Watch | The Ancient, Rustic Method Used In Afghanistan To Preserve Grapes For Months, Without Any Chemicals

A video is going viral on social media platforms, showing how the grapes are preserved in clay containers called ‘kangina’, which can be cracked open whenever you want to eat the grapes.

The clay containers in which grapes are preserved in Afghanistan | Photo: Video grab

New Delhi: Afghanistan has been growing grapes for centuries. It is said the geographical area has been a grape belt since at least 2000 BC.

Unsurprisingly, the fruit is a staple food in the country, with different varieties of grapes catering to different palates.

In Afghanistan, local residents preserve this summer crop for use in the winters. And they have been using a traditional method for this for centuries. The grapes are kept fresh for months by locking them inside airtight containers made of mud-straw. 

An undated video is going viral on social media platforms, showing how the grapes are preserved without any chemicals in a ‘kangina’, the clay containers, which can be cracked open whenever you want to eat the grapes. 

Posting the video on LinkedIn, a user wrote: “In Afghanistan the grapes are stored of upto six month ، keep fresh in air tight mud ۔ straw containers ۔ Afghan developed this method of food preservation which used mud ۔straw containers is known as Kanjna، centuries ago in Afghanistan's rural North”.

See the video here.

The same video was posted on Instagram and Twitter also, and is being shared widely. 

This is grape preservation technique is from pre historic Afghanistan, where grapes are preserved in clay and stay fresh for a year and sometimes years. pic.twitter.com/bN4BOs6plB

— Saud Faisal Malik (@SaudObserver) April 16, 2022

According to different accounts, a kangina is an air-tight container made of two earthen bowls sealed together. Each bowl is made of clay and straw, and is sun-baked. Once completely dry, around 1 kg of grapes are put in one bowl, which is then covered with the other and the two are sealed using more mud to form the single vessel.

The viral video shows a man cracking open two such vessels to serve red, fresh grapes.

It is said that these kanginas of grapes are stored in a cool place, away from direct sunlight, for up to six month. Some keep them in a cellar-like place or even bury them underground.