GROW, COOK & EAT TALES OF RICE AND MORE Sreedevi Lakshmi Kutty 2 GROW, COOK & EAT –TALES OF RICE AND MORE Published by : Consumer Research Education Action Training & Empoverment Trust ( CREATE ) 76,2/84, Melachathram street, Paramakudi, Tamilnadu, INDIA 623707 This publication was made possible with the support from Bread for the World (BftW) Campaign Office : Thanal,OD - 3, Jawahar Naghar, Kowdiyar, Thiruvananthapuram - 695003, Kerala, India Tel : 0471 2727150 Email : [email protected] Website : http://indianricecampaign.org Year of Publication: 2018 Printing Press : Akshara offset, TVM-1 Illustrations : Praveen p Design : Ananthu S Kumar GROW, COOK & EAT –TALES OF RICE AND MORE 3 Foreword : his book is a collection seeds back into the agrarian landscape, Tof the writings of a food we believe it would not have hap- enthusiast, activist and literally a pened without the consumers adopt- good food evangelist, whose vistas on ing many of them back into their food expanded more than ever before cuisines. Traditional food is hence an when she walked into the Save our important pathway to seed conser- Rice (SoR) Campaign as a consultant. vation. As Wendel Berry succinctly And in a decade of her in- puts it, “Eating is an agricultural act”. volvement with the Campaign, she We would probably stretch it and say literally opened up her kitchen to the “Eating diversity is a conservation large and sometimes unfathomable act” as well. diversity of our edible crops, re-dis- covered traditional cuisines and prac- We hope that through these tices, ate as well as fed people with it, articles the reader will be able to better and then as any evangelist would , appreciate the large diversity of crops she started talking and writing about and food, ranging from the hundreds it. Some of that featured in the main- of varieties of rice, millets, cooking stream media, to be read by people styles, those less used fruits, leaves who actually understand that kind of and vegetables that exist in this part food, or have to understand them. of our country, the need for safe and diverse food, farming, cooking and We are very happy to present the interconnectedness of it all. this book, which is a compilation of So, these articles published during the Pick up the book. Pull up a chair. Give last few years. The Campaign in its into the taste, endlessly diverse, eter- twelve year journey has discovered nally delicious. that one of the most significant fac- R Ponnambalam, Honorary Co -ordinator, tors to ensure successful conserva- Save Our Rice Campaign & Managing tion of agro biodiversity is for people Trustee, CREATE. to actually appreciate and consume agro-biodiversity. And hence even as the SoR Campaign boasts of having revived a thousand indigenous paddy CONTENTS 01 loving rice 1. Rice to the occasion 8 2. Heritage in every grain 10 3. Seed festivals promote seed conservation 13 4. Eating our way to rice diversity 18 5. Beyond Basmati 20 6. Who is afraid of red rice? 22 7. The desi version of a healthy soup 24 02 Eating Diversity 1. The big deal about the small grains 28 2. Eating from trees 30 3. Jackfruit, jack of all tastes 32 4. The mango with a beak 35 5. Muringa memoirs 37 6. Eating it with flowers 40 7. Make the ordinary exotic 42 03 Being Organic 1. Black and beautiful 45 2. The colour of the skin 47 3. Pottering with pots 49 4. Bugs in my dal 52 5. Eat organic 53 5. Memories of peanut farming 57 GROW, COOK & EAT –TALES OF RICE AND MORE 5 Loving Rice he Save Our Rice Cam- ties, the properties, the challenges, the Tpaign has been a turning losses, nothing mattered to us. point for all of us involved with the All that changed for us in the Campaign. Most of us who grew up Campaign. We began identifying rice in rice growing and consequently rice varieties by their names, we began eating families had by then lost our talking about the taste and texture intimate connection to growing pad- on one hand and season and dura- dy, even though we continued eating tion and growing conditions on the copious amounts of rice every day. other. This evolution manifested in Growing paddy had been relegated myriad forms within the Campaign. to a few hapless farmers, who had no The Campaign encouraged and mo- choice but to farm for their livelihood, tivated seed saver farmers to become in the face of mounting losses. It was seed conservers, conserving over 1000 as if none of us had to worry about varieties of paddy ranging from red how our rice was grown, what kind of to white to black to brown. The Cam- rice varieties were grown, what it cost paign brought to light good agro- to grow it. We also became mere con- nomical practices of many innovative sumers of rice, a commodity that we farmers, promoting it far and wide. brought home from a shop; the varie- We worked on localised seed banks 6 GROW, COOK & EAT –TALES OF RICE AND MORE and rice diversity blocks for in situ sumers is critical to diversity on the conservation. We celebrated field days farms and fields. It is only if we ‘eat and seed festivals to bring seeds to the our way into rice diversity’ will farm- farmers and food festivals to attract ers grow it, so the responsibility lies consumers to traditional rice varieties. with us fair and square. The variety Each of us involved in the and diversity of scented rices in this Campaign became rice evangelists. land is beyond imagination, ‘Beyond Personally for me, this growth and Basmati’ gives us a glimpse. In the understanding manifested in prepar- conservation work one of the greatest ing, eating, becoming an evangelist learnings was that much of our diver- and marketing these rice varieties. sity, particularly in the South was in Below are a few articles that red rices, which may have contribut- were published by the mainstream ed to our robust health in the past. print publications. ‘Rice to the oc- These were always part of our casion’ talks about the now almost diet, however, now we have developed iconic rice diversity block maintained almost a fear of them. ‘Who is afraid by us in Wayanad that has become of red rice?’ talks about the role of red a kaleidoscope of colour, variety and rice to protect diversity and preserve scents attracting birds and people our health. Kanji, the most popular every growing season. The ‘Nel Thiru- version of rice gruel that was the sta- vizha’ that the Campiagn has institu- ple of most rice growing regions that tionalised in Tamilnadu is featured in has now become a rarity is featured in ‘Heritage in every grain’ and ‘Seed fes- ‘The Desi version of a healthy soup’. tivals promote seed conservation’. Our Below are my rice tales ! engagement with diversity as con- GROW, COOK & EAT –TALES OF RICE AND MORE 7 Rice to the occasion This Pongal, celebrate Nature’s bounty by trying out some indigenous varieties of rice. hen we began our rice- rices. What we need to do is to wel- Wwith- bran experiment come these back into our homes and 10 years back, I proudly presented the diets. It is easier said than done, with unpolished, small grained organical- all of us having become accustomed ly grown Komal rice from a friend’s to fully polished white rice. farm near Mumbai; our son looked at But on a misty, chilly Decem- his plate and balefully asked, “Can we ber morning, with the dew drops on have some normal food in this house the grass soaking our city shoes when for Sunday lunch?” From that not so we walked to reach the rice diversity great beginning we have become a block in Panavelly, Wayanad at the household that relishes Kuru- Thanal Agro-ecology Centre va from Kerala, repeats I saw Rajamudi fully from Kar- nataka, re- grown spects paddy the plants, deep sway- red Map- ing in pilai Samba from hues Tamil Nadu and re- of green, veres the dark as the night Karup- yellow, red , pu Kavuni. We find the universal, rust, brown and purple and heard the unnamed, polished white rice quite cornucopia of names, Thondi, Kala bland, having got accustomed to the namak, Mullan kazhama, Jeeraga distinct flavours of these rices. saala, Burma black, Kuruva and the The fully polished white rice stories accompanying them. This rice that we get in the market is not the diversity block with 219 varieties is paddy rice our forefathers ate. They one of the many maintained by the ate the flavourful, hand pounded rices Save Our Rice Campaign, working grown locally during season. We have across six rice growing states to con- a rich cornucopia of rices ranging serve and promote traditional rices. from white to red to black to scented Every year sees more rice farmers 8 GROW, COOK & EAT –TALES OF RICE AND MORE from across the country joining the fragile health. My farmer friend tells ranks of seed savers, conserving our me that when grown in the plains it rich heritage, to ensure protection of loses its fragrance. Almost all varieties our diversity, food security and to have distinct nutritional benefits; for create insurance against the vagaries example the famous Navara rice is of climate change. Interestingly most known for its medicinal properties of these varieties do well under organ- and is used extensively in Ayurveda. ic/natural conditions. Traditional pad- Pongal is upon us and it will dy varieties are impressively climate be time to celebrate nature’s bounty.