Author: Sagar
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Panavellam/ Palm Jaggery
In the heart of Tamil culture, there’s a time-honored tradition that brings a touch of magic to our meals – the creation of palm jaggery. Picture this: it is started by gently tapping the flower buds of our beloved Palmyrah palm trees, collecting their sweet nectar in earthy pots laced with lime, just like our…
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Villupuram Kondattam
Recently, I was invited to give a speech at Villupuram Kondattam, a local festival celebrating all the aspects of Tamil culture: seeds, medicinal plants, local foods, music, dance, and social needs. While watching a dance troop from Erode, it was really inspiring to hear an old man who was playing a drum say that he…
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Artists @ Solitude
We had a lot of fun with Ph.D. Art Therapist Krupa Jhaveri, who runs Sankalpa. Over the years, she has designed tickets and T-shirts for our “Lively Up Your Earth” eco-music festival and this amazing menu- a work of art- that just didn’t work; it is so beautiful that customers kept taking up the menu…
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Rediscovering Nutritional Riches in Local Foods During the Pandemic
In the Corona time, what shall we eat local foods? Again, there is a nutritional treasure chest that’s growing around us, and when we start to leave nature alone, she starts to come back and offer us these gifts. Check them out here. In these challenging times, as the world grapples with the ongoing pandemic,…
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How Do I Know What I Know
When I came to Auroville 30 years ago, I worked with village ladies digging catchment ponds, building roads, harvesting and threshing rice and millets, milking cows and preparing cow feed, and cleaning the cow shed. These ladies showed me how to plaster the floor with cow dung and how to build walls with…
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Idly Podi
There are innumerable varieties of Idli podi /chutney powders that accompany the most popular dish across India ( mind you, not just the South anymore! ), IDLI! There is this one that can be made with three greens: drumstick leaves, tender tamarind leaves & curry leaves. You can take a handful of each of these…
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Kombucha
Just putting some steps of kombucha. ( 1 litre) – (fundamentals rather than measurements) 1. Boil nicely 1 litre of water. Just 2 min before switching off the stove, add tea powder. ( Need not be too strong or too litre. Just enough) 2. Add sugar in such a way that it is decently sweet.…
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Sabja Seeds
Sabja seeds are actually basil seeds; they are often added to nanari syrup; when added to water, these little seeds swell up and have a very pleasant texture when drinking the juice. Comparable to flax seeds and chia, they are packed with nutritional and medicinal benefits. They reduce blood sugar level, helps to reduce diabetes,…
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Chocolate Banana Cake
Another beautiful creation of our dear friend Sarah Kundig, whose YouTube channel “My Foodforest” is full of vegan recipes that are made from ingredients freshly harvested from her food forest. This recipe is raw vegan cacao-chip iced pie. Super tasty, almost too tasty! And surprisingly easy to make. Check out her video and try it…
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Vegan Raw Carrot Cake
Solitude Farm Cafe is the creation of many hearts and hands; this amazing raw vegan carrot cake is a creation of Sarah Kundig. It is very tasty and easy to make; we’d like to share Sarah’s video from her YouTube channel “My Foodforest”- best let her explain. Click the link to watch the full recipe:…