Gangina, Keeping Grapes with Traditional Method

By: Naim Rezayee
This initiative is from the north of the country. The north people has its own traditions. One of the amazing things which they do is keeping fresh fruits of summer and autumn for other seasons traditionally.
They will use this kept fruits in winter nights or any Festivals like New Year’s night or the longest night of winter which is called Chilla.
 The method which they use for keeping the grapes for winter is called Gangina.
Gangina is made of two layers of wet soil, then putting it to sun to be dried. It has a normal hole as well.
When it is completely dried, they will put inside of it the interested fruits, most of the people prefer to put grapes inside of it, at the end they will close the hole completely to ban the entrance of any air or gasses.
They will keep this Gangina in a cold area or a place so that there is no direct sun light. Some people will put it under ground.
The north farmers use this method to keep the grapes fresh. Some of them are doing a good business with it. In winter or spring when the market is facing the shortage of fruits, they will supply the kept fruits to the market and will get a good income.
Abdul Malik, resident of Kalakan district of Kabul Province, who is using this method said: "First we mix the soil and straw then wetting to make the desired format of Gangina to be fixed for keeping the grapes. It has a good result to keep the fruit fresher for any seasons."
He said: "Those who have grape vines, pick the grapes in autumn and putting in Gangina to keep it for other seasons."
Abdul Manan who is keeping the grapes in Gangina said: "We are keeping two types of grapes in Gangina: Raisin and Taipei grapes because these grapes have more resistance than others. We should remove the broken grapes first, then put them in Gangina. If we put the broken ones in Gangina, it will spoil all other grapes. "
According to Abdul Manan, if Ganagina is put in a warm place or the air enter inside,  all the grapes will be spoiled.
Askar the next grape gardener who is making about 10-20 thousand Gangina per year said: "We are keeping lots of grapes in Gangina and will sell it in coming winter or spring. Each Gangina will be sold at 100- 150 AFN. By this method we will get a good income.  He said that inside each of the Gangina, one kilogram of grapes is kept.
Although the north farmers have a good business from making Gangina, it is a type of culture in north which has a long history.
They will use Gangina at any festivals like New Year, Yalda and any other traditional ceremonies.