Mysore/Mysuru: The two-day Jackfruit Mela organised jointly by the city’s Sahaja Samruddha in association with GIZ-Germany and Namma Farmers Market, at Nanjaraja Bahadur Choultry on Vinoba road drew to a close last evening.

The Mela was a huge success with over 20,000 people visiting it over the two days. The festival featured sale of a variety of jackfruit including ‘Hoo Malli’, Divya’, ‘Byrasandra’, ‘Amrutabhoomi’, ‘Ambali’, ‘Ekadashi’, ‘Mallika’ etc. Also, a whole range of tasty and lip- smacking food products made out of the fruit were on display and sale and saplings of different species of the fruit were on sale at the venue.

While the jackfruit lifting competition was held on Saturday, in which Satish of Bengaluru bagged the first prize, a drawing competition for children (5 to 12 years) was held with the theme ‘Naa Kandanthe Halasu’ (Jackfruit I have seen), in which more than 30 children took part. This was followed by a jackfruit culinary contest, which saw 25 contestants and jackfruit eating contest (for men and women).

In the jackfruit eating contest, Mohan Kumar bagged the first prize, Girish – second prize and Narendrababu – third prize in men’s category, while Nalina came first, Girija – second and Rajani and Sahana shared third prize, in women’s category. Cash prizes were distributed to the winners of all the contests.

Overall, the two-day Mela offered a whole range of delicacies and recipes made exclusively of jackfruit  which included Payasa, Idli, Dosa, Pongal, Poori Palya, Holige, Palav, Kabab etc.