Forest Flavors
https://thethoughthaversack.home.blog/2019/09/15/forest-flavour/
Sharing my latest blog about the Wild Food Festival at Vile Parle. I was happy to enjoy a sumptuous meal filled with wildly exotic vegetables and cuisine from Palghar and Ahmednagar districts. But it was also a Sunday well-spent in the company of food activists, agripreneurs, farmers, chefs, food grain experimenters, snack chain operators, journalists-turned-food writers. Let me know what you think of my latest blog on the wild taste of the day!
The festival, fortunately, lived up to its claim of showcasing 85-odd vegetables (a limited part of which was kept for initial tasting), of which a chunk was used in the lunch served to those who signed up for the experience! OOO Farms, BAIF and OrganicWe deserve kudos for getting the attention of 250-odd Mumbaikars on a rainy Sunday morning. Also they should be congratulated for bringing in women cooks (Warlis, Koknas and Mahadev Kolis) who not just prepared the delicious meal, but also spoke on the occasion about their positive bond with Mumbai.
Apart from getting inhabitants who hail from the tribal region, the festival was also successful in roping in other stakeholders who work along parallel lines. Most importantly, Sanjay Patil who is the thematic program executive at BAIF shared rich stories. He works on the indigenous crop diversity and wild food resources conservation program in Jawhar, Akole, Junnar, Etapalli, Dhadgaon and Kudal. He spoke eloquently on the need for people to value the native wisdom of the farming community. He also advocated the urgent need to build on the existing indigenous knowledge, and to lessen the gap between urban and rural consumers. The super-approachable and forever-sharing Patil is a great asset for anyone seeking new beginnings in food conservation matters.
I was happy to meet actress-friend Geetanjali Kulkarni who works with husband (actor Atul Kulkarni) in the Wada taluka, as part of Quest, a research-action organisation concentrating on enhancing elementary education in rural pockets. Her core work in Wada complements the sentiment of the Wild Food Festival. Similarly, Satyajit Hange of Two Brothers Organic Farm and star chef Thomas Zacharias of Bombay Canteen added their insights. Hange stressed the need to bring the farmer at the centre of the discourse; he also shared his story of raising a farm at Indapur (Pune district) which produces organic fruits and breeds indigenous cows. Zacharias spoke about his efforts to blend the native produce in modern-day urban snacks and meals. His combination of shevli (often termed as toxic and itching) with kakad evoked awe. Similarly, he said some vegetables which are slightly bitter in taste, should not be written off immediately. Bitterness can be rounded off with a concoction that helps in retaining the nutrient, he pointed out. I was tempted to go for the Mohua toffees he mentioned, as an alternative to chocolates. The Mohua halwa and sweets served in the lunch, however, put me on a new ‘high’!