Palm Sugar
Sap, collected throughout the dry season and sourced from Toddy Palms (Borassus flabellifer) that were introduced to Cambodia centuries ago from South India, is boiled down to sugar--palm sugar--by villagers, who either sell it in bulk to middlemen or form it into round bits that are later used, or sold as 'candy'.
The sap is also consumed as a fresh or fermented beverage, and the palm fruit is eaten, as well. Wood from the Sugar/Toddy Palm is used to build houses, and also turned into kitchenware; the leaves are used as roofs, walls, and for handicrafts; and, the fibre ends up as brushes and brooms. The Khmer Rouge used the wickedly sharp and serrated palm fronds as murder weapons, decapitating countless Cambodians during the Pol Pot regime.
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©Dani Jump
