Sugar palms,
Arenga pinnata know locally as
aren, are found around the park and tapped for their juice. The sweet sap can be drunk neat, fermented into an alcoholic drink (saguer), or can be boiled down to produce a rich flavoured dark sugar (gula merah).
Saguer can be easily purchased in most villages and varies enormously in both flavor and strength. It nay be sweet, sour, acidic, refreshing, or totally inebriating, depending on its 'vintage' or locality. The drink should be treated with respect, not least because it's mix of wild yeasts is completely new to a foreign stomach! The sap is collected by using lengths of hollow bamboo poles propped up against a tree; the owner of the tree will climb it every morning and night to take the juice that has accumulated.
A good tree may produce six to seven litres each day and has many other uses, such as providing thatch and material for brushes. Aren trees are not planted but the community acknowledges individual ownership.
Sugar palms,Arenga pinnata know locally as aren, are found around the park and tapped for their juice. The sweet sap can be drunk neat, fermented into an alcoholic drink (saguer), or can be boiled down to produce a rich flavoured dark sugar (gula merah). Saguer can be easily purchased in most villages and varies enormously in both flavor and strength. It nay be sweet, sour, acidic, refreshing, or totally inebriating, depending on its 'vintage' or locality. The drink should be treated with respect, not least because it's mix of wild yeasts is completely new to a foreign stomach! The sap is collected by using lengths of hollow bamboo poles propped up against a tree; the owner of the tree will climb it every morning and night to take the juice that has accumulated. 
A good tree may produce six to seven litres each day and has many other uses, such as providing thatch and material for brushes. Aren trees are not planted but the community acknowledges individual ownership.
