Wild food. Have you heard of wild foods? Don’t those words excite you?
They excite me and make me feel like a food explorer.
Before I begin, let me tell you what are wild foods and why are they super special to me.
Wild food is food i.e.plants, trees, seeds, fruits, roots, and tubers that grow in the wild ( like forests, roadsides, mountains, etc) and are edible. They have usually both nutritional and medicinal benefits.
Wild foods have been an integral part of my life.
As a child, I spent most of my childhood in my hometown, and coming from a family that was into farming meant helping out at work which meant spending mornings moving through the mountains to collect mangoes, cashews, and kokum. It also meant that while collecting those I could listen to my grandfather’s tales( on his childhood, food back then, farming, etc.) while munching on wild berries/fruits and learning about the wild foods that I got along the way.
Over the years, exploring the wild especially during my trips back home and during my travels became a part and parcel of my life. In the past two-three years, I’ve been working with local ingredients ie. many indigenous & local ingredients, and local farmers. In short, doing my cents to support and promote what I love.
So when a friend told me about the wild food festival, I knew I had to be there. I had to be there to explore, to learn, and to meet more people who shared a similar thought process and were doing something about it.
So let me tell you a little about my experience about what happens at a wild food festival-
This wild food festival was organized by “Ooofarms”. They mainly work with rural communities to promote and preserve indigenous wild food.
The event started with the traditional and classic “tharpa” music. It was then followed by the adivasi dance. The first informative session was by Mr. Sanjay Patil, who has done a lot of work in the field of indigenous foods.
Sanjay Sir spoke about several local ingredients and indigenous species of plants and fruits which have been an integral part of our food system for ages and have been forgotten over the years both in cities and many rural areas but continue to remain an integral part of the rural and Adivasi community. His talk was followed by a couple of other speakers who spoke about farming, the systems, and their projects to develop and promote these indigenous wild foods.
It also included a session by chef Thomas from the Bombay canteen who spoke about incorporating these wild and indigenous species of vegetables and fruits in their menu.
After these informative sessions, we went to look at the display of wild foods which consisted of wild fruits, vegetables, and flowers that are edible and have multiple medicinal qualities exhibition.
Apart from that, they displayed warli paintings, and musical instruments like tharpa, etc but the best was interacting with the locals and understanding their food habits, customs etc.
What followed next was the much-awaited wild food lunch.
The lunch was served in leaf plates known as the “patravali” and bowls known as “dronas” along with “kulhads”.
The lunch consisted of jowar bhakri, red rice, black rice. It also consisted of a range of gravy preparations like the masoor, and the colocasia masoor dal. They also had raita and the mahua halva which is a distinct chutney with a nutty, earthy flavor. Apart from this, they had a range of greens like math, pendhara, titu, takla, mahua etc. The only dessert served was simple dessert made of black rice, milk, and jaggery which per me was the star of the meal.
What I loved most about the lunch was the sheer fact that the meal had minimal use of ingredients and fats/oils. They barely use spices so that way you can get the distinct taste and flavour of every individual ingredient and cherish it. The best part was watching these tribal people cook and serve their meals.
Overall, the event was an absolute eye-opener on so many levels. It taught me about land, agriculture, indigenous foods, food cultures, preservation, and cooking food with minimal ingredients.
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This definitely looks and sounds amazing. As i was reading through i could actually feel the taste in my mouth. Hope u got some recipes and you would share it soon.
Got quite a few of them :)