Go Forage

One person's weed can be another person's green

- Anita Tikoo Matange

NATURE THRIVES where you least expect it—in abandoned yards and overgrown ditches and in-between cracks in pavements. So do not be surprised if you find a variety of edible plants growing in the city, some wild and others that have escaped from gardens or trash. Some of these weeds are rich in nutrients and you would do well by adding those to your salad mix. Of course, one should not eat all that are edible. Herbs with medicinal properties cannot be called food. Soil toxicity should be considered while selecting foraging sites. But there are plants that can be a source of seasonal dishes and add diversity to your food if you learn to identify them.

The older generation, who had a closer relation with their food, is aware of the culinary use and health benefits of these greens. When the city was a town and there were open spaces, every home had a small garden. I was lucky to grow up in an institutional campus in Delhi where my father kept a kitchen garden. Along with vegetables, he would grow wild greens that are today looked down upon as weeds. Wild amaranth (a species of Amaranthus), wild purslane (Portulaca oleracea) and several other ubiquitous weeds were regularly cooked in our kitchen. They still are.

Earlier this year, a socio-cultural movement called Delhi, I Love You organised an urban foraging walk in the Lodhi Gardens to make people aware of wild edibles. It was a guided experience followed by a tasting of the foraged harvest. Of late, the concept has caught the fancy of celebrity chefs worldwide. Alas, field guides for identifying wild edible plants in Indian cities are yet to be written. The internet-savvy among us can, however, access a collaborative map of urban locations on fallingfruit.org where one can forage for food. Of course, very few people from India have joined the portal so far.