KARACHI: It’s a short stay for the seasonal fruits that arrive with the cool winds of the north. Most people associate only the citrus fruits such as oranges, fruiter, malta, grapefruit, etc, with winter but there are many more sweet delights offered by nature during these two or three months.

Singhara or water caltrop, not coal. / Photos by Fahim Siddiqi / White Star

Of course cold storage has made it possible for people to enjoy seasonal fruits longer than nature intended but still it is always better to have them fresh and in season.

Seedless pomegranate. / Photos by Fahim Siddiqi / White Star

The China fruiter is something seen at all fruit sellers these days. They are those little apricot-sized oranges packed in little netted sacks. “Each sack has three dozen China fruiter and is priced at Rs150,” says Yar Mohammad, a fruit seller at Empress Market.

Mini fruiter all the way from China. / Photos by Fahim Siddiqi / White Star

The delicacy from China is said to be available fresh from December till January. Along with it are the fresh kiwi fruit available for Rs250 per kilogram.

Meanwhile, the regular fruiter we are so used to with oranges are available for Rs60 to Rs70 per kilo and reach Karachi from Sargodha. Also being sold at the same price are cheeku and guava. Sher Khan Achakzai, the fruit vendor selling these, says that cheeku reaches the market from Winder in Balochistan mostly while the guavas at this time of year come from Larkana.

Quince. / Photos by Fahim Siddiqi / White Star

Brownish grapes are a familiar sight these days but the brownish rotten and stale-looking apples and pears in the basket near them turned out to be something else entirely. “Those are quince called bahi in local language,” says Mohammad Zaheer, rather offended at the suggestion that the fruit was stale. “It is supposed to look this way. It is fresh!” The fruit is available for Rs300 per kilo.

Another fruit that looks stale is the pomegranate. “No, don’t confuse this pomegranate with the big red one. This is the seedless variety, which some also call beemar ka anaar,” he says before informing that one kilogram could be bought for Rs400.

Winter fruits. / Photos by Fahim Siddiqi / White Star

These days some fruit vendors also have heaps of something that resembles pieces of coal. “Here, try it,” offers Akbar a seller at Burnes Road while reaching for his small knife to peal the delicacy. “It’s called singhara and I sell it raw and cooked. It is cooked by just boiling it in water,” says the man as he offers a tasteless fleshy white piece of fruit emerging from the black.

On further research it emerged that in English they call singhara water caltrop or water chestnut. Here it is available for Rs220 per kilo. “It may be tasteless but it possesses medicinal qualities. Having it often helps people with joint pain. It can also be squeezed and the liquid when dried and ground into power is called singharey ka aata, which you can mix in milk for the same affect,” the seller says.

Almost all the fruits mentioned here are available fresh in Sindh till the first two weeks of January or latest till February.

Published in Dawn December 14th , 2014