Marayoor is a town in the Idukki district of Kerala. The place is famous for it’s jaggery production, known as Marayoor Jaggery and also it’s natural sandalwood forest. On our way to Kanthalloor, we stopped by to check out one of the jaggery factories in Marayoor.
Men and women collect sugarcane from the fields and bring it to the factory. A ‘factory’ is generally a thatched hut set up in the sugarcane fields temporarily and is staffed with not more than 20 people in the process.
Then they use this machine to extract the juice.
Which is then poured into a large vessel and heated till it’s dry.
Then they roll it to make these jaggery balls while it is still hot.
And here is the ‘factory’
