Baje ko Peda : The King of Sweets
Baje ko Peda
Baje ko Peda : What is It?
Baje ko Peda, Saptari’s Baramjhiya on the East-West Highway makes people’s mouths water. The taste of the sweet tree comes and hangs in the mouth. Hardly anyone who rides on the highway once stops there without eating peda or kurauni. Hundreds of passengers flock to dozens of shops here daily to buy peda. They eat the tree as sweet and take it home as koseli. This place is famous for Peda . Peda, also the name of Baijnath or Budho’s Peda is added to it and everyone’s attention is drawn there.
Birendra Chaudhary, manager of Vaidyanath Peda Bhandar, who has been selling peda in Baramjhiya for the past decade and a half, said that the daily turnover of peda is between Rs 10,000 and Rs 15,000. Although Vaidyanath’s Peda is the main brand, more than 4 dozen shops are competing in one place around it, he says. He believes that the quality of the food used in the tree is more important than the name. But, he understands that the brand sells more.
How to Know Real Baje ko Peda?
“If there is a name in a sweet dish, there is a fragrance in gold,” he says, “so there are similar names in the peda shops here.” “Many times while traveling on the highway, I have come down and bought a tree and eaten it,” says Rajiv Jha, general secretary of the Rashtriya Janata Party. Baijnath Sah first opened a peda shop in Baramjhiya 50 years ago. The names of all the tree shops are ‘Asli’, ‘Purano’, ‘Budha’ and ‘Vaijnath’.
Due to that, Vaidyanath Sah was the first to start a tree shop. The store was later established as a brand. That is why it is said that now all the shops have to add those words in their names.
As the shop named Asli, Purano, Budha and Vaidyanath Najodi will not get customers, they are running Peda shop under the same brand. At present, the employment of every household here has become a tree business.
How is It Made?
A maximum of 20 kg of feed is produced from 100 liters of milk. When the milk is thickened to make peda, sugar is added at appropriate time and it is kept dry. Customers are confident that Baramjhiya’s tree will be of good quality. Entrepreneur Baiju Gupta says that the tree business is good here due to the same belief.
The method of making trees is traditional for all the entrepreneurs here. However, Vaidyanath Sah’s son Rajkumar Sah has brought a modern machine for making trees. Sah has the experience of making a tree with a modern machine, all of which are the same size, clean and also requires less manpower.
Sah is happy that all the businessmen have run Peda shop by adding their father’s name.
The Peda shop in Baramjhiya consumes 25,000 liters of milk daily. Due to the tree business, not only the businessmen but also the farmers have got employment. Not only work, the people of Baramjhiya have also earned a name from the tree business.
The price of a tree here ranges from Rs 600 to Rs 650 per kg. Despite increasing competition, the attraction of Baramjhiya’s tree has not diminished. Rundilal Sah says that the market is growing every year.
The Attraction of Baje ko Peda
The milk of Bairwa, Baramjhiya, Trikol and Bhardaha villages is not enough for the trees and milk is transported daily from Koshi Tappu and Chatara of Sunsari and Fatehpur of Saptari. According to the locals, the tree business has given Baramjhiya all the work, price and name.
