Forging A Food Friendship With Nature
Text by Fehmida Zakeer
Centella asiatica or gotukola is a wild plant that is widely eaten in several Asian cuisines. Photo courtesy: Shruthi Tharayil
A few years ago, Shruti Tharayil was in the south Indian state of Telangana, documenting stories about women farmers for an NGO, when she noticed the women plucking wild plants and taking them home to cook. She was surprised because her perception until then had been that wild plants were inedible. However, when she spoke to the farmers, she learned that many uncultivated plants or weeds growing between cultivated plants, were actually nutritious and edible. The experience set her on a journey to learn more about wild plants.
“I learnt then that weeds were basically plants whose properties are not fully known to us, but they play an important role in the ecosystem,” Tharayil said. “Many of these plants are edible, and some of them have medicinal properties besides being nutritious.”
Similarly, surrounding the well in my home in Kannur, Kerala, a carpet of creepers once grew in wild abandon. The plants had round leaves with serrated edges and thin stems. We never paid any attention to them, and cleared them out every few months. Until a visiting Ayurveda physician noted that the plant — the Indian pennywort — had medicinal properties. He said the leaves with their thin stems could be added to salads, mixed with buttermilk, cooked with dal, or made into a stir-fry.
Also commonly known as gotukola, the Indian pennywort or Centella asiatica grows in moist soil and is used in many Asian cuisines such as Thai, Indonesian, Malay and Sri Lankan, besides regional cuisines in India. Even though it grew wild in our garden, we never realised it was an edible plant, let alone one with medicinal properties.
“Our knowledge systems are imbalanced,” says Tharayil, founder of Forgotten Greens, an initiative working towards reviving and reclaiming knowledge systems regarding uncultivated greens. “We do not have an awareness of the natural world like our elders because of a lag in the intergenerational sharing of information.”
Dr. Maryanne Lobo, an Ayurvedic physician based in Goa, agrees with Tharayil.
“Our elders did not pass on a lot of their knowledge probably because they did not think it was important enough in the modern world,” said Lobo. “Also, in the fast-paced world today, not many have the time or space to find out the little details about the natural world and put them into practical use.”
In a study conducted to document wild edible plants in Andhra Pradesh, the results of which were published in the Indian Journal of Traditional Knowledge, researchers found that traditional knowledge of wild edible plants was declining. The researchers also stated that unless an effort was made to educate the younger generation about the importance of wild plants, this knowledge would be lost in the near future.
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Foraging simply means gathering edible leaves, fruits, flowers and roots from uncultivated plants. While foraging is often perceived as a rural approach to gathering seasonal food, it is also practiced in urban and semi-urban areas. In a 2021 study on the patterns of urban foraging in Bengaluru city, researchers found that foraging as a means of accessing food is prevalent in the city.
The study, supported by the Azim Premji University, showed that the groups who foraged regularly came from lower socio-economic backgrounds and were most vulnerable to changes due to urbanisation. It also found that 41% of respondents wanted to forage but were unable to do so, due to a lack of knowledge and space.
“Among the people we talked to, we found that foraging for seasonal wild greens was a complementary strategy undertaken to improve their dietary diversity,” said Dhruthi Somesh, one of the researchers on the team. “It also provided them a means for a livelihood since some of them also collected the greens and sold them in local markets.”
Oxalis corniculata or creeping wood sorrel can be found growing in many urban areas. Photo by Fehmida Zakeer
In urban areas, parks and landscaped areas with ornamental vegetation may not support a diverse variety of wild plants. But even in these places, greens like purslane or wood sorrel can be found growing beneath the canopy of larger plants. On the other hand, vacant plots, lake beds and fallow lands in cities and towns could be rich reservoirs of edible green plants. Tharayil says that people who migrate from villages and towns to urban areas forage in these areas of rich biodiversity.
“India has a rich heritage of food, and uncultivated food has always been part of that heritage,” she said.
According to Somesh, it is essential to redesign urban environments in order to create green spaces for foragable species to flourish. This, in turn, could be an important resource for the nutritional and cultural wellbeing of marginalised communities.
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Traditionally, foraging has been a part of regional cuisines in India. In the states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, which have a dry, arid climate, wild greens are an important source of food. From the book Indigenous Peoples’ Food Systems, published by the FAO in 2021, we learn that uncultivated foods have been important during famines and periods of economic stress. A chapter in the book mentions that during a famine in the Zaheerabad region of Andhra Pradesh in the early aughts, people survived for four months by eating only uncultivated greens such as amaranthus tricolor, purslane, silver cockscomb and chaff flower.
Unlike the dry climate of Telangana, West Bengal is blessed with lush greenery and agricultural produce. But here too, wild foods have an important place in the local cuisine.
Sayantani Mohapatra, who is a Bengali recipe curator and food blogger, says: “The state is prone to natural disasters like frequent cyclones and floods besides famines that led people to [seek out] uncultivated plants for their sustenance. People found the foods made with foraged items tasty and it became mainstream. Even people in the cities buy seasonal uncultivated greens from vendors in daily markets.”
Mohapatra recollects fondly how her grandmother used to give her a small basket early in the morning and ask her to collect tiny ridge gourd flowers.
“She would make a curry with the flowers with a little bit of spice and tiny fish or crabs she would have caught from a nearby pond.”
Historically, Bengal has witnessed devastating famines due to adverse climatic events, animal and plant diseases and plagues. About one third of the population of the state perished in the famine of 1770, while the great Bengal Famine of 1943 resulted in the deaths of an estimated 2.1 to 3.8 million people. In Witnesses of the Famine, a compilation of oral histories of people in the Bengal countryside who witnessed and survived the Bengal famine of 1943, survivors recount eating aquatic plants, leaves of the taro plant, fallen fruits and small snails found in puddles of water in order to survive.
In an academic paper on the famines in Chotanagpur, Bihar, environmental historian Vinita Damodaran writes that famines in the mid-19th century did not cause widespread starvation in the area because forest communities could depend on produce from the jungle. The tribal groups had intimate knowledge about the plants around them. While many wild fruits and plants were collected and eaten throughout the year, some wild plants were also eaten during periods of scarcity.
However, the famine of 1897 had a far more devastating impact. This is because residents of the region had fewer resources to fall back on as a result of deforestation. Forest communities were also denied access to their traditional food systems, which made them much more vulnerable to famine.
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Religious rituals and traditions also contribute to the intake of wild plants. Mohapatra mentions the tradition of eating 14 wild greens before the festival of Diwali. Leaves of plants like watercress, wild spinach, elephant foot yam, crepe ginger, Egyptian river hemp, hill glory bower, and others are collected and eaten before the festival.
“Each of the plants have medicinal properties and are known to improve health and immunity,” says Mohapatra.
In Telangana, during Vinayaka Chavithi, the ten-day festival celebrating the birth of Lord Ganesha, foraged greens like Leucus aspera and Canthium spinosa or mountain pomegranate, are included as part of traditional offerings to the deity. The flowers of Leucus aspera, known as thumbai or thumba, also find a place in the elaborate flower decorations made during the festival of Onam in Kerala. Both the leaves and flowers of Leucus aspera are edible. The plant mostly grows on the edges of fields and can be eaten during the rainy season.
The monsoons are when wild greens and plants grow abundantly. In Kerala, during this time, people gather the leaves of ten plants from their gardens or nearby areas to make a stir-fry garnished with coconut and, sometimes, moong dal. Some of the leaves commonly used are stinging nettle, colocasia, spiny amaranth, ash gourd,pumpkin and elephant yam, among others. Tharayil says that these leaves help build immunity and are good sources of iron, calcium, and other essential nutrients.
In Odisha, on the eastern coast of India, the monsoons mean the arrival of many kinds of uncultivated produce into local markets.
“We get tender bamboo shoots, mushrooms, different varieties of tubers, besides wild plants like four-leaved clovers that grow on the edges of fields,” said Shweta Biswal, a researcher and blogger who documents the foods of her state on her Instagram page. “The seasonal produce from the forests are sold by tribal women who forage and sell them to earn a living.”
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Both the leaves and flowers of the Leucus aspera — known as thumbai or thumba — are edible. Photo by Fehmida Zakeer
In many parts of India, the change of seasons is marked by the appearance of uncultivated foods. Cookbook author and writer Purabhi Sridhar, who hails from Meghalaya, says that the end of winter is heralded by the sight of the fruit called sohphie (Myrica esculenta), which is sold by women in local markets.
“When we see this fruit, we know that spring is coming,” said Sridhar. “The unripe fruit is green and very sour; when it ripens it becomes reddish purple with wrinkled skin, and tastes very sweet.”
The soh shang (Eleagnus latifolia) is another light pink fruit with a sweet taste that signifies the start of spring.
For Shravani Abhishek, who documents the cuisine of Telangana, summers meant the arrival of almondettes or Cuddapah almonds (Buchanania lanzan), fruits that typically grew only in the forest. Abhishek remembers waiting with her brother to buy these fruits from tribal women who sourced them from the forest.
“These fruits would be available only for two months,” said Abhishek. “We would save the seeds, dry them in the sun and then break them for the nuts known as charoli (or Cuddapah almond). My grandmother and mother used these nuts and melon seeds in desserts instead of cashew nuts and almonds.”
Foraging need not be restricted only to plants. Sridhar mentions that aromatic borer insects, usually found in the trunk of oak trees, are a local delicacy in Meghalaya. The insects are boiled in water with dried ginger and then crisped in a pan and eaten as a side dish. Edible insects, foraged from the wild, find a place in many regional cuisines in the country.
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Traditional wisdom about wild plants has been lost due to the lack of knowledge and factors such as urbanisation and loss of habitats. Biswal shares her memory of buying wild mushrooms sold in leaf bowls by tribal women in local markets
“These mushrooms grow beneath sal trees, in soil enriched by the leaves of the tree,” she said. “When the sal trees fall due to ageing or human interference and are replaced by other trees like teak, the mushrooms that previously grew disappear because of the change in vegetation. Also, when indigenous people who live in forests and have intimate knowledge of plants move to towns and cities for better living prospects, their knowledge gets lost in time.”
Tharayil points out that while foraging has always been an important part of our culture, modern agriculture has wiped out wild greens from our diets.
“In our traditional farming system, wild greens were considered companion plants, but now inorganic fertilizers and pesticides are eradicating these plants.”
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While there is a thrill in identifying and collecting edible wild plants for food, there is also the danger of plucking from the wrong plant or not processing it correctly before eating.
“Even in the case of a vegetable you see in the market for the first time, ask the vendor or your neighbours about how to cook it,” says Tharayil. “Never consume anything without learning about it.”
Lobo adds that it is wise to consume foraged greens in small quantities to begin with.
“Allow your body to become [used] to it,” she said. “Also, if you are cooking with wild plants, find out if they need any special processing. For example, while cooking colocasia leaves, my grandmother and aunt would specifically cook it with a souring agent to cut the oxalates present in the leaves.”
Similarly, the fleshy-leaved purslane with its pink stem is considered a superfood in the uncultivated category. But not all varieties of the plant are edible. Edible species of purslane have tiny yellow flowers while the inedible kinds have bigger flowers in several colours.
Both sessile joyweed, which is used in many South Asian cuisines, and alligator weed, which is not widely eaten, have hollow stems and similar-looking flowers. The difference is that the flowers of alligator weed grow on a separate stalk while the sessile joyweed flower buds on the leaf’s stalk.
Biswal says that while consuming flowers, only petals should ideally be consumed.
“It is better to remove the pistil before cooking it,” she said.
Even in the case of leaves, which are the most popular part of wild plants to be consumed, Mahapatra urges adequate caution about cleanliness.
“I wouldn’t pluck leaves from a plant where there is a heavy flow of traffic or lying next to the sewage,” she says.
Make sure to choose tender leaves since these can be digested easily. Some leaves can be consumed only during specific seasons. For example, forage for the leaves of the beautiful Bengal Day flower or Commelina benghalansis in urban areas only during the monsoon season.
“The plant needs water to grow,” Tharayil explains. “Post monsoons, it may grow near water sources that are not clean and hence it is best to consume it during monsoon season.”
Finally, the rule of responsible foraging is to only take what you need for one meal.
“Early morning is the best time to forage, and once you have plucked from a plant, allow it time to regenerate before using it again,” says Lobo.
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Even though some of the traditional knowledge regarding foraging has been lost, there is also some hope.
In recent years, there has been increasing interest in foraging. The pandemic has boosted the interest in plants, with people looking minutely at their immediate surroundings during long periods of lockdown.
Tharayil, who shares her knowledge of edible wild plants through city walks and a Facebook page called Forgotten Greens, says: “More than people venturing into forested areas for foraging, [they] are venturing into their own gardens. Sometimes they find an unknown plant growing in a flowerpot and want to identify it, [and] find out if it’s safe to consume. I get a lot of requests for plant identification.”
Lobo, who has been conducting wild plant walks in Goa in the past year, has a session every week and says one of the participants was inspired enough to start a food forest after attending one of her walks.
Cooking complete meals with ingredients that one has foraged from the wild creates an intimacy with our surroundings, fostering the satisfaction of knowing nature at least a little bit. It is heartening that a growing number of people are signing up for a taste of this satisfaction.
