well as with tourists and both mocktails and cocktails doing the rounds at different bars priced at Rs200 upwards.
There is both coconut and cashew apple feni but the latter is harder to find and costlier, the latter is harder to find; the story is Goa Forest Corporation & Poriem MLA Deviya Rane is keen to get more Goan farmers to lay down fresh cashew tree orchards in the Salcette taluka for all the neero, urrack, feni and nuts raw or drum roasted. Cashew nuts are much loved nuts and they sell in a gradation of small “tukda,” small size, medium and large and bonanza size if they come from a special orchard…not all nuts are naturally sweet, this depends on the richness of the orchard soil in which cashew trees blossom and fruit.
All nutrition we know depends on the richness of the soil in which it grows – the more organic, the better the womb and bosom of Mother Earth! Needless to say our farming soil has pretty much turned toxic to all life on earth courtesy the chemical fertilizers, pesticides, fungicides, etcetera, which farmers rustic and landed gentry started lacing their farm crops or fruit trees with…as we have seen with the perfectly seductive large fruit of apples, grapes, bananas…coming from the Western country agriculture and horticulture orchards, they may look beautiful to behold but are utterly mild and disappointing in taste and vis-à-vis life values if put through a test for nutrient values.
The hunt today is for old world nutrient dense foods and if your pockets are hot or hotter you do well in the good life quota! I do think today’s poorer classes at the bottom of the pyramid of the good life – who once upon a time ate better than the well-to-do, are now worse off when it comes to what they’re putting in their mouth – mostly the food industry’s junk foods. We know all that now, body beautiful body doesn’t stay beautiful if you don’t feed it or treat it right.
ON all two days the Goa Cashew Fest was jam-packed with stalls serving up some creative dishes featuring caju neero, urrack, feni, food and much else by way of a happy funfair with entertainment, spot prizes and much else by way of educating all in the business of the cashew tree business – the story is cashew tree plantations are closing down in Goa and the governments wants to revive them and bring them back to age old prosperity.
After all cashew nuts are in demand the world over. Caju (pet name of cashew nuts) are more vitamin K, zinc, copper, phosphorus, iron…than almonds, the other much loved nut which is famous for vitamin E, fiber and calcium and the nut recommended if you want to lose weight (not caju). Caju are more expensive than almonds though. Some will say pistachio are better vis-à-vis heart health along with walnuts which have a higher omega-3 fatty acid and considered as brain, heart and bone-friendly…but this is about caju.
AS with many other things Goa has to thank its Portuguese colonial history for the cashew nut tree. It’s the Portuguese missionaries who first brought the caju tree to Goa (and India) from its native Brazil in the 16th century. Goa was then known as Portugal’s colony of Estado da India Portuguesa and it ruled Goa for 450 years…from here the caju plant travelled throughout Southeast Asia and eventually Africa too. The caju business developed very well in Goa and tourists still associate Goa as a place where you must shop for cashew nuts. Nobody returns to their home states without buying Zantye’s cashew nuts of various denomination! Zantye’s are pioneers in the caju business and they had a stall up at the Goa Cashew Fest this year too, I noticed how much they have now branched out into from plain and drum-roasted cashew nuts once upon a times…to today’s range of salted, black pepper, cayenne pepper and various spiced up versions of cashew nuts; also much loved sweet “caju katli” and “caju chivda.”
I usually buy my caju from Rohitbhai of SG Enterprises further down 18 June road in Panjim, who stocks good organically cultivated cashewnuts (although most caju is organically cultivated through default.) This is to say there are many things you may do with caju or cashew nuts…soak them overnight and turn them into cashew nut milk, most delicious in porridges and in soaked poha, an excellent alternative to dairy milk, very easy to do; of course in goa caju in its various avatar are served in many flavors from black pepper to chaat masala to even wasabi coated caju!
The plain drum roasted caju with skins to be rubbed off have a sweeter taste. If you’re in Goa you will see caju featuring in many recipes including fresh tender green cashew veggie dish…and well, a handful of caju is fine as a snack, caju are heavy duty nuts though, don’t make a meal of them. Quite a few folk people grind caju into chutney and sauces and there’s always caju mithai of various creative denomination. In Goa the cashew nut tree is worth its weight in gold!
TO FULVIC ACID SILAJIT
TO come to something else this week I went and bought myself some shilajit. A friend called to ask me about blood thinners, like me she too has stopped taking Ecosprin post-bypass surgery for arterial blockages. If one is not taking Ecosprin or Wafarin what are natural blood thinners one may include in one’s diet. Garlic? Yes, garlic is so good for a whole host of things along with keeping blood thin, so also ginger, turmeric, cinnamon, aloe vera, fatty acid fish and much more, all kinds of berries and especially pineapple for diabetics but you must eat the crunchy central stalk of the pineapple!
Then I heard such things about this mountain resin, gum, latex, called shilajit being good for the heart and decided to find out. A friend recovering from leukemia or blood cancer tells me ever since he started drinking a wee bit of this black shilajit “glue” which melts in a glass of warm water….he’s been feeling more energetic and wonder of wonders his heart which is blocked here and there has been putting out new collateral channels to take care of blockages here and there; yes, he is still alive due to some dramatic lifestyle makeovers requiring more discipline of the mind and body, heart and soul or something like that.
INDEED, quite a few people with a knowledge of shilajit think it is a superior nutritional boost which offers healthy pick-ups. It’s a recognized supplement of basically fulvic acid, supporting the body beautiful’s multiple hormone system, it is is pro-fertility, pro-libido…some say it’s some kind of natural “Viagra” boosting vitality, makes for good nails, good skin, etc.
Ayurveda sees it as a good “rasayana” – that is, a good rejuvenator and anti-aging agent. What else? Call it silajit or shilajit or silaras or salajit or shilajaty….it’s Asphaltum Punjabianam (Latin name), black bitumen, a viscous resin/gum/latex which is water soluble; extracted from rockscapes in the mountains of the Himalaya in India and Tibet. Apart from fulvic acid there’s humic acid, ellegic acid, amino acids, trace mineral elements including selenium, polyphenols… …shilajit is seen as a powerful antioxidant reducing inflammation, which is culprit number one contributing to how quickly we degenerate into nothingness. Something like that!
And silajit is now being prescribed for cancer patients as also for keeping Alzheimer’s disease at bay, something to do with “tau proteins” building up in the brains. I’ve got to go read up some more about Alzheimer’s disease which so many seniors fear so much…I mean, how do we live if we’ve lost it up there where it matters more?
WHERE did I get my silajit from? A friend said check at the all organic produce store Soukhyam’s in Porvorim, but now there’s one next to Delphino’s near the Taleigao church and here I found what I was looking for, my goodness, there is a quite a choice. You have to beware adulterated silajit. I bought Pure Nutrition Naturals “Himalayan Shilajit” (Rs1,199, 20g box), it comes with a cute spoon to scoop out pea-size drop of shilajit to mix in warm water, stir and drink up.
Soukhyam’s quite exciting with all kinds of fascinating things to dream about to get one to change over to more health-friendly living! Expensive of course and quite beyond aam aadmi or aurat’s pockets nowadays; still, one may make sacrifices elsewhere I told myself. And also picked up a bottle of “Golden Glow” Immunity Boosting MilK with ashwaganda and rose petals in it…stir a teaspoon in milk and drink up, well, I haven’t started doing it yet but will, don’t laugh. To be honest I feel guilty buying the second item number for its so easy to mix small portions of turmeric, honey, grated ginger juice, lemon juice and pinch black pepper powder…do it from scratch. Anyway, cheers to my new golden milk routine so that I may become magical enough to turn everything I touch to gold or so to speak.
The monsoon rains are here and Goa is still a green garden paradise here and there, enjoy the weather for a change cuddled up beneath a warm cloud of warm razai or doha or just your bejeweled dreams of another lifetime!