FORAGING AND FEASTING

At a food walk held by Forgotten Greens, Chennaiites gathered at Kotturpuram Corporation Park to find weeds and shrubs that have gone out of our vegetable baskets, but are powerhouses of benefits

- ARCHITA RAGHU

As a picky eater, my worst nightmare was seated at the looming dinner table, with an unfinished plate of now-cold rice and poriyal. I resorted to dashing away, hiding under beds, and depositing morsels into pockets. Paati's first remedy for my stomach was a hushed thinly veiled threat in folklore format, that if I didn't finish eating, the mosquitoes, scorpions, and other poochies would assemble, steal my food and grow large, and sneak into my bed when I was asleep. Her second remedy was shooing me into her lush garden lined with herbs, weeds, almond and chikoo trees, and streets, to pick out herbs. She transformed our pickings of manathakkali into sour kuzhambu, leaves and weeds into keerai side-dishes, and amla into jam.

Bitter, wholesome, and carefully picked, these herbs—never entering restaurant or urban home menus—revived my absent appetite, and warded away nightmares of Kafkaesque bugs. Gardens, indigenous knowledge passed down through communities, and plants dotting our landscapes harbor remedies. Herbs growing at the ground level have many medicinal and herbal properties to offer, explains Shruti Tharayil, founder of Forgotten Greens, at the Chennai Wild Food Walk, held a week ago.

In nature's company