To support her family, Zaheda Begum of Magura picks flowers from the pumpkin vines in her yard and sells them. Every other day she sits outside Magura Government Hossain Shaheed Suhrawardy College and earns Tk 500 to 600. Villagers of all ages sell pumpkin flowers there from morning to evening.
Pumpkin vines carry both male and female flowers, and only the female flowers set fruit, so it is the male flowers that are picked and sold without cutting the crop. Zaheda Begum says that in the season she lives on what she earns from pumpkin flowers and pumpkins, sorting out the male flowers and selling them beside College Road.
Another seller, Rashed Molla, said he sells pumpkin flowers alongside other vegetables, and the pumpkin season is a time of extra income.
The bright yellow flowers are fried, boiled or dipped in gram-flour batter for fritters (bora); housewives say they can also be ground and made into fritters. Buyer Shafayet Jamil said his children love pumpkin-flower chops and fritters; in the village they grew by the house, but in town he has to buy them. As demand grows, he said, some farmers are growing pumpkin commercially and selling the flowers.
Gynaecologist Dr Ananya Shankhari told Dinajpur TV that pumpkin flowers contain vitamin C and fibre and are low in calories and fat; in her view they are a healthy food that helps immunity and digestion.
Photo: Focusmycamera / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)
Source: Dinajpur TV
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