Priest train locals, students on turning sago into flour

SAGO can be made into biscuits locally, according to a Catholic priest at Sacred Heart Teachers’ College in Bomana outside Port Moresby.
Fr Mateus Juang from Indonesia has spent over 15 years in Papua New Guinea helping locals in Daru, lower Bamu, Middle Fly and Kiunga in Western and is now training students at the college to sustain themselves through making flour from sago.
Fr Juang said since arriving in PNG in 2001, he had promoted and carried out awareness on a sago flour project including sago biscuits and sago noodles.
He researched sago flour and developed ways to use it.
“I did not receive any special training. I only observed and came up with the idea.
“I later tried it out, with the aim to develop and improve people’s way of producing sago from traditional ways,” he said.
Fr Juang said producing sago flour was a simple but labour intensive task.
He said the sago needed to be washed with clean water and stirred continuously until the pulp or juice settled.
“Leave it for some time until all the sago sink to the bottom. After that pour the water and do it several times until the sago is pure and white.
“Dry that for two days until the sago is pure white and clean,” he said.
Fr Juang said sago flour could be used to bake a wide range of products such as cakes and biscuits.
“I tried baking it and to my surprise, I did well with biscuits.”