Each region has its special food and maybe it is not found in other places. There is a unique local food as typical foods of the people in Maluku, the place where I am from. Not everyone knows because it does not grow in every place but only in certain areas. I am Sarlota Wantaar from Maluku, an archipelago surrounded by the sea, so, naturally, most of the population lives near the coastline. My place has one of the typical foods as the source of carbohydrates, called sago.

 Sago or Metroxylon sp, is a plant that grows in freshwater swamps or peat swamp areas, watersheds, near water sources, and swamp forests. Sago has strong fibrous roots and bigger as it grows. The sago stem grows according to its growth reaching a height of 30 meters, a diameter of 35-50 cm on average, and some even have 80-90 cm. Its leaves reach 6-7 meters long and wide 5 cm with a leaf bone in the middle. It has fruit after two years and flowers when the age of 10-15 years. The appearance of flowers is a sign that the sago is ready to be harvested.

 Based on data from the Indonesian Ministry of Agriculture, the national sago area covers an area of ​​206.150 hectares (2021), most of which are in the form of smallholder plantations. The dominant sago tree grows in eastern Indonesia, such as Papua, West Papua, Maluku, Sulawesi, and South Kalimantan. However, by province, Riau province has the highest production capacity, about 261,7 thousand tons (2020) compared to Papua's 67,9 thousand tons and Maluku's 10,04 thousand tons. Regarding land potency, Indonesia has 5,5 million hectares but only 5% of it has been utilized, so it can still be developed in the future.

There are two ways to process sago into food material, manually and using machines. Manually, the old sago tree is cut down with an axe because the sago tree is very large and hard, so it cannot use a machete. Then, the sago stalks are peeled, and the sago stems are cut using a pangkur or chisel in stages and collected. Next, the squeezing process uses two containers to start squeezing the sago shavings. After the container is prepared, then prepare a filter made of soft cloth, after all the equipment is ready, then proceed with the squeezing process using running water. Once squeezed, left, or deposited. The starch is transferred to a container, usually using the sago leaves. When finished, the sago is ready to be processed in various ways, such as making papeda which is eaten directly as a substitute for rice, fried, snacks, cakes, and pom-poms.

Sago trees, besides being used as food, parts of sago tree is used for building materials, such as the leaves for roofs of houses, called sago palms. Then the midrib can be used for house walls, such as the unique Maluku traditional house with a roof made of sago leaves and the usage keeps developing creative designs. Houses made of sago wood still exist in the community even in the modern era, because the culture and the spirit to preserve the traditional ones are well-maintained. Let’s care and preserve the local potency! ***